#if anyone's curious for some reason the way hedgehogs actually fight as they try to flip each other

[rodent--quinn-queen--posts]

So I haven't had the opportunity to watch Deadpool 3 and won't have it for quite a bit however going by what I hear about the movie from the people of Tumblr

I can't help but think of this one time me and my mom were watching the hedgehogs that like to come to our yard to steal cat food

And my mom said "hey, come look two of them are fighting... Hmmm. they're fighting kind of oddly". to which I just looked at her and said "mum, I don't think they're fighting... I think they're fucking" they were not in fact fighting

Anyway that's the vibe I'm getting from the way you're describing the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie did I get it right??

[lovee-infected]

hi! could i see your insights about ace? i saw a anon say from another blog that kinda has unrealistic expectations in a relationship and it kinda stuck with me. i mean in his ghost marriage he already knows the things he wants in a partner but he didn't show guilt about dumping his girlfriend, even. i think if you date him because he sees these quality in you and as the relationship last, he'll dump you if you get boring to him lol

I never thought that I'd say this but, wow, I'm impressed. I've been really curious about Ace since I get to see a variety of different content with different representations of his personality, so I decided to stick with his canon stories and lines. This analysis was so much fun to write and I'd assure you all that not only Ace but rather all of the first year characters are WAY more than they seem to be! Many just decide to ignore them and pass away, calling them good boys or precious stupid beanies at first.

Speaking of Ace, we've all seen how trending he's been recently. Many theories, thoughts and new arguments exist through the fandom as many want to get to know this boy better.

Theories like "Ace's betrayal theory" as well have been mentioned a lot lately, some agree and some disagree. While we aren't going to talk about that theory or any other theories in this analysis, I'd like to take time to talk about the reasons why those theories might seem appealing and accurate. In other words, we're going to talk about where they are coming from!

1) Ace is incredibly smart and brave

It's true that characters like Jade or Azul's remarkable genius often stands out as it's clearly visible through their presence in the game, from iconic decisions to stunning strategies. But what we need to realize is how characters like Ace can be just as inspiring while their true intelligence is often shallowed by extras and giving them much of a dumb picture in the game.

To begin with, let us note that Ace's brother himself was one of the considerably strong magicians in Heartslabyul's history and even his presence through the magicshift is still remarkable even though years has passed. As the second child of the family, Ace's change to achieve success is even higher than his brother's as he already has a role model he really looks up to, so in that point Ace isn't one to underestimate. But, let me point that his relationship with his brother also contains lots of jealousy and sometimes negativity. His brother was one to always trick Ace and he continues to do so even nowadays! Ace on the other hand doesn't enjoy being pissed off over and over even as he's used to it. Well, we can say that it's another reason for him to train his hardest and become a greater magician than his brother therefore he won't be the bully material of the Trappola household anymore.

Regardless of how effective his brother might've been on him, Ace himself has shown plenty of strong hints that reveal not only his high IQ but also EQ:

He can solve math problems in second, which is a rather important feature to note because the way you deal with math can directly effect the way you deal with life. Not saying that one has to be great at math to be great at something else but it's rather about the perspective and ability of logical thinking that it gives to one. I'd say that this effect is quite visible if you take a look at the way he speaks in serious situations; he's got much of an analytical brain. Let's not forget that Cater as well confirmed that he's much of a skill stealer, is pretty good at remembering things and is a quick thinker! These are go on to show how much of an underestimated genius he is.

Whenever something goes wrong, Ace would be the first one to notice it even if it's a silly matter. And it always begins with a seemingly childish argument, but ends incrucial matters that not a single soul had noticed before! Just take a look at chapter one, what would've happened if Ace hadn't spoken up? He was just one of the hundreds of students having to be severely punished under Riddle's strict rules and he surely wasn't the first one to go through this. Him taking the urge to fight Riddle sounded stupid and naïve at first, many even told him off because he was just acting like a pissed off child. But as he continued to argue and oppose toward Riddle's way as a leader, even Trey realized how he's been keeping his eye shut on all this problems for so long. The way Ace stood against Trey was iconic, he confidently defended his point not by his personal demands and feelings but with facts and logical comments on why Trey's way of threatening Riddle is wrong. He did the same thing again at he ghost marriage, just think of it! Not a single soul ever cared to tell the bride about true love but Ace was there, and he was the one and only to do this after more than 500 years of the bride's existence! This Ace, this serious and mature face of Ace is something that can surely fascinate anyone. His bravery, the way he puts all that strength through words, hisextremely logical point of view and his enthusiasm to solve the problems no matter how unimportant they seem to be is indeed appreciatble. Seriously though, what would've happened to Riddle is Ace wasn't there? When Ace firstly begun to oppose to him, everyone thought that is was just a childish argument. They had no idea how severe and destructive Riddle's temper issues were and how harmful they were down inside.

2) He's one of the dumbest characters in the whole game

You know what? He is dumb. Yes he's incredibly smart but this isn't going to change the fact that he is dumb as hell, so I'm never going to argue when someone's nagging on how much of an idiot he is. But most importantly, we need to know what's making him so dumb:

His presence through the stories has proved that Ace is eventually pretty good at detecting the main source of problems both on the mental and physical side. He was the first to realize Riddle's issues, Trey's huge mistake with Riddle, Ghost bride's unawareness and Epel's gloomy and sad aura in chapter 4. Ace's also one to easily tell whether what someone is doing is wrong or not, he can see through people and bring their mistakes to their attention. The problem is... he can't be quite the same with himself. That's what makes him awfully dumb.

Back in chapter one, he did have a point about Riddle's way of leadership being so unfair and messed up, but when he decided to challenge Riddle and even take his place as the dorm leader he was a total idiot who didn't how weak and unpractical his own magic was, he was being too dramatic. When he talked about his ex girlfriend, he just talked about how she held him back from doing what he wanted and was too uncool to spend time with, but he didn't mention a single thing about himself doing anything wrong in that relationship. He often fails to realize that he's got his own incompleteness and lacks just like anyone else, or prefers to put an blind eye to them most of the time (not all of the time)

Ace sets the perfect goals, but chooses the wrong path to achieve them. He needs to realize that just like everyone else, he can be sometimes wrong. He should take his time to get to know himself better; his abilities, his attitude, his faults and his mistakes and learn to be more patient and logical in order to achieve his goals. He's still young an inexperienced, by learning to put that brilliance of him into the perfect use he'd be able to become the great magician he wishes to be, and I'd say that in case that he continues to grow stronger and smarter, he'll have a high chance of being hesrtslabyul's next dorm leader!

3) He legit wants to be the "Ace"

This part's more of an attempt to do a name analyis and see how much it's been effective on Ace's personality. It actually makes a lot of snese since the word "Ace" itself has several meanings, and he used these different terms quite a few times in his personal stories. This point would also be explained in part (4) so for now, let's take a look at direct name definitions:

First of, remember what what an Ace is in a card game? "A playing card with a simple spot on it, ranked as the highest card in its suit" This goes on to tell us a lot, it's telling us what an Ace is. A loner yet the most powerful one of its own, just like how Ace wants to be.

Wanting to be an actuall Ace is definitely one of the things that sometimes makes Ace sound so jerky and he's aware of it! If you give it a closer look, you'll see that Ace doesn't really treat his friends like friends, especially with Deuce and Grim. He's often insulting or challenging them, and even during his birthday SSR when MC asked him about what he thinks of each of other first years (Who are basically his closest friends) he mainly criticized them and all, not a single word was said about things he likes about them and he didn't even call any of them his friend!

Well that's much of a jerky attitude to have toward people whom you spend almost all of your time with, especially your best of time.

He to play the role of the bad guy, the type to hang out with everyone without feeling any attached to them as even friends. Seems like our boy is trying to be a loner, a true Ace of cards and hearts. And he doesn't mind his friends calling him a bastard or jerk because of this. It's even confirmed that he's more of the popular guy type therefore he's mainly used to having people around!

On the other hand, he's trying his best to achieve success no matter what the obstacles are. It's true that he often messes up and fails, but we cannot say that he isn't trying. He almost lost his head for real during his SSR story where Riddle's favorite hedgehogs were lost because of Ace's impatience, but at last with the help of monsieur Rook and his own ability to imitate Rook's mole language skills Ace saved his neck one more time, and ended his story with a dramatic "Of course, I always Ace it!"

4) Ace does care, but pretends that he does not

In contrast to the fact that he wants to sound tricky,manipulative and mean, or how he's denying his friends' true worth to him like stated in part (3), Ace is probably one of the most caring and supportive characters in the game. Not saying that he's just as bright as someone like Kalim, but his way of seeing through people and wishing them to be better, wealthier and happier than they already are is surely something. This fact is often ignored because, well...everyone's too busy calling him either dumb or sus/ jk!

Just imagine having a friend or at least, a classmate you know like Ace. How's he supposed to be? He'd realize it when someone's bullying/bothering/ or intentionally harming you, and he isn't going to be silent about it. If you see that you're permanently sad, angry, rude or loud then again he'd speak up, he isn't going to just pull up with anyone's unhealthy habit like nothing's happened. He's got much of a big brain as well so you should expect him to say a bunch of helpful and meaningful stuff when he's using that brain, mainly in serious situations. He may not be a permanently mutual to have around, but when the troubles arrive, know that having Ace around is always an advantage.

To top it off, he's even shown sympathy toward people whom he seemed to like the least at first like Riddle; he wishes Riddle to be happier, to smile more, to be more open about his emotions with other students. At some point he even admits that he looks up to him, he used to overestimate his powers and challenged Riddle, but during the ghost marriage he said that he knows how powerful and strong Riddle is, therefore he should work his hardest to study and train to become strong just like him! He already seems to be more cheerful and bright when MC is talking to him, but when it comes to Grim and Deuce...it gets quite complicated. What we see the most is often Ace insulting them or saying that he's going to kick their asses, but they're also his closest friends all though he refuses to admit to it.

Just wait for Deuce or Grim to get in a serious danger or pain, and see how much of a protective one Ace can be! He isn't going to remain silent when one is in danger, but he's surely going to deny all that effort and affection he gave into action afterwards. When Ace can feel this cautious and understanding toward Riddle, someone who isn't even a friend of his then imagine how supportive and caring he would be toward his close friends like Deuce, MC and Grim!

In his ghost marriage as well, his words and the way he spoke of the meaning of true love left everyone, even Crowley, impressed (Crowley even said that he's fallen in love with this side of Ace's personality), but refused to admit that he was speaking of his true feelings after the ceremony. Someone like Grim is too bold to recognize how much of a different person Ace can be inside, so he claimed that Ace was just rambling nonsense without thinking of what he was saying back then, and Ace agreed with him! This is a continuation to part (3) where we talked about how he wants to be a loner, he doesn't want anyone to see how caring and sometimes, emotional he can be inside! Poor boy is quite shy showing his true feelings we can tell~

5) Ace can be quite tricky and manipulative

This part will also explain some of the main reasons behind famous theories like "Ace's betrayal theory", and I wanted to have a certain part to talk about this point specifically because it's been quite trending through the whole fandom, and many are wondering why theorizers are considering his betrayal a possibility, so here we go!

As said, one of the main factors the makes Ace seem suspicious would be his incredible intelligence. The fact that he can actually be that smart all the time but isn't openly showing his talents and abilities can be quite questionable, more details regarding his intelligence and most likely high IQ and EQ were discussed in part (1)!

Enough with intelligence, let's focus on his personality! This is mainly what this part is talking about, his trickiness. Just like his father and older brother, Ace is pretty good with magic tricks. Small and fun tricks are a convenient yet easy ways to inspire others and Ace doesn't mind showing the crowd what he's got up in sleeve when possible. But the thing is...this isn't just about fancy tricks.

This ability can be expanded into any other field such as mental terms and enable him to indirectly control and play with one's mind. That's more of a possibility though! He hasn't yet shown any signs of being any manipulative but, well, we can't say that it's beyond his abilities. Ace himself can be quite sarcastic and mean at the time, he doesn't seem to mind slightly tricking his friends either. Nothing about him seems to be serious, but the possibilities remain still.

The way he learnt those tricks as well is mentionable; no one ever teached himm any of those tricks, he learnt them through being repeatedly tricked, and learning to copy and redo what he saw. Both Rook and Cater so far have confirmed that Ace's ability to learn so quickly and learn and redo techniques just by watching them is fantastic.

His genius and ability to learn and memorize everything that he needs to learn pretty fast, along side his tricky and sometimes personality can make Ace quite dangerous. If someone like him decides to choose such a remarkable talent for evil purposes, that's surely going to be bad news. That's much and less of what makes Ace's betrayal theory make sense although there're still fans who find it quite questionable. I'm not a supporter of this theory myself as I hadn't seen any signs of Ace having any bad intentions so far, but I do get where the theorizers are coming from and that makes sense. Ace has been trying to put on much of a mean and lowkey evil face on through the story and no one can really say what's exactly going on in that brain. We'll that about this uncertainty in part (7)!

6) His past relationship was...uh

For now, Ace is the only character who is confirmed to have experience in love and relationships, and this was a rather effective factor since many have been talking about Ace's past relationship afterwards. The thing is...Ace did talk about how his girlfriend held him back from having fun and living the life he wanted to live. Well there's actually a lot we should say about this one so I'm not gonna rush to the end, let's think about all of the aspects of this situation logically:

First of, the relationship itself. I'd say that it was a wrong attempt for them to date each other in the first place because obviously, Ace and his girlfriend weren't made for each other. They were total opposites in interests and they couldn't even have fun together. If Ace chose to go on a wild roller coater ride, the girl would've freaked out and when she chose a small, childish ride that she liked Ace instead didn't enjoy it at all. It's surely an issue when you and your partner can't even watch a movie which both of you can enjoy together since their tastes were totally different, just jow was this relationship going to last? Ace wasn't happy, and if he was going to do what made him happy the girl in return would've been sad. They were two different people of two different points, dating at this point was nothing but a mistake.

On the other hand, Ace as well is guilty. First off, she shouldn't have dated the girl in the first place if he was aware of how different her tastes were. Second, from what he said he never showed any signs of dissatisfaction when he had to give up on what he liked to listen to what the girl friend liked. The girl friend obviously told him that she was scared of a horror movie, but Ace just kept his mouth shut and felt awfully annoyed as he watched a romance movie with her while he didn't like it at all. If he'd at least told her girlfriend about this, she wouldn't have felt as injured and cheated when Ace broke up with her. Ace shouldn't have bottled it up, he deserved to enjoy the relationship just as much as the girl did. He shouldn't have expected things to get any better if he wasn't going to solve anything about it in the first place. If he'd talked about his personal desires and favorites as well, and had his uncomfortableness with most of the girl's choices discussed before hand, there could've been a chance of them coming into a conclusion and even not breaking up! The girl could've tried to be braver for him, and Ace could've agreed to be softer because of her. There would've been a HUGE difference if they'd talked about it logically.

Also, keep this in mind that the girl had no idea about Ace's uncomfortableness which was low key naïve of her (It's not cool when you don't even realize that your boyfriend doesn't like something) but this also made him awfully unprepared for a break up! Ace should've st least talked about his feelings and how he was unable to continue that relationship with her instead of just dropping her out of nowhere. That would've also decreased the chance of having to deal with the girl's friends after wards!

Finally, let's say that this relationship was wrong in too many aspects. They weren't each other's type, and we can't really blame Ace for dropping someone whom he couldn't be happy with. The main of being in a relationship is spending time with someone whom you can enjoy your time with. He as well was guilty because he can't just drop the girl like he just didn't care and had gotten tired of her while he had his own reasons for dropping her, he should've let the girl know that it wasn't necessarily her fault, it was about Ace not being able to relate to her tastes and habits.

Also, let's be honest. Not much is expected when a 15 year old is dating. Being in a relationship is an awfully sensitive and important choice and someone like Ace hasn't reached that level of maturity to be ready to date someone, let alone doing it at his 15s! Honestly... they should've learnt a lot before dating each other because it isn't a silly thing. Dating like this is nothing but playing around for a while for fun, it's a childish game of spending some time together until they break up.

For now, Ace is finds love quite silly and meaningless so we can clearly see that his past relationship has pissed him off. Well Ace needs to realize that his relationship with his ex wasn't a serious one, so it's normal for it to seem unimportant and silly. He needs to learn a lot without dating someone again, such as knowing how crucial it is to make sure that his hobbies would match his partners, to make sure tjat they get along, and simply, he needs to find his own type! Not all people are made for each other, and he isn't supposed to fall for anyone with any possible personality that pops up on his way.

Also, I'd say that he still needs to focus on studying instead of dating. He needs to reach the required level of maturity to be ready to start a healthy and successful relationship again. Also, he might end up being totally different from what we've seen about him being in a relationship do far when he grows up! Idealistics do change a lot olin teenagehood.

7) We need to talk about our first years a lot more!!!

This point isn't just about him, but rather all of the first years! If I were to rate the most ignored and shallowed personalities of twst, the first years should've gone on the top of this list. Even when we're speaking of the mischaracterized characters of the game, many consider Ace and Deuce to be the least mischaracterized while they happen to be the most mischaracterized as no one evencares to see through them and feel like we aren't mischaracterizing them just because we're ignoring them! Come on guys, Ace's design and personality is a lot more complicated and harder to read than characters like Vil and even Leona!

Out of all first years Sebek was the only one to get some proper shout outs so far but why isn't anyone talking about Ace and Deuce the way they deserve to be talked about? Their presence through the game is even more important than the dorm leaders as they are the closest characters to MC, and their personality design is just incredible, no just because of how perfectly detailed it is, but also because of giving them this unpredictability and incompleteness which totally matches their age!

Studies have shown that judging one's personality based on how they're doing at the age of 16 or younger is prettyhard and impossible, and it's a totally serious fact. At the age of 16, human's personality is under severe effects and changes until reaching it's final-developed shape. That's accurate toward almost all of the first years except Jack since he seems to have more of a mature personality.

NRC's first years are really complicated, especially a character like Ace. That why I said that we can't yet tell if he's a good guy or not, because at this level of life he can choose to be anything. He can be good, he can be bad, he can be neutral. That's why he's showing too much of opposite actions at the moment. One second he's being the biggest idiot in the whole world, the other second he's planning like a 50 year old genius. One second he's being protective over his friends, the other second he sighs and tells MC how annoying they are.

That's why Ace is hard to read, we can't tell what his true feelings are until he reaches the required mental stability to be judged as a mature and complete personality. 18 year olds like Vil have already reached that level of maturity and completeness, finding their unique magics as well is another sign of it. But our first years still need to learn and experience until they find their real selves, to see who they are.

This is one of the most adorable facts about their design because they really gave him this young and wild and incomplete nature to show that they're still young! This is quite incredible how careful Yana was to remember that they all needed some this childishness in their design, their designs are just as accurate and realistic as a real 16 year old's! They still need to learn, and that's why they're the closest ones to MC.

MC needs to learn and get to see more and more of this world, and so do the first years! They're just as unexperienced and new to this world, and they can relate to MC better than anyone else can!

So please, from now on, let's remember to talk about not only Ace, but also all of the first years more often. Ace and Deuce's designs especially are the most detailed and beautiful ones if you take time to know them better. Remember that after the 7 dorm leaders, Ace and Deuce's roles as the protagonist's closest allies are the most crucial in the game, so let's not just decide to ignore all these creative features and pass by them without thinking how much they can mean.

Woah, this one was quite harder to write than I'd expected! There are way too many things to say about him which made me have to summarize this into just this 7 parts for now. Ace is surely and odd yet interesting one to study, even more interesting than usually famous characters like Leona and Azul, which is partly because of how unpredictable he is!

[ninjakasuga]

Sonally Week Year 3 Day One

Another year, another of @gojira007 and their blog @boundforfreedomsonsal hosting another week of one of the best OTP’s of fiction. Here’s my entry for Day One: Dawn.

Foreward: Another year; another Sonally Week! Here’s my entry for Day One, and hope ya’all enjoy. This one is a sequel of sorts to my “Surprise” Day entry last year, where after some heckling over certain aspects of his romance with Sally; Sonic gets the news he’s gonna be a big brother! Instead of a literally dawn I decided to do a more thematic ‘dawn of a new part of life’ aspect than the actual time of day.

“Sonic.”

The blue furred Hedgehog in question continued to pace the floor, seeming to either not hear, or simply not regard the call of his name. He stopped, but not to reply, and began to tap his foot repeatedly as he often did in a show of impatience. Soon he was pacing yet again, causing the one trying to get his attention to sigh in exasperation, again.

“Sonic!” Raising her voice, just-oh-so-slightly, Sally again, attempted to get the attention of her fiancé’ this time reaching out and managing to grasp his tail and give it a small yank. Probably not the best thing for Sonic’s pride as he let out the cutest squeak in response, but Sally didn’t mind. Smiling coyly yet with a hint of apology in her eyes as he turned to face her, she reached for his arm, softly rubbing it. “Calm down a bit hun, you’re going to wear the floor out.” Rubbing his slightly sore posterior, Sonic gave his beloved a mild glare that softened almost as soon as it appeared; agitation giving way to the concern plaguing him. “Sorry Sal, it’s just, well it’s been over an hour since the expected due date. What���s the hold up?”

A voice quips from a chair along the opposite side of the waiting room from Sonic and Sally. “Well that’s how labor sometimes goes Sonny-boy. I mean you didn’t exactly pop out as soon as your Ma’s water broke. Slow-going was the name of the game.” Chuckled Charles Hedgehog, finding much amusement in his nephew’s impatience. An impatience he very much empathized with, but knew better than to get too riled up at this point. “So an hour past when the doctor expects the babies to come is small change, especially compared to how you made everyone wait a whole ten hours and ninety-one minutes before you finally graced us with your presence.”

Sitting besides Charles, Rosie Woodchuck let out her own dainty but hearty giggle as she reached to give the silver-furred Hedgehog a gentle squeeze of his hand. “Oh the language coming out of that room. We both feared for your brother’s manlihood if not his existence.”

“I wasn’t that hard on Mom was I?” Inquired Sonic with genuine curiosity mixed with a mild hint of indignity. His gaze only half-way went to his Uncle and Rosie; mainly because he still found it weird they were dating. Correction had been dating on the down-low since, well, a long time with the two only having a ‘break’ when he’d been roboticized all those years. He was genuinely happy for them, but it was still just plain weird to him.

“I think pregnancy is hard for any woman the first time around, or so I read and was told.” Mused Sally as she gently pulled Sonic to sit beside her, rubbing his quills to both straighten them out, and to soothe his nerves. Not unlike Sonic she was still processing the semi-recent revelation that her beloved former Nanny and Sir Charles had been dating under everyone’s noses for so long. Then again should she be surprised? Both were rather private people about their personal lives outside of whatever they did with friends and family. Not to mention the true reason they kept it quiet back in the day had more to do with concerns their positions in the Royal Court would cause unrest for some if their more intimate relationship came to light.

Looking toward Rosie, Sally was now curious about her own birth given the topic. “Were Elias or I rough on Mother?”

Rosie shook her head, “Not really, Elias took some time, but your dear Mother thankfully did not have too rough a time of it. Her calm demeanor kept up even dealing with labor pains, and the end result more than made up for it. You were much easier, as she knew what to navigate and you only took so many hours after the labor contractions began to grace us with your presence.” She smiled fondly, thinking about the two occasions, then giggled. “That said she wasn’t above occasionally reminding your Father it was his fault she was in that state, and well, that’s her story to tell more than mine.”

Snickering, Sally looked at Sonic with a very straight face, barely keeping a grin from forming. “I promise if we have kids, not to threaten your masculinity. That said, I will probably get my vengeance some other way.”

Lifting an eyebrow, Sonic elbowed his girlfriend-now-fiance’ gently in the arm. “Oh reeeeeeeally? Well you gotta catch me first Sal.”

“I already did.” She murmured, leaning in to kiss his cheek as she laced her fingers with his.

“Got me there,” Relenting, Sonic returned the smile, as well as the kiss, planting it on her fluffy cheek before leaning back in his seat. His concern for his Mother and his impending siblings, slightly alleviated for the time being.

The elder couple shared a look, one they had often shared when they were witness to the dear love and devotion between Sally and Sonic. From children to adults, the two always seemed to be a pair they fit so well, it was clear as day even when they were in diapers or arguing up a storm as toddlers, to their teen years. The small things in life that made all the gloom and doom of the past decade and some odd-change worth living for. Soon everyone’s heard turns as the double-door leading to the maternity ward opened and Doctor Quack limped out, leaning on his cane carefully, but with a confident stride; showcasing he’d come to master the walking tool quite well.

“Well-?!”

Holding up his free hand, both to interrupt as well as allow Quack to pull down his mask, his bill forming into a smile. “Your newborn sister and brother are here, healthy and loud, and your Mother is doing very well herself.”

The four cheer as they stand up, mindful this was still a hospital and kept it down, but their jubilation was completely understood.

“Can we see them?” Asked Sonic, already antsy and looking ready to speed down the corridor.

“Yes, we’ve already handled all the post-birth clean up, and checked their vitals as well as Bernie’s, who herself wishes to see you all as well. So I see no issue with allowing visitation right away, but do keep it brief, they do need their rest.” Advised the water-foul doctor as he kept himself straight, if just to fight off his own fatigue which was now creeping up after the long labor. “Just NO running Sonic, got it?”

At the mild admonishment, the Hedgehog simply grinned. “Me? Run through a hospital? Would I do thaaaaaaaaaaaat?”

“Yes, you would.” Everyone else remarked with amazing timing and matching deadpan. To which Sonic rolled his eyes.

“Sheesh, talk about a crowd! Anyway let’s go, let’s go!” Sonic urged, already half-dragging Sally along, forcing his beloved to keep in rapid pace close to him as they held hands still. Sally simply went with it, laughing softly at Sonic’s outright adorable impulsive need to see his new siblings. Chuck and Rosie merely followed at their pace, but there was certainly a spring in their step as well.

Eventually the group, along with Doctor Quack, reach the room designated for Bernie and her newborns. Managing to keep Sonic at bay enough, Quack pushed the door open for them and cleared his throat. “Jules, Bernie, your guests have arrived.”

Like an impatient puppy, Sonic squeezed past Quack, Sally trailing hand-in-hand still from behind. His emerald-green eyes, zeroing-in on the target, even as his breath hitched softly as a wave of emotion floored Sonic as he finally gazed upon his Mother and new siblings. As tired as Bernie Hedgehog looked, nothing could dull the intense love and adoration in her eyes and face as she held two swaddled bundles in her arms. Her husband Jules’ own expression was a mirror of his wife’s, only tinged with the pride only a Father can know. Each look up their expressions beaming more at the sight of their eldest child, with Jules instantly waving him over.

“Hey there son, come say hi to your baby brother and sister!”

Noticing that Sally seemed a bit frozen, Sally found back a ‘snerk’ that wanted to come out, and simply pulled him along. Upon seeing the two infants, mewling and cooing, her own eyes mist. “Awww, they’re adorable!”

“Y-yeah they are…” Sonic managed a dry chuckle,  why did his throat feel so dry? He’d been psyched for this ever since his Mom laid the bombshell she was pregnant nine months ago! Of all the times for Sonic the Hedgehog to choke and lose his cool, it’s this? He didn’t lose his cool this much, asking Sally to marry him for Almighty’s sake! Leaning over he got a much better look at the two.

One of the two clearly favored their Mother’s more light-purple coat, another had the milder-blue of his Father. Both were cute as a button, and just, the sounds they made! Sonic usually wasn’t one to obsess over cute things, but he was entranced. “So we got names for these two? Or do I call em’ Li’ Sib one, and two?”

“We were thinking of Sonia, for this little angel.” Explained Bernie as she gently pet the back of her daughter’s head. The newborn curled against the warm hand that carried the scent of her Mother. “As for this handsome young man, I was thinking of something with M, like Manwell or Manny.”

“If he’s anything like Sonny-boy he’ll be one manic child.” Chuckled Charles as he and Rosie moved closer taking the end of the bed so as to not crowd anyone.

Something about that line struck a chord with Jules, who instantly adopted a thoughtful look as he rubbed his chin. “Manic, manic, why not Manic?” He grinned even as his wife looked at him rather funny. “Face it hun, if Sonic’s any indication, these two are going to be spirited, and it kind of goes well don’t you think?”

After a moment, Bernie tired rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she however smiled, “Manic it is. However if that name causes him woe, I’ll be sure he knows he has you to blame.”

“Anybody gives him or Sonia woe I’mma deck em’.” Sonic proclaimed, pounding his fists together.

“Nor alone,” Agreed Sally as she leaned against him. They weren’t her siblings biologically, but already she had decided she would help protect them at all cost.

“Triple, and quadruple so.” Added Rosie, who nodded along with Charles. The family was united on this front.

“Fantastic.” Giggling, Bernie kissed the heads of her newborns. “Hear that, your family is ready to murder for you.”

“You all can plot future murder later, as much as I hate to spoil the moment, Mother and both newborns need rest.” Spoke up Quack as he stood at the door, keeping silent until now.

Yawning, Bernie nodded in agreement, she was drained. Her gaze lifted to her husband. “You get some rest too, you’ve been up with me through all this.”

“I didn’t do even a fraction of the work; but, rest sounds good.” He yawned, quickly covering his mouth. “Mind if I just crash here Doc?”

“I’ve already asked an orderly to bring a rollaway for you. I know better.” Smiled the duck-doctor in a knowing fashion. “Now come now everyone, time to go.”

Looking at his parents, Sonic instantly stated. “We’ll visit tomorrow, promise.”

“Looking forward to it son, looking forward to it.”

Giving his siblings one last look, Sonic smiled and winked at the two infants. “Welcome to the world you two, hopefully by the time you can talk and explore the world there’ll be one last fat-man to worry about. That’s a big-bro promise!”  

[deoovat]

Do you ship Sonknux? And if so do you have any headcannons for them? :3

oHBOY YES! Sonknux is actually my second favorite ship. 

I do have head canons! Let’s see... 

-> Knuckles actually has a very heavy reliance on Sonic when it comes to adapting to the rest of the world. 

-> Knuckles had never even thought about leaving his island ever before until he met Sonic. Sonic instilled in Knuckles some of his wonderous nature that for the first time in his life he could say... he was curious about the outside world. Knuckles had always known it existed and had visited the surface before(on very rare occasions) but Sonic made him actually want to see more of it.

-> Sonic beneath all that playful and arrogant demeanor really does care about Knuckles and pays close attention to him. 

-> Noone would think someone like Sonic could understand someone like Knuckles but Sonic spent a good amount of his first couple years befriending the echidna really trying to figure him out. Sonic can very much see past people's fronts and isn’t easily fooled. But Knuckles was hard to grasp ahold of. Once he realized how genuine Knuckles was did he realize that Knuckles wasn’t really putting up a front. He was cautious, angry, defensive, and stone-hearted for a reason. Nothing about Knuckles was an act.

-> Since Sonic can see through people pretty easily, the blue hero was the one to spot just how lonely Knuckles was far before Knuckles even came to the realization himself. Which made the blue hedgehog feel real bummed out about it. 

-> In his own way, he’d tried to barge his way into Knuckles life but was met with resistance of every kind. However, Knuckles is the one who made Sonic realize that he wasn’t being genuine to himself. Which is why Knuckles didn’t trust him for a long time. 

-> Sonic was used to being treated like a hero and welcomed everywhere with open arms. Knuckles... didn’t treat Sonic like a hero. He didn’t even know who Sonic was or what he’s done time and time again for Mobius. Which was... refreshing, for Sonic. He sort of made him grow up in a way.

-> Sonic was a hero, but when they met he was still a teenager. Who made stupid and borderline dumb decisions, bites off more than he could chew, says mean things sometimes when he didn’t mean it, and even had the occasional temper tantrum. Knuckles saw these sides of him and didn’t excuse them because he was a hero. He gave him that confrontation the blue hedgehog didn’t know he needed in his circle of friends. He could really be himself around Knuckles, with no filter and no sugar coating of his behaviors. Being around Knuckles actually gave Sonic room to reflect on himself and question some of the things he did. 

-> Knuckles respects Sonic but he doesn’t turn a blind eye to those faults. And despite fully recognizing the less admirable parts of him and letting Sonic know time and time and again just how much of a pain in the ass he is, the echidna still eventually becomes one of Sonic’s closest friends the more years they grow together. 

-> Truthfully, in these two cases, they fall for each other in very different ways. But Sonic would realize it first. 

-> Knuckles thinks Sonic is too reckless to be a hero, but he thinks Sonic’s free nature is still beautiful in all of its flaws. He’s even envious of it sometimes. Sonic turned the world he looked at with distrust that could be full of possible enemies to a world that’s full of variety and wonder. Sonic’s impact on him he believes, messes with his Guardian duties because he really does make him want to leave that island of his. A feeling the echidna never thought he’d ever EVER  be able to feel. 

-> So while Knuckles does fall in love with Sonic he doesn’t realize that what he's feeling is actually love until Sonic approaches him first about it. 

-> Sonic fell in love with Knuckles and absolutely knew it was love when it happened. Knuckles looks at him in a way no one else does and it’s always made his heart skip a beat or two. Knuckles has this genuine complexity to him that Sonic likes losing himself in. He likes getting to understand Knuckles and knowing he’s only able to do so because the echidna somehow, seems to trust him more than anyone else. He earned that. It was one of the very few things that took Sonic so long to earn that he really cherished. 

-> And not to brag, but Sonic thinks that having some stoned face, powerhouse tough guy like Knuckles, who lives in a floating paradise in the sky and would drop everything just to back him up in a fight, as a boyfriend is a fairy tale envied by MANY. 

-> Plus his boyfriend is a hot-head, and Sonic has a thing for hot-heads. He thinks Knuckles adorable when he loses his cool. 

-> In many ways this relationship can work and at the same time, can fall apart. 

-> Knuckles wouldn’t ever want to restrict Sonic of his freedom because that’s the biggest thing he loves about him. And Sonic wouldn’t ever force Knuckles to abandon the life he’s lived for so long just to run away with him. (Though it’s his wildest fantasy to be honest, Knuckles running away with him.)   

-> Their relationship requires a lot of compromises to work but as they grow together and into adulthood, they absolutely get better at it

-> They work with Tails over the years to help install some sort of security system on the island that can make it easier for Knuckles to leave it for longer periods of times. Cause honestly, going on adventures with his boyfriend his favorite thing to do.

-> And traveling becomes so much more fun and invigorating for Sonic when he has his boyfriend with him. 

-> Sonic does embarrassing little things like bring Knuckles flowers and pretending to serenade him in front of people. He’s incredibly silly with trying to play up the romance with his boyfriend but Knuckles finds his silliness endearing. 

-> Sonic is not shy about letting people know that Knuckles is his boyfriend. He does it even when it’s not necessary. Knuckles is constantly embarrassed by this but is flattered. Sonic will introduce himself to people and without any hesitation say “And this is my boyfriend, Knuckles.” Eventually, Knuckles starts doing it here and there as well. 

-> Knuckles doesn’t care what other people think but he’s a very private and quiet person and he shows his affection for the hedgehog more by taking action than using words. 

-> Sonic is always asking Knuckles about how he feels, and if he’s enjoying himself when they’re together to encourage the echidna to communicate his emotions more. Since Knuckles gets stuck in his head a lot trying to figure out how to work himself around a relationship. 

-> Knuckles is quiet but he’s very physically affectionate with Sonic.It took them a while to get to that point but while Sonic is absolutely shameless with throwing “I love yous” at him, Knuckles often responds in wholesome affectionate gestures like, kissing Sonics forehead, rubbing their noses together, holding Sonic’s hand, holding Sonics hand to his chest, etc. etc. He’s very hands-on with the blue hedgehog. 

-> Sonic doesn’t take any offense and he knows Knuckles is saying it without words... but when he does open his mouth and say the words “I love you.”, Sonic is always left red as a tomato, speechless... and shamelessly asking him to say it again. (Which of course he does.) 

-> Knuckles and Sonic are both switches so they trade roles very often depending on the mood. 

-> Sonic and Knuckles jokingly insult each other a lot but it’s all fun and games. However, if someone insults Sonic and Knuckles is there, the glare that they would receive would be strong enough to make them apologize almost immediately. 

-> Which of course the blue hero, loves. 

-> Knuckles, in all his seriousness and sincerity, has a pretty naive soul. He’s cautious for a reason after all. It’s not hard to win him over if you know what you’re doing. The echidna is torn across those lines of “Wanting to trust people” and “People are too dishonest to trust.” So Sonic is very protective of Knuckles because of how gullible he can be. He doesn’t want Knuckles to change that part of him because he feels that is what makes him, Knuckles. 

ok this got way too long I'm sorry but THESE are most of my head-canons for these two, I hope you like them! (*๓´╰╯`๓) 

[mobius-prime]

272. Sonic the Hedgehog #199

Knocking on Eggman's Door

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Matt Herms

Well, we're finally here! It's the morning of the final fight against Eggman, and the Freedom Fighters awaken to find that Rotor, unable to sleep, has set up a live feed back to their city. It seems that Sally has elected to stream the battle live back to the citizens of New Mobotropolis, which seems… excessively unwise, given that if something goes wrong you could easily be broadcasting your violent deaths to children and innocent civilians.

Eh, whatever, we all know how this is gonna go. After all, the heroes have this one in the bag! As they gear up and move out, Lien-Da instructs her troops to create a barricade to Eggman's specifications within the base, though she has little confidence in his plan.

See, this right here just sort of sets up why I think this final two-part finale to this era ends up feeling flat and devoid of any real excitement. Right off the bat, the heroes are being set up to win with little resistance. Eggman may think he has a chance against Sonic and his friends, but literally all of his subordinates are feeling disillusioned and traitorous, and actively plotting to make sure he fails. The result is that while we're curious about what exactly their plan is and who Snively is inviting over to hook up with, we already kind of know Eggman isn't gonna win this one. While we already tend to know that anyway given that an ending to a Sonic comic where Eggman wins and annihilates everyone would be horrifically opposed to everything we would expect from such a series, at least in cases like Endgame and the destruction of Knothole, there's some real tension where it really seems for a while like the heroes are screwed and Eggman is about to win everything. It makes the final payoff where the heroes overcome all obstacles and win the day that much more satisfying.

Anyway, Mighty and Bunnie use their combined super-strength to breach a hole in the front door, and the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix pour in, surprised when they find no immediate resistance waiting for them. The Freedom Fighters take one hallway while the Chaotix take another, clearing out all routes to the center of the Eggdome and planning to meet up further in. While the Freedom Fighters punch their way through the Legionnaires in their way, they cheerfully reminisce about the last time they had a big showdown with a Robotnik, bantering back and forth about their roles in Endgame.

Wow, I actually think that's the first time the comic has even acknowledged Sally's coma at all ever since it happened. Fun times, huh? On the Chaotix side of things, Vector and Julie-Su end up bickering a bit only to then save each other simultaneously from sneak attacks by a couple of Legionnaires, at which point they curtly agree to never speak of this again as they don't want anyone finding out they actually do like and respect each other. They get deeper into the base, and Julie-Su becomes briefly concerned about Knuckles' state of mind as she's worried he may be feeling that old guilt again about fighting members of his own species, but Knuckles reassures her that he's fine and that he feels they need to stop them from working with Eggman for their own good. However, they suddenly find their way blocked by Dimitri, who's using his tentacle-dreadlock-things to bar the door they need to get through. Further into the Eggdome, Lien-Da reports her troops "losing on schedule" and awaits further orders, but then nearly begins puking when she smells something awful, which turns out to be cologne that Snively has received from his new beau. He mocks her for not appreciating the scent before ordering her to move on to phase two, blaming her species for being the reason she doesn't like the smell. That would definitely seem to indicate, then, that his new girlfriend is human and not Mobian. The Freedom Fighters, who have ended up pinned down at the end of a hallway, are trying to come up with a plan to bust through the group of Legionnaires up ahead when out of nowhere they retreat, much to the heroes' surprise. At the same time, Knuckles, Julie-Su and Vector all confront Dimitri in their own hallway.

You know, at this point, it's definitely feeling like Dimitri is coming back around to not being such a bad guy after all. Ultimately, he cares more about protecting his people than anything else, and is looking for any way out of his current sticky situation with Eggman, which he believes allying with Snively will help him with. The two invading teams finally meet up at a central door, which has been thoroughly blockaded save for a small hole just big enough for a spindashing Sonic. Both sides discuss how the entire invasion feels too easy, and become very suspicious about the hole, reasoning that it's meant to simultaneously draw them into a bottleneck for easy pickings, as well as let Sonic through for a one-on-one showdown against Eggman. Sonic immediately announces he's taking the bait, and when the others ask him if he's crazy he points out that their only other option is to waste all their time and energy taking down the barrier, which would just give Eggman a chance to regroup or escape. They agree that he'll go on ahead and they'll provide backup as soon as they can break through the wall, and after a few tearful words of encouragement, including an emotional embrace from Sally, he zips through the hole and lands in the middle of a very strange scene on the other side.

Sonic, of course, has no idea what's actually going on, as Snively and Lien-Da watch through hidden cameras along his route. Snively orders Lien-Da to ensure her Legionnaires hold back Sonic's friends until he's sealed into the final arena with Eggman, before preparing for himself and Dimitri to head to the landing pad on the roof of the Eggdome to meet up with his mysterious new girlfriend. Sonic enters the chamber, the doors slam shut behind him, and he faces down Eggman inside a giant mechanical spider, ready for the final epic showdown.

[vestigialtext]

Euphorroria

[TW suicide, self-harm] 

Imagine you turn around there’s suddenly a perfectly circular swirling hole open in the floor, emanating a hazy purple glow and a kind of pulsing, reverb-drenched celestial siren song, like the single sickest shoegaze riff you’ve ever heard.

You think, huh, wow, that’s a pretty weird trip-hazard, and erect some cordons to stop anyone falling in. But you become fixated on the hole, staring in unblinking for hours. It’s curious, it’s beautiful, it’s sonically enchanting, it’s perfumed with a kind of partially floral, partially cardomomic, partially metallic scent which just encroaches on the sickly-sweet – but you still want a taste.

The hole, as it happens, is a portal to insanity.

This is how I experience hypomania; standing steady-of-foot behind the barrier, gazing at wonder to the insanity, hearing its call but keeping a safe distance.

Mania would see me leap the barrier, approach too close, and invariably slip in screaming.

Psychosis, meanwhile, would see me fall in, try to either fight it or fuck it, turn it inside out and prolapse it back through into rational reality, the fabric of which world begin to collapse as internal and external landscapes collide and splinter into one and other and I approach self-oblivion.

A full psychotic break has only happened twice in my lifetime, and frankly I’m lucky to be here writing this drivel – my second episode, nearly a decade ago, almost killed me and left me with almost impossible-to-comprehend scars I’ll bear for the rest of my life, scars invisible to the observer but forever altering my perception of the world, scars I’ve made peace with but which continue to niggle every day. Without getting deep into the nightmarish details, I tried – and, thank fuck, failed – to blind myself, resulting in bilateral scarred corneas which mean that, while my vision remains entirely functional and luckily unimpaired to any significant degree, I experience constant, curious aberrations, especially in low-light where the world melts into a sea of halos.

Importantly, I’m still alive. I very nearly leapt into the Thames on the morning of 10/03/2010, and not through depressive, I-can’t-bear-to-live anguish, but due to chasing immensely powerful delusions and hallucinations to the same place that almost cost me my sight. There’s a lot I’ve written and lot I will write about my experiences of psychosis – particularly re the corrupted internal logic that catalysed much of my bizarre, life-ruining behaviour in 2003 and 2010 – but not here, not now.

Mania, the losing control of my inhibitions and tripping headfirst into hyperactive chaos, has occurred three times in my life, but only progressed through to psychosis twice. I had my first (and to date, only quickly-controlled) manic episode age 16, following a few months as an inpatient at an adolescent psychiatric in Newcastle (remember when the NHS used to offer those kind of services lol). Up until that point, I had been being treated for major depression, which was my diagnosis until the mania emerged. I don’t quite remember the specifics – I celebrated the 20th anniversary of my bipolar 1 diagnosis last month – but one day it seems the depressive fog suddenly cleared and my mind, robbed of feel-good shit for so long, lurched as far as it could in the opposite direction as some kind of bizarre compensatory push.

Perhaps the flip was inevitable, perhaps it was triggered by a chemical predisposition to mania plus guzzling down combinations of all the anti-depressant variants that could be feasibly prescribed for the preceding three months. Who can say. Whatever the case, suddenly I was bouncing around the hospital halls like Sonic the Hedgehog, talking borderline-gibberish garbage incessantly, getting back deep into abandoned A-level art projects and attempting to start roughly 1,000 extracurricular projects simultaneously. The doctors quickly took notice, brought me down with lithium and revised my diagnosis.

Hypomania, (literally “below mania”), is something I experience on average a few times a year, hitting in waves, usually with a clear trigger. It’s a glimpse at the maelstrom of insanity without actually dipping a toe. Delusional ideas can creep into my head, but I can analyse and dismiss them rationally with a firm “No.” I now have enough insight and experience of my own sensations and mood pattern recognition to usually ward off a manic episode, typically with self-seclusion and/or self-management, sometimes with medication. Zopiclone, a sedative, has proven to be something of a magic bullet at sniping down incoming mania, so I try to keep a stash handy – I popped one Saturday gone just to try and keep the train on the rails after barely sleeping for two weeks straight.

After accepting I was an alcoholic six years ago, I’ve gone entirely teetotal, and that itself has greatly improved my ability to monitor myself, to try and regulate my own mood – previously, I’d (technically binge)-drink more or less every single day, and drown out any troublesome hypomanic episode with even more booze, remaining entirely functional (if prone to starting each day with a big purging sick and then having a couple of practically clockwork spew breaks at work) until my liver and my nervous system started wildly red-flagging at the sheer relentless demands I was asking of them, the perpetual nature of my misguided self-medication, so I decided to stop dead drinking or risk further ruining my health.

Without in any way wishing to belittle or underestimate the impact of the disease (severe, bulk-of-a-year depression episodes have also nearly killed me) I feel like depression is something even people who don’t suffer from mental health problems can at least begin to comprehend, can take a stab at imagining the experience. Perhaps not the depths – the eroding, claustrophobic mental space, the glimmer of hope on the horizon disappearing into darkness, all sensory input turning to a grey mush, the head-in-a–tomb depersonalisation – but most people can relate to being “sad”, most people have experienced tragedy at some point in their lives. Hypomania, however, is a trickier prospect to explain. But I’ll try.

I can’t speak for others who experience the condition, but in my case, hypomania manifests itself across my whole physical, mental, emotional spectrum. Although other factors come into play, the biggest single trigger for me seems to be sleep deprivation. It’s no news that circadian rhythms and bipolar disorder are intrinsically interlinked, and I have very real first-hand experience. As a shiftworker (occasional nightshift worker) who lives on the opposite side of London to my office and has a four-month old daughter, my current sleep hygiene is pretty... ropey to say the least, so I’m trying to be extra vigilant. A few nights back-to-back of little sleep (I’m talking a hour or two, at the best of times my sleep is shit anyway and five hours is a good stint) I can often feel my mood changing gears.

Simply put, when I’m hypomanic, the world is a more engaging place; more detail fills the cracks, more edges pique my interest. All of my senses sharpen up – my vision becomes cleaner, brighter, more vivid, sound seemingly has additional frequency space, imperceptible before. My senses of smell and taste overwhelm me, aromas become intoxicating and normal food takes on gourmet qualities. My energy level skyrockets without any additional external input; I have much more impetus, enthusiasm about life, work, whatever. I can literally feel my mind starting to function differently – but not necessarily more efficiently – taking shortcuts, randomly accessing memories in remarkable detail without any prompt. I can think faster, but with less focus; I’m more distractible and will happily shoot off on wild tangents with complete disregard for my goal. Depending on circumstances at home or work, hypomania is a mixed bag – any lethargy is dispelled and my agency and job satisfaction is heightened, but I might, say, approach 20 tasks simultaneously when sequentially would be more rational.

Depending on social context, I expend varyingly extreme amounts of effort to varying degrees of success attempting to mask a hypomanic episode. You know how your body never really “heals”, and scurvy horrifyingly opens up old scars and shit? That’s kind of what my ever-simmering mental illness feels like when i’m consistently deprived of sleep for whatever reason, the cracks start appearing and it kinda seeps out a bit lol. I am well aware my hypomanic demeanour and delivery can alarm people, and I do try really, really, really hard to suppress things or if absolutely required, just remove myself from situations where a lasting, detrimental opinion could be formed. I am also fully aware I can become borderline intolerable to my long-suffering and remarkably patient wife, and I try to mitigate the condition’s impact on domesticity, again, only ever partially-successfully (sorry, Kate). On any given day, high, low, or creamy middle, I’d estimate around about 90% of my effort is put towards just trying to appear normal to others, trying to blend in. I imagine many other mentally ill people are broadly intolerant to open-plan hotdesking (not to mention the insatiable clock-in-and-hit-marks demands of capitalism).

I can physically feel my body “running hotter” when I’m hypomanic, like an overclocked CPU frazzling on a motherboard; headaches spark quickly if I don’t drink enough water. I’m not especially clued up on chemical synthesis of naturally-occurring hormones etc. but I kinda get the impression hypomania is little like organic, high-on-your-own-supply MDMA.

Hypomania seems to foster within me a deeper connection to and longing to revisit all of my favourite music, art, writing, films, games, people – chiefly, I go on obsessive listening binges of records I adore. As I mentioned earlier, my hearing changes when I’m hypomanic – songs sound better, richer, more punchy. One of my fondest ever memories of mental illness (sadly ruined by slipping into psychosis shortly afterwards) was walking around out at night listening to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless on shitty earbuds via a Spotify stream and still hearing subtle elements blossoming from the mix I’d never clocked before; layers of what sounded like processed flutes fluttering under the wall of guitars, gentle tonal ebs and flows, what seemed to be entire hidden tracks I was only just tuning in to, a secret sound world unveiled.

This might well just be wild conjecture, but I like to think maybe some bands – the bands who “get it” – deliberately bury this audio information deep within the mix, only to be decoded by specific mental setups, be they drug-indicted or naturally, hormonally occurring, breadcrumb trails left in the studio production as a little nod by whoever put the music together that they understand the confusion, the dislocation and alienation of mental illness, something extra beyond the lyrics. It might well be bullshit but it brings me great comfort. I’ve put together a playlist of some favourite tunes I suspect were written about hypomanic states, knowingly or otherwise, or instead conjure up that specific vibe.

To be honest, the hardest thing I find about dealing with episodes of hypomania is that they can feel so good it’s very hard to not attempt to stoke the sensation, prolong it, succumb deeper to it. That way oblivion lies; please stand behind the yellow line at all times.

[eggman-empire]

Run With Him

by Jen Irwin

"Sonic?  SONIC!" Amy yelled, watching a blue blur disappear into the distance... again.  She slumped and sighed.  Why did he always have to run away?

"I love him!  Why doesn't he love me BACK?!" the pink hedgehog growled, stomping angrily away from the pool area toward Downtown Station Square.  She wandered out onto the sidewalk, passing by people and giving an occasional, but moody, hello to those she knew.  Sitting down on a bench, Amy sighed and stared at the ground, fighting back tears.  She'd do anything for Sonic, but he'd never even give her the time of day...  was he just really shy?  That would be hard to believe, he was never shy with anyone else, never seemed uncomfortable around other women.  Did he just find her repulsive or something?  That would be crazy; she was everything a cute girl hedgehog should be!  Amy could not think of an explanation for Sonic's behavior.  She just shook her head and sighed again. "Amy?" a young boy's voice called out.  "What's wrong, Amy?"  She looked up and saw Tails walking up to her, a few greasy smudges of dirt and oil scattered over his fur.  Apparently he'd been doing what he does best, working on some kind of machine.  He looked at her with genuine concern in his bright eyes, ears forward and alert. "Oh, it's Sonic again," she replied glumly.  "He still doesn't love me... why, Tails?"  She leaned forward a little, staring at the fox pleadingly.  "You've got to know!  You hang around him all the time!  What has he said about me!?  Does he hate me?  Is he just afraid of me?  What is it with him!?" Tails' ears twitched back a little.  It was this same old subject again.  "Uhh...  actually he never really says much of anything about you."  He took a slight step back, gaze sliding off to the side as he had no idea how to approach the situation.  He didn't want to upset Amy, but he honestly had no idea why Sonic acted the way he did.  Tails had never bothered to ask, really. "But do you have any ideas!?  Come on, Tails, you're a smart kid, you should know these things!" "Heh, I'm a good builder, but I don't know anything about love!  Come on, I'm only eight!" Amy backed off a little.  She didn't like the fact, but Tails was right; perhaps he wasn't exactly the authority on feelings.  She could see he was uncomfortable just being put in this situation.  "Oh... thanks anyway," she mumbled, going back to staring at the ground.  Tails' ears returned to their normal straightness as he sensed he was 'free to go.'  "Don't worry, Amy," he said, trying to reassure her.  "I'm sure something will happen eventually!  Well, I gotta be going, so I'll see ya later!"  He jogged past the bench and disappeared around a corner. The pink hedgehog stood up.  No sense in moping around... she decided to walk for a while, maybe grab something (healthy, of course) to eat.  She started off down the sidewalk, head down, still in deep thought. Amy didn't have time to react as a door ahead of her swung open and a human stepped out directly in front of her, not realizing she was there.  She let out a slight yelp of surprise as she bumped right into the person's leg, then stumbled back a bit, looking up and starting to hastily utter an apology.  The apology was cut short by a scream. "AAAH!!  DR. ROBOTNIK!!"  She stared helplessly up at him, cowering in terror.  Normally she might not be so afraid of him, but he certainly did surprise her.  Then she realized his look wasn't at all hostile.  In fact... "Oh...  Amy, I didn't see you there!  My apologies; are you alright?" The cowering stopped, turning into total confusion.  "...Robotnik??" Amy asked, wondering if it was actually him, or if he just wasn't feeling well or something. "Ah, surprised to see me not trying to take over the world?  Heh, I don't come to the city that often on my 'off days.'  I'm on a bit of a vacation, you see."  He reached up and adjusted his glasses slightly.  "I just stopped in to see what kind of electronics they're offering these days and grab some lunch." The hedgehog looked up at him, eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion.  Was he just acting nice as a trick?  Though, he really did seem quite genuinely calm and polite at the moment.  Her eyes widened as she saw him smile somewhat amusedly - SMILE, mind you - and say, "Suspicious, are we?  I suppose you have reason to be, heh.  Well, I'll be on my way; farewell."  He gave a respectful nod, much to Amy's growing surprise, and started to walk down the sidewalk.  She realized something.  The people who were around the square weren't reacting to Dr. Robotnik in an extreme manner; sure, he got a few stares and people were whispering, but nobody was screaming in a panic.  Amy recalled now that she did hear of the mad scientist occasionally making non-hostile appearances in the city... heck, she once heard a rumor that he actually helped repair machinery for people sometimes.  Maybe it wasn't just a rumor? "...Wait!" she yelled, jogging after him.  He stopped and turned, looking over his shoulder.  "Um, I guess I was just surprised, heh, sorry I ran into you," Amy continued.  Robotnik made a casual, dismissive gesture with one large hand, saying, "Think nothing of it; I'm just glad you weren't hurt."  Figuring that was all she had to say, he nodded again and continued walking. Amy stood there staring at his back as she realized something.  Robotnik was, in fact, the only person who had known Sonic longer than Tails had.  And he was, what, 45?  He had to have SOME experience in life from all those years...  She sprung into a run, catching up with him in a few brief seconds, then walked along at his side.  Suddenly she felt really dumb.  Why would she be asking Robotnik, of all people, about how to deal with Sonic? ...well, she was desperate, and there was no one else TO ask... "Umm, Robotnik," Amy started hesitantly.  "Have... err... have you ever had a girlfriend?" He thought the question was very strange, but was extremely curious as to where this was leading.  "Well, I've had a few flames in my time, yes... why?" "I--I was just wondering what a guy really looks for in a girl, you know?" Amy felt REALLY dumb now.  In her effort to avoid asking something awkward, she asked something even more awkward. "Depends on the man in question," he said matter-of-factly.  "Everyone wants something different.  I always favored a smart-mouthed, sassy but brilliant sort.  You know, kind of like me."  He chuckled.  He didn't even have to guess who this was about now... he already knew.  "Are you having trouble with Sonic again?" "Yeah," she replied, still staring at the ground as she walked.  She kicked a small rock off the sidewalk.  "I love him!  I wanna marry him and have a bunch of little hedgehog babies!" she blurted out in frustration.  "But he hates me!" "Aren't you a little young to be thinking about marriage?" he asked amusedly.  "You're, what, 12?  Give yourself time to enjoy life before settling down, lass!" "But I've always wanted to be Sonic's wife!  Why doesn't anyone understand?" Robotnik stopped.  Amy took a few steps before she realized this and turned around, looking up at him.  He was standing by the door to the burger shop, hands in his pockets.  With a slight grin, he tilted his head toward the door briefly.  "You hungry?  This is gonna take a while." Though the situation was a little strange, Amy WAS pretty hungry.  She followed Robotnik into the shop and looked over the menu.  Nothing healthy... except the tofu burgers, but despite her careful diet, Amy didn't like that stuff at all.  Robotnik leaned one arm on the counter and looked down at her expectantly, waiting for her to order first. "Aww, come on," he said, noticing that she seemed to have some trouble deciding, also knowing how fanatic she was about losing weight.  "What's one cheeseburger gonna do?  You'll have to eat a lot of them before you end up like me!" "Heh, well... yeah, I guess you have a point.  I'll take, uh, a number 3 meal with a..."  Well... no harm in a little indulgence once in a while, right?  "...large strawberry shake." "That's the spirit!" Robotnik said, chuckling.  He turned to the cashier, waiting briefly for the first order to be punched in, then said, "I'll have 3 double cheeseburgers, a large order of fries and a large Dr Pepper.  For here."  He casually flicked a $20 bill seemingly out of his sleeve and handed it to the cashier. Once Robotnik got the change back, he gestured at one of the few booths in the tiny restaurant and looked at Amy.  She sat down, noticing that he didn't sit until she did.  Those rumors about him being such a gentleman under normal circumstances were true...! "So, you say you love Sonic," he said, leaning comfortably back in his side of the booth.  "But you think he hates you.  Why?  Because he always runs away?" "Yeah...  and he's NOT shy, I know that much.  He's never flighty around any other girls.  And you know how much of a showoff he is." "Heh, indeed, I know it all too well.  But just because he runs away doesn't mean he hates you.  I seriously doubt he even dislikes you; don't you recall all the times he's saved you when you were in trouble?" Robotnik asked.  "I sure do," he added with a chuckle. "He only saves me because he's the hero... he HAS to," Amy said, folding her arms with a sigh. "Not true...  do you remember the day on the ARK, when I came very close to eliminating Sonic altogether?"  Robotnik actually assumed a faintly apologetic look when Amy glared at him, remembering that.  "Do you remember the way he looked at you when he said, 'Take care of yourself?'" he asked. Amy thought hard for a moment.  In the terror of that situation, she hadn't really noticed a little detail such as that at the time, but now, thinking back... she DID recall that Sonic did seem to look at her with even more worry and caring than when he spoke to Tails.  If he really had fallen that day... she would have been the last person he spoke to. "You noticed that?" she asked, snapping out of her memories and looking up at Robotnik.  His look softened just a bit and he smiled again, a bit sadly, saying, "It made me feel bad to press the button..." Amy stared.  She opened her mouth to say something when suddenly she realized the waiter was approaching the table.  Robotnik realized it, too, and with a quick, "Oh!  Food's here," he moved the silverware out of the way so the dishes could be placed down easily, then nodded a thanks to the waiter and took a drink.  "Ah, yes.  Good stuff." "You... felt bad about it?" Amy asked, picking up a nearby bottle of ketchup and shaking it briefly.  "Why did you do it?"  She opened the bottle and poured some out onto her plate, then set the bottle down. Robotnik shrugged slightly.  "I was out of my mind.  I knew what I was doing... didn't really want to... but felt I had to."  His tone was quieter than usual, betraying a feeling of regret. "But, this isn't about me," he piped up suddenly before Amy could say anything, returning to his previous calm and confident self, "As I was saying, I don't think Sonic dislikes you.  I think he has a certain fondness for you, but..."  He paused, pouring some ketchup onto his own plate.  "Perhaps you're not letting him show it." "WHAT!?" Amy barked, instantly riled up.  "I've given him every invitation to show he loves me!  What are you talking about!?" "Now, just think about this for a moment, Amy," Robotnik said, holding up a hand toward her in a calming gesture.  "How often have you let him actually speak much?  How many times have you tried to meet up with him just to chill out instead of trying to get him to make plans for marriage and kids?"  He lowered his hand to the table, taking a couple fries to eat while he waited for Amy to ponder his questions. She was silent for a moment, then asked, "But... why doesn't he like my ideas?  I don't get it..." "Lemme tell you something about Sonic," Robotnik said with a slight grin, swallowing a couple more fries before continuing.  "He is the definition of a free man.  You say you love him, but I don't think you really know him.  You might say he won't let you get to know him, but I'm pretty sure I know a way that you can." "Really!?  What is it?"  Amy practically lunged across the table, eager to hear. "Run with him." "What?" the hedgehog asked confusedly, chomping into a couple of fries in frustration.  "But he never lets me get near him!  And he's too fast!" Robotnik shook his head.  "You don't have to keep up with him...  I've seen him grab Tails and Knuckles and blast off with them when they all needed a boost.  He trusts his friends, that's why he does that for them.  He knows they won't hold him back." Amy frowned.  "He... he thinks I'd hold him back?" "That's exactly what you've been trying to do with him, Amy.  You've tried to keep him in one place... all to yourself, not wanting to let him have space of his own.  Listen, you love him because he's a smart, fast, and presumably good looking 'hog, right?" "Of course!" "Do you realize how much it would change him to get married and have kids?  Right now the guy has no responsibility whatsoever.  He doesn't even consider fighting me a 'job'..."  Robotnik chuckled a bit.  "He does that purely for the adventure."  He took a bite out of one of the double cheeseburgers, letting that bit of information sink in.  "In wanting to marry him and start a family, you're asking Sonic to take on a pretty big responsibility... one that would require him to avoid adventuring so he could take care of said family." Amy looked down at the table, brow furrowing in thought.  "But I always wanted a family..." "That will come in time, Amy.  You and Sonic aren't going to be kids forever... and if there isn't something wrong with him, I'm quite sure there will come a day when he'll want to marry just as much as you do." "So... what do I do until then?" "Don't worry so much about being a wife and mother... start being a kid while you still can.  You look up to him because he's strong and adventurous... why don't you adventure with him, and see what that life of freedom is like for yourself?  You might like it!" The hedgehog looked up from the table after a moment of silent eating, then smiled a bit.  "...Thanks, Robotnik.  I never thought about it that way before." The large man finished one cheeseburger, took a drink and nodded, saying, "I've seen you and Sonic struggle for so long, and I think it would be nice if you could actually enjoy each others' company." "Really...?  But...  why do you even care?  I didn't think YOU liked any of us much, either."  Amy looked at Robotnik, confusion in her expression as she put him on the spot again, trying to pry into his psyche. He wondered whether he should open up to her.  Pondering this, he ate a couple more fries, then said, "You know how Knuckles and Sonic fight sometimes, but Knuckles is pretty much Sonic's best friend, excluding Tails, who functions as more of a little brother?" "Yeah, heh, it's funny when those two fight over silly rocks," Amy remarked. Robotnik looked straight at her and said, "Sonic and I are a lot like that, too."  He picked up the second cheeseburger and took a bite out of it.  Amy just sat there, mildly stunned.  What he just said was absolutely true, but she'd never really perceived it before.  "So... you actually want Sonic to be happy?" she asked. "Why not?  I'm not a cruel, heartless madman... sometimes I might seem that way, when I'm really out of it...  When I AM sound of mind, I'm actually quite a nice guy; nothing stopping me from helping out a friend when I can."  He grinned faintly. Amy fell silent with this new information, having a difficult time processing it, though she realized it made perfect sense.  In the next several minutes, the two just relaxed and finished up their meals.  This was the best-tasting food she'd had in a long time... especially the shake. "Thanks for the lunch!" Amy said, pushing the empty plate and glass off to the side of the table.  "Never thought I'd be having lunch with you, heh!"  Robotnik wiped off his hands and mouth with a napkin, then dropped that on his empty plate.  "Not a problem, I enjoyed it."  He stood up, offering a hand for her to pull herself out of the booth easily on.  She hesitated to take it, just because it was very strange to see him doing such a thing.  She let a slightly amused but appreciative smile cross her face and gripped his hand, using it to make hopping out of the booth that much easier. The two walked out of the shop feeling quite full and satisfied.  "Well, I suppose it would be a good idea for you to go and find Sonic, hmm?" Robotnik asked, dusting off his sleeve casually.  Amy grinned brightly and exclaimed, "Yeah!  I'm gonna go find him!  Thanks again, Robotnik!"  She dashed past him and headed toward the beach.  He watched her round a corner and disappear, then chuckled to himself and turned to walk to his next destination, silently wishing her luck. Amy ran down the beach, having to go over a bridge or two before she did find Sonic relaxing under a big beach umbrella, sound asleep.  She approached him quietly and then sat down with her legs folded under her, watching him sleep for a few minutes. Robotnik was right... Sonic was meant to be free of all responsibility.  Amy recalled all of the grown, married men she had seen walking down the street every day, how they usually looked happy but still with the stresses of everyday living evident in their eyes and the way they acted.  She tried to imagine what Sonic would be like in that manner and realized that he would probably be quite miserable...  and all this time, she had been asking - DEMANDING - that he do just that for her.  No wonder he stayed away from her. Sonic stirred a little, then opened his eyes as he sensed through his brief half-consciousness that someone was right next to him.  When he saw who it was, he lurched back a bit, startled.  "Ahh!  Amy!  W-what are you doing here!?" "Sonic, it's okay...  I've, ah, been doing some thinking, and I just... well, I'm sorry for all the times I've annoyed you so much," she said calmly.  He stared at her with a strange look on his face.  It wasn't like her to be so calm around him, and the look in her eyes was a clear, lucid one, not the starry gaze he was used to seeing. "Well," the blue hedgehog said, "You don't have to be... sorry."  He was confused as to why she would suddenly come up with this out of nowhere. "Okay, well, feel like going for a run?"  Amy grinned, not wanting to bore him with the past.  Sonic blinked.  She'd never actually asked him something like that before, she was always wanting to go shopping or other girly activities...  "Uh, sure!" he exclaimed.  He was quite pleasantly surprised at this turn of events. The two stood up and Sonic immediately started to stretch, getting his muscles loosened up, and he made sure his shoes were on tight.  He looked at Amy and started into a jog, watching her jump to his side and happily stay right along with him while he gradually increased speed, running easily over the sand. The strangeness of the situation began to fade as the speed picked up and he began to lose himself in the sheer pleasure of just running.  He noticed that Amy was keeping up with him quite well - she'd become a much faster runner in recent years by always chasing him around.  Their feet thumped loudly on a long wooden bridge with lots of sharp turns and they sailed easily off of a jump booster to another small island, springing up from landing and hurtling along the path that Sonic had memorized for maximum speed long ago.  He got to the point of wanting to turn his feet loose and sprint as fast as he could, but he didn't want to leave his running partner behind... Amy gasped slightly as she felt a sharp tug on her arm and she was literally pulled into the air.  Suddenly she was moving much faster than usual, sailing out behind Sonic by one arm and watching the ground pass by so fast it became a crazy blur.  She was scared for a moment, as anyone would be when out of control of the situation, then remembered who WAS in control. Sonic felt her hand grip tightly to his arm and, knowing she was secure, poured on all the speed he had.  The two turned into one big blur in a matter of seconds, blasting through the sound barrier and taking incredibly sharp turns despite the fact that they were moving so fast.  Springs and speed boosters along the path, which became lush with green grass and lots of vegetation for a stretch, added to the haste; the risk; the freedom.  They could go anywhere, take any alternate route they wanted.  Sonic would change direction almost at random to fill the trip with surprises for Amy, grinning to himself when he heard her shriek and then laugh with glee behind him. Feeling the wind whipping through his quills as he flew off a final jump booster and sprinted down the home stretch, Sonic realized how good he felt despite Amy being right with him.  Usually he felt like he was expected to behave a certain way around her or risk her wrath...  he expected endless marriage proposals and plans for a family, but this time, all Amy wanted to do was run with him.  This was a very pleasant change, one that he had wanted for a long time now. The rusted heap of one of Robotnik's old holding capsules stood at the very end of the beach where Sonic skidded to a quick stop, spinning around on his axis a few times to slow Amy's momentum so she wouldn't stop with a potentially painful jerk to her arm.  Once the momentum lost its force, he let her to the ground. "That was awesome, Sonic!"  The pink hedgehog grinned up at him, then suddenly tackled him before he could say anything.  He yelped in surprise, hitting the ground and rolling over the sand with her for several feet, both of them laughing as if it were just a game by the time they came to a stop.  Neither even got a bruise, considering hedgehogs are inherently very good at taking a tumble.  Amy landed squarely on Sonic with a thump, then looked down at him, smiling hopefully.  She didn't want to make him nervous now, but certainly liked the idea of cuddling him... He opened his eyes and met her gaze, realizing for a moment just what situation he was in.  But... it was different this time.  She wasn't cutting off his circulation by possessively clinging to him.  She wasn't raving about future plans or telling him that he needed to move in with her at her house.  In fact, he felt quite relaxed, partially due to the fact that she was also relaxed and really enjoying the moment. "Amy, what... what brought this on?  I've never seen you like this before," Sonic said, smiling slightly with confused curiosity. "Heh, well..."  She glanced very briefly at the rusted capsule nearby, then grinned.  "I... asked a friend of yours about you.  Found out some things I didn't know before." Assuming he knew who she was talking about, he said, "You did?  But...  Tails has told me a lot in the past that you talked to him, and nothing changed then." "It wasn't Tails," Amy said, mischief evident in her voice. "...Knuckles!?"  He couldn't believe she would actually be desperate enough to approach the echidna on the subject of her feelings. "Not him either!" she replied, giggling. Sonic shook his head and gave her a humorously confused look, grinning a little. "But nobody else knows me better than they do!" "Are you sure about that?  Hehe..."  She shot another glance at the capsule.  He noticed her look this time and his expression went from confused to totally amazed.  "Wait a minute... are you telling me you asked...?" Amy laughed.  "Robotnik knows a lot more about you than you'd think, Sonic!  You should have heard what he had to say about you!  He's actually a really nice guy, you know?  It was neat to talk to him!"  She smiled a bit, her voice becoming a little more quiet.  "I just wanted to make you happy, you know... that's why I ended up asking him about you." "You went through the trouble of dealing with that egghead just for me?" Sonic asked with a large, amused grin.  "Well, thanks, Amy...  I didn't think you'd do something like THAT, that's crazy!" She giggled, looking down at him with a loving stare and saying, "Well, they do say love makes you crazy."  He said nothing in reply, instead just staring back up at her through half-lidded eyes with a comfortable, relaxed smile.  She raised a hand to gently run her fingers along the side of his face and shivered very slightly when she felt one of his hands rest on her back. Sonic had, in a way, always wanted something like this, but he never consciously thought about it.  He liked having someone to share an adventure with; usually Tails and Knuckles fit that part nicely, but now he realized that Amy could make a great partner too... and hey, let's face it - under the right circumstances, even he liked a little romance.  At present, the circumstances couldn't have been more right.  As Robotnik had told Amy, Sonic valued freedom above all else, and now Amy was enjoying that with him - they didn't have a care in the world. He shut his eyes, sighing happily.  Amy let her forehead rest against his and closed her eyes too, just listening to his slow, even breathing.  Feeling the closeness and warmth, his breath on her face...  she couldn't contain herself.  Knowing she was taking a rather large risk - but that she was supposed to live for risks now - she slid her hand to the side of his jaw and pressed her lips against his in a gentle, lingering kiss.  He was startled for a moment; she expected this, considering she was pretty sure he'd never kissed anyone before.  Neither had she, actually, but she watched enough chick flicks to know how it's supposedly meant to be done...  Amy broke the kiss and pulled back very slightly, opening her eyes halfway to see his reaction. Sonic's eyes opened a little and he looked up at her with a gentle expression on his face, as if he didn't really know what to do, but was certainly enjoying the moment anyway.  She took that as a sign that she could continue and kissed him again, avoiding being too forceful like she would have in the past. When he started to kiss back - although he wasn't very good at it, she noted in amusement, but he'd certainly get better with practice - it became obvious that he did indeed have feelings for her.  Now that she wasn't smothering him, he was able to show them...  and he seemed quite happy to do so, much to her delight. Back in the city, Tails and Robotnik had run into each other and had a discussion about alternative energy types for a small project Tails was working on.  "...yeah, I might try the rings!  I noticed this is something you recently started doing, huh?" the young fox asked.  Robotnik nodded.  "It's much more efficient than my original methods.  Use caution, though; those rings have quite a lot of energy in them.  You only need one to power a robot indefinitely." Tails grinned up at his fellow genius mechanic.  "That usually seems to be the rule of rings:  You only need one!  Heh heh.  Well, I guess I'll be heading back home.  By the way, have you seen Sonic around here?  I haven't seen him in a while." Reminded of his rival, Robotnik grinned slightly.  "Well...  I did have a discussion with Amy about Sonic, and I suppose you should know that I managed to convince her of a few things that would give her the ability to get along with him quite well.  ...I think they're both rather busy at the moment.  You might not see either of them for a few days!"  He chuckled a bit as he saw Tails' reaction.  The fox's ears slowly drooped down and he got that 'why me' look on his face.  "Oh, NO," he moaned, "You got Amy and Sonic together!?  Now Sonic's going to be acting all lovey-dovey and WEIRD!" Robotnik laughed, reaching down to ruffle the fur on top of Tails' head reassuringly.  "Ah, I doubt Sonic will act that weird.  I know you're still young and you don't understand teenage emotions yet, but at least now you won't have to hear him complain whenever Amy shows up, right?" "Heh, yeah, that's true!" Tails snickered a bit, his ears perking up again.  "Well, I guess I'll see him when I see him," he said wryly.  "Thanks for the info on the rings, gotta run!" The doctor watched the little fox run off toward the train station, then slowly started to walk toward the front of the city to the shoreline, suddenly in deep thought.  He felt his mind clouding up with a lust for power again as realizations pieced together...  briefly, dismay struck him as he knew he was losing his mind, but an instant later he didn't care.  He mumbled quietly to himself, "Tails is working with an unfamiliar concept, and Sonic is distracted..." "...heh heh... heheheh... eh hehhehehehehhh..." He leapt up into the escape pod that he parked next to a little boat at the shore, saying to himself, "Ah, Ivo, you're a GENIUS, even when you aren't trying!  Muaahahahaha!"  By this time, people were looking at him strangely.  He turned the pod around to face the city briefly and yelled with a grand gesture of one arm, "See you soon, citizens of Station Square... when I'm sitting in the President's seat!  MUAHAHAHAAHAHAAAAA!" The madman flew off quickly, leaving everyone rolling their eyes and shaking their heads, until people started murmuring, "Well, guess we better let Sonic know," and asking each other if they'd seen him.  It quickly became apparent that nobody knew where he was.  Generally they would have at least had some idea... As Dr. Robotnik's laugh faded into the distance, the reality that things may be a little harder than usual this time sunk in with the citizens, and they all retreated into their homes to anxiously await the next time they'd spot Sonic.

[anti-mistajules]

For the aromantic asks, would you pick which ones you want, or if you could do all of them? I’ve never heard about it before but I’m really curious and would like to know more from your point of view

Well bc you’ve never heard of it before here’s a little definition I got from here (if u wanna read more about it):

An aromantic is a person who experiences little or no romantic attraction to others. Where romantic people have an emotional need to be with another person in a romantic relationship, aromantics are often satisfied with friendships and other non-romantic relationships.

What arospec label(s) do you identify with?

I’m just plain ol Aromantic

Sexual orientation?

Bisexual

Are you romance-repulsed?

To a degree? I don’t usually mind seeing romance in media, I just get a little uncomfortable with seeing PDA and when people view me in a romantic way I feel like physically sick.

Do you relate to voidpunk?

Do I relate to what now?

What kinds of attraction (romantic, sexual, aesthetic, sensual, platonic, etc) do you experience?

Sexual, aesthetic, and platonic definitely! Im not too big on sensual attraction and I don’t feel romantic attraction at all.

How do you like to show people you (platonically) love them?

I’m a huge ‘acts of service’ and ‘gift’ person! I do whatever I can to make things easier for my friends and try to give them gifts they love and deserve! I also like to spend time with them when I can and talk about whatever! Basically if I can talk to you on the phone or in person past 12am, I love you friend!!

Do you want to remain single all your life or do you want to have some sort of life partner?

I wanna remain single, I really need my alone time I couldn’t imagine living with someone for an extended period of time.

If you want one, what is your dream partner?

no! 

Which is your favorite of the 3 aromantic flags?

Uhhh fuck im not too flag savvy??? I like this one:

Your opinion on soulmates?

allonormative as fuck and perpetuates the idea that you need another person in your life to ‘complete’ you which is complete garbage!

Your opinion on shipping?

Shipping is fun but I don’t get too into it.

Do you ship characters in romantic/sexual relationships, or do you only ship characters in familial and platonic relationships?

Honestly all of the above but mostly platonic and sexual.

Are you out to anyone in real life?

My close friends and my immediate family. Or at least I tried to come out to them but they were just like “you won’t get married?? Ya right lol ur stupid” and I didn’t use the word ‘aromantic’ so I guess technically im not out to them?? Its not something I hide, but when explaining it to others I don’t use the word bc I don’t wanna explain or want people to think im one of those “tumblrinas’ who ‘make up orientations’ bc there’s a lot of negativity to unpack there so I just don’t bother

How did you come out?

Once I found out what aromanticism was I immediately related to it so I told my best friend first and we had a conversation about it and then Id just be like “hey I don’t get why people date people…I don’t wanna do that” to everyone else.

Do you know any aromantic people in real life?

Nope! I would love to meet some!!

How do you feel about your aromanticism?

Honestly its so freeing…I feel very validated knowing there’s a whole community of people who feel the same way I do about romance. Im pretty proud to be aro with my friends and online but irl to my family and acquaintances Im not as open with it.

What is the worst part of being aromantic?

The lack of representation and the constant erasure. I highkey hate being grouped with asexuals so much bc not every person who is aro is ace and vice versa! They’re separate orientations but they are NEVER treated like it and its so annoying. (THIS IS NOT ACE HATE!! I SUPPORT ACES WITH ALL MY ARO HEART!!! LOVE YALL!!)

Also the constant fear that you cant be friends with the opposite sex bc they’ll always want to be romantically involved and that your allo friends will leave you for their S/O lol

ALSO WHEN UR PHONE CHANGES AROMANTIC TO AROMATIC >:///

What is the best part of being aromantic?

Not being in a relationship lol people complain so much about their relationship troubles and im like ‘damn COULDN’T be me’

How did you find out about aromanticism?

I found out through either Tumblr or google I cant remember which??? Or maybe I saw it on Tumblr and googled it? Either way Tumblr was a factor

When did you know you were aromantic?

I tried dating my best friend and ended it in like 3 days bc I felt so fucking weird about the whole thing like very uncomfortable??? Like I felt like I couldn’t talk to him about certain stuff anymore and just being called someone’s “girlfriend” makes my skin crawl. I always had some weirdness around romance but I thought it was just bc I haven’t “found the right person yet” but if anyone was the “right person” it was my best friend and I couldn’t do it. So I did some research and found out about aromanticism, related so hard, and have been very happy with the label ever since.

Do you have any aromantic headcanons?

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG AND BRUCE BATMAN WAYNE ARE AROMANTIC AND YOU WILL PRY THOSE HEADCANONS OUT OF MY COLD, DEAD HANDS YOU COWARDS

What would be your dream representation of an aromantic/aro-spec character?

An aromantic character who is allosexual (preferably bi) who loves their friends and family and would do anything for them! Doesn’t go “EW!!! GROSS!!” At romance but is just like “nah ill pass, loving my friends is all I need!” and isn’t super oblivious to romantic gestures or infantilized/made into a joke for not being interested in romance. Also if they call out allonomativity that’d be tight

Who is your aromantic icon/idol?

NOBODY BC THERE ARE NO AROMANTICS IN MEDIA

What is your favorite song that relates to aromanticism, or is simply not about romantic love?

Analysis Paralysis by Awake at Last (At least I don’t get a romance vibe off of it??) and Sonic Youth by Crush 40 for all you Sonic fans out there. (And honestly most sonic songs are aromantic BANGERS)

What is your favorite movie that is not focused on romance?

BATMAN V SUPERMAN !!!

What is your favorite tv show that is not focused on romance?

POKEMON !! Im gonna be honest with y’all I think the reason Im aro is bc I watched nothing but Pokemon until I was like 10 (I didn’t stop I just also watched other things) and it is the least romance oriented show ever like….while y’all where out watching Disney princesses ‘fall in love’ or whatever I was crying over Pikachu’s Goodbye so don’t talk to me about heartbreak. Also Ash and Pikachu’s friendship (and of course his friendship with all his traveling partners) really fucking resonated with me and I think thats why I hold my friends above all else.

What popular romantic pairing do you see as only platonic?

SONAMY

Do you experience squishes?

I think I’ve had maybe one or two but they went away quick once I realized that I just like this person bc I think we’d be good friends and I get excited at the thought of making longterm friends.

Do you own any aromantic pride merch or outfits? What are they? If not, what would you like to own?

I do not but id love to own a flag or two

Do you have any advice for anyone who may be questioning if they are aromantic or on the aromantic spectrum?

Just own it. I’m actually actively trying to take my own advice bc like I said I don’t use the word irl but like,,,if you think you’re aro or somewhere on the spectrum, find a label that speaks to you and just own it. Being Aromantic isn’t cringey, its a valid orientation just like any other and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. Ive spent too much time pretending to be alloromantic just to fit in, I’ve embarrassed myself too many times by pretending to be allo, Ive gone too far into my life pretending to be something im not just because its easier for others to understand. Ive gone through too much to discover my orientation to have some fucking losers on the internet tell me that its ‘not a real orientation’. Im aromantic. I feel comfortable in that label and no one can take that away from me.

[livingfictionsystem]

Cult Bait

My family and I have always been… distant. Dad always under-reacted to everything. I’m reasonably sure you could tell this man the house was on fire and he’d casually pass you a glass of water to fight it with. Mum was the precise opposite. She seemed to have the sneaking suspicion that the news did not report events that have happened, but would happen, specifically to her, in the near future. If you ever wanted someone to ad-lib an anxiety attack you haven’t even had yet, talk to her.

As a result, I’ve spent the last ten years generally only speaking to either of them when I have comedic stories to make Dad laugh, or have two hours to kill to talk to Mum.

I do love my parents. They’ve tried their best. Gods know I was a curveball and a half but that doesn’t mean I don’t have some grudges carried over from my childhood.

Bad grades? Definitely my fault. I was lazy. Or I wanted to be ‘cool.’ I didn’t think being grounded from Darkwing Duck after every grade card was very ‘cool’ but that was Mum’s novel theory.

Bullied? Well, what did I do to deserve it? My paternal grandmother, may she hear every bitter word I ever speak of her, once asked me at a family function how many friends I had. When the number I provided was decidedly pathetic, she had a pointed follow-up. How many enemies did I have?

That number, much more impressive in its unintended vastness, prompted the question: “Well, why do you think that is?”

We’ve had a unspoken compromise, over the years. I didn’t want to talk about my complicated feelings, my insecurities, my hopes and dreams—and my blood relatives didn’t ask.

I’d had friends before. They were based on people who could tolerate me and make me laugh.

I can’t say my standards have changed all that much.

There always seemed to be a language barrier, however. Not that any of us spoke anything but English, but no one seemed to speak our language. It was difficult to really feel connected to someone.

Until we met Shadow.

Retrospect, he had to have been autistic as well, which was how he spoke our language. He was obsessed with Sonic X (yes, hence the name) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. There was a pretty solid likelihood that he was also trying to start a religion of three.

He lived in the same neighborhood as us, near a construction lot in Mill Valley, Marysville, Ohio. We met him on one of our frequent jaunts around town. He was three years this body’s senior, twelve when were only nine. His friend was a year and a half older, by the name of Illusion. He lived on the same street, over on Deer Crossing Lane.

It’s been years since I’ve thought about these two. They were, for years, one of the fragile centers of our life. Now I’m just hoping they were, at one point, real. But we’ll get to that.

One of my first times hanging out with Shadow, we were in his basement, playing Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on his Gamecube. We’d played the Sonic and Knuckles games on CD-ROM and watched the show as a kid, but this was something… different. This was something with much more of a plot than robot animals and chili dogs. This involved government conspiracy, something created by humans that grew to resent them, Sonic running from the US military. We were more than interested.

“This is Shadow the Hedgehog. I’ll not deceive you by letting you assume that the name is coincidental—I only hope I grow to be worthy of it.” Oh, yes, that’s how he talked. He had what almost seemed to be an accent, but he just over-pronounced every word, hitting each consonant like it stole something. It always seemed like he had rehearsed each line before saying them. Maybe he did. He was a scrawny kid, mostly hidden beneath a Hawthorne Heights hoodie and one of those really baggy Tripp Pants that were in style around those times. They all looked ragged, as if they were either purchased years before or found at Goodwill. Either could’ve been true. His eyes were large. For some reason, he had unreasonably large irises, dark green, that seemed to drown out the scant whites in his eyes. His hair was black, coarse, with the slightest bit of curl to it. He had a sharp, impish face for a twelve-year old. He was gesturing to the 3D rendered, in all of its 2002 glory, Shadow the Hedgehog.

Shadow the Hedgehog was the most goth thing our young, suburban brain had ever seen. Spikey, red and black, accented with gold—this anthropomorphic hedgehog was the peak of aesthetic.

No, I’m not a furry.

But I’ve always been a few crises away from being one.

Neb—probably quite a bit less. The girl had a tie-dye howling wolf tee, for gods’ sake.

My new friend, Shadow, was perfectly capable of telling me Goth Sonic’s backstory. “He was created by Dr. Robotnik’s grandfather, Dr. Gerald Robotnik.”

“Created? Like Mewtwo?” Can you guess our first ever special interest? Come on, take a shot in the dark.

Shadow was familiar, thankfully. Pokémon wasn’t so common as it is today. “Yes, indeed! A lot like that, actually. But Shadow didn’t hate his creator. At least, not initially. Dr. Gerald had a huge space colony called the ARK. He created Shadow to be the ultimate life form, something the military requested to synthesize immortality.” I’m more or less speculating on the exact wording, but I swear to gods he did talk like this. “Dr. Gerald had no interest in military doings, but his granddaughter, Maria, had Neuro-Immuno-Deficient Disorder, and so he undertook the project mainly for her sake.”

We probably spent the next week on the plotline of SAB2. The newest video game console we knew was a Gameboy, so a Gamecube was obviously a technological breakthrough to us. He would let us in to his basement that was just across from the garage. There never seemed to be anyone else there when we were over. And he always came out to greet us, as if making certain that we wouldn’t make the mistake of knocking on the door.

We saw signs of other people. Caught glimpses of family photos in the living room. I remember the father having black hair—the rest of the family was primarily ginger. But Shadow seemed to shy away from any subject of families. We would complain about our family, about how our brother that was five years our younger was the obvious favorite. He had nothing to offer on that subject.

He also seemed happy to see us. Everyone else just shoved us off like a pest, but it was like we were students of a subject that he sorely wished to teach. Perhaps we were.

It was when we were playing the two-player function of the game that he said something funny. “You see him? That’s Chaos. Proof that these writers know a bit more than they’re letting on.”

The character was this bipedal, stout, with lobster-claw-like hands and frog-like feet. Its head was the shape of a bird’s foot. Most interestingly, its body seemed entirely comprised of flowing, rippling water. Its eyes seemed like light-green gems.

“See, that’s one of the Chaos gods. Hydro, the God of Water. That’s who this one is based off of. But there are eight of them. Water, Fire, Earth, Air, Lightning, Mind, Night, Spectrum.” He counted them off his fingers. “Those are the eight Chaos gods of the eight elements.”

We’d honestly been interested in religion ever since I could remember. Not monotheism, but we gravitated naturally to more polytheistic beliefs. I still do. The cause of this? Considering we were nine? Probably Disney’s version of Hercules, if we’re being honest. To some of you, this isn’t the first novel of mine you’ve read and this is sounding eerily familiar. Some of you are more than just curious about how delusional I am.

You’ll notice that I’ve referred to myself as plural throughout this. That’s because, throughout many memories of my childhood, I didn’t feel like I was the only one there. I feel like the girl who would later be called Nebula shared my childhood with me. That’s probably the best way I can describe it. At that time, we were we. Around this time, we were starting to become she. I was only partially awake, as if I was nodding off before my seven-year slumber.

Shadow eventually asked Neb to be his Apprentice. She was to choose her name—it was to be a name easily translatable, like a noun, as homage to how the Chaos gods changed their name with the language of every country. Like Hydro, Water, Wasser, etc.

Does this sound like a cult? Probably.

But who am I kidding? This entire system is cult bait.

I’ve pre-written this chapter on a Word document, by the way. But I meant to post it today. Why?

Today is August 10th, 2020. Sixteen years, to the day, since Shadow died.

[cutegirlmayra]

So i just thought of something. End of Mating season in Sonic Boom. Amy talks to another girl hedgehog to ask about her experience this year. Even though everyone got atleast one suitor at the door Amy never had anyone visit her. She thinks it's because her sent is weak and she lives far out but in reality it's Sonic being very territorial and just shooing every guy away as he surveys around Amy's house without her knowing about it.

(x Special thanks to @mangaanonymous for submitting this piece for the Art Prompt trade! Please support the artist as well!)

*Note: It’s against the rules to do anything ‘inapprorpiate’ So I’m going to Sonic Boomify this and in the words of the all-mighty Badger- Sticks- “Dating” season ;)

Type: AU

Couple: Sonamy

World: Sonic Boom

Prompt:

“Yeah, men are pretty scarce this year.”

Amy sat at the back of the salon, nervously holding a magazine as the other hedgehog girls discussed their experience.

“Usually, this season is crawling with desperados. All trying to get a date.”

One of them rolled their eyes, flipping through some pages before being asked by a woman working there if she could do her nails.

She nodded as the other hedgehog continued on with the topic. “Honestly, I’m surprised I haven’t seen any good-looking suitors either.”

Amy sighed in relief.

“So it’s not just me…” she pulled her legs up on the chair, smiling slightly as she rested back and closed her eyes; contented.

“WHAHAAHHAHAHA!!!! HAHAHA!!! OOOOOO… you crack me up, kitkat. They were swarming my house!”

“Oh my, you have no idea! I couldn’t walk down the village market without someone dropping themselves in front of me with flowers or chocolates!”

“They literally fall like rain.”

“It’s embarrassing, really!”

“My scent is pretty strong, so I’m used to it by now.”

“What year is this for you?”

“..!?!?” Amy’s eyes blared open as she mentally screamed. They were joking!? She twitched and stretched out her aggressive wishes to holler and destroy something as she constantly changed her position on the salon chair.

“Miss?” A woman working there sweat dropped a moment, worried about her… acting out.

“O-oh, hohoho..” She tried to play it off, laughing daintily into her hand. “Excuse me…”

She ran as quickly as she could out of there.

She looked down the whole time, arms straight down as it concerned her that no one was trying to get her attention at all.

True, it was her first Dating Season but…

She rubbed her arm, looking around nervously and keeping herself hunched over. Smiling weakly, she chuckled kinda creepily to passer-bys, looking for hedgehogs…

She then groaned, “I’m sure I’m not the only girl who’s not being asked out.” She arched her back, looking up at the sky.

She then grew curious… and pulled a piece of her hair-quills towards her nose.

Taking a whiff, she couldn’t smell anything, and hopelessly drooped her ears and whimpered slightly as she came to her home.

“Ohh…” despairing, she remained hunched over with her arms draping down in front of her. She opened her door, kicking the rest open before hearing something in the distance and looking up.

“Rafh!” Sonic suddenly rolled as if being pushed on the ground in front of her home, looking dirty and torn up pretty bad. He breathed hard, looking worse for wear before jumping back up and shaking himself off, and then freezing at noticing her in the corner of his vision.

The two slowly turned to each other, blinking…

“…Sonic?” Amy then regained some hope, her eyes sparkling as she stood up a little straighter. “Sonic!” Stars appeared in them, as she rushed over to greet him, and then cutely pulled away and twiddled her fingers.

“Hey~” she slightly flirted.

“Uh, nuuah!” He flung himself left and right, looking for… something?

“W-what’s wrong? What are you doing here?”

He quickly pressed a hand to her mouth. “No time! Got.. hero… stuff… doing… Get back inside!” he suddenly spun her around and began pushing her back into her home.

Once in, he locked all the doors, slammed the blinds down, then barricaded the place and plugged his own nose. “Oh no!” he was turning blue on his muzzle, struggling to not breathe. “Air, air!” he jumped on each foot, looking for an exit, but he had blocked every way in!

And every way out…

“Sonic… what…” she wondered if this was him trying to be… romantic…

“I don’t think this is really necessary..?” She some sweat dripped down the side of her face, awkwardly revealing that she thought he was acting weirder than usual.

“You know~ If you want, we can just sit on the couch?” she sat down and patted the seat next to her.

He panicked, shifting himself around, and then looking out the window.

“I… I can’t…” he took a big breath of air in.

“Actually, I might have a second- NUUH…NO-NO!” He had sped over to her faster than lightning, sitting and crossing his legs, looking totally interested in chatting with her, before he twitched, pulled himself back, and hit his head twice.

“Keep it together, Sonic…” He mentally scolded himself, holding his two hands out directly next to each other as if to stay on the ‘straight and narrow’ course and dashed out the window.

“Patch up that blind! It’s a weak spot!” he called back and dashed into the jungle.

Blinking wildly, Amy couldn’t help but see there was something very off with Sonic.

“That’s it.” She looked annoyed, getting up and summoning her hammer. “I’ve been rejected by every other hedgehog on this island.” She walked over to the door, readying herself. “I’ve even endured your stupidity at obviously being unable to notice a simple flirtation!” she slammed the hammer into the door, bursting through all of Sonic’s crudely designed ‘defenses.’

“But not this time!” She stepped out from the pile of wood upon police tape and nails.

“SOOONIICC!!!” she cried out, iconically, before a simple voice spoke up.

“Hello.”

Amy turned around, a little shocked.

A nice looking hedgehog in a suit and holding a top hat dusted himself off and held his hand in at a crocked angled; very fancy.

“Might I ask you to a little…huhu… soiree~AAAAA~” he was suddenly swooped up and run across the island to the other side. “OFFPH! Oh dear!”

He looked around to realize he was on a pile of many other hedgehogs, all looking worse for wear.

“Stay here!” Sonic ordered, having thrown him on the top of the pile, and racing back.

“…My, how rude.” He held his hand to his chest, before adjusting his hat on his head. “Might anyone tell me why I was so unwillingly whisked away from such a delightful young lady?”

“That guy’s crazy, I tells ya!” A hedgehog spoke up, from the lower-third of the pile, looking fed-up with it all as he spoke up to the gentleman.

“He’s been guarding that turf since we left the village! Girl’s scent is so strong, he’s probably just keeping her for himself!”

“Yeah! I heard he’s territorial!”

“Ya bozos! He clearly likes the-“

“We must end his reign of monopoly at once!” The gentlemen jumped down from the pile, dusting himself off again, and pulling out an umbrella. “We are just men. Only wishing to court young lady’s hands in good, becoming fashions.” He nodded.

“Speak fer yerself!”

He glared back at that man.

“Well, everyone else can come but you, sir.” He lightly spat on the ground, before pulling out a napkin, whipping it out a moment more, and then wiping his mouth. “On, to battle my good men!”

The men all crawled out of the pile and charged behind the fancy gentleman as British Calvary trumpets played at their speedy march.

Sonic looked exhausted, leaning up against a fallen log, he looked around him.

“That’s… gotta be all of them.” He wiped his forehead, “Phew-ee! If Amy’s scent wasn’t so strong, I wouldn’t have to be fighting all these guys to give her some peace and quiet.” He turned around and fell back on the log, taking a breather and relaxing…

“Job well done, Son-“ He lifted a leg to cross it over the other, looking proud of himself, before freaking out at seeing Amy’s angry face ahead of him.

“WOAH!”

“So it was you!”

“A-Ames!” he waved his hands out in front of him, having flipped over the log and using it to guard himself from her. “I-It’s not what it looks like!”

“You liar! You’ve been chasing men from my house this entire time!”

“W… Well, then it is what it looks like.” He seemed to retreat a little back, before lunging himself forward and holding out a hand to her, gripping a branch from the fallen tree. “But you should be thanking me!”

“Why is that?!” She growled out, her fists shaking as her hammer was still drawn forth…

“EEeee..” he bore his teeth in a wide frown, wide-eyed at her hammer being revealed to her side.

“Only scared and submissive animals bare their teeth.” Amy spat out, pouting out her frustrations at his behavior.

“…Or feisty ones.” He dipped his head down, almost in a cute way.

“And why do you have any reason to keep men away from-“ she suddenly stopped herself, and then her face lit up with that same hope from before.

“W-what-are-you-why-are-you-What.” He shook himself free of his nerves. “Why are you grinning like that!? What are you implying!?”

“You…” She wiggled her finger at him, giggling. “Want me all to yourself~” she tapped the air around him, pulling away and blushing into her hands. “Ahh~ Oh, Sonic! You’re so cute when you’re desperately shy!”

“WHAT!?” Sonic jumped up on the log, looking defensive as his quills spiked. “I was keeping you safe! It’s not because I-!”

She giggled again and he blushed, looking more upset she didn’t believe a word he was saying.

“AMY! I demand to be respected for stating the TRUTH!”

“You’re so funny~”

“Stop… stop doing that!”

“What..? This~”

He had slammed his foot down on the log repeatedly, but Amy waltzed over and hugged it, making him stumble and try and loosen her grip on him.

“Amy! L-look, you’re a pr-pre-preeeeetty annoying girl! Could you stop doing that!?”

“Emm~?” Amy clung to his foot with a lover’s loyal hold as he kept trying to rip her away from him.

“Amy! I’m falling!” he wagged his arms around, losing his balance on the log.

She jumped on the log and shot him down to her level. “Me too~” she cooed.

Now he really was uncomfortable, moving back, he tried to convince her to stop. “Now, Amy… I-I know we’ve known each other a while, b-bu-but that gives you NO RIGHT to-to…to…”

She batted her eyes close to his face.

“Whwhwhwhaaa- what are you going to do?” he bent his head back slightly, then his ears flattened in submission.

She saw the cute action and smirked, “Heh.” She never would have taken him as a pushover for these things.

Suddenly, there were some powerful knocks in the distance, and the two turned to where her house was.

“We demand a war for the fair maiden’s hand!” the gentlemen closed his umbrella and hooked it on his arm, before bashing the wood of the door’s frame again. “At once! We want the pink head! We want the pink head!”

He got the whole group chanting it.

“For common— fashionable— purposes!” he then announced, as if that wasn’t clear…

“I’ll handle this.” Amy continued to smile as she yanked Sonic off the log with her.

“Yonks!” Sonic was like pudding in her hand…

“Ehem.” Amy cleared her throat, as the group turned around, looking delighted to see her.

“Aw! The young lady!” the leader spoke out, “Shall we continue our conversation from before?”

“I’m afraid you’re all too late.” Amy pulled Sonic up in front of her, looping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him towards her. “I’m spoken for.” She winked.

“WHAT AN OUTRAGE!” the man’s voice spiked into a squeaky, childish pitch. “I will not be insulted by some… some… woman-hogging ingrate!”

“What’d you call him?” Amy’s eyes dipped intensely to a protective look. “You take that back. He’s just shy.”

Sonic fidgeted, not sure how to get out of this mess.

“Amy, these men really don’t like me.” He explained then, trying to get out of her hold on him but she just pulled him back each time. “Emm…” he about-faced. “We should really run!”

“Or fight together!” Amy grabbed his arm and held it up.

“H-huh?” he looked at their hands tightly formed together, and then back to her.

She was…. Laughing.

“Come on! This will be fun!” she swung her hammer and a few men jumped back.

“Woah! She’s got mad skills!”

“I want her even more!”

“Get in line!” Amy teased and pulled Sonic with her into the fray. “Come on!” she laughed.

Suddenly, Sonic’s shyness seemed to dissipate. A warmth of confidence arose and he smiled back, before kneeing some guy in the shin.

Then throwing him over himself and wrestling him off with a swift kick that sent him flying.

He laughed, “I thought you wouldn’t want company.”

“As long as it’s yours, I’ll be fine~” Amy slammed her hammer into three men, who went flying off into the jungle.

As they fought, they bantered with light flirtations, before finally, Sonic took her hand, surprising her.

“Come on, one last finishing move!” He encouraged.

“…Oh, but I don’t want it to end.” Amy swooned before he spun her around in the air and threw her at the gentleman.

“Oh dear…” his knees shook rapidly. “Mommy!” he cried out, trying to get away but Amy slammed him over Eggman’s lair.

Eggman was drinking a hot beverage, slurping a bit, before the gentlemen slammed into his front window and scared the living daylights out of him.

He spilled all over himself and ran around hollering in pain. “AHH!..AHHHHH!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The gentlemen slowly slid down the window, “…what will I tell mother?”

Sonic threw Amy up in the air, “Heads up!” and then caught her, as she dipped back in a dramatic fashion.

“Oh~ My brave hero!”

“Are you done, yet?” Sonic mused.

“Saving me from such… vile villains~” she continued, then peeked up at him and laughed.

He set her down and laughed with her. “I just thought… you… you know.” He looked at the ground, left and right side of it, before lifting a hand to rub behind his neck.

She grabbed it before it could continue, “I don’t think you need to play the shy role anymore.” And intertwined her hand with his.

They were both scrapped up and battered, but hey! It was a great first date… ;)

*Note: Please picture the gentlemen with the cutest high-pitched and most humorous british voice you can possibly imagine. And that’s him.

[perfectdownpour]

The Prodigal God Returns...

(Part 7/7)

Summery: Having finally recovered all seven of his emeralds, Chaos sets out to the domain of Solaris. Assuming only danger has befallen her, Chaos aims to demand the omnipotent entity tell him where to find his friend Tikal. However, having been absent for millennia, the Sun God sees this visit as a chance for all the order to finally meet and address their issues with the aquatic aggressor.

((In This Part: Their battle comes to a close, Chaos the clear loser. Opting not to continue, Chaos drops to a knee to apologize in hopes of leaving. He is attacked by his peer sensing weakness, and saved by another for a far greater reason. With some unlikely help, Chaos is allowed to escape back home to plan a rescue mission.)) Part Length: Longest

In the fading of a final flash of light that overtook both forms, it was over.

Chaos stood hunched over, bruised, but still capable.

Solaris floated on, the bracers gracing both his arms cracked and battered while the rest of him was still good as new.

The two glared for a long long time... Until the weaker of them dropped on their forelimbs. He grumbled, still with a flare for the fight in his emerald eyes. The hate had clearly shifted though, no longer were the liquid's sights set on Solaris but rather another. He was already thinking of what to do, how to do it. He finally, finally had his information. Now he had to make a plan.

But before that there was this to handle, and with a very forced bow Chaos spat out, "I.... concede-"

"THE HELL YOU DO!" shouted Solaris, cutting someone else off for a change. "HORRID LITTLE SHIT- I COULD SHRED YOU AND IT WOULDN'T BE JUSTICE ENOUGH!"

Iblis quivered, Time eater flinched, Dark Gaia had finally stopped crying. Solaris had the slowest burn ever, they'd never seen an outburst like this..? In the darkness there stuttered a chill, one that only a particular tiny pixy picked up on.

"I SHOULD BURN YOUR ISLAND. I SHOULD BURN YOUR WORLD. I SHOULD WIPE YOU FROM THE TIMELINE FOR THIS INSOLENCE."

Chaos rose once more in a defensive stance, but only because he was visibly startled as well. Yes, he did pick a fight with his ruler, and he did make quite a scene, but he didn't actually expect Solaris to do anything besides return fire. Such thoughts may sound folly, but Solaris never really seemed to get upset at anyone. Not truly upset anyway; certainly never as ripe with rage as he was now.

"IF YOU DO NOT PLEA FORGIVENESS THIS INSTANT, PLEDGE YOUR LOYALTY TO ME ANEW; I SWEAR ON THEA'S GRAVE I WILL SEE HER LINE END TRAGICALLY AND MISERABLY. YOU HAVE ONE. LAST. CHANCE. CHAOS!!!"

Slowly Chaos dropped his hands. It felt he'd done enough pushing for the day, time to throw the dog a bone... He took to one knee, bowing his armored head low and restraining a low growl. 

Yet before he could say a word, a figure sprang up from right behind him-

A figure wielding a huge amount of dark purple energy concentrated in a pike-like shape.

A shadow that then dove right for the liquid's head. Haven dropped his guard completely, unable to react so quickly, Chaos was helpless in the hands of the shade-

-Yet in endless fortune came the aid of one who was ready.

The dark spire completely dissipated on the new bright green bubble, catching everyone off guard -sans time eater, who let out a yawn. So much happened in one moment the aquatic couldn't help but sputter out a, "wh-b-Huh..???"

In plain audible mortal-speak.

-So any whom wasn't confused by the happenings thus far were now bewildered by hearing plain speech in a meeting.

Similarly there were only a slight few who actually knew what he said. The aforementioned light twin was one of them, and responded quite quickly in the same language, "S-sorry! I thought you might want a little help there..." He was a touch confident- for someone who was stuttering so bad. It was a little intimidating to talk to Chaos after all he heard of them, even ignoring what he just /saw/ from them.

Chaos didn't stumble. He rose and immediately re-prepped for war, keeping his sights on the being in the bubble with him. The liquid's distrust of all was obvious, little Light couldn't blame him.

"R-relax! I'm not after you too-"

"Folly! Generations of loitering and lolly-gagging and you expect me to believe you're any more tolerable than the rest??" The ocean retorted.

"Well, think what you want; sure I'm not with you but I do owe you one."

Chaos stood still en-guard. Perhaps curious enough to see where this was going, but one wrong move would set him off for sure. It'd become a very delicate situation, fragile as the very beings the two both unknowingly protected. 

The Gaia-twins' official duty to the league was management of the landmass; and that was all Chaos cared to know. Likewise, Chaos' official job was overseeing the ocean- but with his energy being as plentiful and as malleable as it was lent him to also serve as a sort of back-up battery, should any other God require a boost.

Thusly Light was only slightly more familiar with Chaos than the other way around, yet this new development was quite a surprise for the former. Chaos looked to be just another temperamental destructive deity, albeit a very useful one. "Your little rock thingies-"

"And THERE it is- it shall always fall back to those now-"

"-HEY! I was gonna say they helped me save the whole world!"

Chaos hushed up, more out of embarrassment from being cut off by the black-sheep of the group. Light was a sham, a pathetic excuse for an all-powerful entity that most just kind of preferred not to acknowledge; his incredibly un-intimidating appearance did him no service there. Until now the little pup had no more interest in knowing anyone than they had in knowing him. Regardless, the aquatic leaned his head aside expecting further explanation.

"We-well it wasn't just me..! Sonic was the real hero; without that guy there wouldn't really be a ground to stand on." The Gaia continued. Chaos scoffed, thinking the other was beating around the bush. He went on, "I think you must have some idea of what happened..? I-I mean oceans don't just ignore gravity when the planet breaks apart- right?"

Chaos growled. The pixy gathered from their aura that he did in fact recall that whole global-calamity episode, and was none-to-pleased with having to hold up the entire ocean for weeks without his full power. Light nervously rubbed his paws together at that thought, mumbling out a "S-sorry..." just to acknowledge him.

This was taking a while, and both Solaris and their lesser were looking to lose it on them both. Light decided to hurry it up, "mortals have gotten pretty great, huh?"

"That is incredibly subjective, pipsqueak! The hedgehog has none more favor from me than you do." Chaos took once more to combat stance. Still not taking a swing nor really wanting to, but definitely ready to do so.

"R-right, well, I don't know what's going on there- but you definitely help him a lot either on purpose or-...or not. And I think you have that one soft-spot for those cute little blue guys right?"

Chaos' glare intensified. In the far back a grumpy feminine vibe emitted "HA-That's an understatement!!" -followed immediately by a slew of furious insults from their commander and chief. Mephiles said nothing, he just drifted around very discontent.

"Look-see, I thought I was the only one who cared about everyone in the world- anyone in the world but-... we can all tell you're fighting this hard for someone you care about. Just like Sonic does, and Sonic's a real hero t-to me."

"BLASPHEMY!!!" Cried Solaris, "Light Gaia I command you to step away from us NOW!! Else we suffer more of this ludicrous!"

The earth elemental, for what was probably the first time in his existence, shouted back at his superior, "That’s 'Chip' to you!! And isn't this exactly what you want!? Isn't the reason you yank us all around like this is to teach us the value of other life??"

Solaris went off again. He spat scriptures upon scriptures of his aims, his glorious schemes, his own world views. Things like how defending other natural life isn't the point, that their own species’ survival was more important, how creatures like the hedgehog were threats to a God's survival because of the Chaos Emeralds, the heresy of valuing mortals over kin, and all the why while returning to how disastrous it was to act without the High-God’s approval. Though it all didn't really matter.

Chip was just trying to get him distracted, succeeding with flying colors.

Amidst all the ranting he whispered to Chaos, "You’re a temporal right? Then you can warp can't you? Leave here and find your friend, make sure they're safe. Argus won't be too friendly with someone related to you I can tell you that. Don’t worry about here I’ll cover you, hurry up!"

"..." The liquid dropped his arms, completely blown aback by this whole event. This was, without a doubt, the strangest meeting there had ever been. As lost and boggled as he was however, Chaos didn't need someone to tell him to jump ship.

Energy began to build in the liquid's body, but not before a new voice sounded aloud right behind them. "I cannot halt you now, but you know that I know exactly what misfortune you will suffer when my fullness realizes what you've done. You have no safe haven, anathema", the voice of the shadow crackled in and out of place, unsure of where or how it could simply be.

"You know what you want to do right now, Mephiles, b-but I don't think he'll do it..." Retorted Chip, still stalling.

"Why do you join that atrocity?? What banquet has he ever brought?"

"That's backwards pal. I haven't changed, I just realized I'm tired of being the only nice guy in our group; and Chaos here seems to be on the fence of trying it out."

"Do not mistake urgency for benevolence," A glowing green Chaos cut in a final time, "We are not friends and do not think I owe you a debt for this!"

"Nah, course not. I only saved your life and got you out. Nothing super important right?" The puppy turned with a sarcastic look of glee. When his eyes did open they were much more serious, "But-... if ya can, please tell Sonic, 'Chip says hello' for me. T-that's not too much to ask is-"

And just like that, in an emerald flash and a blink the aquatic God was gone once more...

"... -It...?"

[tirkdi]

Raven Stratagem Meme

Okay, I publicly said I’d do this meme and then I essentially neglect-cannoned the whole thing. I was trying to make an edit of Nirai Kujen and then it turned out terribly and ... well. Here we are. 

Also, idk if this is happening for anyone else, but searching for multi-word tags doesn’t seem to be working for me for the last few weeks? The words get connected by an OR rather than assuming that it’s a continuous tag so that searching for ‘#ninefox gambit’ just returns anything that has the tag ‘ninefox’ OR ‘gambit’ ... anyway. If anyone knows how to keep that from happening please tell me because I miss looking for posts about tiny fandoms. 

But HERE WE GO, squeezing in my answers to many of the meme questions in the last few hours before Raven Stratagem is available to the world. All of it under a cut because spoilers for 9fox!

favorite character: I wish this were someone other than Kujen, but it is not. Kujen may not have the highest bodycount in the book (or he may! TBD I guess) but he is definitely the baddest and I am psyched to be reading a character who is an actual sociopath – let alone a sociopath who loves fancy clothes. 

favorite character that only appeared for one scene and who’s probably dead by the end of the book: Okay confession time – I didn’t really care for these scenes. On the reread I kept wondering why they were there – Yoon Ha Lee said I think that it was to give more of a sense of the world (and it does), I just ... they weren’t my favorites. Probably my favorite is the weapon repairers because it was all so bureaucratic and I am a sucker for space bureaucracy.

…most interesting faction (not favorite): I am so curious about most of the factions and reeeeeally looking forward to seeing how they play out. The most pressing question I have is how the Nirai have Kujen has their hexarch for a gazillion years. 

top Extra thing that Jedao does: THE LUCKSTONE SCENE OOOOOOOOMMMMMGGGGGGGGGG CAN YOU EVEN. And it’s all brought together by that line at the very end – “At the risk of alienating you forever, I have to point out that you lost the moment you agreed to play the game on my terms, without negotiating.” Cold, Jedao. As Kujen would say: Just what is it that runs in your veins?

favorite quote favorite quotes: 

“The point of war is to rig the deck, drug the opponent, and threaten to kneecap their family if they don’t fold.” 

“Remember that despite the fact that I’m a traitor and a mass murderer, one of us is expendable, and it isn’t me.”

The knife was sharp in the way of bitter nights.

The silence could have swallowed a star.

“Calendrical Minutiae: Year of the Fatted Cow, Month of the Partridge, Day of the Hedgehog, I need to program some macros, and fuck the hour.”

“Are you trying to pass off a massacre of your own soldiers as a pedagogical exercise?”

Everyone thinks of the Shuos as the sneaky snailfuckers, but the Andan are so damn affable and charming and fun to be around up to the point where they stab you in the kidneys.

“Dead is dead, Cheris. Do you think it makes any difference whether you’re killed by a knife in the back or a bullet?”

savagely correct courtesy

“I once had someone swerve her tank out of our column and straight into a house. With a very large basement. Because she was too sleep-deprived to think. It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny then. -- Oh, who am I kidding, it was hilarious, even if it was kind of a disaster. I laughed so hard my aide almost shot me.”

“Go fuck a power socket, Captain,” Ragath said, without heat, and signed off.

“I don’t mean sociopath values of crazy.” The corner of [Kujen’s] mouth tipped up for a moment. “I know what I am.”

“I can slaughter the math on my own.”

any ship! all the ships: Nerevor/Cheris. That’s really my only moth ship. If Cheris liked men more I could get behind Cheris/Jedao, and I could even believe Kujen/Jedao happened a few times in the Black Cradle (whatever the heck that looks like). I really want Nerevor/Cheris to have happened in book 1 – I’m not sure how it could possibly work later, though I hope Yoon Ha Lee is nice enough to make it a possibility by book 3 :)

wild guesses at Raven Stratagem’s plot Raven Stratagem’s plot if it was total fanservice just for me: KUJEN BLOWS TONS OF STUFF UP! Cheris/Jedao BLOW THINGS UP IN RETALIATION! The Andan appear and stab everyone in the kidneys. The universe collapses around Nerevor, who has fully recovered her memory, and Cheris as they share one beautiful kiss. For some reason, Shuos Mikodez is there. 

scene that Should Have Happened: Cheris/Nerevor before she got reverted to fledge null. Reversion’s scheduled for the morning, Nerevor shows up at Cheris’s door while she’s watching terrible dueling dramas ... Jedao has to be there so Cheris almost balks because he can’t not watch but he refuses to stand in the way of it and she finally relents and makes him swear to never mention it ever again not ever not even once.

scene you hope will happen in Raven Stratagem: CHERIS FIGHTING KUJEN!!!! Oh man, I want to see that so bad. I also want the plot to work to set up Nerevor/Cheris for book three. :)

[deoovat]

More knuxadow headcanons please, those were great and made me smile so thank you, but more now because they deserve more spotlight. Never enough for those boys!

aww I’m so happy they made you smile! ♡ ♡ 

I agree they do deserve more spotlight. ALLOFIT But okok here’s some more >:} 

-> Knuckles is very prone to very horrific night terrors which is why he actually doesn’t sleep all too much. They abuse his shattered and blurry memories of his past and blends them with his worst fears. So tired of waking up in a panic and terrified state he taught himself how to work and fight through his fatigue so much that his body is now used to working without much rest. It’s not healthy but the energy from the Master Emerald helps keep him alert and strong. It wasn’t until he slept with Shadow, them being nestled together that Knuckles truly got a good night of sleep without his dreams turning into something violent.

-> Knuckles can go for days even weeks without a blink of rest and usually, Shadow can tell. Shadow makes it his responsibility to make sure the first thing Knuckles does when he sees him after a long period of time is sleep. 

->When Knuckles does finally sleep, it sometimes lasts for a day or two. Shadow doesn’t mind this too much. It actually makes him feel very good that Knuckles trusts him so much that he can nudge away those nightmares just by being there with him; and if he does have them, being there to talk it out with the echidna is all the more rewarding. 

-> Knuckles gets a much more normal sleeping pattern once he starts dating Shadow and it improves his moods quite a bit actually. 

-> Shadow is not one to do things based on pure curiosity alone, but being with Knuckles has changed that for him. Knuckles is someone he finds himself constantly curious about, even after they’ve settled down into their relationship for a while. It’s a curiosity that he thinks can never be rid of. 

-> Knuckles really enjoys going to the markets on the surface and taking Shadow with him if he can. Not the normal kind where there’s currency exchange. Since he doesn’t have any physical money of his own he often bargains with his own supply of bizarre fruit and vegetables that only grow on his island in exchange for things like, seeds, crazy fruit he’s never seen before, bowls and etc. His island soil is great for growing plants and food so seeing what he can bring back to plant on the island is fun for him. Shadow finds it amusing to see Knuckles bargaining with other people sometimes heatedly when the echidna thinks he’s being duped. 

-> If Shadow wants to take Knuckles on a date, all he has to do is take him to a marketplace. And if he wants to get the echidna a gift, all he has to do is go there himself.

-> Since he loves growing things Shadow gifted Knuckles with bamboo seeds once, which challenged Knuckles green thumb. It took a while for him to figure out how much attention these seeds needed to grow successfully but when he figured it out, he was ecstatic with his victory. Though... since everything on the island tends to grow at an exponential rate well... you can guess what had happened. On the bright side, due to it growing so fast and being so much of it, Knuckles was able to build a bamboo hut for himself and his boyfriend. 

-> Shadow has a little corner in there where Knuckles stacks books he picks up from his ventures to the marketplace for his boyfriend... Shadow doesn’t have the heart to tell him that 60% of them are in languages he can’t read.  

-> Knuckles hands are badly scarred from fighting with his fists all his life. He didn’t always have the gloves that he wears now. The echidna isn’t ashamed of his hands but when Shadow first saw them without the gloves, he couldn’t help but be a little nervous. Shadow, of course, has nothing but respect for the echidna and traced every scar littered across his hands, with somewhat of an impressed grin on his face. Knuckles was relieved. 

-> After getting together and dating these two actually don’t argue much if at all. Shadow has his own reserved nature to him that compliments Knuckles reserved nature just as well. They know what buttons not to push, what buttons to push, and often agree with each other on a lot of different topics. Especially Sonic. They do have silly spats every now and again, however, more of a playful argument than an actual one. 

-> When it comes to the M.E however and Knuckles' undying loyalty to it, that’s a whole different story. Those arguments are heated, with a capital H. 

-> Once coming out to their friends that they are dating Shadow is absolutely shameless. Not as in he likes embarrassing Knuckles at every chance he gets but more on the lines of, he is not secretive about his affection for the echidna like at all. Shadow has popped up in the middle or end of a battle that doesn’t concern him, numerous times without a hello, how are you, none of that. Just grab Knuckles and then Chaos Control them right out, leaving the rest of Sonic team stupefied. Knuckles finds this stupid and hilariously annoying. 

-> Knuckles now can sense when his brat of a boyfriend is coming. So now before the hedgehog even gets a word out his mouth after phasing into physicality, Knuckles will grab his arm and throw him before he can even think about it. 

-> Shadow likes Knuckles teeth. He doesn’t know how someone with a diet of vegetables and fruit has such sharp teeth but he isn’t complaining. It’s one of the reasons why he finds Knuckles grins so dangerously attractive. 

-> Knuckles will never say it out loud because he’d probably die of embarrassment, but he thinks Shadow is really fuckin handsome and it’s sometimes literally painful for Knuckles to look at him. Like seriously, why are his eyes so pretty. The fuck- 

-> Knuckles loves the rainy seasons while Shadow prefers the hotter seasons. For... reasons. Totally not to gawk at his boyfriend underneath the hot sun.

-> Knuckles can handcraft weapons and instruments out of wood and clay and has crafted his own Drone Flute that he sometimes plays for the animals on his island or when his mind is too erratic to focus on meditation. Never for anyone else though... until Shadow came along. Shadow finds himself the most allured and taken aback by his boyfriend when he’s in these states of rest and stillness. The sound of the instrument along with his boyfriends' strangely calm presence in these moments can lull even him to a state of restfulness. 

-> Their favorite activity to do together, besides sparring, is swimming and mountain climbing. Knuckles knows his island from front to back but it doesn’t take away the fun of ‘getting lost’ in it every now and again. Getting to do these things off the island though, makes Knuckles even more thrilled. 

-> Knuckles can read ancient languages including his own along with Babloynian but he struggles reading the modern alphabet. While he has no problem speaking it, reading and writing is a whole different ball game. However, he is a fast learner and can recognize the words of things if they’re ones he’s seen before or has been explained to him. He hides these facts however because he doesn’t want to be dismissed as stupid. Shadow however catches on. He never tells Knuckles though. He feels it should be something the echidna tells him on his own terms. So instead, Shadow chooses just to be helpful in his own way. Reading things aloud when it’s handed to Knuckles and disguising it as him being nosy. Or having a food stall owner list off the Vegetarian options aloud instead of having Knuckles try to read it.  

ok it’s getting too long, I had to scroll more than twice to read it all, so WEGON STOP HERE (۶* ‘ꆚ’)۶”