#i love his design n all but i will NOT be drawing his complicated ass arm at 1 am

[dirk-menace]

1 am experimenting

[vanitythevantropist]

DISCLAIMER: this account is 16+ as it may contain themes that are not suitable for children. Please use caution and always check the trigger warnings. Stay safe❤️

TWs MAY INCLUDE:

-Suggestive topics

-Blood and gore

-Body horror

-Scary imagery in general

-Swearing

INTRODUCTION POST:

Hi! You may call me Mod Snake/Snake Mod, or Ryn, if you want to :3

I’m a 16 year old furry (scaly?) from South Africa! I go by she/her pronouns and am Omnisexual :> I’m a Christian (and also a Satanist) (Shocker, Ik👀)

My disorders consist of; ADHD, autism (ASD), sensory processing disorder (SPD), alexithymia

Over here on this strange lil blog, you’ll find my random thoughts and interactions with other Tumblr peeps, as well as images of my pets! The main part, though, is my art😌 Yeah, I’m a digital artist and am strangely motivated🤣 (My tablet sucks so it takes a while cuz I gotta charge it after an hour-) (Le sigh)

Also, here’s the second blog: @stevens-satanic-sketchbook :3

MAIN SONA (+the roleplays aspects):

Along with art n stuff, this blog is a hybrid between a personal blog and an ask blog! Who are the asks for? My OC, Vanity, ofc :3 When addressing her, you may use the name Vanity (or Vanitealius if you wanna be fancy lmao)

Very quick explanation of who and what she is; She is the Goddess of Chaos and Imbalance in her world and is able to jump dimensions. She’s very physical but her body doesn’t follow regular physical laws :3

Ref sheet:

(None yet, I haven’t made one💀)

FANDOMS I’M IN:

-How to Train Your Dragon

-Wings of Fire

-Warrior Cats (never read the books lmao)

-Helluva Boss

-My Little Pony (haven’t watched the show lol-)

-Cobra Kai (unironically)

OC STORIES (Named):

-Stones of Gold (original)

-Wings of Fire: the Dragon Pact Chronicles (WoF AU)

-Eternal Twilight (original)

-The Wilds of Pernul (original)

-The Sky of Maroon (original)

-Eyes of Pure Silver (original)

-The Colonies (WC AU)

-The Tempest’s End (original)

-The Divine Deception (original)

-Chasing Echoes (original)

ASKS (n stuff):

Feel free to ask me anything! I’m quite open about anxiety and my disorders, stuff like that :3 The thing you don’t ask are obvious, like sexual things, cuz I’m, y’know, 16💀

BUT! that’s not all!! If you want, you can ask my OCs questions, as well! Whatever you want, really! Want an introduction? Ask em! Wanna ask about their food tastes? Ask em! Wanna know a little more about their toxic ass relationships? Ask em, see if they’ll like that😌 (They probably won’t but you can do it anyway!) (I may or may not draw art for it but probably mostly won’t but hey, who knows?)

COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

-“How do you feel about PMs?” Love em! I’m all about chatting with like minded people :D If you wanna drop a compliment, ask about commissions, whatever, feel free!

-“How do you feel about fanart?” I LOVE fanart!! If you wish to draw fanart for me, please make sure to credit the OC/design to me and tag me directly!

-“How do you feel about reposts?” I don’t like reposts. If you want to share my art, please reblog my posts directly. Thank you!

ART REQUESTS:

Status: Open !!

Terms of request (ToR):

-You may request art through my asks or in private.

-The art requested will be drawn as a simple sketch. I leave the complicated pieces to the commissions!

-I draw; furries, dragons, horses/unicorns/pegasi, dogs, cats, gore (artsy), robots, fanart, OCs

-I don’t draw; humans, fish, complicated designs, nudity, overly suggestive, vehicles, hateful art (homophobia, racism, etc)

COMMISSIONS:

Status: Closed

Commission details:

[ikoarts]

October 2022 Art (OC-tober)

All my drawings for OC-tober 2022! I did miss out Day 9 + Day 22, I think coz the prompts weren't specific to any of my OCs, but I was happy to get a unique OC drawn for 29 whole days! I'll list the prompts below too

vvv dates + info under the cut vvv

1, 2, 3 - 01-02-03/10/2022 : (The Care Taker ; The Crazy One ; The Guide)

Raven, Calypso, and Sean - Raven being something of a caretaker, caring for her little brothers, and even taking on her infant half siblings, she's very busy all of the time... Calypso, yeah hes just crazie. Sean I figured is a maths teacher, he probably teaches Noah, and is a mentor to him

4, 5, 6 - 04-05-06/10/2022 : (The Grump ; The Beauty ; The Evil One)

Ruben, Antonia, and Russula - Ruben is definitely grumpy, I think the only thing that could make him smile is if you present him with some nice cheeses, or do something really stupid :p Toni, ofc is beautiful, she takes a lot of pride in her appearance, oh the style!! i wanna be her!! Russula.. isnt "evil", not really, but shes a demon lady so thats as close as you'll get x

7, 8, 9 - 07-08-10/10/2022 : (The Pet Owner ; The Mechanic ; The Quiet One)

Wren, Delilah, and Jay - I like thinking Wren would, at some point, have a guide dog, though it's not really canon unfortunately. Delilah is one of my Ace Attorney OCs! The daughter of Ron & Desiree, she definitely has a knack for mechanics, even at such a young age. Jay is like the "fly on the wall" of the Maedas, so is Robin tbf, I think both of them sit in a corner and stare, but yeah totally quiet, unless he feels like being snarky, he just sits and is judgemental

10, 11, 12 - 11-12-13/10/2022 : (The Handsome One ; The Thief ; The Best Friends)

Copper, Angel, Blaire + Ginger - Copper is handsome!!! thats all really. Angel is another of my AA OCs, Delilah's grandma, actually, like Ron she's a thief, though it's more serious stuff, Angel might not even be her real name, who knows! Blaire and Ginger are beloved to me, best friends who found each other thru drag!

13, 14 - 14-15/10/2022 : (The Gun Lover ; The Cutie pie)

Richie and Robin - Richie isn't a "gun lover" exactly, only that he has a gun for an arm, sometimes, which he loves, but yea he might be a bit "and then i started blastin"... and Robin is a cutie pie! I've updated his design since this, but he's still cute <3

15, 16, 17 - 16-17-18/10/2022 : (Someone Else's OC (Mitzi from @creaturedrawz) ; The Helper ; The Nature Lover)

Mitzi, Susie, and Buttercup - i hadn't drawn Mitzi yet and i rly wanted to bc i love her... i need to draw for others more x ,, Susie, ofc is very helpful, super friendly and outgoing, and Buttercup is a farm boy, despite living in the city he still ofc has a huge love of nature

18, 19, 20 - 19-20-21/10/2022 : (The Father ; The Siblings ; The Girl Next Door)

Felix, Una + Zin, and Penny - Felix... ugh.. da dad evar... i love his swag ass gay boy style... Una n Zin, some of my IZ OCs, they're siblings, but, it's complicated, they consider each other siblings anyway thats all that matters, Una worries abt him a lot. PENNY, ms americas sweetheart that penny. she is battling demons in hell, with her boobs (gay)... she used to be human, but since fucking. dying. shes having a gradual transformation x

21, 22, 23 - 23-24-25/10/2022 : (The Gang Leader ; The Sad One ; The Gamer)

Caspian, Rushada, and Pumpkin - Caspian isn't a gang leader, but he would get wrapped up in gangs, but dont worry he turns it around <3 Rushada my beloved sadgirl.. again its funny to see her before i gave her a slight redesign, i liked her hands in this one tho. Pumpkin is a gamer, in his gamer zelda shirt and gamer cargo shorts, thats about it

24, 25, 26 - 26-27-28/10/2022 : (The Mother ; The Power Within ; The Lovers)

Alice, Lafayette, Gizmo + Jasmine - Alice <3 my scouse ma.. she kinda just is The mother of my ocs ig ,, Lafayette, i still haven't figured out anything too concrete about his lore, but the hidden power thing is something i feel fits him. Jasmine n Gizmo have been my standout married couple ocs for years now, i just never draw Gizmo LOL, so this is still the most recent thing of him... oops

27, 28, 29 - 29-30-31/10/2022 : (The Scientist ; The Marked One ; The Goddess)

Daffy, Luna, and Rosaline - Last stretch..... im getting tired of typing....... Daffy likes to picture himself as a mad scientist but hes just a dorky autistic dude accidentally making nuclear bombs in his bedroom lmfao. Luna i thought was obvious for the prompt, she's a zombie catgirl so shes just, parts. bits n pieces. Rosaline, again like Lafayette, i dont have much concrete about her, but being my 1 goddess oc it was pretty obvious she'd be the one i drew for the last day lol

[calpalsworld]

Not "autistic anon," but also autistic, (being called maybe ableist made me want to put this out there before go to bed) i thought Zane was depicted that way purposefully by the writers. He has stereotypical traits like taking things literally, and has an actual humor switch. The writers have done things with Zane before like have him lose bodily autonomy (during that one Wu's teas short) and did something with his voice be it making him unable to be understood or talking too loud and the forced pirate voice by Jay. (what you're doing isn't too different from that, right?) I thought it was just a little iffy to distort his body and memory bc that could be interpreted as something not that I'm sure what exactly, it's some kind of disability. I dunno. I'm not good with putting this to words. I hope this makes sense.

Sorry I went to bed but now I’m awake 😭

Also I ended up totally spilling all my thoughts here rather than only specifically replying to you please forgive me context: my scary zane concept design, & my ninjago rewrite i refer to a lot 

Im a little confused but I think I get what you're saying? You're saying the Ninjago writers absolutely DON'T write Zane well (you listed examples of this) and you don't want me to fall into the same trap?

I had the opposite logic earlier. I thought: If Ninjago writers made Zane have stereotypical autisitic traits while also being a dehumanized robot, I may as well embrace it, say he is autistic blatantly, while also making him do funny/cool non-human robot things, so its clear as possible the two aspects of his character are literal and separate and not a metaphor for each other. But you're right! I do have a choice and I dont have to embrace things! :)

Like there were a couple ways I was gonna reject the original, for example, I never wanted Zane to have a funny switch, and I hated how other characters could fuck with Zane and he didn't even care 😬. I want to change that stuff. So youre right, if I am changing shit like that, it would be counterproductive for ME to GIVE him MORE traits along that theme. 😬😬😬 I should try to feel less obligated to portray Zane like he originally is. I still like the concept of "scary zane" (for reasons i explain below the cut) but I might tone it down a bit like with the claws and weird proportions and shit. I’d def make him look more skeletal and undead. That was my original intention, but i didnt execute it as good as I could have.... idk if anyone could tell thats what he was supposed to be like...my bad! But rn I dont wanna redesign him I wanna draw other stuff like normal alive Zane. Sorry LMAO 😳. Like I said in some earlier asks I think, I think Im gonna focus rn on how I should portray season 1 normal not dead Zane so thank you and feel free to share any other Zane thoughts ^_^ SOME OTHER THOUGHTS:

Also I Wanna Argue Some Stuff But I Understand its a Weak Argument Since All of This Context was Just In My Brain (so don't take this as an argument, just as me rambling): I don't want messed up things to happen to Zane and for it to just be ignored. I think if Zane is going to have fucked up things happen to him, as all characters must, its best for it to happen during a season where he actually addresses his feelings about being a robot (learning to accept that he will always be himself, regardless if hes "human" or the "original" or whatever. (thats how I always interpreted his emotions)). But I wouldn't have the other Ninja be very phased by Zane's looks because the whole point is they already love who he is (seasons 1-3 were about getting to know Zane) and now Zane himself just has to learn the physical, robot part of him is okay. Its about person-hood rather than humanity. Because the season focuses around Zane's soul, and because he lost his original body, I feel like I could mess around with his current, temporary body and have fun and make it scary. Because that body should be irrelevant. I understand it possibly being upsetting for an autistic character to be designed like this, but other people I talked to see it the opposite way. They find it comforting for him to look so different but still be himself and be so loved. SO IM ABSOLUTELY NOT saying its wrong to be bothered or to hate it or to feel any way. Just that I personally think it would be cool for Zane to be portrayed with a little spice lol, so thats why I like scary Zane for season 4.

Another Thing I Wannna Say But Is REALLY Hypocritical: (this isnt directed at anyone I just REALLY want to say this) I know I say "this is Zane but scary, he looks like fnaf" so he's obviously dehumanized, but I always felt like "scary" is more of an objective fact. Its an instinct. But what's "not human" is subjective. I think there is a problem with saying anything different from "average" human is dehumanized because that could extend to real people. Lol I know its bad for me to compare FNAF-ass Zane to real people, but I mean he could be real. People can have exposed teeth, and people can be shaped weird. And when someone first sees a person who looks like that they'll probably think "woah those features are scary" by instinct. And that surprise doesn't make someone ableist obviously. But bring that person’s humanity into question is NOT an instinct, and is fucked to shit. This is kinda a bad point for me to make since its about the fictional FNAF Zane I drew, and I am NOT implying ANYONE was thinking like this. [especially not the original asker anon who I am totally forgetting about at this point OOPS]. But I just thought it was an opinion of mine I couldn't go without mentioning when talking about dehumanization and disabilities.

^^^ I think you (anon) understand what I mean and might’ve said the exact same thing as me if you were writing a long ass response? I think this because you started to bring physical disabilities up and you said it was "a little iffy." ^_^ So we agree, but I don't see Zane's relation to real life disabilities as "a little iffy" I see it more like "complicated"? IF THAT DIFFERENCE EVEN MAKES ANY SENSE?????? I feel like a lot of things about Zane are really just complicated and need the right context, rather than the concepts necessarily being wrong -- NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT! THATS THE WHOLE REASON I DO THIS STUPID REWRITE! XD thats why a lot of my rewrite SO FAR has been the same concepts and plot beats, but different dialogue n specifics and such. I like a lot of concepts in Ninjago but I dont think they were presented correctly.....! :( So I guess all we can do is wait and see if I make Zane offensive or not....???

Also something about the memory part - yeah i agree i was surprised no one thought that was weird to make jokes out of his memory issues..... BUT I am like 100% firm on making his memory take longer to come back because I think its stupid how quick Zane was able to recover from literally dying. Like its just dumb to me. Hate it. (also bc memory & soul mechanics is ummm kinda important in my rewrite.... for reasons). Another memory thing btw, I was going to make his original amnesia come from hitting his head in an attack against the Skulkin when they stole his dads corpse, rather than his dad fucking choosing to make him forget. (its a sweet & iconic scene, but Um, WHY?!!!?!?!?!?) He has to follow data recovery instructions he finds in his dads diary. I think in that context it makes moments of memory loss somewhat different for Zane's character? Instead of loss of autonomy associated with disability, its a literal violent loss of autonomy associated with being traumatized by physical force. Idk how to phrase it exactly but I think that makes some vibes different?

Sorry, I think I got really distracted, and I don't know if I responded well to your points. Because uhhhh I think I agree with your stance actually? If I understand correctly? Fuck Ninjago writers for making the robot lose autonomy (a stereotypical robot theme) while also making him seem clearly autistic (NOT A HAPPY THEME FOR AUTISTIC PEOPLE) and not addressing it. And also auuugh Zane with a weird body is a difficult topic - kinda sussy pretty iffy.

Lol anyway idk if this made any sense and I REALLY rambled on you. but this was nice 👉👈 more Zane criticism pls love you and i love zane. i hope u dont feel mad at me because then it would be weird that im saying that lol. if you do feel mad at me tho you can send another ask (ILL TRY TO JUST LISTEN NOT RAMBLE NEXT TIME) but assuming ur chill rn, love you thnx

Take this page, don’t mind cole’s ass.

[chaoswriting92]

Games we shouldn’t Play

Chapter Four: hoping for better days

Lunch rolled around and you’d gotten a few texts from Jin apologizing and one or two from Jaebeom asking if you were alright and about what happened when he got off the elevator. You hadn’t answered either of them. It was too much. Jackson had come over up to ask how Friday went right as lunch time rolled around and you didn’t say anything to him either. Jasmine was the one left to explain about everything that happened this morning and yesterday and after that even Jackson. The group’s friend who was almost always happy and energetic was down on his mood.

You made it to the cafeteria and Jaebeom was waiting for you, smiling and waving from his table a second tray of food already waiting on you and you felt better about that. He wasn’t making a move to join you at the door just waiting patiently for you to come to him and you did. Walking past a few of the models and Hyeji and her inner circle head held high to go sit by him and try to let all your worries from earlier dissipate. You sat down and bit into the crisp red apple smiling at the fond look he was giving you and the sweet taste. 

“Did I mention earlier that you look beautiful?” He leaned in and whispered.

“Hmm… No, I don't think you did. I remember you calling me beautiful, and saying I looked stunning, but not telling me I looked beautiful.” You commented falling into that easy feeling that you’d had Friday and Saturday when the two of you had gone out by yourselves. The upset from this morning still stung around the edges, but what he’d said on the elevator was right. You had discussed this and you had a plan. None of that involved giving up on Jaebeom just because Seokjin came around. 

“Hey Y/n, JB.” Yugyeom came over from where he had grabbed his lunch and sat down at the table. He was followed shortly after by Sooran and Jinyoung, then Jasmine, Jackson, Youngjae and Mark followed. Finally the rest of you were joined by BamBam who always seemed to take the longest to grab his food, but it didn’t surprise you all that much because he was usually held up talking to Lisa since she sat at one of the other model’s tables close by to the check out counter and vending machines. 

“Hey Bambam, how did that video presentation from this morning go?” You asked, sticking your fork into the salad that had been sitting in front of you.

“It went well. They really liked the track and thought that Lisa was a good choice of model. Thanks for suggesting her. The even said that they want her to be the permanent model for their campaign.” He said taking a bite of his pizza when he was done speaking.

“Hey y/n. Is that a new dress?” One of the models who had been sitting at HyeJi’s table had passed by your table  to go over to where the waste bins were and on her way back seemed to notice the dress you were wearing.

“Oh, yeah, it’s from a new design series I was working on,” you replied.

    “Is there going to be a photo shoot for that series?” She asked curiously.

“Maybe sometime soon. I still have a few more pieces I’m working on and some changes since the advanced copies of the designs were shared I have to change some things.”

“I thought it looked familiar. That’s the dress Hyeji was gushing about. She had a picture of the design sketch on her phone. She said you were making it specially for her. You know, I knew she was lying. If you need a new model for any shoots let me know, okay? By the way congratulations not everyone can leave a catch like Seokjin and land on their feet.” She eyed JB up and down making it obvious what she meant and both of you almost choked on the respective drinks and food you were eating.

“I.. uh...Thanks. If I need a new model I will let you know.” You placated her and tried to recover from her comment and she nodded satisfied that she may have replaced Hyeji as your favorite and that she got something she could hold over Hyeji’s head in the meantime.

“What did she mean by that?” Youngjae asked.

“Probably just that word has traveled about me and Jabeom dating.” You muttered like it was common knowledge and continued to eat.

“Oh okay. Wait when did you two start dating?” Youngjae asked, confused.

“Saturday. We went out for breakfast trying to see if we could really get to know each other after the fun we had Friday, thanks for buying dinner by the way Jackson.” You said.

“Technically we went out for Bingsu Saturday not breakfast.” JB countered. 

“Same thing. After that I helped him dye his hair and we kind of just decided that we’d give this a try.”  You finished.

“And you said we should let them find someone else on their own.” Jackson said smugly and gave a pointed look at Mark who rolled his eyes again. You and Jaebeom gave each other a knowing look. This was actually working. They all seemed to believe you. The pieces were falling into place. 

The rest of lunch was spent with your friends asking you questions about Saturday until you finally told them the story leaving out a few key points of course.

                                            ***Last Saturday Afternoon***

After leaving the Bingsu place the two of you bought the hair dye JB had wanted and went back to his apartment blessedly not running into Jin or anyone else. Jaebeom’s apartment suited him. It was cozy and sort of intimate and looked like it was lived in and loved in the time he’d been here. The door bathroom traveled through his bedroom and it took everything in you to keep from laughing as he scrambled to pick up the mess of laundry lying around and had blushed a little in your direction and apologized. You had tried several different scenarios out in your head for how to go about dying his hair without staining his shirt and finally let out a sigh.

“This is hopeless. Take your shirt off.” You ordered and he got a sly grin on his face.

“I thought we were dying my hair,” he teased.

“I will leave right now and you can call Jackson and explain why you were about to have me dye your hair” 

“I’m just kidding, y/n, please don’t leave me like this.” He grabbed onto the soft denim of the shorts you were wearing. His knuckles brushed the outside of your thigh and your eyes met his for an almost electric moment before you shook your head, made a little uncomfortable coughing noise and went back to mixing the hair dye. 

“I’m... You should... Unless you want your shirt stained I’d suggest either changing or taking it off,” you told him.

“Right, I’ll… I’ll just go change. I have an old t-shirt I use for cleaning. That should be alright. You just keep mixing I guess.” He left the bathroom and went looking through his room for the shirt and you let out a sigh and looked at your reflection in the mirror not meaning to but noticing where JB was standing with his back turned to you as he slipped his shirt he’d been wearing over his head and you found yourself transfixed by the flawless expanse of tan skin revealed as he slid the shirt over his head. His long hair just barely grazed the space between his shoulder blades on his neck and you found yourself imagining what would be like to feel that skin under your fingertips. When he quickly began slipping the new shirt over his head it seemed to snap you out of your daydream and you had shook your head squeaking in panic when you realized your hair had dipped into the pot of hair dye  in your distraction and sat it down scraping it off in a determined fashion with a tissue that you pulled from a nearby box. Jaebeom didn’t even bother to hide his laughter.

“We could have matched.” He said and you swatted at him before tugging him down into the seat and putting gloves on so you could apply the bleach to his hair. Things were quiet while you did this. He watched you as you focused on what you were doing. Your brows knit together and concentration tugged the corners of your mouth down in this cute little frown. He found himself imagining what your reaction would be if he kissed the little creases you had forming there and mentally cursed. The two of you weren’t really dating he couldn’t just take advantage of thoughts like that any time he wanted and you were his friend there should be a line. That did remind him though. He cleared his throat a little and you pulled away satisfied with the work you’d done on the bleach. Now all you both had to do was wait for it to do its job. He tapped your side where you had leaned across and sat the bowl and brush down then you turned to look back at him.

“We should probably decide what our boundaries are for this whole thing.” Jaebeom said.

“What do you mean?” You sat down on the edge of the tub and shifted so the two of you were face to face.

“Like for what would cross the line and be a deal breaker.”

“Oh. Right. No meeting parents or siblings unless it is absolutely unavoidable. The last thing either of us needs is our families getting attached to the idea of us being a thing and getting hurt too.” You said setting a timer on your phone for when to rinse the bleach. 

“Fair enough. Um… no sex. I think that would complicate things.” Jaebeom said.

“Really? You think sex would complicate things. I would never have guessed.” You teased.

“Listen here smart ass.” He chastised you for the comment and you let out a full and jovial laugh tilting your head back and exposing your bare skin at your neck and creating a clear line to the v of your shirt to his eyes. He was starting to already be glad he set that rule, but also beginning to curse himself for it. You were still as beautiful as always, but for some reason even more enticing as the realization sunk in that you were essentially untouchable now due to the rule he’d just put in place.

“Okay um… We should go to every public function that requires a plus one together if it means one of the others will see us.” You said drawing him back to the topic at hand.”

“Does that mean I am driving you to and from work from now on too?” He asked and you nodded. 

“I can give you gas money if you need it, but it would look weird if you let me ride the bus when you have a car.”

“Fair. Um… couples clothes or accessories?” He asked.

“Not unless you think we need to unnecessary money being spent if you ask me.” you replied.

“Not yet. If it gets too hard to keep the ruse up then maybe.” he said thoughtfully.

“Group dates?”

“Probably unavoidable, but only if someone asks.” He answered.

“You just want me to have all my attention focused on you. I should probably borrow some of your clothes too.” You teased then suggested the latter as an afterthought.

“What? Why?” The thought of you in his clothes with your small stature and how his hoodies would probably fall about at the same length as the shorts you were wearing now effectively making you look like you were wearing nothing underneath them was a particular brand of torture he hadn’t even imagined when he had been factoring in things that would complicate your friendship. 

“Wouldn’t it be odd for a girlfriend to not at least have one piece of her boyfriend’s clothes?” You asked.

“Fine but I’ll pick it.” He said.

“Deal.” You agreed.

“Y/n are you sure you still want to-” The timer beeped and interrupted what he was going to say. You pulled the shower hose down and sat on the edge of the tub switching the water to the hose rather than the faucet and gesturing with your free hand for JB to lean back across your lap from his seat on the lid of  the toilet his hair dangled down now a whitish shade of yellow. You were right to buy the toner because you were going to need to take the yellow out after you dried it so that his hair wouldn’t turn green. Not that you really thought he’d mind, but he’d wanted blue and you weren’t going to be the one to ruin it. 

A few more hours passed and his hair was finally a dark blue with his black brown roots poking out of the top. It looked good on him and you smiled and nodded your approval after drying his hair a final time.

“Thanks, y/n. I owe you one.”

“No you don’t this is the least I can do for you helping me with the whole Jin and Hyeji situation.”

“That’s another thing we need to talk about. What are we going to do Monday. Jin is going to see us there.”

“I’m going to avoid him like I’ve been doing I guess.”

“That’s not going to work forever, y/n.”

“Then what do you think I should do?”

“I think if he bothers you, then you should stay by my side. We don’t have to talk to him, but if you stay by me maybe he will probably get the point and at least you will know you have someone there for you.”

“And if that doesn’t work? What if the two of us get in an argument or you two get in a fight?” 

“If he and I get in a fight I can handle it, but if you two argue then when it’s over the two of us will get back together and have a good day and you will act like nothing happened. It will be hard, but he deserves to see you happy without him and so do you if we’re being honest. If at any point you are sad, call my name, do you think you can do that? ” 

“We’re not being honest JB, that’s the whole point of this, but I can try anyway.” 

“Just trust me. We can make this work, Y/n I know it.”

“Okay��� well I guess since we’re done with your hair I’ll get going. I need to clean the extra dye off of me anyway.”

                                                   ***Present***

“So you’re telling me that you spent the entire day in his apartment and nothing happened?” Jasmine had been pestering you since the two of you got back from lunch with the others.

“Pretty much,” you replied. You walked over to the different bolts of fabric selected a few and nodded when you were satisfied with the combinations cutting small sample squares from each of them and safety pinning them to the respective designs that they were going to be used for in the look book you had planned for the company’s next runway production. A few of them had more than one layer and you were already discussing with the people who usually did the sewing how you wanted them to work when she caught back up to you.

“You and I have really got to have a chat about seizing opportunities, y/n. You were in his bedroom, for crying out loud. In his shower,” She scolded and you laughed.

“Okay, first off, I wasn’t in his shower. Second, what was I supposed to do just finish dying his hair and have my way with him right there until we were both covered in blue hair dye?” You asked.

“Yes. Yes you were.” She said matter of fact tone and a serious look on her face.

“That is a quality man downstairs and you should take advantage of every inch of him from head to toe.” You laughed again this time for a good solid few minutes and even snorted a few times from how hard you were laughing. She began laughing too and that’s how you knew this entire exchange was just her way of trying to cheer you up. Jasmine was almost as energetic and twice as eccentric as Jackson was and you were grateful to have her as a friend but she definitely had her priorities skewed sometimes. 

“It was only our first real date.”

“No it wasn’t. You had a date Friday.”

“That doesn’t count. You guys set us up.”

“Okay yes we did, but it should still count anyway.” She argued and before you could protest the point further your phone chimed. 

“Is that him?” She asked trying to peek over your shoulder, but you hid the phone away and made some distance between the two of you.

[the-wintershade]

03. it’s horrible to learn about love from those who never loved you

pairing: sam x reader summary: you were not his universe and he was not your sun wc: 1.4k genre: angst, cheating

a/n: oh Sam, why’d you do it?

swear not by the moon  — a series of angst: 02 | 03 | ...

It was his smile. 

It was his charm and the way he spoke. The way he laughed. 

Everything about him was designed to draw you in, pull you into the pearly whites of his teeth and the tight lines around his smile. He was always different around you. Just a little bit sweeter, smiling a little bit wider, laughing a little bit louder.

And when he asked you to dance, it felt like you were the queen, that you were a star waiting for your moment when you would be the sun to someone else's universe. 

The lights of the club swirled around you, dancing across your bodies as you swung around on the floor, lost in the laughs and alcohol. You didn’t drink enough to get drunk, or even enough lose your awareness of what’s going on around you, but the light buzz freed you. Made you want to get lost in the music, the lights, the feeling of being close to him.

Skin touching, electricity sparking with each brush, his eyes only on you drawing out a fire you didn’t know you had. 

You felt as if he felt the fire too.

And you didn’t go home with him, you didn’t feel ready for that, but you met up later multiple times. When he eventually asked to be “official”, you agreed with no regrets.

And you didn’t have any. At least, not yet.

He brought you everywhere, made you feel like a star. Like you were the perfect person for him. He’d whisper, arm wrapped around your waist, drawing you into him, “I can barely keep my eyes off you.” A jolt moved through you like always, and like always he always noticed.

He smiled and you stifled a giggle, blushing deeply. “Hey Wilson!” A man with deep raven hair and soft blue eyes laughed at him. “Are you going to introduce us to your prospective love interest?”

Sam laughed under his breath and brought you over. “He’s always on my ass.” 

He was kind and the two of you got along fabulously, laughing and smiling. The two of you later became really good friends, but it was because of his close friendship with you and his ties to Wilson that he let it slip. 

He laughed into his coffee. After inviting you to one of the nicest spots he could find, he wanted to give you an opportunity to talk without having Sam around. Just get to know you.

But of course you were going to ask about Sam, wanting to know more of what he was like. Sometimes he would blatantly avoid answering some of your questions about his past. You figured he was cagey and that the bubbly smile might be a deflection from some trauma in his past.

You know, like most people.

But when you made the comment I bet he’s out partying right now, James chuckled and said “no doll, he’s not. He’s with…” His eyes flashed like he’d said something wrong before looking down to take another sip of his coffee.

You frowned. “He’s with who, James?” You set down your mug and watched as his face fell. 

“Doll…” He warned and you stood up, throwing your bag over your shoulder, dred pooling in your stomach. “Don’t overreact. I promise she’s just a friend.” He reached out to touch you and you jerked back, stumbling into your seat and taking off.

He was wrong. She wasn’t just a friend.

And what hurt more was that you knew exactly what he was talking about.

You’d seen them together. He’d laugh more around her, smile more, flirt more. You just wrote it off as some friend of his from way back, but there was a spark there. A spark that they both felt. Because you witnessed it with your own eyes.

And you ignored that part of you that said you weren’t worthy of him. You weren’t worthy of his light, his beauty, his charms. 

That you weren’t enough. 

Because when you met him, you felt it. Of course, he was attracted to you and wanted to keep you around, even the sun needed fuel to keep going; but it was never going to last. You were just a star, a ball of hot air and gas that he needed to restore his energy. You weren’t a galaxy he wanted to provide for, or that he truly cared about.

It crushed you that you even let him drain you like he did. 

Angry tears paved rivets down your cheeks as you hoped to God that your doubts were wrong. But even you recognized the truth when you felt.

….

Coming into the apartment and finding them together was almost the end of you. You almost fell onto the floor, collapsing from shock and pain. Your legs nearly buckled, but you gripped the door frame so hard your knuckles turned white and took a few breaths. 

You would not break in front of them, not here, not now. Because this wasn’t a devastating blow. It hurt like hell, yes, but you would not die. You would not allow yourself to be crippled because of it.

So you left. 

And when you came back to get your things, after ignoring his phone calls and texts, he came barreling through the door, witnessing all the boxes packed around him.

“Where are you going?” He followed you around the apartment as you shoved clothes into your suitcase. Your arms tingled and legs wobbled from the adrenaline pumping through your veins. It took you everything not to turn around and scream and scream and scream until you couldn’t speak anymore. 

But this was not the fury you wanted to unleash. 

You wanted to leave on your own terms, not provoked to hostility because of the damage he inflicted.

You shoved the last of your clothes in your suitcase and zipped it, forcing the lid down. “Away.”

His face crumpled and he caught your arm as you tried to move around him. “Why? What happened? What did I do?” Desperation creeped into his voice. You wrenched your arm out of his touch.

“I think you made it pretty clear you didn’t want me when you brought your friend over to the apartment.” You rolled your luggage to the door. “And also when you were heavily making out on the sofa.” A friend of yours came up to help you carry the boxes and just when you were about to reach for the last of your things, he caught you, trying to pull you into him.

Electricity jumped from his fingers to your skin, but you steeled your face, not allowing his affect on you to cloud your decision. This wasn’t just a matter of the heart, but it required the head to follow through with it.

Your mind would save you, help you get through this. You ignored the buzz in your veins and waited while he got his final words out. “That...that was complicated. You know how my life is, you know how hard it’s been.”

“And while I’m sure you have your reasons,” You stepped away, severing the connection and the hold he tried to inflict on you, “I have mine.” Dropping the keys on the table, you turned to face him one last time. “I’m not going to wait around and forgive you every time you cheat, every time you go out with this woman. I deserve more. I’m worth more.” His eyes widened at your recognition that this wasn’t the first time. “I tried to ignore the signs before but seeing you together was too much. I’m done making excuses for you and trying to reason with myself that you actually care about me.”

“I do...I—” He tries to touch you again but you put your hand on the door and open it. “I do still care. Don’t leave.”

His eyes well with tears. Not at the thought of having you out of his life, but of having no one constantly at his side. “You like the idea of having someone that you can count on to always be around you. To always stay by your side and support you. But I can’t be that person for you. I cannot sit around while you go out with whoever, whenever you want. I’m more than just a show piece to carry around. I’m a human being.” You're about to pull the door closed when he stops you.

“You’re more than that! I—I love you.” It doesn’t even look real or feel real to you. It breaks your heart even more.

“The only thing you love,” you yank the door out of his grip, “is the idea of having a trophy.” 

And when you slam the door, you make it to your car and sob and sob and sob. Till you’re drowning in tears, till you drown out your light.

[kpophours]

a very necessary guide to SF9

so. let’s talk about these underrated kings. be prepared for rambling. I just love them too much. my favorite boys, 10/10 would recommend stanning them.

some basic information

9 members (5 vocals, 4 rappers, 9 dancers and 9 visuals just stating the facts)

SF9 stands for Sensational Feeling 9

debuted on October 5, 2016 with Fanfare (still a BOP)

currently under FNC Entertainment and actually their first male dance group

their official fandom name is Fantasy (such a good name, honestly) and the official color is Fantasia Hologram (aka the  p r e t t i e s t).

debuted after winning a survival show called Dance or Band (they participated as the dance team; the band team debuted as Honeyst in 2017)

7 mini albums so far with RPM being their latest comeback 

... now onto the members (buckle up)!

Youngbin

Kim Youngbin, born on November 23, 1993

LeaderBin aka the Dad™

very charismatic, be prepared for some really intense eye contact (two words: stage presence)

rapper (highest rapping voice out of the four of them)

D A N C E R (a former 1MILLION dance studio trainee), so he‘s obviously 1/3 of sf9′s extremely talented dance line

also 1/3 of hyung line

cutest eye-smile (so soft) + cutest giggle™

rocked his red hair and looks amazing with slightly curled hair (do not fight me on this)

is tattooed (very  p r e t t y)

threatens everyone’s bias at least once

gives amazing (and unnecessary long) pep talks together with Jaeyoon (just let the other boys sleep, please)

gazes so, so fondly at all his members in pretty much every video (no, I will NOT cry)

Jaeyoon is his roommate and secret wife.

Inseong

Kim Inseong, born on July 12, 1993

the oldest (not mentally) aka the Grandpa™

main vocal (those HIGH NOTES, damn). extremely steady voice.

unique beauty. looks a bit like a desert fox (according to himself and everyone with a pair of functioning eyes).

1/3 of extra line (see and hear three loud idiots in all their videos? yep, that’s him ft. Jaeyoon and Dawon)

also 2/3 of hyung line

v e r y intelligent and educated (holds a degree in Journalism and Communication) but also stupid

owner of an extremely cute smile 

t h i g h s  i am not weak or biased at all

SF9’s designated English speaker (used to live in London for a year)

amazing winking-ability, 10/10 will leave you weak-kneed

King of Lies. he’ll probably never pass a lie detector test. but it’s okay we still love him.

is left-handed and really good at drawing

married to Jaeyoon (it‘s complicated).

Jaeyoon

Lee Jaeyoon, born on August 9, 1994

3/3 of hyung line

honey voice (aka OST King)

d i m p l e s.

blindingly white teeth. the most beautiful smile (canines!).

very proud of his hips and butt (as he should be).

his actual name is Ethan

likes to work out and is  f i t (he ended all Fantasies during rpm promotions, so thanks for that)

King of girl group dances and in charge of sexy (Zumba) dances

a  fuc ki ng  tease (again, rip all Fantasies during the UNIXERSE rpm stage)

2/3 of extra line (shares one brain cell with Inseong and Dawon. they don’t use it very often.)

had a pink undercut during the Mamma Mia era and probably made people cry with his outstanding beauty. again, i’m not biased at all

seems a bit shy and quiet at first. don’t be fooled. he is loud and will come for you.

married to both Inseong and Youngbin.

Dawon

Lee Sanghyuk, born on July 24, 1995

oh boy... such a bundle of utter chaos.

e x t r a (3/3 of extra line and probably their President™)

hear something loud and annoying in the background? it’s probably (most definitely) Dawon (helped by the other 2/3 of extra line)

a unique and beautiful voice (he needs more lines or else I’ll throw hands) - rapping, singing, screaming, he can do it all.

a fucking tease 2.0 (seriously, he and Jaeyoon need to be stopped)

Bruce Lee impressions on point

has tattoos

such a meme-face but also so handsome, like H O W

looks amazing and so soft with curly hair must protect

had so many different hair styles during their Mamma Mia promotions, rip his hair (and rip to all new Fantasies trying to keep track lol)

actually very soft. cried when Inseong surprised them during their UNIXERSE concert (which our Grandpa couldn’t participate in due to an injury)

likes to bully Taeyang.

Zuho

Baek Juho, born on July 4, 1996

Mr. Deep Ass Voice™

“my nose is my swag“

such a good dancer, definitely underappreciated. 

looks intimidating at first, but is actually the softest (d u a l i t y)

the best cat dad (Huru has yet to accept his undying love for him though)

composes/produces own songs (@FNC: please, I’m b e g g i n g you to finally put Champagne on an album) and writes lyrics for a lot of sf9′s songs

didn‘t participate in most of their Enough promotions due to his (still ongoing) back problems (#FNCletZuhoRestChallenge2019)

a dork and meme and honestly just so, so cute and lovable

social butterfly (seriously, he‘s friends with literally e v e r y idol out there)

composed a (love) letter to Fantasy while driving a car with Hwiyoung, Taeyang and Dawon sleeping in the passenger and backseat yes I cried

a scaredy cat (ran away and left his members behind when he got scared by a staff member during their Trip with Fantasy)

Rowoon

Kim Seokwoo, born on August 7, 1996

yes he‘s a Tree™. is made up of 90% unnecessary long legs.

main vocal 2.0

1/2 of actor line

very handsome, I know (but he‘s so much more than just his good looks)

a devoted mom of 8

loves all Chanis and not-Chanis equally

almost had a mental breakdown because he managed to hit Chani’s face with a football which resulted in his precious maknae getting a nosebleed

always hugging and kissing and generally just smothering all members with his endless love and affection (especially Chani)

(t) h o t  and knows it (very shy with fanboys though)

has literally only one selfie angle he uses rigorously  

his One True Talent™ is staring sexily into the camera and doing nothing else because yes, he’s just that handsome

tries to be funny and fails most of the time, but he‘s cute so it’s okay.

Taeyang

Yoo Taeyang, born on February 28, 1997

undercover main vocal (has almost as many lines as Inseong and Rowoon)

best dancer, period. his entire body is probably made out of water. such. fluid. moves. - 2/3 of dance line, often in charge of choreographies.

also 1/3 of maknae line

speaks in ᵀᴵᴺʸ ᶠᴼᴺᵀ 

the literal Sun™, his smile has healing properties.

has great hair and pushes it back a lot during his dance moves

a flower boy (literally. wanted to become a florist before debuting as an idol)

looks a bit like Lee Dongwook aka The Reaper from Goblin

you think he‘s soft? uh, sure, yeah. but is also s a v a g e (the personification of that then perish meme)

has a... unique way of drying his hair (ask Dawon, he‘ll show you. even if you don’t want him to, Dawon will show you)

gets bullied by Dawon. bullies him back. very spot-on impressions of Mr. Extraness (as seen on their Weekly Idol episode)

soulmates and married to Hwiyoung, I don’t make the rules.

Hwiyoung

Kim Youngkyun, born May 11, 1999

rapper and Mr. Charismatic™

yes he is that guy from their Now or Never mv 

looks bad-ass but is a certified baby boy (2/3 of maknae line)

cute without trying and is actually a cat

has literally the best gummy smile which he used to hide behind his hands (but his hyungs encouraged him so much and now he smiles openly, I am not crying, you are)

grew up so suddenly and had long hair out of nowhere and left everyone sh o ok (should definitely be in a shampoo commercial)

composes songs. put one on SoundCloud just very recently. writes lyrics for a lot of sf9′s songs.

cried during their survival show when he got scolded for continuing to mess up the choreography and had to be hugged by Youngbin (who really is the best dad™)

King of the Cleopatra game thanks to his dolphin screams should probably be part of vocal line

pretended to not recognize his soulmate and roommate aka Taeyang when he had to guess his members from their hands while wearing a blindfold. Taeyang will probably never recover from this betrayal and is most definitely still whining about it.

Chani

Kang Chanhee, born on January 17, 2000

deep ass voice 2.0

d a n c e r (his little solo dance in Now or Never will forever be superior), 3/3 of dance line

Evil Maknae™ (3/3 of maknae line)

2/2 of actor line (yes he‘s that boy from Sky Castle)

speaks fluent duck

Taemin‘s Nº fanboy (literally knows his blood type, like... wow okay)

can‘t remember any of the members birthdays (he actually thought Youngbin was born in August when his birthday is literally in the middle of Winter. Leaderbin was hurt).

always looks like a smol bean, but everyone else is just ridiculously tall

had bright orange hair once only for about one second though lol

constantly smothered with love and hugs from Rowoon and pretends to hates it

has all his hyungs wrapped around his finger and knows it (they‘re all whipped for him, especially when he’s doing aegyo)

has a lot of hair aka (my favorite) coconut head (#freehisforehead2019)

looks expressionless and tired 24/7 (a whole mood and true gen z)

some videos to watch

all of their mv’s of course

literally every comeback stage

the suit versions of Now or Never and RPM

the ghost prank/horror version of Now or Never (I cried laughing) 

this really cute Dingo Music version of Enough 

basically all their dance practices, but especially K.O. (we all know they should have gone viral with that choreography)

their adorable pajama version of Different

them performing RPM on a treadmill (Chani is a mood™ and Inseong’s grandpa waddle is so cute)

these stunning acoustic versions of their songs brought to you by 2/3 of extra line + The Tree™

their kcon New York 2019 performance (+ their cover of Love Shot)

their reality show Trip with Fantasy 

them dancing to O Sole Mio ft. Ostriches

their episodes on Weekly Idol and Idol Room

their girl group cover dance battle on Weekly Idol (ft. Cross Gene)

Rowoon and Inseong on Masked Singer

Dawon on Weekly Idol as part of the Masked Idol segment

the Now or Never choreography ft. dance line and the 1MILLION dance crew

them covering BTS’ Boy in Luv + EXO’s Call Me Baby

the Idol Dance Cover Challenge of Love Shot (ft. Astro, The Boyz and CIX)

this interview (I mean, that title alone... lol)

those are just a few of my favorite videos - there’s so much more content out there, so you’ll definitely never starve, lol.

I could literally ramble on about these nine incredible men for hours on end. 

But this will be the end of my guide (it’s long enough already, lol).

Stan SF9 for (clear skin and good grades) nine hard-working and so, so talented individuals with amazing voices, incredible dance moves, outstanding visuals, chaotic energies and a lot of meme-worthiness.

You won’t regret it, I promise.

(Don’t worry, Rowoon(’s face) is okay).

[masterlist] | [requests] 

[jennikkugoesoff]

Jennikku goes off about a Sonic the Hedgehog Reboot.

If you follow me at all or have read many of my other rants, you’ll know I love Sonic the Hedgehog. A lot, with all my heart. I met my friends through Sonic and it’s a franchise that’s changed a lot in my life, for better, for worse and everything in-between. It’s the reason I started to draw, to write and to really give creativity a chance.

It’s a series that has been through many twists, turns, up and down and all arounds over the course of it’s long, 28 (as of the time of writing) year lifespan, and has stood the test of time, being heralded either as one of the best video game franchises of all time, or, well, one of the worst out there, becoming more and more dated by each passing day.

But, it didn’t start out that way. Everyone’s told the long, terrible story now about Sonic’s massive rise to the top of 1990s American Iconography and his massive plummet into the depths of Hell, dragging his now-bitter fans down with him following the turn of the century and segwaying into the modern age, so I won’t bog you with the details you already know, but here’s the main point.

Sonic the Hedgehog... kinda sucks.

And that’s because it’s a mess. An astronomically confused, tired, and beaten mess. In the 28 year lifespan of Sonic the Hedgehog, it’s canon has become massively tangled in knots. Inconsistent games, inconsistent comics, inconsistent cartoons, and so on and so forth. Anyone who’s a fan of Sonic comes from a place where they heard about Sonic, be it the games, the cartoons, the comics, and so on, and therefore, have a different mindset about what Sonic the Hedgehog should be, which is the cause for much of the heavy, almost unpleasable climate the fan community gives off.

Really? The only way I see the series being salvageable is to wipe the slate clean and begin... at least somewhat anew, and see how these scatted pieces of broken glass we call the ‘Sonic canon’ can fit together.

This has been tried once, with Sonic Boom, but it didn’t really end well, and I’d like to change that, so let’s have this hypothetical reboot take the same form as Sonic Boom, as a potential ‘new face’ for the entire series, rather than a spinoff continuity. (I feel like this was the original intention of Sonic Boom, but due to the backlash, was revoked.)

Are you comfortable? Let’s go. It’s gonna be a long-ass, tiring, winding post.

(Seriously I spent fucking 3 days just writing this post. For that reason, there may be a few gRaMatTcul eRors here and there, just bear with me, okay? I’m tired and I just wanna heave out this monster of an idea.)

Housecleaning and on wiping the slate clean

Ok, before we actually get into redoing the series, I wanna make this clear, when I say I want to ‘wipe the slate clean’, that’s sort of an exaggeration. I don’t think Sonic needs to be completely rewritten from scratch, and certain elements of the series DO work very well, so it’s more we’re gonna ‘wipe the slate clean, but immediately redraw things back on, except bigger and better than they were before.’

The reason why is, Sonic the Hedgehog has a kind of ‘hoarder complex’ when it comes to his franchise. As I established earlier, the main problem with rebooting Sonic the Hedgehog as compared to another franchise like, say, Ducktales, or Ghostbusters, is that Sonic the Hedgehog has a lot of lore. Too much lore. Think about the crazy amount of lore surrounding Solaris, Mephiles, Dark and Light Gaia, the Wisps, Chaos, and Tikal, Shadow and the Black Arms, Silver, the Sol Dimension and Blaze, Eggman Nega, the Nocturnus Clan, the list goes on and on and on. It’s head-spinning, it’s confusing, and most of all, obtrusive to what’s actually important in the Sonic Canon versus what seems important.

This isn’t helped by the fact that Sonic has never really had a consistent ground to stand on in terms of his world and where he lives because where he lives changes with every game or new thing Sonic is in. So, introducing these new, complicated gods and grand, sprawling history all of a sudden doesn’t give the world Sonic lives in any ground or any real meaning if it’s just going to be ignored later on when Sonic Forces completely rewrites the world map from Unleashed. (This is a problem I have with the Mario and Kirby series too.)

Even if you claim something like the Sonic Archie comics have consistency in their setting, think about how much the comic’s version of Mobius changed over the course of its lifespan after not only being completely rewritten (thanks Ken Penders. I’m sure your horrific 3d render children are proud.) and two crossovers, not to mention all the subtle shifts and changes the comic made from its debut comic to its cancellation.

So, if we’re going to do this, we need to get this straight right now.

A new Sonic reboot will NEED to cover EVERY base of the Sonic continuity. Games, Comics, Cartoons, Merchandising (with the exception of maybe some anniversary stuff), The Whole Echidna- er, Enchilada.

If the problem with Sonic as it is, is that the continuity is messy because it keeps adding new stuff? THEN STOP FUCKING ADDING NEW STUFF!!

NO ONE’S GONNA LIKE THE NEW STUFF ANYWAY!!

PEOPLE FUCKING HATE CHANGE!!

THIS FRANCHISE IS SO FUCKing MiSTReATED!- FUCK!!

Nah, but seriously. If this reboot is gonna work, then it needs to BE a proper reboot. Not a side-series like Sonic Boom, not an ‘alternate dimension’ to dip into for mainline games, not a one-off series of animated shorts, no quills, no pillows. If we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna go all in. At least in terms of continuity.

So, you know what we’re gonna name this reboot?

Sonic the Hedgehog

Just, Sonic the Hedgehog. Yep. All in, indeed.

Audience, Tone, and Genre

I feel maybe I should’ve split these into multiple sections, but, they really all go hand-in-hand. 

If we’re gonna remake Sonic, we gotta first decide how Sonic should feel, and who he’s going to appeal to. So, let’s consider what we’re working with first, based on the history of who Sonic has appealed to.

The whole point of Sonic’s young, hip, snarky personality was to appeal to the American youth of the 1990s (kids, teenagers, and young adults), the young, hip, snarky and coolest people around. Sonic sought to identify with these kids by being a little bit ‘edgier’ and ‘cooler’ than most other cartoon characters of his era, but still with the capability to be as cute, wholesome and inherently charming as his competition. Like the perfect little blend of the sarcastic wit of Bugs Bunny and the lovable personability of Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat.

Many Sonic clones of the 1990s like Bubsy, Aero the Acrobat, and Zero the [CENSORED] Squirrel tried to piggyback off of Sonic in this manner by trying to play up Sonic’s edgy, snarky appeal, but what they lack is that more wholesome, laid back, simple, round and friendly aspects of his design. It’s why Sonic can look like this:

but also like this

like this

but also like this.

It’s why Sonic works so well as a cartoon character in animated shorts and cartoons, as well as an action character in high octane blood pumping action anime, and one of the reasons why I think his design is so appealing. It’s this, this perfect balance between cool superhero and cuddly, wholesome cartoon character that makes Sonic such the iconic character he is.

So what’s the point of me telling you that?

Well, lots of people disagree on what Sonic the Hedgehog’s tone should be, and what audience Sonic should appeal to. Many argue Sonic is a series strictly meant for children, and therefore shouldn’t take any risks and be cutesy, wholesome and bouncy. Others argue Sonic should market itself to teenagers and young adults by pushing its envelope with it’s material and turning itself into a giant melodrama with three-dimensional characters, intertwining relationships and giant, epic Dragon Ball Z style showdowns with blood, guts and the crunching of noses and teeth.

You know what’s popular right now though and seems to have been for a while? A blend of those exact two things.

It sounds dumb but, think about it. Video games and cartoons have been taking this turn toward being a little bit of the best of both worlds. Steven Universe, Undertale/Deltarune, Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, even stuff like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, that sort of thing.

So, I think a new Sonic reboot should be an Action/Adventure-Comedy. It’s a series about long, lengthy quests and the ongoing war between nature and machine, but it’s also about a quick-witted cartoon character having fun picking on an overconfident evil scientist and his lackeys.

And you know what? I think Sonic is and has shown that this is the environment he flourishes in. Think about why Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing: Overdrive work so well, or why OK KO: Let’s Meet Sonic! is so great! It places Sonic and co. in an environment in which they have the opportunity to be funny and cartoony, but also leaves itself open to lead into more strict action sequences or serious, emotional moments, should it feel the need to. It lets the characters be the characters, without being impeded by everything needed to be babyproofed, but also not interrupted by fanfic-tier melodramatics every 2 and a half minutes. And, considering how much any media featuring Sonic relies on its characters to garner appeal, this is important.

Besides that, this is also important for something I think is going to make this reboot go from good to great.

: ✧･ﾟ: U N I F I C A T I O N ! :･ﾟ✧ : 

I’ve said this before in my other essay on how I’d reboot Sonic, but I truly feel that bringing together a lot of different elements of Sonic’s history together for this reboot is a top-notch idea for not only bringing the series back together whilst maintaining a wide appeal but also broaden the scope of potential characters, settings, and plot points we can work with, rather than just limiting it to just the classic era, or just the modern era, it also might leave veteran fans wondering just who or what was going to show up in the next game, or next episode!

Why limit ourselves to just a classic-style series or just a modern-style series? Why not mix it up a little?

Let’s take the cute classic stuff and mix it with some of the cool modern stuff!

I mean of course there’s gonna be purists but, hey, if we have a little bit of both we might just start seeing eye to eye!

So, what does that mean for the audience? Well, I think in that sense, Sonic should be able to appeal to, about anyone, really. Adults, Kids, Teenagers, anyone. It’d be like going to see a Marvel Superhero movie in the theaters or watching Spongebob on TV, yeah, it’d be something kids enjoy, but also something young adults can appreciate too. Although if we absolutely have to stick to a demographic, I’d say the ideal targets for a Sonic the Hedgehog reboot are two groups of people specifically.

Older fans of the series who grew up with the Adventure and Classic games, and Younger people who are more familiar with the modern games. As far as drawing new people or embittered old fans in?... Well, we’ll get to that.

Plot synopsis

It may seem like a no-brainer what the plot of Sonic the Hedgehog is, right? Well, of course it is. It’s been the same for over 20 years, and, I think the premise? Is fine.

“Sonic the Hedgehog is the fastest thing alive and a protector of nature who loves adventure. He’s smarmy and mischevious, but with a heart of gold and an unshakable sense of justice with a can-do attitude. His archnemesis, Dr. Eggman, wants to take over his natural, sprawling home and begin building his planet-conquering empire in its place. It’s up to Sonic and his group of friends to defeat Dr. Eggman, and restore peace to the world, and the green back to the hills.”

This? Right here? This is Sonic the Hedgehog. No matter who you ask, from any branch of the franchises thousand-foot tall family tree, this is Sonic the Hedgehog. There’s a couple of doodads and twists here and there depending on the specific game, but that’s really honestly it when you break it all down, that’s the plot of almost every Sonic game. But this can easily get lost and bogged down between all of the God-summoning and all that shit that other Sonic media does.

So, let’s keep the focus on this, and this alone. Just the ongoing misadventures, setbacks, leaps forward, threats and triumphs between Sonic and Co. and the forces of evil.

...(But let’s add the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, I don’t think I can stand having a Sonic continuity without them and they make for good plot fodder, plus, I’ll be damned if I’m not seeing Super Sonic by the time a series finale or end-of-game hits.)

Setting + Background Lore

So, to set a location, let’s dumb down where Sonic actually lives. (Figuratively anyway, Sonic has no true home, just places he likes to be at any one time.)

In the Genesis days, Sonic lived on a tiny island called South Island, and the game’s settings often took place on South Island or on it’s neighboring islands Westside and Angel Island, and, given how important these old zones, like Green Hill and Chemical Plant Zone, are to the current Sonic Canon, I propose that maybe the setting for this potential reboot takes place on said islands, with one island for each of the cardinal directions on a compass, but also some of the other islands that are included in the Sonic series (as well as some adjusted ones!)

And, as a reference to the days of yore, we could even call it

The Mobius Archipelago

Each of these islands would have their own unique areas (referred to as ‘Zones’ for both nostalgia and convenience’s sake) based on the different levels from Sonic games. I’m unsure of the exact geography of these islands in question, but, you get the idea if you’re at all familiar with the canon, South Island has all the zones from Sonic 1 (16 and 8 Bit), Sonic Chaos and Sonic 2 (8-bit), Westside Island has all the zones from Sonic 2 and a couple from Sonic Mania, Angel Island has all the Zones from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, North Island is essentially a fusion of all the different Eggman Zones (Crystal Egg, Sleeping Egg, Scrap Brain, Metropolis, Eggmanland, Robotropolis, Robotnik Winter, the zones from SegaSonic the Hedgehog, etc.), Flicky’s Island has all of the zones from Sonic 3D Blast, Cocoa Island has all the zones from Tails Skypatrol and Tails Adventure, Mirage Island has all the zones from Sonic 4 and also Never Lake, and Little Planet (and hence all the zones from Sonic CD) you get the idea.

I’m unsure what exactly Eastside Island would have on it, but I figured that Sonic games have so many zones and levels across so many games, surely something would find a nice home on that island, perhaps some of the zones from Sonic Mania, Sonic Blast, maybe even the Adventure games, who knows? But, inevitably, space is going to run out on those other islands and we’ll likely have zones or locations that’ll be good for the series to have.

And then, we also have a mainland sprinkled with City. This is where your Adventure/Modern style cities are, Station Square, City Escape, that sort of thing.

It may not seem like much, considering some Sonic games have settings that span entire planets, but when you think about how many zones are crammed into a few little islands in the genesis titles alone, it’s hardly a limited setting.

The natives of this island chain would be Mobians and Mobini. Mobians are your typical Sonic characters, your Sonics, your Tailses, your Knuckleses, and so on and so forth. They’re the more humanoid animals. Mobini, on the other hand would be all of the smaller animals, the kind that Sonic frees from badniks or are just knockin about doing little woodland creature things. For more information on Mobini, I’ve included a little blip about them in the ‘Side Protagonists’ part of this little shanty ‘pitch guide’.

Humans would live on the mainland, although some researchers and scientists would visit the Archipelago every so often because of it’s mysterious ‘new frontier’ kind of appeal, even if Mobians find their research a little weird.

Generally, Humans also keep to the mainland, and Mobians keep to their islands, but, make no mistake, Mobians and Humans don’t hate each other. Some Mobians and Mobini have taken to the urban lifestyle, whereas some humans have taken to the natural wonder of the Archipelago, starting environmentally friendly cities and towns in the sleepy groves and corners of this untamed wilderness.

This Archipelago would be the point of focus for our Main Characters because, well, it’s their native home, and it’d draw our Main Villains because this island is also home to the Seven Chaos Emeralds, and their Master Emerald.

The Chaos Emeralds are the main MacGuffins of the Sonic series, and for good reason! Gathering all seven of these things grants their holder infinite access to chaos energy, a kind of force that will turn their thoughts into power, whether positive or negative. While most Mobians would prefer to leave the Chaos Emeralds alone, due to them causing, well, chaos, villains seek these gems out on purpose so that they can easier accomplish their goals. However, if a hero were to gather all seven chaos emeralds, and had enough purity, desire for good, and strength in their heart, the emeralds will grant them immense power, too.

Upon a vast amount of energy being used however, the Emeralds will scatter across the Archipelago, waiting for their next holders to come, and initiate chaos once more.

And then, there’s the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald is very similar to the Chaos Emeralds, and contains tenfold the amount of energy of a full set of Chaos Emeralds, but also acts as an on/off switch for the Chaos Emeralds. The Master Emerald can completely drain the Chaos Emeralds of their power, or multiply their power exponentially if one knows how to control it, making the Master Emerald incredibly valuable too. However, villains usually tend to opt for the Chaos Emeralds instead, not only because legends of the Master Emerald are believed to be false, or even if it is real, no one knows how to control it, but the Master Emerald is also said to have a guardian. A very, very angry guardian.

There’s also the lesser-known Time Stones.

The Time Stones reside on Little Planet, an anomalous celestial body that appears only once every year over Never Lake on Mirage Island. These stones seemed to have formed in a similar fashion to the Chaos Emeralds, but rather than bending SPACE to the will of their holders, the Time Stones will instead, bend Time. The Time Stones, for this reason, are even more dangerous than the Chaos Emeralds and are responsible for many of the temporal anomalies within the Archipelago. Due to their danger, the Time Stones see much more infrequent use than the Chaos Emeralds, and keeping them on Little Planet as opposed to bringing them to the surface of the Earth is much safer, as the Time Stones will only seemingly affect the time stream of Little Planet and not the Earth.

The Time Stones won’t matter until later in the series when Sonic and Co. start tampering with time, and for a while, the focus will remain on the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald.

But enough about where Sonic lives, let’s look at him and the rest of our colorful main cast, shall we?

Main Protagonists

Hooh, boy I am not gonna make many friends with this decision, am I?

This is kinda where my reboot starts to get a lot little tiny bit more personal, but, I have reasoning behind picking who I pick. The characters I’d pick to be the main protagonists, as in the characters that the viewers of the cartoon series, readers of the comic, or players of the games are going to be:

A) Playing as

B) Rooting for

C) Following throughout most of the adventures.

are as follows:

Sonic the Hedgehog

Miles “Tails” Prower

Knuckles the Echidna

Amy Rose

Mighty the Armadillo

Ray the Flying Squirrel

The first two seem obvious enough, Sonic and Tails are the two spotlight protagonists of most Sonic games and are the two chief playable characters in most games of the Genesis Era. Knuckles should come as no surprise either for the same reason, although I’ll touch on Knuckles later when I assess the protagonists on an individual level. 

I chose Amy as one of the leads because, well, Amy frankly hasn’t seen that much time in the sun as a true character, and I feel like that’s a shame given her longevity in the series, being with us ever since CD. Her most complex appearance was in Sonic Adventure 1 and even then, she’s kinda reduced to the same traits as her white-bread, palid, boring, Genesis counterpart. While I would like to have another female character so Amy isn’t a ‘token chick’, I don’t really want to shake up the formula too much.

Mighty and Ray are a little bit different. With the release of Sonic Mania Plus though, I feel that Mighty and Ray are more relevant now than they ever were, and considering their placement as main characters in Mania Plus, I think that we could really benefit from their addition to the main lineup of Sonic’s friends! Sure, Mighty and Ray don’t have much personality, but maybe this is where we can change that and give these lost stars a chance to sparkle as main characters after spending so long in the shadows of the past!

However, I do wanna state, that I understand if some people feel Mighty and Ray are irrelevant. I get that, really, I do. It’s one of the things in this projected reboot that I feel is much more personally appealing to me than it is ‘what I think is best for the Sonic franchise’. Put plain and simple, Mighty and Ray are just... not as popular as other Sonic characters. And, adding these two to the roster of main characters means that the main character count skyrockets from an easily manageable 4 to 6, which can seem like a bit much to some people I’ll agree, and means that they’ll likely see more screentime than other popular protagonist characters like Cream, Silver or even Blaze. But, at the same time, I also feel that if they’re popular enough to be included in Sonic Mania Plus, then there at least is some interest in the fan community of them being relevant, regular characters again. And, what better niche for them to fit into than being two of Sonic’s close friends again while going on adventures with him regularly?

(Side note, I also felt like including Sticks as a main character, and I may come back to that idea later if I end up making any content for this reboot, but as it stands I felt 7 main characters were just a bit too much, although it would’ve been cool to have a character for each Chaos Emerald, and I think there are a lot of real, genuine comedic possibilities, as well as some unique action choreography from her.)

I also don’t think Sonic’s design or the design of his friends need to be changed around too terribly much for a reboot? (Although there are some characters I think could benefit from a rework, but Sonic and MOST of the main characters are okay imo) There’s a lot of contention on Sonic’s design in any sense but, personally? I think Sonic’s designs can actually be pretty well unified, all things considered. I think Sonic could benefit from a few design ADJUSTMENTS, but maybe not a full-scale redesign like Sonic Boom.

For instance, these early concepts for Dreamcast Sonic are an excellent starting place, as I feel they capture the spirit of all three versions of Sonic pretty well all things considered, save for their quills being a little long. the proportions on them are a little off, however, with a couple of adjustments, I think this could actually be a really good idea.

Nendoroid Sonic is also pretty close to what I think a unified Sonic design could look like, if someone held a gun to my head and told me to pick an ideal new design for Sonic, it’d probably be very close to this.

(Credit to JaysonJeanChannel on DA for this render of Nendoroid Sonic.)

Or, even moving back a little bit, “Toei Sonic“, although kind of overrated in my opinion, is a really nice compromise between the cutesy, cartoony nature of the original versions of Sonic, while still updating Sonic to be more obviously sleek, sharp and spring-loaded for his modern audiences, and is full of personality. That’s not to say I think Toei Sonic should be the new face of Sonic the Hedgehog for years to come, but it’d be a great starting point to work from, given that Toei is a version of Sonic suited for intense, rubberhosy, slippery animations.

In the end, the only thing that truly matters is that Sonic looks like Sonic, and not like a weird little blue goblin if the backlash on the first pass of the Sonic Movie is any indication? We shouldn’t try to fix what isn’t broken, I just think that maybe trying out a hybrid between classic and modern Sonic to see how people feel about it might be a nice compromise between those who prefer Classic Sonic vs. those who prefer Modern or Adventure Sonic, again, unification, the best of both worlds.

That being said, let’s have a look-see into each character individually, shall we? For this, I’ll give a name, my projected voice actor for them, and a little blurb about their personality, as well as a short list of their abilities.

I’ll also try to justify my reasons for some stuff that people may consider odd after all of the character bios.

Sonic the Hedgehog:

Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz/James Arnold Taylor

Sonic is heroic, ambitious, and a complete adrenaline junkie. He'll take on any challenge that's given to him in the history of forever, even if absolutely knows it's impossible or he could get hurt trying to do it or he's absolutely not skilled enough at what he's doing to do it. Hence, Sonic is extremely competitive and gets easily absorbed in things he does, even around friends. Sonic tends to not look before he leaps as he's able to get himself out of situations so easily, preferring to live on his feet without thinking too hard about anything, although he's not dumb by any stretch of the imagination and will slow down and strategize if he absolutely needs to, and will always be willing to slow down for someone in need. Sonic is cocky, snarky, and believes a little too much in himself, he has an ego the size of the sun and will do anything he has to protect his image, especially how he views himself. Sonic also has an incredible amount of attitude and makes fun of people he doesn't like or thinks deserve it with insulting nicknames or cruel jokes, often being sarcastic and witty even at the worst of times to be. Although Sonic tries as hard as he can to keep his cool a lot of the time and prefers to live without consequences or regrets on his mind, when he's angry, sometimes he can lash out at people and can become downright completely rude when upset. Sonic is also something of a juvenile delinquent, often breaking rules just because he can or he thinks it's fun or funny, which often gets him into trouble. Sonic EXTREMELY Dislikes being called 'slow' or things being faster than he is (often wanting to prove his mettle against whatever is faster than him even if it hurts him), and has even less patience for slowing down unless he absolutely has to. He hates to wait and hates to be kept waiting, oftentimes getting bored and leaving in mere seconds if a situation doesn't matter that much to him, although he's known to show much, much more patience when people are hurt, or upset, and has an affinity for relaxing for long periods of time with friends after lengthy expeditions and adventures. Sonic hates to see innocent people cry or have their feelings hurt and will often get  extremely upset at the cause depending on the person/situation, and believes that any situation he can tend to is important (as he often can do things so quickly it's often no trouble for him.) 

Abilities:

Insta-Shield (Allows Sonic to deflect incoming projectiles with precise timing. This also extends Sonic’s hitbox a bit so it can inflict damage, and gives him invincibility frames!)

Wall Jump (Sonic can wall jump, but they need to be timed properly, as when Sonic lands on a wall, he’ll begin to slide, sliding down a wall for too long will cause Sonic to slip and eventually fall.)

Super Spin Dash (Sonic can rev his spin dash up much faster and much more efficiently than other characters, Sonic’s spin dash also has higher maximum propulsion, and will break walls much quicker.)

Super Peel Out

Light Dash (Using the light dash on a trail of rings will allow Sonic to pick up vast amounts of speed instantly by traveling along a trail of rings, being slingshotted out of the trail at an intense speed, the longer the trail of rings is, the faster he’ll be when he comes out of the trail, but also the more vulnerable he’ll be when he’s flung out of the trail. Sonic can also easily reclaim his fallen rings by light dashing, but there’s no guarantee you won’t go flying into the hazard you just tried to avoid when you do.)

Can use the abilities of elemental shields

Miles "Tails" Prower: 

Voice Actor: Collen Villard 

Tails is Sonic's closest friend. Tails is very intelligent and is something of an amateur technician, roboticist and mechanic, although he specializes in work with aircrafts, small-scale robotics, and computer systems. Frequently he prefers a much slower, methodical approach to problems as opposed to rushing into everything headfirst like Sonic does. Often relies on his intuition over instinct. Tails feels he and Sonic hold a kind of 'mutual responsibility' over each other to keep each other safe, hence Tails keeps Sonic out of trouble or from doing things that are REALLY REALLY stupid, but most of the time, Tails likes to indulge in Sonic's antics with him and even enjoys being kind of silly or being a rebel with him. Tails really looks up to Sonic and wants to have the same kind of respect, cool and wit that he does, however, in doing this, because of his low self-esteem, Tails will often ignore a lot of his more positive traits and attempt to mimic Sonic instead in an effort to seem 'cool', which can really make him do some out-of-place or seemingly strange things at times when he doesn't mean it because he can be a little shy to be himself. Tails is a firmly humble inventor and often attributes his successes to the support of others more often than his own work, and he will not ever invent anything for the purpose of competing with someone or for the sake of jealousy, believing that his best work comes from his heart.

Abilities:

Flying (This would be nerfed significantly from Sonic Mania and S3&K so Tails couldn’t just fly over everything. Tails’ gameplay should encourage exploration in more ways than just one.)

Spin Dash

Tinkering (Allows Tails to reverse conveyor belts, turn off sawblades, and do other shit to help him get through mechanical levels.)

Ring Bomb (Short range projectile at the cost of rings, explodes in a small radius)

Remote Robot (Allows Tails to explore places he can’t otherwise get to at the cost of 1 ring per second)

Knuckles the Echidna: 

Voice Actor: Dan Green 

The key word to Knuckles is STRESS. Knuckles is the guardian of the Master Emerald, and boy does he take his job seriously, being the very last living Mobian Echidna, and being very in-tune with his family and extended tribe's history. He has an inherent connection with the Master Emerald that allows him to sense it's location, wherever it might be, if this feeling of his is tampered with only slightly, it sends Knuckles into an incredible, panicked rage that can only be quelled by returning the gem to where he left it, or by retrieving the gemstone from whoever stole or moved it. He will only leave the emerald alone for long periods of time once he is one-hundred percent confident no one will touch it or move it (and even then he oftentimes gets worried about it anyway) and hence, interacts with Team Sonic on a more infrequent basis because of this (although he still has plenty of moments dedicated to him.) However, when not guarding the Emerald and forced to loosen up and relax, one can find that Knuckles is rather stoic and full of quote en quote 'sage-advice' (or rather stuff that seems and can be profound but can also be kind of insane ramblings from someone who spends too much time alone with some rock.) He often doesn't understand Sonic's more urban lifestyle, preferring his more traditional, simple 'off the fat of the land' kind of life, but he's surprisingly receptive to new things (unless said new thing gets the emerald stolen of course.) Knuckles is also incredibly suspicious and paranoid of people, even believing people he's close to having the capability of turning on him, and because of this, he's incredibly gullible when it comes to people 'changing' or 'turning evil' or 'wanting to take the Master Emerald', although he's usually smart enough to not fall for the same trick twice... or at least, not for a while after it happens once. Because of his ability to be tricked so easily, and because tricking him often leads to bad things, Knuckles' temper and patience are very short, and very small things easily can make him very upset. Knuckles actually has a weakness for romance, being such a lonely soul, he often gets shy and acts noticeably different (read: Happier) around people that can charm him, but often won't admit it.

Abilities:

Gliding

Climbing

Spin Dash

Burrowing (works sort of like the burrow mechanic from Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, except Knuckles can remain and move underground for a bit to be invincible, although this ability is very limited and cannot be done on metal or synthetic flooring.)

Melee Attacks (Knuckles can punch things in a short range, nuff said.)

Amy Rose: 

Voice Actor: Kristen Schaal 

Amy is positive, bubbly, loud and honestly kind of a silly airhead sometimes. Although at first, it seems there's very little to her, there's actually a lot more to her than her outward appearance would suggest. Amy tends to not judge people by their looks or by their behaviors, and is very open-minded and emotional, often getting choked up over things she really doesn't need to. Amy is also pretty selfless, willing to help people without any benefit to herself or any reason besides being a good person, although that's not to say she just lets people walk all over her. Amy is also something of a social butterfly, having connections with about everyone anyone else even remotely knows, and can easily tell you all about them and will want you to meet them upon even the mention of their name. Her inherent energy makes her a lot to deal with at once, even people like Sonic, Tails, and Mighty can get tired of her very quickly, even if it's very clear that she means well. She also makes for a great therapist and is willing to help anyone with problems they might be having, even if they push her away at first. However, Amy isn't all the girly girl she seems sometimes and has kind of a violent edge, anyone who pushes her around or says anything bad about her friends is gonna get walloped with her hammer, and believe me, you don't ever quite forget a feeling like being Piko'd by Amy Rose. On this note, Amy also kinda... doesn't know her own strength, and can seem stronger than Knuckles, or even Mighty at times because she just absolutely does not know her limits, expect lots of spine-crushing hugs.

Abilities:

Triple Jump (Amy can jump three times in succession, however, each jump significantly degrades in height boost. Her normal jump will go the highest and her third jump will go the lowest. Because of this ability, Amy also does not spin when she jumps, meaning she can’t defeat Badniks or damage enemies by jumping on them, she won’t take damage from bouncing on them, it just won’t destroy them.)

Hammer Smash (A mid-range melee attack that will destroy most enemies instantly.)

Hammer Spin (Both an Aerial attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin jump and a dash attack to make up for the fact Amy can’t spin dash.)

Peel Out (Functions similarly to the peel out in Sonic Advance or Sonic 2: Pink Edition, replaces the Spin Dash.)

Mighty the Armadillo: 

Voice Actor: Beck Bennett/Travis Willingham 

Mighty is one of Sonic's oldest friends and is his foil in a lot of ways. He prefers to take his time with a lot of things and doesn't really mind going slow. Mighty is something of a 'meathead', he's naive, and kinda absentminded at times, even if he doesn't mean to be. Mighty is very strong and takes incredible pride in his abilities much like Sonic. He adores his own strength and quote en quote 'manliness' and will do anything to keep his ego inflated and his muscles bigger than everyone else's' (as opposed to Knuckles who views his strength as a humble reward for his years of training). Despite this, he has a very brotherly (read: dudebro) sense of personality though and likes to call people 'bro' and 'sis', and has a habit of saying 'not cool' when things don't go right or when people wrong him. Most of the time, Mighty's slow and naive ways can make him easily influenced into believing things (like conspiracies and the idea protein powder actually does things), and he's not afraid to speak his mind, often coming off as insensitive (which is how he got kicked out of Team Chaotix), when really, he just doesn't happen to know any better, although most of the time he really does mean well. Mighty also really likes to hear himself talk, oftentimes telling long-winded stories or going on long-winded rants or explanations. He tends to butt heads with Sonic and Knuckles, who get annoyed sometimes by his easygoing, borderline dim-witted nature, oftentimes reminding him of obvious things that are happening/have happened. However, Mighty greatly cares for his friends, and the one thing he absolutely will never bend on is he will not ever hurt someone who didn't do him wrong, and despite his naivety, Mighty's incredible sense of justice always triumphs over his unassuming nature. He's also Ray's best friend and will defend Ray over any other person.

Abilities:

Natural Armor (Allows Mighty to take one free hit from spikes, and defeat spiked enemies without being harmed. If a projectile hits Mighty while he’s spinning or jumping, the projectile will bounce off of his armor. This is only while Mighty is spinning, attacks from the back or while Mighty is running will still land.)

Hammer Drop (A ‘stomp’ attack that allows Mighty to crush most Badniks instantly, and will also instantly crush breakable objects and solid blocks much faster than other characters.)

Spin Dash

Mighty Arm (If Mighty presses an action button near an enemy, monitor or breakable item, Mighty will pick it up. While picking something up, Mighty will move slower and his jump will be downgraded, but he can throw the item to deal heavy damage to whatever it hits! And, picking up certain enemies or items may just come with some surprises!)

Super Wall Jump (Mighty can wall-jump much like Sonic, but upon sticking to the wall, Mighty will hang there, and will only slide down at the player’s discretion.)

Ray the Flying Squirrel: 

Voice Actor: Debi Derryberry 

Ray is neat, quiet, shy, easily disturbed and has a bit of a stutter to his voice. Ray tends to be sort of asocial compared to other members of Team Sonic and prefers not to get in the way if he thinks he's being a bother. However, despite this, Ray is much smarter than he might seem and has a level of resourcefulness to a point that even trumps Tails (who is much more intelligent) at times. Despite being so shy and cowardly, when he gets the chance, Ray is more than willing to do whatever it takes for the greater good, even if he's afraid to do so. Mighty is his best friend, and he gets obsessively worried about Mighty when he's not around, often worrying that he's wandered off or might have been hurt, kidnapped, etc. this often leads to Ray trying to find his friend or panicking that he's 'gone missing', even if Mighty was right under his nose the whole time, ironic, given his intuition and incredibly eagle-eyed nature. Much like Mighty as well, Ray can also be a little bit naive, although usually less so than Mighty himself.

Abilities:

Soaring (Ray will glide and can sweep upwards to gain height at a cost of speed, but also dip downwards to gain speed at a cost of height.)

Lite-Climbing (Ray can climb, and he can climb much faster than Knuckles, but players will need to position themselves carefully, as Ray can’t climb forever, and will eventually slip and fall, the more speed Ray has when Ray collides with the wall, the faster and longer he can climb it.)

Scout-Sense (Ray is able to detect hidden items nearby like Giant Rings, 1up Monitors, and power-ups, once Ray moves close enough to an item, an exclamation point will appear above his head, and the item he notices will be outlined in yellow.)

Dismantle (With similar timing to Sonic’s insta-shield, Ray can choose to land on a badnik instead of destroying it (even if he lands on something like a Shellcracker’s claw or Bubbles when spiked out), and he will begin to unscrew the badnik until it breaks. This rewards Ray with rings or more hidden items, and can make tricky badniks like Asteron and Shellcracker more bearable to deal with! This also works on bosses, except dismantling a boss will only cause a hit of damage to the boss, although Ray can stay latched on to deal multiple hits of damage if he isn’t knocked off!)

Hookay, if you’re not winded by all those character bios, let me try to explain some of my reasoning. I won’t be doing this with later characters because this post is already the size of a fucking dump truck, but, here we go anyway.

Yes. I chose Ben Schwartz over Roger Craig Smith and Jason Griffith for Sonic. No. I don’t hate Jason Griffith or Roger Craig Smith’s voices for Sonic. Yes, I realize Ben is going to play Sonic in the Movie. I know. But, you know what? I think Ben is the perfect person to play Sonic, he’s able to inflect a real smarmy teenager vibe and I DO like that a LOT. But Ben can also play a deeper or moodier teenager too, and I feel like that’s important for Sonic’s character just as much. Jason Griffith and Roger Craig Smith make a 15-year-old sound like he’s 24. Moving on.

I think Sonic needs to not be such a prep sometimes like he is in Colors, Generations, and Forces. Like, I get that Sonic is all about doing the right thing, but, Sonic is also a smarty-pants delinquent who disrespects authority because he can. There’s this great video on the design analysis of City Escape from Sonic Adventure 2 that shows just how much of a jerk Sonic is toward people he doesn’t care for, and how he feels about obeying rules and regulations. I feel being an asshole toward people he doesn’t like, is part of Sonic’s character, it’s just we need to make him an asshole in the right direction. Sonic can be a Bugs Bunny if we let him, it’s just that it shouldn’t be completely overblown... otherwise, we get STC Sonic.

Tails needs to do more things, and not sit on the sidelines like he does in Unleashed, Colors, and Forces. He does things in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Boom, hence this version of Tails is based more on those versions OF Tails. I don’t hate Unleashed and Colors Tails, but I feel the objectively superior version of Tails comes more from Boom (who I also feel captures all of the good things about Modern Tails ANYWAY) and Adventure (which is Tails at his most resourceful, intelligent and helpful.)

Knuckles needs to be not stupid. We can make other characters stupid, but Knuckles is not stupid, Mania made Knuckles stupid and I hate that because it’s never been who Knuckles is. Sure, he’s a bit of a dense knucklehead, but he’s not dumb, just dense, which is my problem with Boom Knuckles. There’s more to his reasons for why he does things the way he does than he doesn’t know better. He’s stubborn, he’s prone to anger, he’s traditional and very much centered on the past he never had, he worries, he panics. I don’t think Boom Knuckles is a bad character, I just think making KNUCKLES the character to get this personality was kind of a bad idea. 

Amy just needs a better-developed personality. Seriously, she’s, already kinda set in stone in terms of who she is, it just needs to be expanded upon. But, Amy kinda already has the groundwork laid out for her with Boom and Modern, it’s just it needs to be molded a little bit.

Mighty comes from the classic era, and he, therefore, has no real, defining personality traits besides being a wall-jumping armadillo. I think Mighty could easily inherit Boom Knux’s personality, (as I feel a character named ‘Mighty’ would have kind of a strongman, meathead personality) but maybe changed up a bit. Instead of being just, dumb, I think Mighty being more oblivious than just stupid is better, plus, at any one time, most of the characters in-game or onscreen are able to deduce what’s going on instantly, having Mighty be a contrast to that is interesting. I also think a slow, easygoing lifestyle is kinda befitting to the Mighty we’ve seen recently, given that he doesn’t seem to emote all that much when Ray finally finds him after he’s been missing for, well, a good while, and doesn’t seem to know his own strength all the time. The only other information I know about Mighty is that he doesn’t like to fight all that much and he’s similar to Sonic, so I tried to include aspects of Sonic in his personality, but also make him kind where he can be.

If Ray’s SegaSonic sprites are anything to go by, Ray just might be a little bit of a scaredy-cat. And, I think this would make for an interesting dynamic between Ray and the rest of the team, he’d make a nice Luigi to everyone’s Mario, a character who is afraid, but willing to set aside his fears for the greater good and even for himself. He’d also be #relatable to the stressed-out teenage and young adult audience he’d be appealing to. 

Side Protagonists

Here are my choices for side-protagonists in this reboot. These are ‘friendly characters’, characters that the main 6 characters regularly interact with, but are just not focused on as much. These characters would probably not be playable (except for Silver and Blaze MAYBE.)

The Mobini

Espio the Chameleon

Charmy Bee

Vector the Crocodile

Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao)

Big the Cat (and Froggy)

Silver the Hedgehog

Blaze the Cat

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

wHerE’s TeaM DaRK?!

Just, chill out..., okay? I’ll get to Team Dark in a minute.

I’d also like to clarify if this became a series, Silver and Blaze are probably not going to become relevant characters until much LATER in? I feel like Silver and Blaze should be saved for a very specific time in the reboot’s continuity and I’ll explain that later when we get into how I’d set this series’s continuity up, but there’s a very specific reason why I want to save Silver and Blaze for when the time is right, not because I hate Silver and Blaze, but because I think it’d make the most sense.

I also feel like the Chaotix should appear a lot more and play more of an active role in this new hypothetical reboot than they do in most modern Sonic games... and let’s make them a team of vigilantes instead of detectives. A team of vigilantes that uses TEAMWORK!... And combi-rings!

...Oh and while we’re here, let’s make Cheese a Hero Chao, mkay?

But enough talk about general things! Let’s dive into each of them individually!

The Mobini:

Voice Actor: Various, it’s likely mobini won’t need voices so much as varying sound effects.

The Mobini are the local, native, feral fauna of the world of this new Sonic reboot, all your normal birds, insects, lizards, fish, mammals, et cetera are all Mobini. Mobini, are mysterious creatures, as they harbor an inherent connection to the Chaos Emeralds, and are believed to contain small fractions of the Emeralds’ infinite energy. The Mobini are what first drew Dr. Eggman to the Archipelago in which South Island resides, as with this small portion of infinite energy within them, they can be used as organic batteries to power machines indefinitely!... Although this makes them very unhappy. Contrary to what you may think, Mobini are actually sentient, and remember friendly faces... and unfriendly ones too, so be kind! If you’re ever in trouble or lost in the sprawling forests of the Mobius Archipelago, Mobini may just be able to help you out. The most curious kind of Mobini are Flickies, small little birds native to Flicky’s Island and South Island (although they’ve seemed to branch out more recently), who are said to have an even closer connection to the Emeralds, and can even hold a super form! The phenomenon of Super Flickies is incredibly rare, but when it happens, Super Flickies will be more than willing to lend their power to someone who needs it.

Chao are a special type of genetically unstable Mobini that have no ‘Earthly’ counterpart. From the time a Chao is born to the time they pass away, a Chao will gain the traits of its parent, it’s friends, and or it’s caregiver. This makes Chao ideal pets, as their personality will adapt to suit their owner, this makes Chao not only incredibly diverse but surprisingly intelligent. Just be kind to Chao... you don’t want to know what kind of horror being unkind to these little creatures can lead to.

Espio the Chameleon:

Voice Actor: Phil LaMarr

The de-facto leader of the Chaotix, and the most responsible of the team, Espio is a lot quieter than most of the main cast, and much prefers the sound of a rushing, serene stream over loud, punchy rock music. With a powerful, free-flowing fighting style inspired by martial arts, Espio is an honorable fighter, believing only in fighting fair and straight and without exploiting an opponent’s extreme weaknesses. While he tends to be sort of reclusive and becomes easily annoyed by the antics of the Chaotix and Team Sonic, he’s a lot more unshakable than he looks, and actually kind of likes the excitement from time to time. He also has a long, sticky tongue which he happens to be embarrassed by, but sees more use as a tool than he’d like to admit. Espio will often dictate his mood or state of mind to people by changing his color.

Espio’s weapons of choice are giant shuriken, which he seems to be able to pull out of hammerspace.

Abilities:

Color changing

Partial Invisibility (Espio can cloak himself to appear invisible, as long as he stands still and isn’t connected to anything. This ability sees more frequent use when Espio is alone, as it doesn’t really apply much when he fights with his team.)

Combi-Ring Fighting Style

Tornado Spin (Similar to Sonic’s Spin Dash, except Espio spins horizontally instead of vertically, the tornado spin is very slow compared to the Spin Dash, but it’s just as deadly.)

Tongue (Much like Yoshi, Espio’s tongue can be used to grapple onto things with a surprising amount of force, either to pull them toward Espio, or Espio can ‘tongue punch’ things. He hates to do this.)

Charmy Bee:

Voice Actor: Sam Lavagnino (Ideally anyway, I understand if he’d be unable to, but imagine it! Catbug as Charmy Bee!)

A ‘junior member’ of the Chaotix, Charmy is a little bee in training to become a vigilante! However, he’s a little too excited about that fact sometimes. He’s meant to be cute and lovable, but also a realistic child fighting against things he probably shouldn’t be fighting against. It’s hard to hate him when he means so well though and tries his very best at anything he does. In this new reboot, Charmy also gains a small affliction toward electricity!

Abilities:

Flight (no duh.)

Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Charmy is surprisingly adept at carrying his fellow Chaotix members around with a Combi-Ring in hand, with Charmy around this can make for some high-octane, high-momentum fighting due to Charmy being so lightweight and quick.)

Volt Sting (Charmy can use his stinger, and believe me, it hurts. Fortunately, Charmy can sting more than once! and his sting will deliver an electric shock to anything it touches, this is bad news for anything mechanical, or wet!)

Thunder Shoot (Charmy can instantly ground any flying enemy by electrifying an ally and tossing them at the flying enemy!)

Vector the Crocodile:

Voice Actor: Keith Silverstein (Although I’m open to someone else if everyone else if sick of FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM!)

The Chaotix’s greedy, but fiercely defensive ‘leader’ (he’s able to make tough decisions a lot better than Espio, but he isn’t very responsible in many ways). Vector got into the whole vigilante business because of the money he could gain from it, but after meeting Charmy and Espio, his whole world changed, and the rough-and-tough reptile has found a new calling, being a leader. Although Vector is often harsh, blunt, and dismissive, he’s also incredibly resourceful and has an eye for small details, so if he does push you away, it’s likely because he has a hunch on something related to it.

Abilities:

Air Dash (Vector can dash in any direction while in the air. This does not protect him from harm.)

Death Roll (Vector’s trademark donut-like Spin Dash, it’s a bit less controllable than a traditional Spin Dash but it’s immensely powerful because of Vector’s spiked back.)

Combi-Ring Fighting Style (Vector specializes in a ‘wrecking ball’ sort of display with his fighting style, performing a Death Roll followed by his opponents flinging him into something by way of Thunder Shoot or Espio’s speed.) Vector can also achieve the same effect by flinging Charmy or Espio into an opponent, or by ‘holding’ (think Knuckles Chaotix) them.

Fire Combination + Volcanic Dunk* (While Espio is tornado spinning and Charmy is spinning as well, Vector can grab the both of them to make ‘fighting gloves’ of sorts. With this, Vector can perform the Volcanic Dunk, in which he turns Espio and Charmy into powerful fireballs which can smash into enemies to deal tremendous damage!)

*Yes I know this is what Team Sonic uses in Sonic Heroes but do you honestly want Vector Breath to be something that’s regularly used?

Cream the Rabbit (and Cheese the Chao):

Voice Actor: Michelle Ruff (I’d list a voice actor for Cheese too but... do I HAVE to? Chao can be easily voiced with stock squeaks or Chao sounds from SA2.)

A pleasant little girl who seems to get caught up in the ongoing war between Sonic and the forces of evil. Like Charmy, she’s a kid, although Cream is much more patient and polite than Charmy. Cream in this reboot would sorta fill the niche that Tails filled in SatAM, rarely going on adventures, but looking up to the main cast and always being ready to support them in times of need.

Abilities:

Flapping (Cream can flap her ears to gain a little extra height, although it’s made very clear this isn’t exactly equal to Tails’ flight and is very limited.)

Cheese (Cream can sic Cheese on anything she wants, although Cheese isn’t very tough, he’ll do his best until he’s knocked away!)

Big the Cat (and Froggy):

Voice Actor: Jon St. John

Big is large, and not very bright, even less so than Mighty. But he’s terrifyingly strong, he may just be one of the strongest characters in this new reboot in terms of raw damage output, probably second only to Omega actually. But, Big’s not a fighter and prefers to spend his days by the lakeside, fishing with his companion Froggy.

Unbeknownst to him, though, Froggy harbors a dark secret, and, in fact, is the current owner of the tail of the ancient God of Destruction, Chaos. How Froggy exactly came upon Chaos’ tail is unknown, but it’s gotten Big and Froggy into trouble before.

Abilities:

Super Strength

Fishing Sense (Big can sense what kind of fish or how many fish, or even foreign objects or other animals are in bodies of water. It’s unknown how he does or knows this, but he does.)

Silver the Hedgehog:

Voice Actor: Scott Menville

Silver is from an alternate future, a long-forgotten timeline in which Robotnik succeeded in conquering the world, But his massive cities and factories were later laid waste to by the sands of time, and ancient forces of nature, throwing the future Silver resides within into complete Crisis. And now, filled with a sense of vengeance and justice, Silver has come back to the past, determined to find the one responsible for whoever did this to his future, but... there’s just a couple problems. 

He’s only fourteen years old.

Silver is also rather bright-eyed and gullible, and him messing with the streams of time might have a bigger domino effect than he realizes, even if he has no intention of messing anything up.

Abilities:

Psychokinesis (Silver can move, and throw objects with his mind. Silver’s telekinesis is limited only by his focus and stress, as if Silver gets too stressed, he may release some of the objects he’s holding, the same goes for if he becomes unfocused. Using said telekinesis can make Silver very physically exhausted though, especially if Silver moves HIMSELF with his mind, which he can do to hover in the air for a while. Objects held by Silver will freeze, suspended in whatever state they were in when Silver grabbed them, and the objects Silver holds are denoted by a cyan aura.)

Psychic Knives (Silver can condense his energy into crescent-shaped blades of energy, which he can fire off at his discretion, again, only limited by his physical exhaustion)

Teleportation (Silver has the limited ability to teleport short distances, although he doesn’t seem to have a very good handle on it, as he often messes up his positioning and seems to almost... forget he can do it?)

Blaze the Cat:

Voice Actor: Tara Strong

Like Silver, Blaze is from an alternate future. Blaze is Silver’s best friend, but also kind of a sisterly figure to him. Blaze is older than Silver, and is much more reserved, mature and wary than Silver is, although she’s still more than happy to help Silver, and ensure a good future for both him and herself. Blaze is proud, trying to make the best out of her situation by trying and believing herself to be the best around, in a way, she sort of views Silver more like a sidekick, even if Silver does tend to pull his weight.

Abilities:

Pyrokinesis (Blaze can summon, control and is immune to fire. Her ability to do so is limited, although her fires are known to become more intense whenever Blaze is enraged. Blaze can use her fire either for offense by spraying jets of flame from her hands, or defensively by cloaking her entire body in flame, or using the power of fire to float for short periods of time.)

Tornado Spin (Like Espio, Blaze tends to spin horizontally rather than vertical, this, combined with her pyrokinesis, makes her incredibly fearsome to deal with.)

Main Antagonists

You know what the fuck’s going on already. These are all my picks for Major Villains in the reboot. The big bads. The guys who are gonna come in and try to take all those Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones and shit I was talking about and wreak havoc on the peaceful Mobius Archipelago.

They are as follows:

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik

Orbot and Cubot

Metal Sonic

Heavy King (And the Hard-Boiled Heavies)

Great Battle Bird Kukku XV

Chaos

Emerl

Mephiles, Iblis, and Solaris

In the end, it was hard to decide on what villains to choose to be big bads, Sonic has so many good ones, but this is what it all bled down to eventually. I feel kinda like Dragon Ball Z or... like, any fucking action anime or cartoon ever tbh. I wanted to give some more underrated villains a chance to shine like Kukku and Emerl, while also bringing back some old favorites like Chaos and Mephiles.

...ALSO, I’M GONNA GET TO TEAM DARK DON’T WORRY!

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik:

Voice Actor: Mike Pollock (as if there were any other choice.)

Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik is the biggest bad in this reboot, as he should be. Robotnik was formerly a young, gentleman scientist, who arrived on South Island with his colleague, Dr. Madonna to study the Mobini that lived there, however, using the grant money meant for his research, and not much caring about nature himself, Robotnik instead betrayed Dr. Madonna to begin forging an empire with his own two hands, an Empire he believed would eventually be able to conquer the world. And he would’ve gotten away with it, too... if all not for a meddlesome blue hedgehog child, who REALLY liked to compare the doctor to an egg. Since his first outing against the blue blur, Dr. Robotnik tried tirelessly, day and night, to get his empire up and into the air, coming back with bigger, and better firepower each time, even succeeding in conquering South Island and collecting six of the seven chaos emeralds at one point, but he was thwarted by this blue hedgehog, and later, his friends each time. This war has gone on for over 5 years now chronologically and maybe more in the actual scheme of things, and all those years of trying have really quite nipped at the doctor, who had gained a significant amount of weight, became a social pariah and had torn all his hair out, save for his mustache, which has overgrown and has become frayed, and the doctor had taken the name ‘Eggman’ as a shallow attempt to mock the blue blur. It’s not to say that Eggman hasn’t succeeded, his conquest and lust for power had bled everywhere, his Badniks, a series of small robots built by him, are an epidemic across the archipelago, he has factories, operations, and eyes everywhere, and Robotnik eventually succeeded in taking one of the Archipelago's many islands for his own, renaming what was once ‘North Island’ into ‘Eggmanland’, this little island is only a twisted glimpse into the madness of what a world under the doctor’s control could look like, his own personal carnival of evil, smog and dust, celebrating him, and only him. It’s these little successes, as well as his never-ending stubbornness and undying believe that man can and will always triumph over nature, that has warped Dr. Eggman from a nefarious, dashing gentleman, into a balding, crazed, nasty old coot. If trouble’s brewing on the islands, and you smell smog wafting by, you can be assured Dr. Eggman isn’t very far behind. To call him a ‘mad scientist’ is an understatement, but even through his delusions and megalomania, he really is a genius.

Orbot and Cubot:

Voice Actors: Kirk Thornton, Wally Wingert

Orbot and Cubot are the Doctor’s trusted aides and second-in-lines, and... probably the Doctor’s only friends as of current. Orbot and Cubot have special AI hand-crafted by the doctor and are arguably his most advanced and most sentient creations crafted by his own two hands. Orbot is serious, intelligent, and bitingly sarcastic, as he was meant to relay information about factories, schemes, and developments back to Eggman, whereas Cubot is dim-witted, slow, and lazy, as he was more meant to perform basic duties like keeping Robotnik’s living space neat and tidy (although he doesn’t always do the best job at this.) However, Orbot and Cubot have become more than that as time has gone on. Unlike the Modern games, Orbot and Cubot can actually hold their own in combat... well, sort of. They have their own unique ‘Scratch and Grounder’ style of dealing with Sonic and Co. and they don’t usually make much progress or get much done in this regard. In this reboot I want Orbot and Cubot’s designs to be updated besides being just ‘ball’ and ‘cube’ so that they can fight alongside Eggman and just look a lot more interesting in general.

Metal Sonic:

Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (with an intense, robotic filter) if we HAVE to give him a voice. I’d really just prefer Metal to be silent or voiced by music cues and sound effects.

Metal Sonic is Dr. Eggman’s greatest creation. Designed and built by a Dr. Eggman from the future, Metal was sent back in time to aid the Eggman of the past, this, however, proved to be a mistake, as with Metal under his belt, the Doctor became easily overconfident in his victory, thinking now that he had his supposed greatest creation to aid him, nothing could possibly stop him. 

Which made it all the more disappointing when Metal Sonic inevitably failed and was defeated by Sonic.

However, that wasn’t the end of it for Metal Sonic, after being recovered from the future on Little Planet, Metal was repaired, and sent to do reconnaissance on Sonic and Tails during their visit to Mirage Island. In the process of getting there, however, Metal absorbed an artifact while patrolling around the Lost Labyrinth Zone, which superseded the limits of Metal’s hardware, and not only restored Metal to his former greatness but gave Metal something that few of Eggman’s creations can ever claim to have. True sentience. 

Now fully aware of who he was, and what he was doing, Metal easily made it to Sonic and Tails, and upon seeing his organic counterpart for the first time in so long ever since their duel on Stardust Speedway, Metal was filled with rage. Rage, unlike anything The Mobius Archepeligo had ever seen.

The artifact has given Metal all sorts of mysterious abilities, like the ability to manifest a near-indestructible shield, the power to harness the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into overdrive and utilize his own overloading as a weapon, and along with being a creation of a Dr. Eggman who has seen the fall of the Earth...

Who knows what kind of sadistic, inhuman thoughts lie behind those synthetic, glowing eyes?

Abilities:

Hyperspeed Thrusters (Metal’s thrusters easily make him as fast as Sonic, and, like Sonic, Metal can still spin, although Metal can also fly with his thrusters.)

Black Shield (Metal can form a defense matrix around him using the power of the artifact he absorbed in Lost Labyrinth, the Black Shield is completely indestructible. Nothing can break through it. Not even something as powerful as Super Sonic could even crack it.) The only caveat is, using the Black Shield renders Metal completely immobile, and unable to attack, and it has a slight warmup and cooldown period.)

Overdrive (Metal can use the artifact he absorbed to utilize the electricity flowing through his circuits to send himself into Overdrive. While in overdrive, Metal Sonic’s entire body sparks with electricity, and Metal can manipulate how he uses that electricity, whether it’s to cloak himself in sparks to beef up his physical attacks or create pillars of sparks and arcs of electricity to attack foes from a distance. The only thing is, Metal cannot do this too much, as doing this can easily cause Metal to overheat, or completely overload and have a ‘blowout’... in other words, explode.)

Heavy King:

Voice Actor: Jim Cummings (Yes, I know Jim did SATAM Robotnik but that’s not the voice I’m imagining for Heavy King. Jim can do more than just Robotnik you know, even though my decision was partially influenced by it being a nice callback. Again, these voice actors are only projections.)/Barry Humphries

Heavy King used to be EggRobo, a robot (which later became a line of Robots) built in the image of Dr. Eggman himself and meant to serve as a decoy for him, and as a stand-in to carry out his own ends.

But the energy of the Phantom Ruby changed that.

Now, Heavy King is the leader of an elite squadron of his EggRobo brethren known as the Hard-Boiled Heavies. They used to serve Robotnik, before breaking free of his control and serving their own ends, beginning a new (albeit, much, much smaller) empire under their own names. He and the other heavies are a force to be reckoned with, few are able to match the ruthless, cold, metallic hand of Heavy King. Despite this, however, Heavy King is known to be much more diplomatic and reasonable than Robotnik, ironically enough, because he believes himself to be vastly superior in every way to organic life. However, his inflated ego pays a steep price if you catch him at the wrong time. However, Heavy King is the current holder of the Phantom Ruby, and that alone should scare you.

(Also I won’t go over each of the Heavies individually because I don’t feel like it, but, I will list their voice actors.)

Heavy Gunner: Patrick Warburton... or at least a cheap impression of him.

Heavy Rider: Eliza Schneider

Heavy Magician: Alexia Khadime

Heavy Shinobi: Seth Green (I picture Shinobi having much more of a nerdy weeb voice than having a serious Japanese accent like Espio.)

Great Battle Bird Kukku XV

Voice Actor: Tom Kenny

A lesser-known big bad, or rather, big bird, Great Battle Bird Kukku XV (he gets upset if you don’t say the full name), is the leader of the Battle Bird Empire, a battalion of birds who, at one point, sought to take over the archipelago in a similar manner to Dr. Eggman, however, Great Kukku XV was thwarted by Tails. Tails, funnily enough, doesn’t remember him at all, in fact, no one does. As a villain, hardly anyone takes Great Kukku XV very seriously, even with his massive armies and capability. Fact is, Great Kukku XV is just a little too immature to be a leader, and hence, he’s not very dangerous. However, his battalion did give rise to a certain, screwy, trigger happy, fellow green bomb-throwing bird who happens to be a defector of his...

In this reboot, there would probably be a lot of jokes about people not knowing who Great Kukku even is, or how dangerous he is, but don’t worry, he’ll get his time in the sun eventually. 

Chaos

Voice Actor: N/A, Chaos only speaks in water sloshes.

Chaos is one of the many original forces of nature that populated the Archipelago many years ago. Legend has it that Chaos was responsible for the mass extinction of the Echidna on Angel Island, and was the one responsible for flooding Hydrocity Zone, and the former Hidden Palace Zone. Chaos was formed when a Chao, who happened to be very old and unhappy due to the Echidna tribes of the day treating his people very unfairly, mutated due to the exposure of Chaos Energy to the Chao’s genetically unstable body. Chaos is a being of pure hate and pure destruction. It’s almost entirely composed of a thick, water-like substance that can take on liquid or solid properties at Chaos’ discretion. His body hungers for Chaos Energy, and he is willing to destroy anything that stands in his way to have it, specifically by absorbing the Chaos Emerald. With each emerald Chaos absorbs, Chaos only becomes bigger, and stronger, becoming harder and harder to defeat. And if Chaos gathers all Seven of the Emeralds? You’d better hope you can find some way to calm this Great Old One down, otherwise, your world may just end up underwater. Luckily, Chaos was sealed inside of the Master Emerald by its former guardian, Tikal, and there he shall remain... for now, at least.

Emerl

Voice Actor: Various (copies the voices of others. To speak it splices lines that it’s heard together.)

Originally created directly to counter Chaos whilst the Echidna tribes were facing extinction, Emerl is a Gizoid, a kind of Robot created to copy the physical data of others. Although one can initially defeat Emerl pretty easily, it’s advised not to vary your tactics too much, as Emerl’s original purpose, and his ultimate capability, is to copy any behavior he’s seen, in order to not only replicate it, but replicate it better, and hence, conquer its original user. Terrifyingly, Emerl can even copy phenomenon that he otherwise wouldn’t, or shouldn’t be able to use, such as Chaos Control, Sonic’s Maximum Speed, or Tails’ intellect. The only thing truly limiting Emerl... is the kind of opponents he faces. And, if you give Emerl to someone who understands him and knows how he works, you may just be dealing with one of the most fearsome fighters the Mobius Archepeligo has ever known.

Mephiles, Iblis and Solaris

Voice Actor: Dan Green (Mephiles only) (This is just because Dan also voices Knuckles ideally but, again, if Dan doesn’t wanna come back to Sonic after being replaced, I understand that.)

If Chaos was the patron saint of water, Solaris is the patron saint of fire. Born from a sacred flame created by the Echidna, Solaris was worshipped by the surviving Echidna as a force that could potentially vanquish Chaos, as the ‘’sun’ to dry the rain. However, the tribes’ malicious intents caused their newly formed ‘God’ to become more of a beast, and it only helped Chaos in driving the Echidna extinct. Solaris later retreated to the bottom of the ocean after all was said and done, slumbering beneath the surface in an underground cave, in a damaged, unstable state.

Solaris has re-awoken twice since this has happened, and both times, his unstable shell split and formed two halves, it’s raw power, known as Iblis, and it’s mind, and spirit, known as Mephiles. The two halves of Solaris first re-awoke in an Alternate Timeline where Robotnik had conquered the world, re-awakening as the folly of the dictator had driven the Sun God’s split soul to awaken when the intense greenhouse heat began to boil the ocean. Mephiles’ primordial form simply died off in the intense heat, but Iblis remained awake, laying waste to the already horrible wasteland that was Robotnik’s Bad Future. Many survivors who reside within this future came to blame Iblis for their problems, even though Robotnik was what had destroyed it centuries earlier.

As for the other time The soul and body of Solaris re-awoke?...

Well... we’ll get to that. Let’s come back to someone I’m sure you’re all waiting for.

Antiheroes

HERE HE IS, OKAY? YOU HAPPY? I was saving him for a good reason! I actually want Shadow (and Rouge, to an extent, she kinda keeps her evil side tbh) to start out as a big bad! After Shadow’s done BEING a big bad though, he’ll become similar to his post-adventure 2 self, specifically how he behaves in Sonic 06 and Sonic Heroes, except with a bit more sympathy. Modern Shadow has a lot of brooding, edgy bite to him, and while that’s cool and all, I feel like there should be more to Shadow than just brooding and standing around crossing his arms and saying ‘tch’ all the time.

Shadow the Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog:

Voice Actor: Anyone that’s not Kirk Thornton. I actually don’t have a good answer for who Shadow’s voice actor should be but, honestly, anything would be better than his current one in my honest opinion.

Shadow was synthesized fifty years ago on a small, man-made satellite called the Space Colony ARK by the brilliant scientist Dr. Gerald Robotnik. He was born from a desire to find a cure for the seemingly incurable disease for his granddaughter, Maria. However, due to an accident when splicing the genes of the quill of a Mobian Hedgehog, and experimental biomaterial found on the fragments of an asteroid that collided with the Earth millions of years ago, the doctor accidentally created something he absolutely didn’t intend, Life. And thus, Project Shadow was born. Gerald felt attached to his creation, viewing the resulting creation, which he called ‘Shadow’ as one of his own. Shadow developed rapidly, quickly maturing into an infant, and then juvenile, yet seemingly normal Mobian Hedgehog. Shadow’s equivalent age later capped once Shadow was done growing, and he remained that way, immortally perfect. The Ultimate Lifeform. Tests with Shadow later showed his destructive capabilities, as it seemed the asteroid’s DNA had morphed Shadow to be far beyond the capabilities of any normal Hedgehog, even in peak physical condition at that age, capable of creating explosions, firing bolts of energy, and even freezing time, appearing to ‘teleport’ in the process. Despite these curiosities, Shadow grew fond of Maria in his stay at the ARK, although Shadow couldn’t help her recover, he did make her much happier. However, a raid on the Space Colony by the mainland’s military led to a massive capsizing of the project, with the intention to destroy Shadow, who was viewed as a dangerous, alien, unholy abomination. Before he could be killed though, Maria shot Shadow down to Earth in an escape pod, where he subsequently landed deep in the jungles of Cocoa Island... but, Maria was murdered in the process of doing so. Shadow was later recovered by Gerald’s other grandson, Ivo Robotnik, 50 years after the tragedy. Hesitant to release Shadow immediately, it’s known that Robotnik has spoken to Shadow in his pod, although about what matters is unknown. For now, Shadow slumbers deep within the confines of Eggmanland, waiting for his proper, strategic time to be unleashed and to wreak his horrible vengeance upon the Earth.

I’ll bring up Shadow again later when we talk about how I project the series to actually go, for now, just sit tight and let’s talk about the rest of Team Dark... and some familiar faces.

Abilities:

Spin Dash

Homing Attack (Shadow can automatically home in on opponents while also performing an Air Dash.)

Burning Rollout (Inspired by the flame ring of Sonic Adventure 2, Shadow can cloak his spinning form in fire by turning on his shoes when rolling, doing this will significantly up the strength of his spin, and make a nice little ring of fire around his spinning form.)

Chaos Control (Can be used as short-distance teleportation, as a way to buff Shadow’s speed immensely, or as a way to freeze or dramatically slow Shadow’s relative perspective of time by dramatically increasing his speed.)

Chaos Spear (These are green bolts of pure, chaos energy. The energy used to form these bolts is so unstable that once hurled at something, the ‘spear’ will likely explode, although, if it doesn’t, it will easily pierce through whatever it hits. Shadow likes to shout ‘DISAPPEAR!’ before hurling these at things for some reason.)

Chaos Blast (Shadow’s Chaos Blast can be considered his ‘ultimate’ attack, Chaos Blast sees Shadow creating a kind of ‘mini-singularity’ with chaos energy that will detonate after a short time, easily eradicating anything caught in the explosion’s radius, even the ground around Shadow. The only problem with this is, doing this is a huge strain on Shadow’s natural supply of Chaos Energy, so a lengthy cooldown period is inevitable.)

and of course, we can’t forget

The Roundhouse Kick

Minor Antagonists

These are characters who are villains but are also more likely to show up in arcs that are only a couple episodes long or are side or off-boss fights. 

I’ll be honest, most of you know these characters already, so I’m just gonna run through them super quickly and give my suggested changes and my justifications for them.

Rouge the Bat

E-123 OMEGA

Dave the Intern

Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel)

Bean the Dynamite

Bark the Polar Bear

Rouge the Bat:

Voice Actor: Karen Strassman

Rouge is a thief and a treasure hunter but is also working for the military agency of the mainland, G.U.N. Rouge is sly, sneaky and has a silver tongue, easily able to manipulate people into what she wants by pure wordplay alone. Rouge is a lot less active of a fighter than Sonic and Co. as she prefers to stalk quietly in the shadows, and strike when the time is right. In this reboot, Rouge is gonna wear something a bit more modest. I’m sorry, I hate Rouges’ clothes in canon. That fucking catsuit? has gotta go. She can still look cool and... *gag* “”sexy”” but, I’d rather her not wear... THAT? But, I do want her personality to remain mostly intact because in full honesty? She’s not a bad character on paper. Like Shadow, though I do kinda want Rouge to be a straight-up antagonist at first, and a very greedy one at that.

E-123 OMEGA:

Voice Actor: Vic Mignogna

What can I say? Omega doesn’t need to change much at all, really. He works in about any Sonic setting tbh. He’s loud, and he likes to blow things up, and he doesn’t emote very well, what else is there? In this reboot though, Omega will be the only E-Series Robot, or rather the only... surviving one. And, yeah, like Rouge and Shadow too, I think Omega should start out as an antagonist.

Dave the Intern:

Voice Actor: Ben Schwartz (What? We gotta keep up the tradition of Dave sharing a voice with Sonic!)

An odd choice for a minor antagonist I know, but Dave the Intern is REALLY funny? And I love the idea of a character just hating Sonic for no discernable reason other than ‘he’s popular and cool and I’m not.’ I also thought it’d be cool if Dave frequently got way in over his head with the shit he does, and put himself into trouble that Sonic (reluctantly) had to get him out of. Plus, I really wanted to include some representation of Sonic Boom in this reboot because Sonic Boom as a show is really funny and really good, and I think taking a page from it might be good, plus, Boom is a part of Sonic’s history too!

Fang the Sniper (Nack the Weasel):

Voice Actor: Dwight Schultz

Fang is the leader of Team Hooligan, and in a similar vein to Great Kukku XV I think he’d take himself way too seriously, but would play off of other characters. In Fang’s mind, he’s a trained assassin, like an evil Aussie-accent Batman or something of that stretch. But, really? He’s just a sleazy conman with a popgun. I feel like a good joke to make in this series would be Fang reaching for what he thinks is his actual pistol, but then he’d pull it out and fire it and it’d be one of his fake popguns. And, do I even need to make a joke about the comedic possibilities between him and Shadow using guns? Also, his real name being Nack the Weasel but he wants everyone to call him Fang the Sniper is funny. I’m sorry but ‘Fang the Sniper’ is just a silly name and I like the idea of Fang being the equivalent of one of those nice guys with Otaku Katanas who think they’re WAY cooler than they actually are. I wanted to choose Fang as a minor antagonist in the reboot just because of the kind of character I think he is, he thinks he has everything under control and has all the cards laid out in front of him when in reality, this setup of his just fails dramatically. The kind of interactions between him and Sonic this could spell out are amazing.

Bean the Dynamite:

Voice Actor: Eric Bauza

What do you get when you throw Daffy Duck and Woody Woodpecker in a blender and make him an unstable arsonist? Bean the Dynamite, that’s what. I’d want Bean in this reboot to be an off-the-wall, screwy, but surprisingly resourceful and clever, explosion-crazed maniac. He wouldn’t be... *gag* ‘insane’, so much as he would be just hyper and unable to calm down, again, like Woody Woodpecker or Daffy Duck. He’d be quick-witted, fast-talking and zippy, even more than Sonic himself is. (In the end, Sonic would always outpace him, but the reflexes on THIS bird are crazy.) Also, I feel like the idea of Bean being a defector of the Battle Kukku Armada is just... great, considering they’re all bomb-throwing birds, but THIS one was a little too off-the-handle for even them? He’d be a real character and a surprisingly dangerous threat for Sonic and Co.

Bark the Polar Bear:

Voice Actor: I’m... actually not too sure who to cast Bark as tbh. Mostly because I see him being very quiet and not... speaking, much at all?

Bark is a quiet tough guy. He’s smarter than he looks, but he’s big, he’s mean, he’s tough, and he will Hulk slam at least one character in the length of this reboot. I don’t really have much idea on where to take Bark, I just think he deserves a place as a minor villain.

Projected direction for canon

So, we have all the pieces of the puzzle, let’s see how they all fit together! I’ll be going through these with the assumption that one game can be made to represent each season of the show in its entirety.

For this, I honestly think it would be best if we split this reboot up based upon Sonic the Hedgehog’s current history with its elements. Think, almost, the way Sonic Generations told its story. We’ll start with something with a more Classic Vibe to it, then move into something more Adventure-like, and then, finally, we do something a bit more Modern! It’ll be a little less linear, and we’ll double dip here and there, but it’ll all line up!

Because of this, I’d like to establish what games have already PASSED before going into this series. This is what all has happened going in, in roughly the chronological order they happened in.

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (16-bit)

Sonic the Hedgehog 1 (8-bit)

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (8-bit)

SegaSonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-Bit)

Sonic CD

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles

Sonic Chaos

Sonic Triple Trouble

Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episodes 1, 2, and Metal.

Sonic Mania

The intention is to begin sort of... around the time JUST before Sonic Adventure 1 happened in the old rudimentary timeline before Sonic Forces came out and clarified Classic and Modern Sonic were different beings.

Season 1/Game 1: Genesis

The first few episodes of the series will be more dedicated to introducing the characters and Sonic’s new home. We’ll see the new Sonic, the new Tails, the new Knuckles, Amy, Mighty, and Ray for the very first time, and we’ll also get to see some of the characters’ new capabilities as they take on some minor villains or assaults led by Orbot and Cubot for the first couple episodes; but not at all subtly tease at something bigger and better coming, although we’re also shown how frequent scuffles between Sonic and Eggman exactly are, as we see plenty of mention of the Doctor, but he never physically appears.

Then, I’d say at about Episode 5 or 6 out of say, 22-24? Eggman steps in and introduces us to his new Master Plan, as he does. To build a new Death Egg (which, Sonic obviously chides him on doing the same thing a THIRD time.), but, as Robotnik does, he turns out to be serious, and the episodes from there on out are a race against time for Sonic and co. to gather all the Chaos Emeralds from various different zones of various different challenging geographies, fight off villains and giant robots, learn valuable morals, run into some familiar faces, and have a couple laughs along the way.

The climax of the season would come with a few episodes left, where Sonic and Co. finally have all the Emeralds, and they chase Eggman down to the New Death Egg, maybe there could be an encounter with Metal Sonic along the way because nostalgia and to introduce Metal into the continuity, and of course things’ll play out from there, Robotnik gets the upper hand and shows his shit, gets in a giant robot, dukes it out with Super Sonic, and BAM! End of Season/Game!

At the very end of season 1/Game 1 though, I’d like to include a little teaser for Season 2/Game 2 in the form of a familiar-looking escape pod in the middle of a jungle, full of green bubbling fluid, and a flash of red eyes.

Season 2/Game 2: Chaos Emerald Chaos

Right out of the gate in Season 2/Game 2, we’re back in the game as Sonic and Eggman are seen duking it out a while after the first game/season has ended, but in a much different area than we’d seen in Season 1/Game 1. This fight would lead up to the pod in the teaser after Eggman lures Sonic into a dark room with the green glow in sight. By one way or another, maybe on purpose or on accident, this pod breaks open, and something is released from it. Sonic is understandably confused, but then, is knocked down, and a panning shot reveals one of three of our major antagonists for the season/game, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow fucking wipes the floor with Sonic in this first encounter, but instead of finishing him off, Eggman instructs Shadow to leave him be and search for the rest of the Chaos Emeralds instead. Shadow nods and simply leaves via Chaos Control. Eggman, on the meanwhile, begins transporting Sonic back to North Island via dropship, revealing by surprise that this isn’t on North Island, but rather a much smaller place Eggman was using as a trap.

Meanwhile, Sonic’s friends (with Knux noticeably absent) are confused to learn that Sonic has been... committing crimes, upon his return back from a scuffle back with Eggman, and seeming very much unlike himself, always hiding away in the dark and staying away from everyone. When they go to confront him, it turns out that this was actually Shadow, disguised as Sonic, who was simply searching for the emeralds for Dr. Eggman.

Sonic’s friends demand to know where Sonic is, but Shadow kicks all their asses instead, and something about the Master Emerald is mentioned after the fight. We then cut away to Knuckles, who is soon confronted by Shadow.

Shadow puts up a hard fight, but, with the help of the chaos emerald he already had, defeats Knuckles, and goes to take the Master Emerald. But, in a last ditch effort to save the gem, Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald, causing the shards to scatter all across the islands. Shadow, understandably frustrated by this, scoffs and leaves, seemingly fooled into thinking the Master Emerald WAS destroyed. Unknowingly, however, shattering the Master Emerald caused Chaos, slumbering within the Emerald, to awaken.

Knuckles, obviously horrified by what he’s done, abandons Angel Island and sets to work on finding both the pieces of the Master Emerald, and any Chaos Emeralds he can, to stop Chaos before anything goes wrong.

At this point, we go back to Sonic, who finally escapes as the dropship taking him to EggmanLand and, by extension, escapes from the city as he hurries to try to reunite with his friends and tell them what happened.

From there, a combination of the events of Adventure 1 and 2 (with the addition of Metal Sonic and some other characters of course.) would transpire, with Rouge the Bat getting involved with Knuckles due to her finding the shards of the Master Emerald, and the Chaos Emeralds trading hands several times, all up until the Season/Game’s climax.

It would all build with Robotnik planning to use Chaos to terraform the Earth by transforming him into Perfect Chaos, who, once he takes form, begins wreaking havoc on a coastal city on the mainland. At this point, the Chaos Emeralds seem shut off, and even though the Master Emerald is restored, it seems like there’s nothing that can be done. Shadow, having already begun to go through a change of heart when he sees the kind of destruction the doctor’s plans have wrought, and after some choice words from Amy, decides instead to join Sonic and Co. in what seems like their darkest hour. And, Shadow mentions that Chaos only absorbed the negative energy of the emeralds, being in-tune with Chaos Energy himself, he’d know this.

And so, Super Sonic and Super Shadow defeat Perfect Chaos together, Knuckles and the spirit of Tikal work together to seal Chaos back inside the Master Emerald, and the city begins to drain.

Shadow, having felt satisfied with this, then decides to go off on his own for a while, and mentions something about ‘wanting to discover himself’, and ‘trying to decide what Maria would have wanted me to be.’ 

Oh, and Eggman is finally thrown in prison for literally capsizing an entire city. But don’t worry, he’ll be back.

End of Season 2/Game 2.

Season 3/Game 3: Triple Trouble!

This Eggmanless Season/Game would feature a ‘Triple Threat’, in the form of 3 major villains! And all three of them brand new to the series! We’re introduced to Emerl in this season, as well as Great Kukku XV, and Heavy King.

The entire season would be intense, Team Sonic rushing to get the Chaos Emeralds once again, while the Battle Birds (frequently interrupted by Bean the Dynamite, calling out to his ‘brothers’) and Heavies scramble to get them before the team does.

All the while... Emerl grows stronger and stronger by the minute.

And, in a surprise twist, Emerl, having copied the data of Great Kukku XV and the Heavies, among many others, grows the strongest he ever has, and, like Mecha Sonic in Sonic 3, uses the Master Emerald (likely stolen by Heavy King or Kukku at this point) to attain a Super form, and Emerl becomes a terrifying conglomerate of everything that has led up to this point, Perfect Emerl, the thing originally meant to take down PERFECT CHAOS.

But, luckily, Kukku and King realize when they’ve been beaten, and decide to help Super Sonic take down Perfect Emerl. 

End of Season 3/Game 3. But like Season 1, let’s end off on a teaser. How about a small, flickering flame, with a visible shadow?

Season 4/Game 4: Return of Solaris

This is the final season/game I have planned out, although that’s not to say more couldn’t be done with this concept, it’s just about as far as I got. Essentially I was thinking this season could be a retelling and retooling of Sonic 06 with some details omitted or changed up like, for instance:

The romance between Sonic and Elise being outright axed! Matter of fact, while we’re at it, let’s just NOT make Elise a focus character so she doesn’t eat up screentime?

The weird time shit in this season/game being altered with Time Stones instead of Chaos Emeralds!

Less plotholes!

Focus on NONLINEAR timelines with LINEAR storytelling.

Silver is less silly!

Metal Sonic!

The Chaotix! AND THEY’RE HERE TO ACTUALLY BE HELPFUL!

Important Sonic characters being important!

Hey guess what? Eggman’s back and busted out of jail and he’s kicking ass! And he’s totally gonna release Solaris even though that didn’t work out so well for him last time!

Mephiles is still a cool villain! And he gets cool new designs for this series too that don’t stray too far from his original form!

I feel like this season/game would be kind of a hard fusion of Sonic CD and Sonic 06, with elements of Sonic CD being changing the past to ensure the future, and the future/present changing as a result. 

The climax of this series would be, well, you know by now. Sonic getting shot in the back, but then revived using the Chaos Emeralds and Time Stones together. But, even with Super Sonic, all seems hopeless, but, Sonic and Knuckles seem to have an idea, and it leads up, to our grand finale:

Solaris, the extra-dimensional being of ultimate power.

Versus

Hyper Sonic, Super Shadow, Super Silver, Super Tails, Super Knuckles, Super Amy, Super Mighty, and Super Ray.

With Solaris finally felled, Sonic and Co. use the last of the energy of their super forms to do two more things. 

Vanquish the flame of Solaris and Mephiles, and ensure that Solaris may never return to any Time Stream.

Silver’s future, although still broken, now looks much brighter, and the world is saved for the final time.

End of Season 4/Game 4.

I’m sure these ideas could be tweaked or changed around to span more seasons/games if certain characters or aspects of the series become popular, or if demand for certain characters appearing gets to be enough. Sonic has an immense library of games to do over or retell in this reboot, why not? 

And, this is just my idea for it, it doesn’t have to go this way explicitly. My only goal with this was to try to unify the Sonic lore in an interesting, unique manner, but also in such a way that it was new, fresh, and it made sense, most of all!

Opening

This really applies more toward the cartoon part of this reboot, that’s not to say the video game COULDN’T utilize the cartoon’s opening or something, it’s just that the opening is more for the show than it is for the games.

There’s a number of ways to go here, but in my mind, the best way to open a Sonic cartoon? Is the way you’d open a Sonic game. How about a condensed ‘remake’ of Sonic CD’s opening, with a few short clips from the first few episodes thrown in there to get people curious and excited about the show when it first airs?

There’s a cover of Sonic Boom by Crush 40 and Cash Cash just waiting to be used for this very thing!

I also think a condensed (that is to say, censored. I hate to censor a great song but ‘kicking-ass fast’ is a bit much for a show that’s likely gonna be PG-rated.) version of the Zebrahead (aka the BEST) version of His World would make for a GREAT opening.

Or if we wanna piggyback off of the recent success of Mania, how about a condensed version of Friends? Maybe we could even end the intro off on a remake of Sonic Mania’s title theme if we wanna have like, a classic Sonic emblem at the end of the opening.

I’d say the opening should be about... 60% new animation with Sonic platforming around and parkouring like he does or whatever, and about 40% old animation of various clips from the show or maybe even the games if we’re feeling kinda frisky to show off the series we’re about to watch, but also for budgetary reasons and to, again, get people interested in what’s actually IN the show, or maybe we could even do it like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s part 1 opening or something where a couple of important scenes from the very beginning of the show or games are re-animated in a flashy way to achieve the same effect, but also wow the audience. That'd be a huge budget sink though and going a classic clip-show-and-new-shit route may just be the ideal compromise.

Marketing

This next part is also a lot more cartoon oriented, and kinda heavily depends on who’s gonna be sponsoring the show and who’s gonna be running it, but, hear me out.

Part of Sonic’s rise to popularity in the 90s was controversial, competitive advertising. And you know what? I haven’t seen anything really quite like this in a long time (except maybe for cleaner commercials), but, lots of people remember how pushy and in your face these commercials were, and how much they really pushed the superiority of the product they were advertising. So you know what? Let’s bring this back. Let’s bring back Sonic’s violent guerilla marketing campaigns.

It’d be a great throwback as well as a statement about Sonic REALLY comin’ back and comin’ back hot; which might get some new people interested to at least watch a few episodes, and in the process of that, they may find they like the new show/games a lot!

(NOTE: I DON’T HATE NICKELODEON, AND THIS ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT I THINK THE SHOW’S SONIC SHOULD LOOK LIKE, THIS IS JUST A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT OF WHAT I THINK THIS SHOW’S ADVERTISING COULD LOOK LIKE)

Or, if we want to opt for more positive, passive marketing strategies, why don’t we revisit an idea that was misused and make it better?

Idk about anyone else but I actually really like the ‘blue streaks to show where Sonic’s been’ idea that the movie posters did, and I think it has potential to make a really memorable-looking advertisement.

Or, why not opt for a more nostalgic passive approach and recreate some of Sonic’s old box art?

Again, it’d be a great throwback as well as a way to get people interested in the show. Although, if we go this route I WOULD say maybe we should make it a little more interesting than just ‘Sonic 1 pose on a black grid or popart background’? Maybe we should combine these box arts and add the pop-art details for little pops of color while Sonic bursts out of this black-grid frame with a richly detailed drawing of Green Hill in the background? I dunno.

Conclusion

Okay, so. I didn’t get to everything I wanted to explain (like other marketing stuff, merchandising, the new actual GAMEPLAY for these new games, how to write the characters and humor, how I think the general ART STYLE of these new cartoons and games should look, etc.) as a matter of fact, I still have a ton more ideas for this reboot, but, here’s the main point:

Sonic the Hedgehog, right now? Sucks. Because it’s such a mess. It has too many ideas that are going off in too many different directions. The best way to change that, in my eyes, is to start over and try to unify all these broken-up ideas into one. I believe this is possible, while still maintaining a pretty widespread appeal and giving broken, old ideas a second chance to shine, but still being fresh and new enough to have a lasting impact and leave the door open for new content later.

I’m really bad at ending posts like this, but, if you went into this post thinking that Sonic can’t or shouldn’t change, I hope I’ve at least provoked thought on the matter. And, maybe, all those hardworking people at SEGA will decide one day that things need to change, whether by a reboot, rewrite or just... doing something a little bit different.

Maybe then, just maybe.

Our blue blur will really shine again.

- Jenny, of @jennikkugoesoff and @jennikku

[chalantness]

fic: You’re Every Part of Me

Rating: PG-13 Word Count: ~3100 Characters: Arthur/Mera Summary: His smile softens, concern touching the edges once more as he lifts a hand to cup her cheek. “Still feeling nauseous?”

“No. I’m alright now.” She leans into his touch, turning to brush a kiss to his palm and murmur against his skin, “But a bath sounds perfect.”

For: an anon

A/N: I ended up with something that feels tonally different from the original prompt, but I hope you still like it, anon! I loved getting to write something so domestic and tender between them.

Read On: [ ao3 ]

Having lived her entire life under water, it’s easy to forget that, once upon a time, their bodies had been made for the surface—for fresh air, and the gentle press of gravity weighing her down. She adapted to the change in her balance and momentum of her first steps as simply as the first time she’d ever breathed air, and with that, it was easy to forget that her body wasn’t actually accustomed to being on land. Easy to forget that there were more fatiguing effects the surface might have on her other than a little nausea.

She’s barely two steps into their hotel room before she feels herself sway, her vision blurring as she blindly braces a hand outward against the wall to steady herself.

“Whoa, hey,” Arthur murmurs behind her, his large hands sliding over her waist to grip her with a gentle squeeze, and she lets her body melt against his as he pulls her back against his chest. His lips brush her temple as she closes her eyes and swallows, trying to will the ground to stop spinning from under her feet. “Talk to me,” he says, his plea gruff and gentle all at once as one of his hands sweep over her, pressing against her forehead to gauge her temperature, then dropping to her injured shoulder to trace the wound she received in their tangle with the strange creatures that Arthur’s surface friends antagonized. Whatever they were, they’d been capable of puncturing Atlantean skin.

“I’m fine,” she mumbles, turning to press her forehead against the curve of his neck. “Just a little light-headed.”

His chest rumbles in a low chuckle. “Yeah, this is probably the longest you’ve ever had to breathe such poisoned air,” he says, voice light with his teasing, though she knows that if she opens her eyes, she’d find his eyebrows pinched together and his eyes flickering in concern.

That’s the thing about Arthur that she’s come to adore just as much as she admires—his every emotion swim in those mesmerizing eyes of his, his every expression bright and clear on his face. Try as he might, he’s a terribly open book. He may be able to play things off to an extent when need be, but he prefers not to. And as someone who learned at an early age to wield her composure and her charm in calculated measures, it’s… refreshing. To not have to guess. To not have to be wary of his intentions. Some may criticize him for being too passionate, too governed by his emotion, but it’s exactly what makes him a great king. The people of Atlantis have come to love it about him, and so has she.

“And the gravity,” she reminds as his arms wrap around her, warm and sturdy, and she hums softly as she tips her head back against his shoulder. “It’s different up here.”

His body shakes in a quiet laugh. “Need me to carry you?”

A smile tugs at her lips as she exhales a laugh of her own. “Don’t tempt me, my king.”

The title draws the playful groan of exasperation she’d intended it to, making her smile widen, and then she lets out a soft yelp of surprise when, in one swift motion, he has his arms tucked under her to sweep her up with ease. Her arms wrap around his neck on instinct to steady herself, and she finds her face only inches away from his, that endearing and mischievous grin on his face as he arches an eyebrow at her. “Leave it to my queen to be sassy with me even when she looks like she’s about to puke her guts,” he laughs.

She wrinkles her nose at his words. “Eloquently put,” she remarks. And, simply to poke more fun, she adds, “and technically, I’m not a queen. Not yet.”

He tips his head as he makes a noise of agreement, walking them across their suite and into the large bathroom, and he sets her atop the granite countertop before flicking on the light. She flinches at its sudden brightness, though nothing compares to the brightness of the smile on Arthur’s face as he gazes at her.

“True. I haven’t even proposed to you yet.”

The thought makes her chuckle. “You don’t need to. I was betrothed to the king of Atlantis, and with Orm gone, that alliance now falls to you.”

He pauses to glower at her, just as he always does when he brings up his brother, especially in relation to her. “I thought we agreed not to talk about that,” he grumbles as he turns away from her, leaning over the tub to twist the water on. Over his shoulder, he adds, “and that doesn’t count.”

This makes her pause. “Our marriage won’t count?” she asks, not hurt, but confused nonetheless.

“Not what I was talking about.” She can hear the amusement in his voice as he shrugs out of his jacket, tossing it carelessly to the floor, then reaches over his shoulder to grab his shirt in his fist, tugging it off and over his head.

And, not for the first time, she finds herself drawn to the intricate designs inked into his skin, stretching and coiling around the broad expanse of his back. The patterns are both jagged yet fluid, reminding her of scales and also of armor as they wrap around the dips of his muscles, as if they’d grown to become part of him.

Then he turns to walk back to her, oblivious to her staring, or maybe simply used to it by now. She finds herself pausing to watch him quite often, for one reason or another—admiring his easy charisma with the people of Atlantis, or surprised by the quiet but firm way he commands his royal court, or simply because she wants to. Because, despite what she’d told Arthur before about duty versus want, she’s discovered that she can balance both with him. With Orm, their personal relationship had been overshadowed by the politics and agendas of their alliance, manipulated by her dedication to her people. But with Arthur, their betrothal had been severed from all of those complicated strings.

Her love of her duty had grown because of her love for Arthur, and with that, her life carried a kind of warmth and lightness that hadn’t been there before.

A warmth that flutters in her chest in this very moment as Arthur slips under the edge of her shirt, finding the smooth, soft skin of her stomach and splaying his fingers over it. She shivers lightly, leaning into his touch.

“I’m talking about the proposal part,” he says, finally answering her question as his hands start pushing her shirt up her torso, exposing her skin. “You deserve a real one.”

“Stop trying to distract me,” she interrupts with a playful shove at his chest. “I’m too tired to have sex with you right now.”

A laugh bursts from him, echoing in the small space of the bathroom, and perhaps part of her would’ve had the sense to be offended if not for the pure delight and amusement in his eyes as he tugs her shirt up higher. She complies, lifting her arms so he can pull it off, and he drops it to the floor. “And you think I’m not? I was out there getting my ass handed to me just like everyone else until you and Diana finally came in with the save.” Eyes twinkling, his smile grows a little wider as he adds, “I’m not an animal, you know.”

She rolls her eyes, her lips twitching as she tries in vain to fight off a smile of her own. “I seem to remember you boasting the contrary to your friends the other night.”

He grins, unapologetic. “Yeah, well, right now I just want a warm soak. Maybe that’ll help take the edge off.” His smile softens, concern touching the edges once more as he lifts a hand to cup her cheek. “Still feeling nauseous?”

“No. I’m alright now.” She leans into his touch, turning to brush a kiss to his palm and murmur against his skin, “But a bath sounds perfect.”

“Atta girl,” he says, tapping her hip, and she complies as she slides off of the counter and onto her feet. She lets him strip away the clothes that Diana had leant her, then he rids himself of his jeans, steps out of his shoes and then turns to twist the faucet off. Water sloshes over the edge of the tub and onto the tiles as he settles in, but the tub must be deeper and wider than it looks, because he settles comfortably inside. Then he holds his hand out and she grasps onto him for balance as she climbs in after him, tingles quickly spreading over her skin as she sinks into the steaming hot water, and the relief it has on her muscles is almost instant as she settles across from him with a soft sigh.

“This ritual of yours is almost worth the trouble it takes to be on land,” she says as she lets herself sink all the way in, until the water just barely touches her chin.

Arthur chuckles, his hand curving under her calf in the water to lift her leg, and then he takes her foot in both hands, gently but firmly pressing his thumbs into her sole and drawing a soft moan of content from her lips. His eyes twinkle. “Don’t forget about this ritual.”

She hums, eyelashes fluttering as he massages away the ache in her foot that she hadn’t realized was there. “Oh, I certainly hadn’t.”

He chuckles again, then lets the sound fade into the comfortable quiet of the air between them. She leans her head back against the edge of the tub, her eyelashes fluttering but not quite closing completely as she holds Arthur’s gaze, his fingers working over the bottom of her foot in gentle presses before sliding higher, kneading at the tension in her calves, then higher up her thigh. She makes a noise from the back of her throat, earning a twitch of his lips, and then he sets her leg down and starts again with her other foot.

“See?” he says after a few quiet moments, kneading at the side of her thigh, working over a tender spot with the pad of his thumb. “It’s not so bad up here on land.”

“It has its charms,” she admits, lifting her hand out of the steaming water to runs her fingertips over the edge of the tub. “You know, I don’t hate the surface.” She says it simply, not trying to be defensive, and he nods like he understands.

“I know.” His lips twitch at the edges, tugging in a grin. “But don’t think I forgot how vocal you’ve been about not liking it, either.”

She laughs softly as she pulls her leg back, moving forward onto her knees to bring herself closer to him. He taps her hip gently and she complies, turning herself as gracefully as she can in the small space, settling between his legs with her back to him. He reaches for a bottle perched on the edge of the tub, uncaps it to squirt a dollop of liquid in his palm, and then his hands are in her hair, fingers gently massaging at her scalp as he lathers her in suds. She hums, leaning back into his touch. She remembers the first time he’d done this to her, in his small bathroom in his childhood home by the lighthouse—how small and simple the gesture was, yet it had been one of the most intimate things she ever felt. His affection is always so open and impulsive, almost absent, like he’s touched her this way their entire lives, and it’s entirely unlike any affection she’d ever received.

But where she expects there to be hesitance on her part in receiving it, there isn’t. She’d adapted to it as easily as she’d breathed air, and she finds herself craving it more and more each day.

He takes his time rinsing the soap from her hair, then grabs a different bottle, making her gasp slightly as he squirts the cold liquid directly onto her skin this time. His hands are warm and calloused as he starts rubbing it over her skin, working more of the tension from her muscles as he washes her.

“You know,” she says, turning her head to peer at him over her shoulder, “you never did explain what you meant by giving me a proper proposal.”

A smile tugs at his lips, his eyes warm and bright. “Well, for starters, an arranged marriage doesn’t count as a proposal. Not up here in on land, anyway.”

She gives him a playful look. “I think the arranged marriage is more of a royal thing than an Atlantean thing.” Turning her head forward again, she leans away slightly, giving him better access as his hands work lower down her spine to the small of her back. “There are actually quite a few similarities between human and Atlantean culture that survived despite how different we’ve always been, even before Atlantis sank to the bottom of the ocean. You just happen to have met me first, and I’m not exactly normal.”

“Lucky for me,” he says with a laugh, his arms suddenly wrapping around her waist from behind and pulling her back against his chest, spilling water over the edge of the tub with the sudden motion. He kisses her temple and then buries his face in her wet hair, making her smile. “Any normal girl wouldn’t have put up with me for this long.”

His words, simple as they are, make her feel tingly and light. “I was doing my duty, which unfortunately now includes you,” she teases. His chest vibrates against her back in a low, rumbling laugh, and she tips her head to the side to look at him, smiling.

His amused expression softens at the edges, turning contemplative. “I would’ve been tempted to do something big and flashy, just to embarrass you in public,” he tells her with a breathy sort of laugh. “But you would want something simple and quiet. Just the two of us, like this, so you know that it’s from me and not from some king.”

“You are a king, Arthur,” she points out, running her fingers along the scruff of hair along his jaw. It’s not as smooth and soft as it is under water, but she finds that she likes the texture of it against her skin. “But that doesn’t make anything you do less sincere.” She gazes into his light eyes, finding them open and eager. “In fact, you are the most genuine person I’ve ever met. And if you wanted to make some royal declaration of our betrothal, I would still believe it came from your heart. Though don’t get any bright ideas,” she adds when his lips twitch at the corners, his eyes practically gleaming in mischief. “I will not be made a spectacle for your amusement, even if you are my king.”

He feigns a noise of disappointment. “You’re no fun.”

She rolls her eyes, smiling as she tangles her fingers in his long hair. “Simple and quiet sounds quite lovely, actually,” she admits, voice softer now. In Atlantis, despite being betrothed, there are days where she barely sees him. They get pulled in so many directions, and she finds herself wanting nothing but to be shut away in their bedroom, just the two of them enjoying each other’s company as they are right now. It had felt selfish at first for her to want something like that, but she doesn’t see it that way anymore.

“Yeah,” he agrees, brushing another kiss to her temple. “It does.”

They lapse into another comfortable quiet as he continues washing her, and then she turns around in his arms to return the favor, laughing softly when he starts to pepper her neck and her face with kisses, attempting to distract her as she works the soap over his skin.

Eventually he stands, pulling her up with him, and wraps her in a soft towel before she steps out of the tub. Her every muscle feels tired, though not in the aching way it had before they’d gotten into the bath, so she doesn’t protest when Arthur decides that he wants to dry her off himself. He gently wrings the water from her hair, moving the towel in soft strokes over her skin, and then he leads her back into the room, pulls one of his large shirts over her head and draws the covers on the bed back for her to climb into.

Her eyes are practically closed when he climbs in beside her, and she feels him draw her body close, starting to work a brush through her hair in gentle strokes. The steady, repetitive motion nearly lulls her to sleep, then loosely twists her hair into a braid over her shoulder.

He nudges her shoulder, guiding her to lay down, but she shakes her head as she turns to face him, holding her hand out. He chuckles as he places the brush in her palm before turning to let her brush his hair, too, her fingers gently massaging at his scalp as she works the tangles out of his wild locks.

When he speaks again, his voice is low and gravelly, and the touch of—not hesitance, but something almost similar, makes her pause when he says her name.

He pauses, long enough for her to set the brush down and grasp his chin, gently turning his face toward hers. “Arthur?” she prompts softly.

Meeting her gaze seems to give him the reassurance he needs, because his smile is warm and bright and so very hopeful that it makes her smile, too, even before he says the words, “Will you marry me?”

She holds his gaze, her stomach fluttering. She takes his face with both of her hands and presses her lips to his, gentle but firm, making a soft noise from the back of her throat as his hand cups the back of her head and draws her closer, kissing her just a little bit harder. “Yes,” she breathes against his lips, kissing him again, and again.

He chuckles lowly, arm wrapping around her, and she feels him tip her gently back against the bed as his body comes over hers, large and warm, drowning out the rest of the world until it’s just him and her and their simple, quiet moment.

[hydrospanners]

A-Z on the writing meme because I need to know absolutely everything immediately.

WELP okay but just remember you asked for what’s about to happen. meme is here. most of this is under a cut cause i’m longwinded as hell.

A. If you could rec a piece of music to accompany one of your fics, what would you pick? Why?

Um I absolutely was vibing to Lips by The xx when I wrote a wish your heart makes and you should too.

B. Who’s your favorite side-character from something you wrote?

I feel like the answer here is supposed to be Doc because he is not The Main Character in the game but also I have written about him and from his POV so much it feels unfair to call him a side character at this point. So instead I’m going to say this random woman named Cherita who was just trying to make a midnight snack for her pregnant wife from a little eggstra. I thought she had a lot of character for someone I pulled out of my ass for the sake of an outside perspective.

C. Get any good comments on your stuff this year?

I am thirsty for praise and I feel every single comment is a good comment but I think the one that sticks out to me is when I wrote a wish your heart makes someone said something like “if you like doc at all you have to read this” and I don’t remember who it was or where they said it but it really stuck with me!!! If that was you, thank you!!!!

D. Any drawings or pictures that had a big influence on your writing?

No!!! I feel guilty about this answer somehow but it’s true. I think it would be a fun challenge to try to write a piece of fic inspired by someone’s art so I may play with that idea next year (Editor’s Note: it was still 2k18 when I wrote the answer for this one) but for 2k18 the answer is no. :(

E.  Who’s your favorite main character you’ve written?

I feel like this answer is obvious but it’s my girl Rea. I’ve reincarnated her as an Inquisitor and a Pathfinder but the OG Jedi Knight is still my fave.

F. What stories are you planning for the future?

I won’t pretend that a lot of planning goes in to my fic. I normally only write short bits so it kind of goes like this: I have a concept, I write the bit I fixate on, and then it sits in my WIPs for five years until I get motivated during some Fictober or something to finally finish it.

I will say I do have serious designs to finally finish the second chapter of the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one as that one is a little more complex than stuff I usually write. I have plans to do some kinda flashback-y thing that finally lays out The Velaran Backstory in clear and obvious terms after years of hints and tidbits I’ve been peppering through my fic. I also have a thing planned and kinda partly written about the first instance of horrific violence in the lives of all the Knight’s companions. Also I have a long series of AU vignettes that glimpses into universes where Rea is a Sith or Kira never made it off Korriban or Rusk remained a pacifist or where Rea never joined the Jedi after losing her family the second time. Stuff like that.

G. Where do you think you grew the most this year?

Structure? I’ve been really working on trusting my reader to bridge some gaps and not letting myself get caught up in details that are important for me to know to write the next part but that don’t necessarily need to be in the story. I think I’ve really tightened up my game where trimming the fat and staying focused are concerned.

H.  How do you write? Paper, pen, computer? Music, no music?

My fic writing process is very different from when I am trying to write original stuff and is even kind of different depending on the mood I’m going for? I always write fic in Google Drive cause I write fic from a lot of different machines and need the easy cloud saving.

My ideal condition for fic writing is listening to instrumental music or ambient sounds playing through headphones either in a coffeehouse or the library or when I am at home completely alone. Angst and smut are best written at night with the lights low and warm. Comedy and fluff are best written in the late afternoon/early evening after one single alcoholic beverage (any more than and one I am drunk and no longer capable of writing).

Realistically though, I usually write in whatever time I have. Mostly at work. My job requires me to sit at a desk and wait for things to happen. Since I start work at 5am, things usually aren’t happening. Even with me going out of my way to create new work for myself and excel at what work I do have, I have a lot of downtime. I spend it writing fic. I get interrupted too much to have the focus I need for original writing, but fic writing is much easier so mostly I write my fic at this bland little desk under the terrible fluorescent lights with lots of noise and interruptions, occasionally playing a thematic playlist very quietly in the background.

I.  What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why?

This is a very tough question. Surprisingly, I published a lot of things that I really liked? ([not pictured: me high fiving me for finally allowing myself to state that I like my own writing]) I think I’ll go with when the wicked play if I have to pick just one. Relative to my other work I think it’s very structurally sound and thematically focused and pretty efficient with its characterization and imagery without ever getting too sparse. Also I’m a slut for examining the commonplace nature of violence and brutality in the Star Wars universe.

J.  What are the best jokes you told this year? Any jokes you thought were funny that people didn’t catch? Vice-versa?

I’m gonna say the pun I used as the title for bars and stripes. Honestly the whole fic is a joke and I like it and I don’t care if anyone catches it or not because I know that I am hilarious and no one will ever convince me otherwise.

K. Who have you killed this year? Why did they have to die?

No one, I think? I don’t think I even mentioned any specific off-screen deaths except for shit from the decades old Tragic Backstories. Not even Valkoriate. I’m not an especially murderful writer, maybe because I haven’t had to deal with a lot of that kind of loss in my own life. Mostly I write about things that are somehow adjacent to my own emotional state/journey. That’s why I fixate a lot on the weight of duty and moral philosophy and the nuances and complications of relationships, of how you can hurt someone and be hurt by them and still love them and how messy yet fulfilling the whole thing is. Thankfully--for me--not a lot of grieving the dead in there yet.

L.  Which character did you most write about this year, and why do you like ‘em?

Pretty sure it’s Rea. Maybe Doc because of the Docember thing I squeezed in at the last second but I’m still pretty sure it’s Rea. Pretty sure it always is.

There’s a particular kind of release I get from writing her because her whole sloppy person is a part of me that doesn’t often see the light of day. I won’t say she’s aspirational because I like who I am and I don’t have any special destiny or Force powers or anything to save me when the consequences of living like she does catch up. But there are pieces of her that I admire, pieces that are still part of me that I have a hard time expressing, and spending time with her gives me a little more strength to unlock those dark musty corners of who I am, I guess? Writing Rea makes me a little more bold, a little less apologetic, a little less prone to overthinking and anxious fretting and a little more prone to doing. She makes me feel strong enough to ask for the things I want and confident enough to feel like I deserve them.

Also she is a damn good time, even when she’s falling apart.

M. Meta! Have any meta about a story you’re dying to throw out there?

Of course I do. I could ramble for hours about the story behind any single one of my stories. Aren’t all of us creative types like that??? Don’t we all love to talk about what we were going for and why we made the choices we did??? What we liked and what we think needs improvement??? Why we wanted to make the thing we made in the first place???

I could ramble about this for hours and honestly the possibilities are overwhelming so I am not going to go into any detail and just say yes. Obviously I am willing to ramble about the story behind every single story I’ve published but there’s 63 of them so if there’s something specific you want to hear about you’ll have to ask about the specific one!!!

N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written?

Nothing will ever be “never got written” until I am dead and unable to write. I am still going back to WIPs from 2014. I am rewriting garbage exercises I wrote in 2013. I like to think everything in my WIP folder will eventually be moved to my Published folder and I am going to keep thinking that until I am physically incapable of writing.

O. Do you believe in outlines? Show us one!

I believe in them very much and yet I do not practice them usually. I rely on them more with my original work which is longer and more involved and doesn’t already have a convenient structure to follow in the form of 300000 hours of video game. Most of my fic is really short, just a single scene or so. I usually start out by writing the moment that inspired me to write the fic and fill in the before and after. I do have an outline for the second half of the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one but I don’t really want to share it for something that isn’t written yet!

P. What are your pet peeves in other people’s work?

This question makes me kinda uncomfortable so here we go with some disclaimers: I write the stories that I want to read or that I really need to tell to satisfy something inside of me and I assume other authors do the same. I don’t want to say anything here that might have a chilling effect on someone exploring some idea they really need to explore, even if it’s tired or cliche or offends my own tastes. Writing is very personal and I think everyone should tell the stories they want to, whether anyone else likes them or not.

That being said, I am always desperately wishing for more media about close, intimate friendships and familial bonds. As someone who isn’t interested in sexual or romantic relationships, it makes me weep basically every time I read a story about characters who are friends or family that give that kind of relationship all of the value and weight and nuance that you see romantic relationships getting. It is a very special kind of feeling to see that it is possible for people to value what I have to offer them as much they might value someone who will romance them and sleep with them. It is very validating to see the possibility of emotional intimacy with people outside of romantic/sexual partners.

But I would never want anyone to feel bad about or stop writing their romances and their smut. That stuff speaks to people and that’s what fic is about. Telling the story that speaks to you. I want everyone to write what they want to write and if that leaves gaps, well that’s why I started writing fic in the first place. There was a story I needed to read and no one had written it yet, so I did it myself.

TL;DR Genfic & friendfic & familyfic is the greatest gift anyone could ever give me, but no one should write to satisfy other people. Always write for yourself first and foremost.

Q. Quote three bits of writing you read his year. Can be your writing, or not.

I keep little quotes everywhere--index cards and sticky notes scattered among all my belongings, snippets on my phone, untitled documents on every cloud service there is, random word docs hidden amongst my many hard drives--but the only ones I can find right now are from @meonlyred‘s Dark Horse so please enjoy three bits from that fic that I loved:

They remained sitting on the floor, Rossa leaned against him, eyes staring into the distance. Her silence might as well have been weeping.

I just love how I can feel the vacant, numb quality of her despair in this line. How it feels more poignant for its lack of drama.

“You're an idiot and I hate your hair,” Jonas said over the rim of his glass.

I mean.... Do I need to explain this?

He had never believed in happily ever afters. Not for him, at least. But the cruelest thing about being with Rossa was that he had begun to believe that maybe, just maybe, it was possible.

Closing his eyes, Theron didn’t expect to open them again.

This little snippet still punches me in the gut no matter how many times I read it. It’s so relateable and so Theron and so painful.

R. If you had to rewrite one of your stories from scratch, which one would it be? What would you do to it?

I don’t think I’d rewrite any of them? At least half of my fic has been completely rewritten once or twice before it ever gets published so I mostly have it out of my system before anyone else sees it.

S. What’s the sexiest thing you wrote this year?

a wish your heart makes. It may also be the saddest thing I wrote this year which I consider an achievement. (I was asked for smut but I literally do not know how to write just smut without anything else going on in the story.)

T. Themes, motherfucker, do you have them? What are they?

The importance and nature of family (it is what you make it and not what you were born with! but sometimes you get lucky and get to choose the one you were born with!)! The cost/impact of violence and war! Failure and coming back from failure! The nature of what is right and what is wrong and how much responsibility any one individual bears for the moral direction of their society!!!!

I don’t think I’ve ever written anything that didn’t include at least one of these concepts and most of my stuff deals heavily in at least two of them.

U. Any stories that took a abrupt u-turn from where you thought they were going?

Yep! I was trying to make a stupid joke about a haircut when I started making take back what the kingdom stole but in working my way backward from the joke I ended up with a heartfelt exploration of my character’s past emotional trauma, her character growth, and the nature of friendship and forgiveness.

V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks.

I don’t know that I would necessarily call the sensation pleasing but, once again, the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one was probably the story that made me feel the most, that I was the most connected to. It hit on every single one of the themes I find compelling and I really got to play with telling the story in the white spaces, which is something I really love. I’ve been working a lot on trusting my readers and not over-explaining and I think this story really saw the impact of that work, stylistically. It’s peak self-indulgence honestly.

W.  Who are your favorite writers?

Does this mean like authors of original published works or fic writers????? How am I supposed to choose???!!!! Either way my reading habits this year have been abominable. I have really been going through some shit, lifewise, (not bad shit but emotionally consuming and time consuming nonetheless) and I had to let the reading go a little bit.

I have been really into NK Jemisin though. Her stories are complex and challenging and there is so much poetry and power in the straightforward way she tells them. I also was obsessed with the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. The characters were so textured and real with such clear voices and the relationships and ideas were so complex and compelling, yet the story never got weighed down by the heft of the subjects. She has a very light touch as a storyteller that makes her work so easily digestible without making her tale any less impactful or profound.

As for fic…. I’ve got about forty million fics bookmarked, waiting for me to get around to reading them and I am the worst kind of person because I have not yet read any of them. I’m behind on reading one of my very favorite fics right now. I think I’ve read a total of like ten fics this year and straight up probably only read that many because I was doing a bit of beta’ing.

I’m gonna do better in 2019 and I’ll get back to you on all the good shit I’ve read then.

X.  What’s your least favorite work of this year?

crapshoot. It was a really old concept that probably would have been better as visual art than a fic but my artistic talents were too limited so I wrote it instead. It could probably stand a little more meat and a lot more polish, but I don’t have the time to try and turn every goofy image in my head into a fictional masterpiece.

Y. Why did you write? For fun, for a friend, for acclaim?

For fame and fortune obviously. It’s why most of my fic is about a super popular ship in an enormous fandom.

Or, y’know… not. I write for fun and because I have to. Because there are stories inside of me I want to tell, ideas I feel compelled to explore, things I need to say. It doesn’t matter if anyone else hears them or likes them; I need to get them out of me. Also it’s a really great way to work through my own emotional turmoil at a safe distance, so I can engage with what vexes me without being consumed by it.

Z. If you could choose one work and immediately finish it, what would it be? How would you end it?

the things you do for love are gonna come back to you one by one. It’s the most self-indulgent thing I’ve written probably but it means a lot to me and if I knew how it ended I would have finished it months ago. D:

[qaanngi]

I saw that you were doing an OC ask. How about #'s 4, 11, 20, 21?✨

Ahhh, thank you for sending some numbers my way ;3; I was at work all day so I didn’t get this until now OTL

#4: A character you rarely talk about.

Honestly? All of them. I never talk about my OCs unless it’s with ambalambs or my friend IRL. With them I usually run my lips about Van/Nadia, but outside my 2 friends no one really hears about them. I just sketch ‘em. I’m not popular enough for my OCs to be recognized xD

But if I narrow down who I talk about to my 2 friends, I’d say Rosie. I created her I literally the first day of 2016 for a daily drawing & I liked her design enough to keep drawing her casually. I only recently came up with a story in which she’s the protagonist, & then her personality & motives blossomed from there.

#11: Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”?

Probably Rosie. Her name, a literal pun, Rosie Hughes, was based off the song “La Vie En Rose”. Though her story isn’t remotely romantic in nature, the phrase can be translated into things like “life in happy hues” & her story is about kindness & perspectives in life. Most of my OCs are assholes in some shape or form, but Rosie is just a literal soft hue.

#20: Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

Van & Dai sing, & since they’re best friends they do duets like no other.

Dai’s a water god & I really need to draw this but the boy likes to belt tunes & sing stupid ass folksy indie covers of pop songs with sirens & mermaids. Lots of ships crash. I’m no music buff but I’d say he has a Lyric Tenor voice? “What Dreams are Made Of” from The Lizzie McGuire movie is probably his favourite, “Mamma Mia” is a close second, & he really loves Madonna & Boy George. He knows his shanties though, being a man of the sea, & enjoys those as well.

Van is a complicated one because they’re a shapeshifter, so this one can sound & sing like anyone. Don’t bring ‘em to karaoke. Dai does, though. I do like to think that by default voice, this one has a bit of a rasp. Favourite songs to sing are oh-so conveniently the song the nearest person hates, but only if they dislikes that person, too. Beyond that, they like to sing “Tearin’ Up My Heart” by n*sync specifically at Dai & only Dai for shits & giggles, & “Careless Whisper” at any given moment. Sometimes they’ll dance. Sometimes it makes people uncomfortable.

#21: Your most artistic OC.

Definitely Van. Even before I repurposed her, Nadia was someone who fancied the arts, too. I used draw her dancing all the time as well, so she was just all over the place with the arts. The arts, no matter which, are just such a wonderful space for self exploration & expression, & as Nadia she was someone who needed the outlet. As Van, someone with even more life & personality, I think that would just increase.

Thank you again for sending some numbers my way!

[seriouslyhooked]

Wedded Bliss and Asterisks (A Modern CS AU) Part 22/23

Emma Swan is an enemy of love who just happens to be an up and coming wedding dress designer. She’s convinced that a fairytale kind of romance is nowhere in her future but when she meets Killian Jones, whose magazine is covering the opening of her new boutique, things change. Suddenly Emma finds herself drawing up new plans for her life, ones that seem to all be leading towards her own form of wedded bliss. Rated M.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six,Part Seven.Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven, Part Twelve, Part Thirteen, Part Fourteen, Part Fifteen, Part Sixteen,Part Seventeen, Part Eighteen, Part Nineteen, Part Twenty, Part Twenty One. Also onFF Here.

A/N: Hello all! I know it has been almost a month since I updated this story (honestly where the hell did time slip off to?) but at last we are here with a new chapter. It’s so crazy to me that we are at the epilogue of this story and I cannot believe that that’s even possible, but alas, there it is. This chapter flashes nearly a year ahead and gives a glimpse into the happily ever after I always try to craft for Emma and Killian. As such it’s all cuteness all the time and it packs quite a punch of fluff and sweetness. Hope you all enjoy and thanks so much for reading!

About 10 months later…

“So I’m thinking we go with the French lace on the sleeves and the braided bodice woven like I showed you yesterday. The only question is volume. How much height did the bride say she wanted?”

Emma posed the question to Tiana as she examined the pieces of the specialty garment that were coming together in the earliest stages of this dress’ creation. It was scraps really at this point, just the bare bones of an idea not yet actualized, but Emma could see it so clearly in her mind, and once she got all of the particulars right, she knew it would be a magical gown. It was just a matter of finding the sweet spot between what a bride wanted and what Emma’s imagination was willing to envision to make a dress all that it could be.

“She was more flow oriented when we spoke,” Tiana affirmed. “But you don’t really need to be focusing on that today, Emma. I know you’re in a rush. You were just supposed to be dropping off those sketches and then getting out of here…”

“But I got sucked up into the crazy, I know, I know,” Emma stated easily. “Trust me I’m aware that if I am not ready to go in ten – crap, I mean five – minutes I will have one very disgruntled husband on my hands.”

And Emma wasn’t lying. Killian wasn’t often demanding, but today he’d been sincere in his request that Emma be quick with wrapping up things at work. They were pressed for time this morning and it was all in the service of what Emma was sure would be a truly delightful weekend away, but old habits were hard to break and try as she might Emma really didn’t like to let go of all control on any of her projects. She wanted to be right on the front lines from start to finish with every dress, but that just wasn’t possible given all the success that Bliss Boutique had found this past year and how much demand there was on their time and the time of Tiana and the rest of their designers.

“That’s all right, Ems,” Elsa’s voice said from the doorway as she held in her hand a blue box with their bakery logo on it. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it up to him.”

“You are a freaking god send, Elsa. Seriously you might just be my savior today,” Emma professed as she snuck a peek inside the box, finding an exact assortment of Killian’s favorite treats for the train ride they were taking this afternoon. These should do very nicely for winning back her man’s favor, at least until Emma could get him alone and give him a proper apology. Just the thought of that had a shiver of anticipation racing through her and Emma smiled, imagining of all the ways she could make Killian forgive her for her workaholic ways.

“That’s what sisters do, right?” Elsa teased, pulling a laugh from Emma at the mention of their newfound status.

Since Elsa and Liam had married a few months before they’d all gotten used to the idea of Elsa and Emma being actually related, and Emma couldn’t think of a better friend to call a sister, especially when Elsa was always saving her ass like this and made Killian’s older brother so incredibly happy. It was amazing to see how well Elsa and Liam had blended their lives together, and though they were incredibly different they were perfectly suited somehow. Elsa managed to dull away many of the sharp edges that most people associated with Liam, and Liam had brought out a new side of Elsa that Emma had never seen, one that was totally confident in herself and blissfully happy with her life in the way her kindhearted and loyal friend truly deserved.

“Absolutely. I just wish I had more talents other than making dresses. Your skillset seems to come in handy a lot more often,” Emma joked before the phone she had in her pocket began to vibrate. Someone was calling her and it was Emma’s initial instinct to ignore it since the only person who could need her now who wasn’t at Bliss was Killian and he’d never call when he could come sweep her off her feet in person. But when Emma saw the number of her doctor’s office flash on the screen she was concerned. Was something wrong? She accepted the call to find out, her hand trembling slightly as she did.

“Hello?” Emma answered, a little anxious about what kind of news she’d be hearing. She’d only gone in for a check up last week and there hadn’t been anything she was waiting to hear back on.

“Emma Jones?” the nurse asked through the receiver and Emma replied that it was in fact her. “I’m calling because the last of your tests results came in from your most recent appointment, and it turns out that you’re pregnant. From the blood test we ran it appears you’re already a few months along. Probably right around eleven weeks or so.”

The fact that Emma didn’t drop her phone onto the ground was a miracle because she was totally shocked. Her jaw practically hit the floor and her mind was racing in a million directions. But through all of that there was one feeling in the center of her chest that outshone all of the others and it was hope. Hope that this was really happening and that after months of wondering when the day would finally come, she and Killian were expecting the child they both so badly wanted.

“Wait, I’m sorry, could you say that again?” Emma said into the phone biting back a smile and feeling like the whole world had just gotten even brighter and more beautiful in the blink of an eye.

“You’re pregnant, Emma. Congratulations.”

It was all Emma could do to pretend to listen to the woman as she give her some more information about setting up an appointment with another doctor and follow up care in the coming weeks. Truth be told all of it went in one ear and out the other and Emma felt like her heart was going to explode as she turned back around to face her friends. She was expecting to find just Tiana and Elsa, but when she looked around she saw that Ruby and Mary Margaret were there as well and waiting on her news.

As soon as Emma hung up she wanted to tell them everything and share in this happy occasion with the friends she loved so dearly but she also knew it wouldn’t be right to tell them before Killian knew. He had to be the first person she told no matter what because he was going to be her partner in this, and that realization that they’d be taking this on as a team and that their new dream really had come to fruition brought tears to Emma’s eyes. She was practically shaking from the feelings of love and happiness coursing through her, but she had to try and play it cool or risk the words tumbling past her lips too soon.

“What’s wrong Emma? What happened?” Mary Margaret asked worriedly and Emma’s gut clenched. There was nothing wrong, only something magical knocking at her door, but she couldn’t say it and she struggled to sound convincingly unaffected.

“I’m fine, I promise. It’s just… complicated,” Emma said hoping that would be enough to pacify her friends. But she must not have realized her instinctive motion to put her hand above her tummy where her and Killian’s baby would soon be growing. All it took was one look at that gesture and the happy tears in her eyes and all four of them were guessing at once.

“Oh my god, you’re pregnant!”

“Shhh!” Emma said, shushing them and looking out the doorway to make sure that Killian wasn’t there to overhear. “And even if that were true I can’t say… because if I were pregnant there’s kind of someone else who would need to know first.”

Emma’s comments were met with understanding but that didn’t stop the almost bursting sense of excitement from all of her friends. It was clear as day that this miracle wasn’t just destined to make Emma and Killian happy but their whole family of friends as well. There were tears and some barely restrained jumping and all of her friends stood there fidgeting and trying to contain their good moods when fate came barreling in and compounding the situation all the more.

“Ms. Swan?” one of the new assistants greeted while ducking into the room with a noticeably worried look on her face.

“Technically it’s Mrs. Jones, Ariel, but don’t worry, you’ll get there,” Tiana said evenly despite her still radiating excitement for Emma.

“Oh right,” the redheaded girl said. “Well your husband is here to pick you up and he said something about not waiting another minute to get to your vacation.”

“Oh my God this is going to be the best vacation ever!” Elsa said gleefully. “Between Emma’s good news and Killian’s-,”

Whatever Elsa was about to say was interrupted by a swift slap on her arm from Ruby and a look that could kill. It told Emma that something was definitely up and that there was a very good chance her husband had something up his sleeve for this long weekend of theirs, but before she could ask questions Mary Margaret and the others were shooing Emma to the main room of the shop and then Emma was face to face with Killian and her suspicions went out the window.

Standing there in the middle of the business she’d built with the sunlight streaming in behind him, Killian was a sight to behold, and he was no less handsome today than he had been more than a year ago on that train where they first met. But it still amazed Emma that this was her real life. She’d long ago given up on pinching herself and she trusted that she was in fact this lucky, but sometimes the amount of happiness she felt surprised her. It was still so sure and constant after all of this time and the honeymoon phase that everyone said would fade was still here and it appeared it was here to stay.

“Swan,” Killian said when their eyes met and she’d crossed the room to him and Emma couldn’t resist stealing a kiss from him right there in front of everyone, audience be damned. She didn’t need an excuse to kiss her husband, after all, but right now she had the best one ever and Emma was just so thrilled at everything happening she couldn’t resist celebrating somehow and with the most important person in her world.

“I love you,” Emma whispered when they broke apart, and when she did the look on Killian’s face that made it seem like this moment with her was the best moment he’d ever known and she was the most important person in the universe prompted her to tell him right here and right now despite the slightly strange delivery of this life-changing news. “I have something I have to tell you.”

“You can tell me anything, Emma. You know that.”

As he made the promise Killian’s hand came up to cup her cheek and his eyes traced her features with all the love in the world. Emma could just imagine that love made into something new, a paternal kind of devotion that Killian would share with their kids as they all grew up into their own people with their own dreams and ambitions and wants to change the world. Emma knew that Killian would attach the same intensity of purpose to being a father that he had to being her soul mate and because of that he’d be the best Dad and the best partner she could ever have in this.

“I’m pregnant,” she confessed finally, waiting with bated breath for his response.

Emma wished she could have crafted a prettier way to express this amazing news, but she needed Killian to know about this blessing now and not at some later point where she found words to rival the ones he was always gifting her with. But in the end Killian’s reaction, even if Emma hadn’t been overly flowery in her language, was everything she’d been wanting and more. At first there was the briefest blip of shock that crossed his handsome face, but it shifted so quickly into this incredible sense of hope and wanting that Emma couldn’t think of anything that she’d ever seen that was more beautiful than this moment.

“You mean it, love? You’re really – I mean we’re really…?”

He couldn’t even finish the words but Emma nodded, the happy tears finally slipping down her cheeks as she told him he was going to be a Dad. And whatever she’d thought would happen when she told her husband about their upcoming adventure, Killian exceeded that by pulling her into his arms and spinning her around until she was laughing and holding onto him for dear life. It was a truly fantastic moment where both of them were caught up in the emotion of it all, but it soon hit a bit of a bumbling halt when Killian realized this might not be the safest of activities.

“Bloody hell, love, the baby! I shouldn’t have done that, Swan. I’m sorry I -,”

There was no need to let Killian delve into worries about his instincts, and truth be told Emma didn’t want for him to have a thing like regret anywhere near his mind. Not on this perfect, amazing day. So instead she pulled him down by the collar of his jacket and kissed him again in front of everyone and with no attempt at all at keeping it tame or appropriate for public consumption. All Emma could think was that she loved this man and wanted to feel that love and all the blessings that they’d found together as well as all of those still to come.

Eventually though, interruption did arrive in the form of Emma’s friends all needing to get their congratulations in and Emma officially ‘telling’ them about the baby. There was a chorus of glee and a happy applause that broke out through all of Bliss Boutique, but as far as real celebrations went, they would have to wait, because Emma and Killian had a date to keep and a train to catch for a trip back down memory lane.

“It couldn’t be more perfect timing,” Emma said as they arrived at the station and boarded the train that would lead them back to Misthaven.

“Aye love,” Killian replied as he brought her hand up to his lips to kiss gently. “A year ago today you made me the happiest of men by agreeing to marry me. You changed my life forever, and now you’ve done it again.”

“You changed mine too,” Emma whispered as she took her seat and curled into Killian where he sat beside her. “And now it’s all happening, just like we wanted.”

“Indeed it is love,” Killian said as he pressed a kiss to the crown of her head. “Indeed it is.”

………………..

At the start of today’s journey, Killian truly believed he would have the upper hand when it came to surprises. This trip to Misthaven had an intended purpose beyond a mere weekend of relaxation and restoration, one that Emma wasn’t yet aware of, but Killian never imagined that when he walked into her shop today she’d give him a gift he’d been almost scared to really hope for.

A baby. Killian and Emma were going to have a baby and it was amazing to him in every way. Their love had created something bigger than themselves and within the year their family would grow to include a whole new being that was part Emma and part him. It was crazy to think of such a wonderful twist of fate being real, but also it was the best gift anyone had ever given him save for perhaps Emma vowing to be his wife for all the days of their lives when they got married.

It honestly felt like they hadn’t a right to be this happy. Things in their world were so good and had remained that way almost since the start. There were hiccups of course, with the occasional crisis at work or short-term obstacles that every couple faced, but the bond between Emma and Killian wasn’t rattled or shaken. It had only grown stronger with each day, and in the face of this new adventure Killian was certain that it would grow even more. There was no one on earth Killian would rather raise a family with than Emma, no one he could even conceive sharing such a roll with, and he was getting his wish to have this chance with the best woman alive, a woman who had changed him for the better and continued to bring light and love into his world time and time again.

“We’re going to have make so many decisions,” Emma murmured from her spot curled up beside him on the train.

They’d been here wrapped up in each other for about an hour and they were nearly at the Misthaven station now. In that time they’d talked of so many things but none more important than their incredible joy at the prospect of this next chapter. Yet Emma, being the planner that she was, was no doubt thinking of concrete changes that would have to come before the arrival of their little boy or girl and formulating a list of things that had to be completed before the day their son or daughter was born.

“Like what, Swan?” Killian asked as his thumb ran across her hand lightly tracing over the tops of her fingers to where the two rings he’d given her always remained. He loved the idea of hashing out particulars because it would only make this feel more real and he welcomed Emma’s sharing her thoughts and wishes with him now more than anything.

“Well for starters we should probably start thinking about doctors and parenting classes and where to put a nursery…”

“All things we can handle in due time, love. But that’s not what’s foremost on your mind right now, is it?” Killian implored, wanting to know what Emma had been thinking before trailing off, because there was clearly more playing out in that brilliant mind of hers and he would always want to know her hopes in any situation.

“Well we’ll have to think about staying in the city. I thought we’d have a little more time to figure it all out but ever since the doctor told me the news I can’t get this image of us and our family and wide open spaces out of my mind.”

This confession was music to Killian’s ears even if Emma didn’t realize that it would be. She was sitting here thinking that somehow this bit of news would be an inconvenience or a massive hurdle for them to overcome, but it actually wrapped up perfectly into Killian’s plans for today. The gift he had for her might not seem as crazy as it did before with this bit of truth between them, and it would hopefully fit seamlessly into Emma’s plan and hopes for more.

“I’ve a feeling we’re on the right track, love. You just have to trust me.”

Emma grinned at Killian’s insistence and promised that she did trust him before the automated voice in the train car sounded telling them they’d arrived at their destination. Once there, however, Killian surprised Emma by insisting that they drop their bags off at the house where they’d be staying (which was the same little cottage they’d rented out a year ago) before pressing on to the real surprise. This proved rather shocking to Emma who imagined they’d get immediately to the part where they locked themselves away from the world and reveled in all the happiness today had already brought them, but as usual she accepted his leading her in a new direction and she trusted it would bring a magical moment her way if she handed over the reins to him.

“You know whatever it is your taking me isn’t going anywhere, right? This town doesn’t change, that’s why it’s so charming.” Emma joked before running her hand up his chest in an soothing gesture as they walked down the quiet streets of this cozy little hamlet.

“I know, love, but when we get there you’ll realize why I’ve no wish to wait,” Killian explained, smiling as he thought of the moment when Emma would finally understand all that he’d done for her and for their future.

“Even if it means getting me all alone to celebrate the good news?” Emma asked with every intention of seducing him to her will and distracting him from the prize that was nearly before them.

“Even then. But you have my word, Swan, I will be getting that privacy with you shortly, and when I do we’ll celebrate in a way we’ll never forget.”

This seemed to appease Emma for the time being and they picked up the pace in the direction of their destination, but even when they arrived at the front gate of the spot where their worlds had changed forever, Emma seemed to miss that this was it. The surprise was the house before them, or rather the big sign in front that bore the word ‘SOLD’ in giant white lettering, but Emma didn’t seem to understand that all of this was more than mere coincidence.

“They sold the house,” Emma whispered deflatedly as if sad for the fact that Marie and Charles would no longer be here in this magical place where Emma and Killian had promised to tie their lives forever together. “I wonder who will live here now.”

“We will, love,” Killian replied and at first Emma didn’t seem to process what he said, standing still and calm for a moment until realization dawned on her and her jaw dropped as she swung back around to look at him.

“Wait you bought a house? You bought this house?!”

“Aye, I did. I know I should have asked you and I know the summer season’s crazy right now. Your schedule’s a wreck and mine is too but we could move in the fall when things cool off again.”

With Emma tearing her attention between gaping at him and gaping at the house, Killian pulled her hands into his, bringing them up to kiss gently one by one. He expected a response from her immediately, but in her lingering shock and quiet he filled the air between them with his fantasy for what a life lived here could mean for them, hoping to illustrate for Emma all that he imagined and all he wanted to give her.

“This house is perfect, my love, and I can picture no place better to grow old and raise a family than right here. You want wide-open spaces? This house has all that and more. It’s a perfect oasis in the safety of a small town where the sky is the limit and anything can happen. We were meant to be here, Emma, and I know you felt it too when we were here last. The commute’s not great but not terrible; an hour by train both ways, but we can ride in every day together. Honestly I can think of many a worse fate to face, especially when you think of all we could make here for us and our family.”

Emma continued to stare at him with a hundred emotions flitting across her features but for some reason Killian couldn’t get a clear read on what his lovely wife was thinking. Was she angry with him about making such a large decision as this? Or was she as happy as he was? He didn’t know for certain until she rushed him and pulled him down for another kiss that rivaled the one they’d had back at Emma’s shop. Only this time there was nothing like the interruption of before, and the kiss ran longer and hotter until they were both breaking apart with their breathing ragged and their faces flushed.

“You bought us a house,” Emma whispered with a smile on her lips. “No, correction, you bought us our dream house.”

“So you like it then?” Killian teased, knowing now that he’d done just as good as he expected when he put this plan in motion months back.

“I don’t even have words right now, other than I love you. And the rest of it we’ll figure out, but this… this is perfect, Killian.”

Killian had to agree with that sentiment, and by his estimations this day might just rival their wedding day as the best one he’d ever had. But it only got better to as he took Emma’s hand and led her inside, showing her the interior of this great house that they’d visited before, which was just as charming and magnificent indoors as it was outside.

Right now the home they could officially call theirs was bare inside with no furnishings at all because Marie and Charles had already moved to be near their grandchildren earlier this month. This left what felt like a gargantuan amount of space that Killian had wanted to fill, but he was determined to give Emma the chance to do this home up as she saw fit. He would always trust her tastes more than his own, and he could just imagine the nights they’d fill dreaming up exactly how things would be if they could have everything they wanted. Emma would fill the hours with measurements and design particulars, and he’d spend his time loving her and probably distracting her more than he should. But either way it was going to be fantastic, of that he was sure.

“It’s even better than I imagined,” Emma said when they’d gone through every room and even begun picking out which one would be for them and which would be a nursery or the rooms their kids would someday claim. “But what about the gardens? I mean there’s no way, right? We can’t handle all of that. We’d never have time for anything else.”

“Much as it pains me to admit, Swan, you’re right, that’s not an option, but we found a way around it. The acreage with Charles testament of love for Marie has been donated to the town to become a public park. And there was an endowment from a private benefactor to keep it well funded and perfectly attended to for years and years to come.”

Killian could see that Emma couldn’t even begin to calculate how much money that would take. She was a smart woman, the smartest he’d ever met, so she was likely running through every question about where they would have gotten the hundreds of thousands of dollars at the very least that were needed for such an endeavor. He supposed he could let her continue to surmise about what could have happened, but Killian didn’t want to wait to grant Emma every answer, not when at the end of this reveal they could truly enjoy everything they now called theirs.

“I can see those gears of yours shifting, love, and the answer to your internal musing is one I’m guessing will surprise you. The source of the gift is your favorite neighbor.”

“Mrs. Hubbard?!” Emma asked, totally shocked, and Killian could understand the feeling. It had amazed him at first too, but then again nothing could truly astound him given all the ways his life had changed in the past year since meeting his Swan.

Yet for Emma, this revelation was of a much larger and impactful kind, and Killian felt it was best to leave any explanations to Mrs. Hubbard herself. So without further ado he pulled out the letter that Emma’s old neighbor had provided him with this morning before he’d left the city, and he enjoyed how Emma made no motion to hide it from him, extending it in a way so that he knew she wanted him to read it along with her without any sort of secrecy.

Dear Emma,

Surprise! It turns out the old lady across the hall who you’ve humored for all these years had a secret and now it’s time for it to come to light. I am – rather unfortunately in my opinion – filthy, stinkin rich. Truth be told the money that made this acquisition possible comes from my late husband’s family and we neither of us ever really knew what to do with it while he was alive. So we did the only thing we could think: we basically pretended that it wasn’t there and lived out life in relative normalcy. It was the best decision we ever made, and I attribute so much of our happiness to it.

But sometimes there are moments like these where money can make the world a better place, and when Killian told me about his wish to buy you this home and the story you two already have here, I knew I’d found an outlet that would both make me happy and do my dear departed Fitz proud. You know how much we enjoyed spending time in the Botanical Gardens and how I still go whenever I can to honor his memory. Escaping to that place was one of the only things that kept us sane enough to live in this crazy city for as long as we did and so it feels only right that we preserve another sanctuary for more people to enjoy all while I grant you and your great love the chance to grow as it deserves.

There’s all kinds of legal jargon that comes with things like this that I don’t want to bother you with – that’s what lawyers are for after all – but there was one last thing I wanted you and Killian to have: the grove of roses out behind the house in the spot where Killian meant to propose to you is yours. I’ve taken care of everything, and the same groundkeepers for the new park will keep it all in order so you don’t have to worry about a thing. Consider it a late wedding present and a wish bestowed from me to you that you have everything I had with my Fitz and more.

I know you’re probably thinking to yourself that this is too much, it’s too grand a gift, or some other nonsense, but you’re wrong, Emma. You and Killian deserve to be happy, and this will be your way, I know it will. Fill this house with children, make this house a home in a way you never had, and build the life you always wanted, my dear. Convince those friends of yours who you love to do the same so that you may never lose each other, and most of all, don’t ever let a day go by where you don’t hold the people you love close and tell them just how deeply you care. Because after all my many years upon this earth I’ve known only one thing to be really true: love is always the answer and it will get you through anything, no matter what.

All the best from your dear friend and favorite neighbor,

Lizzie Hubbard

It was completely understandable to Killian when he heard sniffling come from his wife and he watched as Emma wiped away fresh tears that had spilled onto her cheeks. This note was truly touching in its heartfelt sincerity and even he felt choked up upon reading it. Killian hadn’t known the full depths of what Mrs. Hubbard would write though he had suspected, but the woman who had always proven to be full of wisdom and sound advice came through once more with flying colors. Her ideas on how Emma and Killian should lead their lives together was exactly he wanted, right down to convincing their friends to make the move as well (which was already in the works on every front) and he knew from Emma’s reaction it was what she desired too. He just had to cut through the intensity of feeling a bit to get to the heart of that.

“All in favor of making her an honorary grandmother?” Killian said half joking but mostly serious as Emma choked back another sob and nodded, agreeing with that totally.

“Tell me this is really happening,” Emma whispered as she wiped away the rest of her tears and looked up at him again, appearing just as beautiful now as she did in every moment, tears or not.

“It is, Emma. I promise you it is,” Killian replied, meaning it from the bottom of his heart.

And with that promise and with the knowledge that life was winding down a path towards something beautiful and miraculous and so totally worth fighting for, Emma and Killian shared another kiss, cementing this moment for all eternity as one of the happiest ones they’d ever known. In the span of that kiss the world faded away, time seemed to trickle to a stand still, and all that remained was the two of them caught up together in the same happy space of love and light and every good thing.

But the best part of it all was that when they finally did break apart, and reality descended once more, none of the picture perfect feelings or the hope and joy of all of this dissipated. Instead it grew day-by-day, month-by-month, and year-by-year, until every dream they’d had for their lives and their love was made real, and they found that they had truly achieved a magical, memorable, once in a lifetime kind of wedded bliss.

Post-Note: I cannot begin to put into words what getting to the epilogue of this story means to me. It’s been such a pleasure to write it and really such a fun creative outlet for me over the first half of this year. Writing is always about trying to enjoy myself and get out of my own head for a bit, and this story was such an awesome way for me to do that. The fact that so many of you joined me on this journey and enjoyed the story along the way only makes it that much harder to say goodbye, but alas it is time…at least for now. As I’ve said before with other stories, I reserve the right to add more to the happily ever after (and since this chapter didn’t include the baby directly there’s a good chance that will happen someday featuring a bigger CS family and all their friends living in Misthaven with them), but I don’t have any set plans on when to write it. Anyway thank you all so much for all your kind words and support and I hope you all have a lovely rest of your day!

[dust2dust34]

Pieces of Always: April 2033 (FICoN ‘verse)

Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows.

by @so-caffeinated (and @dust2dust34)

Summary: Will gains a little perspective on some of the more complicated aspects of his life from his friend and coworker.

An ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. (You do not need to have read FiCoN to enjoy this, but it will spoil the end. Please see the first installment for additional author notes. Thank you @jsevick and @alizziebyanyothername!)

A/N: Please see the first chapter for an important Author’s Note. The effervescent @so-caffeinated is fully in the driver’s seat and she’s kicking all the ass, so please go send her your love!  Also? As far as this chapter goes... say hello to Alex. At times, though rarely in this chapter, Alex speaks a bit of Spanish. You'll find translations in the end notes. Thank you to @latinasmoak and @alizziebyanyothername for their continual help with Spanish.

A/N: Janis and I have started a Redbubble account for FICoN! The first thing we have up is our Ellie the Elephant tattoo that we got a few months ago - check it out here! (Her awesome husband helped to make it more Redbubble-friendly.) More will be coming soon! If you have any ideas for something you’d like to see, let us know!

(read on AO3)

April 2033

The bond between the guys on Will’s crew is absolute. There is nothing the four of them would not do for each other. It goes hand-in-hand with the job. Will knows that, but it still feels special to him, unique. Any one of them would jump in front of danger for the other, any one of them would die for the other, if needed. Their kinship isn’t brotherhood, exactly, but in some ways it’s something more.

Still… that doesn’t mean Will doesn’t want to strangle two of them right now.

“Oh my hero.”

The singsong voice is designed to grate on Will’s nerves and wow is that working. “Stop.”

“So big and strong, let me cling to your arm with the lights out, my what an impressive bicep you have.”

“I swear to god, Javi…”

“All part of the job, ma’am, now let’s stand here and stare at each other longingly like a cheesy ass chick flick for the next five minutes.”

“Elliot…”

“But how will I ever repay my big strong hero for saving me from the non-existent fire?”

“I bet the next round that Will’s got a few ideas on that,” Elliot smirks, leaning back in the booth and raising both eyebrows as he takes a huge swig from his mug of beer.

Will wants to brush him off, wants to punch him in the shoulder and call him a tool and demand he grab another pitcher. But it hadn’t been just any girl and the way Amelia’s eyes had widened in surprise, the way her gaze and her hand had lingered on him… it’s thrown him for a loop and he doesn’t have it in him to shrug off the guys’ teasing right now.

But it’s Javi who’s the last straw. He turns away from them and wraps his arms around his own head making mocking kissing noises. Elliot laughs like it’s the funniest thing ever. And… yup, that does it. Will shoves Elliot’s shoulder hard before sliding out of the booth.

“I’m getting another pitcher. I might share if you two grow the fuck up before I get back,” he tells them, trying to sound unruffled. His voice sounds a little thick even to his ears, though, and he knows he’s mostly failed. But that’s only underscored by Alex slapping Javi upside the back of his head.

“No sean pendejos,” Alex tells the other two. The most senior member of their team sounds very much in charge and both Javi and Elliot immediately look like they’ve been put in their place. Alex has a way of doing that.  “Know when to fucking knock it off.”

Will pauses just a moment, tossing a grateful look toward Alex before heading over to the bar. Suitably chastised or not, he needs a bit of distance from Javi and Elliot right now. They’re good friends, great teammates and they’d even been decent - if messy - roommates for a while before he’d gotten his own place, but neither Javi nor Elliot knows when to let things go, when to grow the hell up. Will does. He learned that lesson the hard way, for the most part. And that’s something that’s led to him relating more to Alex than their other teammates in recent years.

Today can’t have been easy for Alex either, Will knows. Mostly, that’s for different reasons… but all the same, he can’t imagine the other man is much in a joking mood right now.

“Can we get a pitcher of the seasonal IPA on tap, please?” Will orders when the bartender walks by. She’s quite familiar with their group by now - more than a little familiar with Javi, actually, but that was a year ago - and she tosses back a “Sure thing, babe, coming right up,” with a wink before turning away.

The bar isn’t crowded tonight, but Five Alarm’s got a rep for spicy food, a solid rotating tap and a regular hangout for firefighters so there are still a couple dozen people hanging around. A few college girls down near the end of the bar are overtly staring at him and while Will might happily welcome the attention another day, he’s really not in the mood at the moment and he offers up little more than a polite nod of recognition before turning away.

“You off your game, vato?”

Will doesn’t even have to look to know it’s Alex who’s joined him at the bar. He has presence, fills a space effortlessly with his tall, bulky form. And Will had known the older man would come the moment he’d stepped away. Alex takes his role as team leader very seriously whether they’re on or off the clock.

“Not playing a game at all,” Will answers. “Not today, anyhow.”

Alex just hums in agreement and it’s the near silence that finally pulls Will’s attention to his friend. He’s leaning against the bartop on his forearms, looking past Will to grin at the girls down the bar. It’s flirtier than Will had been, for sure, but no more serious. Alex has a girl and he’s not that kind of guy.

“It’s not like you,” Alex says after a minute, catching Will’s gaze with a heavy look. “Your girl’s got you in knots.”

“She’s not my girl,” Will answers immediately. And, wow if that’s not the crux of it. The way his voice cracks under the strain of emotion only serves to emphasize his words.

Amelia is not his girl. She’s his… she’s his something though. She’s his ‘what if,’ his ‘someday,’ his ‘if only.’ The connection between them defies reason, but every time he sees her it grows exponentially and feels more and more well-founded.

Every day is different in his line of work. Normally that’s something Will loves about being a firefighter. He never knows exactly what the job will entail on any given day. But today… today had thrown him for a loop.

Being called to City Hall for what turned out to be a false alarm - lightning had struck the generator and several people had smelled smoke - had given things an uneasy start. His grandmother, who has been mayor for most of his life, had foolishly chosen not to evacuate, valuing her phone call over safety protocol.

Watching Alex read her the riot act had given Will more joy than he should probably admit, but it had also set him on edge. Because Alex was right. Because the mayor refusing to evacuate set a terrible example for her staff and knowingly endangered everyone in the building as well as any emergency response personnel showing up at the scene.

So he’d already been in a weird place when he’d barely caught the sound of someone singing to themselves and been drawn off path as he and the boys had been heading to talk to the site manager.

“Our boy’s got a siren pulling him in,” Javi had laughed, much to Elliot’s amusement, but Will hadn’t listened to them at the time.

He’d known who it was. There hadn’t been a doubt in his mind.

And he’d been right.

He’d found Amelia in a barely open storage room with earbuds in as she rifled through files and the very sight of her had taken his breath away. He hadn’t even registered the snickers of his coworkers at the time. That’d come later - they’ve been persistent - but in that moment he’d seen nothing but Amelia, heard nothing but Amelia. He’d taken off his helmet and leaned against the doorframe, just watching her silently until she she’d caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye and jolted, pulling the earbuds from her ears.

Her eyes had barely flickered toward his friends before honing in on him, cementing that ever-present connection between them. It hadn’t taken more than a look, nothing more than her eyes lingering on his to make his heart flip and his breath catch.

Maybe he shouldn’t feel this strongly about her, maybe it defies reason, but he can’t help it and every time he sees her, he finds something else that draws him in. And he can’t let go of her, not entirely.

“Fine, that girl that isn’t yours has got you in knots then,” Alex amends, pulling Will back to the present. “You got history or what?”

It’s a harder question to answer than it should be. “Not exactly,” he answers after thinking about it for a moment.

“Ah,” Alex says. He clearly gets it and Will is beyond grateful that he doesn’t need to explain further. “Sorry, man. Sometimes that’s worse.”

“Yeah,” Will agrees with a heavy sigh as he rakes a hand through his hair. “It is.”

“Maybe she’ll change her mind,” Alex offers, clapping Will on the shoulder. “She sure as hell didn’t look disinterested today.”

It’s true. She’d been all false starts and stilted gestures, instinct drawing her closer to him, but resolve making her pull back. The push and pull of it all had felt tidal, left him drowning in a riptide of emotions. Truth be told, he’s fairly certain she didn’t fare much better. That she hadn’t even heard the fire alarm because of faulty, outdated equipment and her music had sparked something in Will. The knowledge that had this been real - had there actually been a fire - he might’ve seen her again under far more dire circumstances had set him on edge, made him more protective, heightened absolutely everything, and she’d picked up on that immediately.

He can still hear her voice swearing to him softly that she’d have evacuated if she’d known, that she wouldn’t have knowingly put herself in danger. And a moment later… a moment later when lightning had struck again nearby and the power had died, taking the lights out with it, she’d yelped and grabbed his arm in a momentary blind panic. Without even thinking about it, he’d pulled her closer. And, with the lights out and his buddies fishing for flashlights, he’d held Amelia protectively in his arms and everything, everything had been right.

But the lights had come on and with that his dreams had faded away. She’d stepped back, seemingly embarrassed and chastising herself as she brushed her hair behind her ear and avoided his gaze.

For a moment.

Resolve aside, nothing seems to keep them from connection for long and her eyes had found his again soon enough.

But he knows Amelia, knows her better than she thinks, and he’s well aware that today won’t have changed anything between them in the long run. It’s just another of their series of near misses. And, as much as he would give almost anything for it to be more, Amelia’s going to keep her distance.

“Maybe,” he agrees anyhow, wanting to get off the subject with Alex.

“Javi and Elliot are gonna shut their traps about it either way,” Alex vows, drawing Will’s surprised gaze. “The boys don’t know when to quit ‘til I knock their heads together a few times. They’re set straight now, but I can’t promise Elliot isn’t gonna bring up how hot she is.”

“I can’t promise I’m not gonna sock him, then,” Will grumbles.

“Come on, vato,” Alex says with a tisk. “Girl’s got legs for miles and a rack straight off a swimsuit calendar. Can’t blame any of us for noticing that.”

Well, that’s irksome. Elliot’s one thing. The guy’s his brother and he’s got a good heart, but he’s also forever making lewd comments about women. Alex is another thing entirely. With three years on Will, Alex is the oldest member of their team and the most experienced.

He’s also the most professional. Even over drinks, Will’s a little surprised to hear him talking about any woman’s body so openly, especially if it isn’t with a wink and a grin and definitely referencing his girlfriend.

“Marisol’s gonna love that,” Will bites out, feeling more than a little bitter at Alex’s observation.

“Not much of her business what I notice these days,” Alex replies tightly, nodding at the bartender as she drops off their pitcher.

“You broke up?” Will asks surprised.

“Yeah. Again,” Alex replies grimly. “Ain’t everybody who’s cut out to be a firefighter’s girl, you know? Mari likes the idea of it, but reality is something else.”

It’s true. The schedule alone is a burden to their loved ones - 24-hour shifts are a bitch - but the constant danger wears away on them, too. Some people are built for that. Others aren’t. It’s one of the reasons Will tells himself he keeps to more casual relationships. That’s easier to deal with than the thought that he’s so hung up on the very idea of Amelia that it’s affecting his life.

“Sorry, man,” Will tells him as the bartender puts a pair of mugs down in front of them and Alex moves to pour them both some beer. Elliot and Javi are chatting up a pair of girls over near the pool table, so it looks like they’ve lost their booth. That’s fine. Will finds he’s feeling a bit restless anyhow.

“It’s life,” Alex shrugs, trying to look unaffected. Will doesn’t buy it for a second. He and Marisol had been back together since early last fall and she’d all but moved into Alex’s place. But he’s also not about to say anything like that. “You got plans tomorrow?”

The change of subject is swift and deliberate.

“I’ve got Bethy for the day,” Will tells him. Just the idea of his baby sister perks him up some. She makes everything brighter. “Not sure what we’re gonna do yet, but David’s working so I said I’d take her. Better me than some babysitter, right?”

“You should bring her over,” Alex tells him. “Javi and his brothers were gonna come over for the game. Elliot said he might join, too, and I think Javi’s got some nieces and nephews comin’. We can do a barbeque, toss the kids in the pool and let ‘em play. Beth would have fun.”

Bethy’s not-quite-three now and she loves the water. She’s a miserable swimmer, but she gets so much joy out of Will tossing her up in the air and splashing about.

“Yeah, maybe,” Will agrees. “What time?”

“Game’s at eleven,” Alex says, taking a swig of his beer. “Anytime’s fine, though. Nothing else I’m doing tomorrow other than handing Mari a box of her stuff whenever she drops by.”

Ah… So then that’s what’s going on. Invitations to Alex’s place aren’t uncommon, but Javi dragging along his entire extended family definitely is. And Elliot hates soccer, which is absolutely what game Alex is referring to. But both of the guys had to have known about Alex and Marisol’s split before him and planned to be there as silent backup.

“We’ll be there after her morning nap… assuming she takes one,” Will promises. “Want me to bring anything?”

“Whatever Beth’s gonna eat,” Alex tells him. “I’m not sure she’ll eat anything in my kitchen.”

She won’t. He’s right about that. Beth’s a picky little eater.

But while Will is busy mulling over what to bring along to Alex’s place tomorrow for Bethy, he’s also suddenly aware that his friend is watching him with a strange, contemplative look on his face.

“What?” Will asks warily.

“Nothing,” Alex says, shaking it off and taking another sip of his beer.

“No, really, what?” Will asks again after a minute. Alex isn’t the sort to leave things unsaid and the idea that he’s biting his tongue now sits poorly with Will.

“Man, I don’t think you wanna know,” Alex tells him ruefully. It has the opposite of his intended effect. Will sits up straighter, every bit of his attention turning toward Alex.

“Tell me anyhow,” Will challenges.

Alex still hesitates, winces and licks his lips, looking off to the side before speaking in a lowered voice. “Your girl…” he starts, his voice trailing off at the end.

“Amelia?” Will asks, suddenly on the defensive.

“Yeah,” Alex agrees with a heavy nod and piercing dark eyes. “Amelia…. She’s hot and all, man, but I don’t get it.” Will blinks quickly at him in stunned surprise as Alex continues. “I don’t have to, I know. It’s none of my business. But all the hot girls in this city and you get hung up on some cold, cut-throat politician?”

“She’s not!” Will insists before realizing he’s a little too loud. The girls at the end of the bar are paying far too close attention. “She’s not,” he repeats in a much quieter voice.

“If you say so,” Alex agrees, but he clearly doesn’t believe the words.

“She’s driven and passionate, but she’s not cut-throat. You don’t know her,” Will insists. And it’s true. Alex had been around her for all of ten minutes. He’s judging her largely by her association with Moira. And, while he surely has his own reasons for that, there’s so much more to Amelia than just her relationship with her mentor.

“Okay,” Alex says, holding up one hand in surrender. But Will isn’t ready to let it go.

“Amelia is… she’s someone who knows exactly what she wants in life and she’s not willing to settle for anything else,” Will informs him. “She wants to make a difference in the world. She’s not after power or money or anything like that.”

She’s not like my grandmother, he wants to insist. He knows that’s what Alex meant, even if he left the words unspoken.

“She’s smarter than anyone gives her credit for, but she knows how to use that to her advantage and she does it to push political agendas that help people,” Will tells him. “She’s a loyal enough friend that she put off graduating college by a semester to support a friend who needed her. She drinks black coffee like it’s water and she’s the first one in the office in the morning and the last one there at night because she’s that dedicated to her work. She wears high heels even though most of the time it probably makes her the tallest person in the room, probably because it makes her the tallest person in the room. And she has a plush bouquet of daisies on her desk that I sent her a year ago, even though we haven’t really talked since then. She’s not cold and she’s not cut-throat, Alex. She’s just… she’s scared of being hurt and she plays it safe and defensive more than she should because of it.”

“Will…” Alex says slowly, cautiously, like he’s not sure if he wants to be sticking his nose in this or not. “Bro, even if you’re right… girl like that’s gonna break your heart and you gotta know that. The scared ones, the ones who hold back pieces of themselves always do.”

There’s a surprising lack of judgement in Alex’s voice. Instead, it’s all sympathy, and somehow that hits Will even harder.

“You aren’t askin’ my advice, so I’m not gonna give it,” Alex tells him. “But speaking from experience, there isn’t much that sucks more than loving a girl who’s scared of her own feelings. And you add to this that she works for your grandmother… man, that’s just messy.”

“I’m not letting Moira Queen screw with my life more,” Will announces firmly, the muscles of his jaw tightening at the thought of his grandmother. “She doesn’t get to have that kind of control.”

“You’re awfully pissed at her for somebody you aren’t giving any control to,” Alex notes.

Something angry rises up in Will at that. If anyone in the world had solidarity on this with him, he’d have thought it would be Alex.

“How can you say that?” Will asks. “How can you expect me not to be pissed at her? After everything she’s done. To me. To you. How can you just brush her aside?”

“Because I matter more than she does,” Alex answers immediately. The confusion must be plain on Will’s face because Alex offers him a sad smile and a shake of his head. “Me hating her wouldn’t make my life better, vato, and it wouldn’t bring my father back, God rest his soul.” Alex pauses and crosses himself at this. “Hate is toxic, man. It’ll eat you alive. I ain’t never gonna forgive her for what she did. A part of me is always gonna feel like that little boy waiting for his papa to come home after the ground split open and swallowed part of the city whole. But I also had to let that go. You’ve got that choice, too.”

The surge of guilt Will used to feel - just for being a Queen, just for being his grandmother’s grandson - doesn’t wash over him the same way, this time Alex brings up his father’s death in the Undertaking. But it laps at the edges of his being, anyhow.

“I don’t know how,” Will confides. “How do you just decide to forgive her? She doesn’t deserve it.”

“No,” Alex agrees. “She doesn’t. But I do. You do, too. I wish she were in jail. Personally, I think she belongs there. The jury didn’t see it that way. Not in this life. But everybody answers for their sins eventually. I gotta believe God’s gonna hold her responsible for all the lives she took when she meets her maker. I’ll leave that to Him and live my life like my Papa would’ve wanted me to. You oughta think about doing the same.”

Will wouldn’t know where to start and he honestly has no clue how to respond, but he’s saved by Javi and Elliot joining them, the girls they’d been hanging out with are nowhere to be seen.

“Beer!” Elliot smiles brightly, stealing Will’s mug.

“Hey!” Will protests, shoving his friend.

“You’re the one who put it down,” Javi says. Like that’s some kind of excuse.

“Don’t look at me,” Alex shrugs. “I learned that years ago.”

“It’s cool,” Will says when Elliot tries to hand him back his mug. “I’m gonna head out anyhow, I think. I’ve gotta pick up Bethy in the morning and it’s getting late.”

“You’re no fun, old man,” Javi tisks, but he’s laughing as he says it and Will knows better than to take him seriously.

“We seeing you tomorrow?” Elliot asks. “Javi’s sister’s coming and she’s va-va-voom.”

“Hands off my sister!” Javi says, whirling on Elliot and suddenly deeply serious. “Sisters are off limits. Not cool, man. Not cool at all.”“Chill, Javi. He was kidding,” Alex says, gripping the other man’s shoulder hard in an attempt to rein him in. It might work better if anyone actually believed Elliot wasn’t serious. Still… Will can’t believe Elliot would ever screw around with Javi’s sister. Their team means a hell of a lot more to all four of them than to risk it over something like that.

“I’ll be there,” Will agrees. “Bringing Bethy with me, so maybe try to keep it PG. Okay?”

“You got it,” Elliot agrees. “I’m cool, Javi. I swear. I’m just messing with you.”

While those two have some kind of silent communication thing going on, Will tilts his head toward Alex in long-overdue thanks. He’s always valued Alex’s insight to things and tonight is no different.

“Have a good night, vato,” Alex tells him. “Think about what I said, yeah?”

There’s no doubt he will, really, but Will can’t imagine ever finding the level of peace with his grandmother that Alex has managed. Maybe he’s just too close to it. Maybe it’s because they’re family that it’s so very complicated. But the parts about Amelia…

“...there isn’t much that sucks more than loving a girl who’s scared of her own feelings.”

It’s true, Will thinks as he bids the boys goodbye and heads out. But that doesn’t change that he knows they could be happy together if she gave him half a chance, that he would never, ever break her heart if I could help it. And he doesn’t know how to turn off his own feelings any more than he knows how to make her comfortable with her own.

*

Thank you for reading! Reviews literally feed the soul and muse, so go send some love to @so-caffeinated!

[zahroreadsthings]

Listen I know I’m talking into the void here but here’s my top 2018 reads split per quarter that also functions as my 2018 book recs that none of yall asked for.

January-March

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin: Essun finds that her husband's killed their son and kidnapped their daughter just as an apocalyptic event begins. She sets out to save her daughter while battling to survive a dying land. The most creative world I've read in ages and definitely the best this year. Highly recommended fantasy if you don't mind the uglier side of things. You know those books where you can gradually feel the plot threads and characters tie into each other? Yeah.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare: An otherwise morally upstanding Macbeth goes from no murder to yes murder in an evening. Fast-paced, high stakes and vivid. I swear this didn't make the list just because he's Billy Shakes. This was one of my favourite high school books and revisiting it without my English teacher stopping us all the time to talk symbolism and themes brought out everything I loved about it. I'm so glad I decided to pick it up again. (If only so that now I had some analysis behind me I could begin mentally directing it.)

The Art of Language Invention by David J. Peterson: An introduction to building your own language, designed for people who've never done it before (me) and have no kind of formal training (me). I'm no linguistics student and don't even have it as a strong side interest I read about beyond a couple of articles and I understood most of what was happening. I'll be honest, even though I don't agree personally with the sentiment this won its place on the list when it said adding onions to a dish was ‘the culinary equivalent of multiplying by zero.’

April-June

Hamlet by William Shakespeare: You know what the problem with classics is? Their summaries always go ‘YOU KNOW HOW THIS GOES’ and yeah sometimes you do, but sometimes you only have a vague idea because you live under a rock? Anyway, Hamlet’s got his suspicions his new stepfather/uncle killed his dad and while he plots his revenge he’s just… really going through it. It doesn’t end well for anyone.  I’ve only ever watched the 2015 production starring Maxine Peake (oops) and finally got off my ass and read it and listen. ‘Was kidnapped by pirates - not dead - I’ll explain everything later. Forever yours, Hamlet.’ How could I not love this.

American Street by Ibi Zoboi: Fabiola and her mother leave Haiti to live with family in the US, but her mother’s soon detained by Immigration. She’s left to navigate her new home more or less alone, and is faced with a hard bargain when the opportunity to get her mum back arises. This was in the ‘3.5 star book that stays with you’ realm. Fabiola’s such a sweetheart and having a character draw strength from spirituality is so refreshing, especially when contrasted with the world around her. Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Simon’s a high-school kid in the closet but he finds himself on the receiving end of a blackmail threat when emails he sends fall into the wrong hands. The story follows his growing relationship with Blue, who he only contacts through emails, while trying to not get his ass exposed by his blackmailer, dealing with increasingly complicated friendship dynamics etc. It’s a really solid, sweet book and I caught it soon before I watched the movie. My final take is that the pop culture references can be a bit much sometimes but really, I also willingly read Shakespeare so I don’t have any grounds to complain. Zeroes trilogy by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti: Six teens have six different powers but they're certainly not heroes and they're definitely not using these powers for good. (To be fair, not evil either - just a bunch of self-serving bastards trying to get themselves out of hot water.) It turns out my ideal book has an ensemble cast of teens who don't get along but are forced to work together - essentially, high school group work but higher stakes. Star of Deltora series by Emily Rodda: Britta enters a trading voyage competition to try and win back the ship her universally-hated dad lost after he abandoned their family. Things quickly go south as it becomes clear every player on the ship’s got their own intentions and the ship itself seems like it’s cursed. I didn't have time to read the first three before the last book came out so I finally got around to the whole quartet this year and I don’t regret a thing. Rodda outdoes herself with her characters and plots again and again and I’d straight up die for Jewel and Sky.

July-September

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid: Reclusive Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo is ready to open up about her decades-long, scandalous career and the seven husbands along the way. She picks unknown journalist Monique Grant for the task and no-one’s more confused than Monique herself. I took a chance on this book, not expecting to even finish it, but it came out to be one of my top three 2018 books so? I love everything about this book and can’t recommend it enough. Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve: After a war wipes out civilisation as we know it, humanity rebuilds, with a significant chunk doing so on roving cities that ‘eat’ other cities. (Yes, they also shit waste.) Hester gets herself on the traction city London seeking revenge on the man who killed her mum, but before she can get properly stabby she’s stopped by Tom. Both are soon stranded outside of London and Tom’s dragged along for the revenge ride that takes a quick dive into joining what he always believed was a terrorist organisation. Yall this was so fun. I love that Hester’s not a good person and she doesn’t even always try, and that Tom needs to deal with his whole world being flipped upside-down in about half a minute and struggles every step of the way. Also Anna Fang big time heart eyes emoji. His Name Was Walter by Emily Rodda: A boy called Walter grew up with nothing but his own name. His story is recorded in a long-forgotten hand-written book in a haunted house, never read until four teens and their teacher find it and read it through for the first time. Firstly I really love covers with little illustrations of objects relevant to the story - ‘Oh the chandelier! Hey there’s the cat! The roses! Oh my GOD what’s the knife going to be for?!’ Other than that, this was pretty different to a lot of other Rodda books I’ve read but it was a touching, heartbreaking read and even if I didn’t like every step it took I loved the characters and how the mysteries gradually pulled together.

October-December

The Rebirth of Rapunzel by Kate Forsyth: An exploration of the history of the Rapunzel fairy tale, following its possible inception through different cultures, centuries and popular adaptations. Forsyth wrote a Rapunzel retelling herself, Bitter Greens, and the book often breaks down her decision making process for the novel after exploring the roots and effects of key elements in the fairy tale. (This does mean, of course, that if you read this first you will know #everything about the novel, but I didn’t realise at the time lmao.) A very different book from what I usually read but still very interesting. I’d only wish she went into Barbie as Rapunzel but she had a word limit to stick to so! Night Flights by Philip Reeve: When I first watched the Mortal Engines trailer my heart was stolen by the cool lady in the red coat who built her own ship, and when I first read the book it was stolen further by Anna Fang Big Time Heart Eyes Emoji. I poked around a little and found out Reeve was releasing three whole ass Anna Fang short stories before the movie was released so of course I borrowed it. Under the Udala Trees by Chinelo Okparanta: The quote on the cover said this book was 'utterly heartbreaking' and that was exactly it. A coming of age story set against the Nigerian Civil War and a girl's struggle with her sexuality in an unforgiving world and family. I could see myself in almost her exact situation with my family, down to the yearning for an approval you know you'll never get and a bittersweet ending that isn't entirely happy. I do wish the ending felt less rushed but the rest of the story was as phenomenal and heartbreaking as promised. I think it's one of those books that benefits greatly from the reader bringing their own experience into it - and the author's bio says she wrote this story partly to give hope to lgbt Nigerians, so I see why she wrote it this way. The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie: Lesbian pirates and sea monsters. That's enough to put it in any top five list was far as I'm concerned but ANYWAY. Cas is on her first solo mission escorting a cruise ship with the help of a giant murder turtle but the pirates she's supposed to be protecting the ship from take over, and now she needs to figure out how to live among pirates while rearing her own sea monster pup. I think this would’ve benefited from being longer and going into more detail of the world and some quieter scenes between the more intense ones. But it's been weeks and I'm still thinking about this duology. It's an absolute travesty the fandom's effectively non-existent.