#in most other senses sonic is more skilled than shadow yeah

[sonic-adventure-3]

dude i phrased that sonic v shadow post so wrong. in my head “more skilled” meant shadow relies on more specific skills like gunplay and chaos energy manipulation, and more theoretical knowledge, not that he’s generally more proficient. “raw power” is wholly undescriptive and invokes an image of brute force, which isn’t what i meant. sonic has significantly more actual experience and more honed movement. sonic is a very quick learner, and has dexterity and stamina off the charts. he’s most certainly not unskilled, not in general nor compared to shadow, so i supremely failed if i implied that.

in my head at least, shadow would’ve learned to fight in a controlled environment, if he had physical training at all. i imagine he’d be book smart, had a formal education and shit. either he learned and trained on the ark, or when gerald messed with his memories he implanted fighting knowledge too, baymax style, or something i guess. sonic learned to fight through actual experience, so sonic would be the one with far better battle sense and instincts, it’s like second nature to him rather than a studious pursuit. dude’s graceful as hell, makes everything look easy; no way in hell is he unskilled or less skilled than shadow. shadow’s skill is like, classical, whereas sonic’s is pure schmovement. but idk i’m just thinking aloud.

[prowerprojects]

Well, who could have predicted what went down between SA2 and now. And I imagine if certain events went differently, we might some things would be way different. Especially when English is telling one story and Japanese telling another. (He wasn't the only character who experienced writing issues, his in particular just became "unfocused" after a while until they started scaling back the cast a bit.)

Hmm, probably would have helped if he had more kids around his age to interact with frequently. Cream slowly faded to the background {to her fans' dismay}, Marine is in Blaze's dimension and good luck finding Charmy interactions. Closest thing now is Sage and that's a mystery for now.

I think his theme song pretty much laid out his aspirations and still holds true for his Frontiers story in both versions of it. Presented differently in it and SA2, but ultimately the same goal: Finding his own style and path. (How far his potential goes really depends on him, so him pushing himself in different ways [and perhaps at times too much] could make him discover more things about him he hadn't before. That, wanting to show his friends his new skills is a good motivator too. xD)

I don't expect a drastic timeskip either; at most it'd probably be a few years. I'm sure they want keep the characters relatively similar-looking in nature if they ever decide on any physical or outfit changes to fit their current story, but not disrupting the iconicness of the designs. It's not the same as making an adaption with a different art direction. (Heh, I actually like the idea of him having a ponytail, to go along with his tails. Like Bark's, but shorter. But I can see them going for stylized models; the Mario crowd has been going nuts over "Wonder".)

In Boom's case, since it was meant to be its own subsection, the characters having designs that distant them from their Modern selves made sense from a marketing standpoint. Mixed on release, warmed up since but not wholly. At least wasn't the early concept art, Sega stomped down hard to get what we got. (It was mainly Knuckles and Sonic that got most of the criticism, with Amy to lesser extent, and Tails having little to none. Heck, some think his Modern self SHOULD have the goggles and toolbelt. Funnily enough, some did like the idea of a bulkier Knuckles, just not top-heavy, and more like his ancestors. And I have seen some scarf/adventure-looking Sonics here and there. And the surprise that was Vector, that leather jacket does suit him.) In any case, making changes isn't easy. Execution matters so much.

Considering that Eggman has a Vtuber model now; that'll likely mean other characters down the line, depending on the topics that pop up. (Though Shadow does feel like he's next. Hoping that his is mainly him and Tails before Sonic inevitably pops in, which is a recurring gag for that series.) But yeah, just a few fun shorts. Nothing crazy.

Yeah, his development from sa1 to sa2 made sense, it's unfortunate that it didn't work out in the long run.

Actually... idk about that. I feel like interacting with the other kids a lot would only highlight how more mature he is compared to them. When with his own friend group of older friends he still comes off as more childish than them. Maybe if they'd leaned into "youngest characters all being friends" from the start, but we'll never know now.

(Though take this with a grain of salt since maybe I also have a bit of resentment over people trying to metaphorically "banish them to the kids table", as if they all need to hang out with each other just because they're the same age.)

Yeah "Believe in myself" is a great theme for Tails and I feel like. You need to listen to it to understand him as a character, though I feel like it fits what he's going through in Frontiers somehow better than sa1? Like, a lot of the stuff mentioned in the song you can't really get from his story in the game itself (or maybe I just. forgot or wasn't paying enough attention). (Though it might also be the case of them writing frontiers and using the song as a baseline for his character and arc, while in sa1 it was probably the opposite)

Maybe they will change up some clothes!(Tails with a little ponytail? Aahhh it would be so cute) (I do agree with those people I wish Tails had goggles and a toolbelt in the mainline series. Maybe not on a permanent basis but at least goggles when he's flying? On the other hand, I do enjoy the main characters all having pretty simple designs. I also agree with Knuckles being bulkier, I like what they did for the movie, it just makes more sense for the type of character he is)

I only brought up Boom as an example of people reacting negatively to the redesigns, and it wasn't even canon.

Man Shadow could give us so much lore. I need the next season of TailsTube now (I can't believe it was a whole season? 4 episodes? Tails you hack) Man I really want some Tails & Omega interactions. I need to know what their relationship is like in canon. Or Cream? You could use Cream for the Chao lore. Aahhhh.

[thecustomcosplayed]

When The Sun Sets

 part 2! it’s here! whoo! Sausage tries to check out the Ancient City Gem was talking about. Notes: i was watching game theory while I wrote this, so.. yeah- anyways, another character appears this part :) well kinda linebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklinebreaklin Sausage glanced up from the map Gem had given him, looking into the cave entrance. The adventurer had decided it was best to set towards the cave immediately after he left the Princess to sleep. Hopefully, he would find something leading to the reason Gem was acting so strange recently. Now, Sausage wasn’t one to be afraid of caves, not in the slightest. Sure, the mobs were always a problem, but he could take them out with a swipe or two from his sword more times than not. He thought every person needed a place to be free and safe, and while he did feel a little guilty from killing the mobs, he thought it as more freeing their souls than kill them. But no, it wasn’t the average mob that scared him. Heck, he could even handle the Deep Dark and the skulk blocks. What he was afraid of was the Warden. All of the books he had read about the Warden described it as dangerous, and practically impossible to kill, even by some of the most skilled warriors known to date. The psychical description described the Warden as a tall, looming shadow, shaped like a disfigured human, with horns coming from it’s head. It had no eyes, which was why it was always relying on the sensors, and it’s great hearing. Some people had said they could hear whispers whenever they were near the Warden, but that wasn’t too are, at least not in the Empires world. He knew there were several different things that whispered around you, and he could list a few. The soul sand and fire in the Nether, the Evermore’s fog, the End portal, things that like. But it still creeped him out. After all, why- no, how, could the Warden whisper? It was known for it’s ear-ringing shrieks, it’s sonic booms. He found it hard to believe that it was the Warden itself who whispered. Perhaps it was like the soul fire? But, he didn’t have time to question that right now. He had walked to where the Deep Dark started. Apparently, he still had a bit to go before he would in the actual City. The brunette stopped, kneeling and putting on the enchanted boots Gem gave him, putting his own diamond ones away for now, before he quietly snuck onto the squishy skulk material. Sausage was surprised at how well lit up the area was, with a wide area of torches and even some frog lights in the ceiling. It was well lit up enough so no mobs spawned, and he slowly slipped away his own unlit torch. He supposed it made sense that the area would be well lit, but he wasn’t expecting it to be. The adventurer quickly made his way to where the City was, keeping quiet as he stared at it for a few seconds. The Ancient Cities normally spawned rather big, but Gem had grown it out, making it downright huge. It could give fWhip’s Empire a run for his money with how big it was.

The ruins had been made a bit nicer, and easier to maneuver. But, there was still a double chest in front, with a sign labeled in Gem’s handwriting:

“Welcome to Dusk! Please, take a map so you don’t get lost, and some wool so it’s easier for you to move around!”

The brunette opened the chest, taking a map and two stacks of wool. He took this chance to check his inventory and who was on the server right now. His inventory didn’t have much in it, just the bare minimum.

As for who was online, other then himself and Gem (who’s user had some gray z’s beside it), only Shelby was on.

He paused, staring at the witch’s user. Maybe she would know what the wisps were? To be fair, it did sound like it was a magic thing.

You whispered to ShubbleYT: Hey, do you know what a wisp is? He typed on the communicator, glad it didn’t make any noise when he sent the ‘whispered’ message, as he waited for the blonde-banged girl to respond. ShubbleYT whispered to you: no? i mean it sounds familiar but not off the top of my head? ShubbleYT whispered to you: y? and why are we whispering? You whispered to ShubbleYT: In order to your questions, Gem is transforming an Ancient City under Dawn and said some wisps were protecting her, and I’m currently in said Ancient City.

ShubbleYT whispered to you: ohhh.. that’s not very good if i’m right abt what i think the wisps are. ShubbleYT whispered to you: get out of the city, i’ll meet you at dawn. You whispered to ShubbleYT: What? Why? ShubbleYT whispered to you: just trust me please. you plan on killing the warden, right? The adventurer shivered lightly at that. He hadn’t been planning to, not at all, no, he planned to run if he spawned it accidentally. He was just here to find whatever the wisps were and head out to check on Gem. You whispered to ShubbleYT: Not really, I just wanted to know what the wisps were. ShubbleYT whispered to you: well, i guess we’re both doing something we thought we’d never do. ShubbleYT whispered to you: just meet me up at dawn, i’ll be there with potions and bows. You whispered to ShubbleYT: Please don’t tell me you plan on trying to kill the Warden. ShubbleYT whispered to you: no better way to make sure gem’s safe, right? Sausage cursed under his breath, sending one more message with just a simple ‘Fine’ as his response. It had been totally unfair that Shelby had pulled that card, but whatever. He started his way to the surface, only glancing back at the City twice. End part 2. end notes: whoops. i acidentally posted it without finishing. oh well its fixed now :) but whooo you unlocked great witch to your team lol. I really wanted to add Shubble in, and what better way then making her help Sausage kill the Warden? also Shubble’s messaging is an accurate way i type usually but with a lot of typos, so, you know. also, for those ppl who noticed I described Shelby with blonde bangs instead of like blonde haired or brunette, my ver. season 2 Shubble has diff hair. she had dark brown pigtails, then just brown, and then blonde bangs so yeah :D

[dreaminpeaches]

New Paracosm AU: Big Hero Beau

@decaykid yes, kind of...

Okay, like I said in my last post this idea came to me after listening to Fist Pump and Viva Namida on loop with pacing.

So you know like how the original Humble Pie paracosm is very western horror kind of drama, yeah? well, this paracosm is just full on ANIME BBY!!! I'm talking Space Dandy, I'm talkin' Gurren Lagann, I'm talkin maybe a little bit of Trigun, and also takes alot from action rpgs like Bayonetta, Devil May Cry, Persona, Viewitful Joe, and Wonderful 101 (but its like only two people), and takes alot from Sonic the hedgehog (mostly Sonic Underground, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Forces), and little bit from Fancy Pants ( that's not an anime or a "real" video game, its just an old flash game I used to hyperfixate on).

This paracosm is completely different which is why I gave it, it's own name instead of just adjective then "!"

This version of Beau takes a lot of inspiration from Dandy ( Space Dandy), Vash The Stampede (Trigun), Sonic The Hedgehog (Sonic The Hedgehog), and Kamina (Gurren Langann)

In this paracosm, both of Beau's parents perished in a tragic accident, Beau takes his siblings to an abandoned shack and they hide out and live out there. the tragedy this motivative Beau to become stronger and a hero, not only to keep his siblings safe but others too. The last thing his mom told him was that his smile could save a thousand lives, so because of that he always keeps an upbeat, go get 'em attitude, and he doesn't want to bum his younger siblings out. His mom also gave Beau her heart shape locket before she passed on, so Beau has worn it ever since that day.

The locket is very precious to him, he doesn't let anyone touch it (other than his siblings), and if he loses it he'll go into a panic attack and can't do anything else until he finds it again.

Dev, Beau's little brother, also wants to be strong and a hero, he tries to train like his brother but he can't keep up. Beau tells Dev that he has to be strong in his own way, so Dev decides to put his tech skills to good use and make his older brother cool weapons for him to use. I forgot to mention in this paracosm some people are born with superpowers and such, and Beau's superpowers are super strength and speed, while Dev's superpower is super intelligence.

Dev can't keep up with his brother on foot, so he made himself a jetpack to keep up, and makes science weapons for himself to use.

In this paracosm, there are evil robots, pirates, bandits, ninjas, demons, fallen angels, giant spiders, bad guys who kidnap pretty people, any enemy you would find in a video game or anime yeah it's probably here. So, there's always something for Beau and Dev to fight or someone to save from something.

Beau and Dev don't have secret identities since superpowered people are common but they get to have a pretty rad transformation scene activate when they fist bump each other.

Beau fighting style is similar to that of a hack and slack fighting game, Beau mostly use his fists to fight and his speed, he'll also use guns too, but he'll only use swords if he thinks he can pull off a cool move, since not really experience using them that much. Dev made Beau special gloves and boots that make the attack range of his hit larger so its easier to take out hoards of stuff like robots (which happens lot) and big enemies like giant monsters.

His boots are also guns so its like....

Oh, and Beau also makes sure that he always looks cool when fighting just in case someone takes a pic (which happens alot). Unlike Bayonetta, Beau is more playful with his posing rather than sexy.

Dev's wits come in handy when the two come across puzzles, riddles, or finding a way out of traps on their adventures since Beau didn't complete school once his parents passed and mostly focus on raising his siblings and hero training.

Much like Sonic, Beau is very snarky and witty while fighting his enemies (or at least tries to be), he always tries to make a snarky comment or a really cool zinger before finishing off his enemy. Due to his kind of being not the sharpest tool in the shed, it can take a while for him to come up with a good zinger, so it kind of stalls fights, and sometimes it gets to the point where the enemy is just like "Oh my GOD! just KILL ME!", this also annoys and embarrasses Dev too at times.

Beau makes money from bounties and doing odd jobs around, he makes enough for his siblings to live comfortably, but there are times where he'll go hungry because he only has enough for Dev and Carrie to eat. Beau is still a kind of a lower-level hero compare to the other well know ones around.

Dev has also made a rocket ship so they can fight intergalactically on other planets

Carrie in this paracosm is still 4 years old, she has yet to show any signs of having powers, which is pretty normal for her age since people in this world don't show powers until they hit their pre-teen years.

Beau will take Carrie on their adventures if it's safe enough, but if the mission is too dangerous Beau will take her to the nearest daycare or the nearest trustworthy femme person. Beau will try to make the mission or fight end quickly as possible if he left Carrie with a stranger, there's a sigh of relief once he finds her safe, if not (which doesn't happen a lot thankfully), well somebody gonna die and Beau tries to make it up to her by spending the next few days with her, just him and Carrie.

Beau tries to put being a good guardian/older brother before being a hero and tries his best to spend as much time with Carrie and Dev as possible on chiller/lower stakes days.

Beau had never had time to really process the feeling of losing his parents, there are days where he feels down but he never lets it show around his siblings or have it affect his hero work. There are nights where those memories keep him up, sometimes he'll cry but still try to smile thru the tears.

Beau likes to give peps talks to himself in the mirror, and pep talks to Dev, when he's feeling discouraged, although most of the time those pep talks don't really make any sense Dev still appreciate his brother's kind words.

Since Beau saves people, he interacts a lot with damsels in distress, he flirts with them, but usually gets rejected for coming across as too cheesy or cocky. He doesn't really mind it tho, he actually finds it funny, but when a lady actually flirts back he gets really flustered and has to leave immediately. Despite this Beau still tries to give Dev advice on talking to girls.

Beau still smokes and drinks because the stress of having to raise young siblings, dealing with trauma, and being a hero can be alot, but he still makes sure his siblings don't see him and he doesn't get too wasted.

Other than hero stuff, Hero! Beau enjoys reading comics, parkour, skateboarding, break dancing (which he incorporates in his fighting for some really cool finishers), practicing cool poses and phrases, playing video games with his little brother, and watching barbie movies with his little sisters (since Barbie reminds him of his mom).

Oof, I think that's all I got for now....

TL;DL Basically if this version of Beau is Sonic the original Beau is more like Shadow if that makes any sense.

[bisexual-medal-alex]

I’m seeing a lot of criticism and hate on this latest issue of IDW Sonic, specifically with how they’re treating Dr. Eggman and Dr. Starline. I wanted to offer my own counter argument to the table and explain why I personally don’t think they’re being handled badly.

Well I say that but when looking at it from a first glance it seems like they’re really making him more of a self-defeating moron than any of the games ever did. It’s been established that Eggman’s tendency to outsource his schemes to some sort of powerful force tends to lead to it blowing up in his face just when he’s reached peak overconfidence. Even in most of those situations though he’s taken more precautions to keep said powerful force under his control and when it does blow up in his face he does recognize it. The way Eggman is being portrayed so casual about the possibility of his own failure is pretty comical (pun not intended).

But this isn’t the first time Eggman has been depicted as self destructive, especially in the comics. In both the Archie comics and the Fleetway comics Eggman/Robotnik has at one point reached a breaking point where too many defeats at the hands of his furry blue nemesis where he started to get very sloppy with his schemes and apathetic to the idea that his own forces would take a heavy loss because of his actions. Granted both of these incarnations of the character went through years of failure to get to that point but then again since the IDW comics is canon to the games and since they take place directly after Sonic Forces where Eggman was upping his game desperate to get a win, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that Eggman here has finally reached that breaking point where he just wants to win damn the consequences.

Then again that’s assuming this is still the same Eggman. See I’m not 100% convinced that the Eggman we’ve been following for the last 20 or so issues, the Eggman who uses to be Mr. Tinker and who Dr. Starline has been fanboying over is the REAL Dr. Eggman. I’m convinced that this is some elaborate plan by the real Dr. Eggman who used the Phantom Ruby to create a duplicate of himself to lure people into a false sense of security but then Dr. Starline mistook him for the genuine article and conditioned him into assuming the mad doctor’s role.

You might be wondering how this is possible since Mr. Tinker clearly retained memories of being Doctor Eggman in his subconscious and he acted fully independently after he showed up in that little village?

This is just me theorizing here but I think Eggman left him those subconscious memories on purpose so that Sonic and friends would buy the ruse. The Phantom Ruby also reacts to the user’s subconscious desires to create its elaborate illusions so its possible that Eggman put them there intentionally or accidentally when he made Mr. Tinker. Plus all of the duplicates of the villains Infinite made in Sonic Forces were able to act independently, they just couldn’t be anything more than henchmen since they were create by Infinite’s single-minded drive for conquest whereas Mr. Tinker seems like a much more complicated creation than that.

The one problem with this theory of mine is the issue of Metal Sonic. How did Metal Sonic trigger Mr. Tinker to have actual memories of being Eggman if he’s just a holographic construct? Even accepting that’s what he is I’ll admit it’s a big stretch to say that the hypothetical “real” Eggman in this scenario embedded this construct with enough memories to drastically switch personalities.

I don’t have a good explanation for this, it really does poke a big hole in this theory of mine. But I do still think it’s a strong possibility since the setup for it is there in the early issues and it would explain why Eggman is so uncharacteristically careless. Mr. Tinker didn’t want to be Eggman to begin with, maybe he wants to fail deep down. He clearly has some remorse about what he’s left behind as this issue has shown.

I don’t know if I’m right. The pieces of the puzzle are there and that setup in the early issues to too obvious to ignore for me. For all I know the writing team originally intended Mr. Tinker to be a Phantom Ruby double but then Sega vetoed that idea and this is the genuine Doctor that we’ve been following. It wouldn’t be the first time Sega has meddled with this comics’ writing and imposing their own arbitrary characterization (Shadow anyone?)

As for Doctor Starline honestly this one boils down to personal opinion but I do not think he’s being ruined and in fact I actually like that they’re setting him up for him going on his own villainous path. I’ve heard some people say they’re just turning him into Snivley 2.0 and I don’t think that’s an unfounded criticism. On paper they have a similar characterization as someone who started out idolizing Eggman but then grew bitter after secondhandly observing their failures and being treated like a lackey and as a result grew a treacherous side. Also if you read their arguements next to each other they sound very similar.

But I don’t think it’s entirely a fair comparison, I think the two characters differ greatly in terms of their own skills and how they came to work for Eggman. Snivley was Robotnik’s nephew and since they were both rejected by their own kind Robotnik took pity on him and made him his chief henchman. It was only after years of abuse and standing in his uncle’s shadow that Snivley started considering overthrowing his uncle and whenever he did strike out on his own he always just copied his uncle. He is a technological genius in his own right but his most successful schemes are the ones where he gets someone stronger to do his dirty work and when they fail he’s always quick to hide behind someone else to avoid the full consequences.

Dr. Starline on the other hand is clearly on another level than Snively. A lot about his backstory and origin is shrouded in mystery but it’s obvious that he has the capacity to be a full on threat if he worked alone. He is enough of a scientific genius to create a working portal gun on his glove, he was able to single handedly get all seven Chaos Emeralds and he even came close to beating Sonic and Silver in his first run in with them. All that’s holding him back is his own fanboy adoration for Eggman, he put all of this effort and energy to become a credible threat but he’s choosing to play second fiddle for the mad scientist.

Actually recently his adoration has been turning to cynicism similar to Snivley. But unlike Snivley it’s not because of years of abuse and a inferiority complex driving him, rather it’s more out of a glass-shattering “never meet your heroes” revelation and a desire for better efficiency that he’s working towards undermining the big red egg.

So yeah to sum up I think (or at least I hope) there is a good reason that Eggman has been acting OOC in these recent comics and I actually like the direction Dr. Starline has been going in. Wherever the comics end up going with all this I have faith that I’m going to enjoy them.

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia - Chapter 72: Summer Shorts Part 1

Presenting the next installment of my on-going, nextgen, MHA fic! Earlier chapters can be found here

Shota Shinso in Student-Teacher Conference

At the knocking at his apartment door, Shota Shinso paused the video he’d been watching, a special counting down the top ten most amazing Hero battles from the previous year.  The votes for the battles had come from an online poll, which he’d voted in, so they were probably a little on the biased side rather than being truly objective or anything like that.  But he had to admit that most of the ones which had made the cut were the same ones he would have chosen.  

Unsurprisingly, Uncle Izuku had made the list twice, for his fights against Doom-Fist and the Maximums. Shoto was on the list two times as well; Ingenium and Gale Force had both made it on there once, as had Kestrel and Rodeo.  Red Riot and Real Steel shared a spot on the list.  And then there had been Ground Zero’s battle against Megastorm…

He’d had to fast forward through that.  It had sent his mind flashing back to the day of the Nomu attack.  He’d heard the sounds of tearing flesh and the Nomu’s terrible scream. His hands had felt wet with Ground Zero’s blood as he’d desperately tried to provide what first aid he could.  His nostrils had filled with the coppery smell…

It had taken everything he had not to scream and destroy the apartment. At least with Mom and Dad both at work, there hadn’t been anyone else around to see.

He’d been doing so well.   He’d actually passed his exams at school and made good use of his Quirk during the Heroics final exam.  He was able to be around Kirishima-Bakugo without flinching or expecting her to be mad at him.  He only had nightmares about it every so often.  

He hadn’t counted on what actually seeing Ground Zero would do to him.  Shota had been doing a good job of keeping himself from thinking about him. He’d hidden away his Ground Zero posters, statues, toys, and other merchandise.  He’d set his phone and internet browser to screen any mention of him. If he kept himself from thinking about Ground Zero, then he could keep himself from thinking about what happened.

Shota knew what happened wasn’t his fault.  He’d been told that often enough now, had enough therapy that he could say it without feeling like it was a lie.  But it was still like standing on the edge of a cliff.  Somedays, it didn’t take much to send him over the edge.

Dumb, really.  He should have expected that Ground Zero would have been in such a video.  His fights had always been amazing to watch.  His Quirk, his strength, his skill, all of it was… had been simply amazing.

And maybe he wouldn’t be anymore.

Because of him.

Dang it, he was supposed to be moving past this!

He shut his eyes right for a moment, doing the calming exercises Hound Dog had taught him.  Deep breaths.  Focus his thoughts on where he was, what he could see.  Whoever was at the door knocked again, and his eyes snapped open as he got off the couch.  “Coming!” he called out.

He opened the door before they could knock again.

“Hey, kid.  Can we talk?”

…It was Ground Zero.

***

The park near his apartment was busy today, with lots of kids playing around, happy and carefree. He could see a group of elementary school-age kids using their Quirks to keep a Frisbee up in the air.  One had some kind of wind Quirk, another an arm-stretching Quirk, and the third and fourth, who looked like twins, seemed to have some kind of telekinetic push and pull Quirks.  He smiled, remembering doing the same kinds of games with Toshi, Shinji, Izumi, and the others as a kid.  Of course, there was the time he’d hit the Frisbee with a sonic blast and knocked it out of the park…

Maybe they ought to bring that back.  It’d be a fun game and good Quirk training!

He and Ground Zero sat on a bench, eating the ice cream they’d bought. Though lots of Pro Heroes, especially the Top Ten, went out in some measure of disguise when they were off the clock, Ground Zero didn’t bother.  He was very good at radiating “keep at least three meters away from me if you know what’s good for you vibes.” It was something his daughter was also extremely good at.

Ground Zero clearly wanted to talk, but Shota didn’t have any idea what it was about.  It was all he could do to keep from shaking and panicking. The ice cream gave him something to be present in the moment in, something else Hound Dog had taught him to do when he thought he was going to have a panic attack.  

“So,” he said quietly, “you wanted to talk?”

Ground Zero took a moment, as though sizing him up, then nodded.  “How you doing, kid?  Katsumi says you did pretty good during the exam.”  His voice lacked some of its usual hard edge.  The question sounded sincere.

Kirishima-Bakugo had talked about him?  And said he’d done good?  He wouldn’t have expected that.  Shota nodded. “It was really nuts!  Uncle Shota got actual bad guys to fight us!  Even Shadow-Thief!   Boy though, did Mom and Dad give him an earful about that!  Mom really doesn’t like her for some reason, maybe because Dad says she used to try and flirt with him whenever he’d try and catch her, but that’s silly, because they’ve been married forever now…  But yeah, I was one of the last ones left standing, and we zapped the big guy really good….”

It had made him feel like he could actually do something right.  It was a good feeling.  He’d actually helped his friends when it had really counted.  

“That’s good,” Ground Zero said, more indulgently than most adults did when he went on about something. “Sounds like you really kicked their asses.”

Shota actually laughed a little bit at that.  Ground Zero definitely had a way with words.  “Yeah, I guess we did.”   He frowned a little.  “What… what about you?  Are you doing okay?”

Ground Zero went quiet for a moment, before he went on.  “Getting better every day,” he said.  “Physical therapy three times a week.  Hasn’t been the challenge yet that can beat me.  Glasses and Tintin’s wives are working on a better prosthetic.  I’ll be kicking ass again before you can blink.”

It sounded reassuring. But it was still a challenge he wouldn’t have been facing if it hadn’t been for Shota.  If he hadn’t been trying to keep him safe… Ground Zero looked down for a moment, at his leg, then over at Shota, then sighed.  “You know this isn’t your fault, right, kid?”

Shota frowned.  He closed his eyes.  “Sometimes,” he said after a moment.  “Maybe not all the time.  But it’s hard not to think it was.”

“It wasn’t,” Ground Zero repeated, more forcefully this time.  He tossed the remains of his ice cream in the trash and put a hand on Shota’s shoulder. His grip was firm and strong. “Look at me, kid.”  He didn’t speak again until Shota was looking him in the eyes, something that took more willpower than he thought he had.  

“Listen,” Ground Zero said. “You, Shota Shinso, are not to blame for what happened to me.  Not one damn percent.  You got that?  Whatever sick f—er, bastard made that damn monster is to blame, not you.”

Shota nodded, mutely. He’d been told that so many times, from so many people.  Some days, he believed it.  Ground Zero though, was one of the most direct and honest people he knew.  If he blamed Shota, he’d have no problem letting him know.  If he didn’t blame him, maybe there was some truth to it.

“Good,” Ground Zero told him.  “And anytime that thought starts running through your head, I want you to punch it, hard, for me.  You picture it, shout kill and let it have it.  You got that?”

He nodded again, his head bobbing up and down quickly.  He could do that!

Ground Zero looked him over again.  He let out a puff of breath.  “Look… I ain’t good with words.  So maybe I’m not gonna tell this real well, but… Listen, I have been exactly where you are.”

“You?” Shota asked. “But you’re Ground Zero!  You’re not afraid of anything!  You’re the most confident Hero ever!”

Ground Zero shook his head. “You remember Kamino?  All Might’s last fight with that masked potato-faced freak?”

Who hadn’t heard of that? Uncle Izuku had told the story plenty of times of how he and his friends had gone to rescue Ground Zero from the League of Villains, while All Might had battled his long-time enemy.  It was the climax of all kinds of documentaries about All Might’s career. Everyone who was around and aware then had a story about where they were when they saw it happen.  They studied it in school!  He’d seen the video hundreds of times!  Shota nodded again.  

“I went through the same thing you’re going through,” Ground Zero said.  He gazed off into the distance.  “I blamed myself for causing All Might’s retirement.  I thought if I hadn’t been so weak, hadn’t screwed up and gotten captured, he wouldn’t have had to use up the last of his strength to save me.  I blamed myself, for weeks.  Without even realizing it, it affected everything I did.  I was even nastier and louder and angrier than usual.  I was such a shit, I’m amazed any of my friends stuck around.  But after I failed the Provisional License Exam, well… let’s just say it took Deku beating some sense into me for me to realize what I’d been carrying around.”

“Really?” Shota asked. He’d never heard this one before! “Uncle Izuku never said anything about that! And you always seem so confident! But you… you blamed yourself too?”

He knew Heroes got scared sometimes.  Uncle Izuku had talked about it, so had Uncle Denki, even Uncle Inasa had.  Uncle Shota even said that fear was a logical response sometimes.  And he knew they had doubts and worries.  But of all the Heroes in the world, he never would have expected Ground Zero would!

“Yeah, I did.  And there’s still times where I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t been such an arrogant dumbass back then.”  He looked over and smiled a bittersweet smile, then gave Shota’s hair an affectionate tussle.  “So don’t go letting me hear you needed Toshi or Katsumi or somebody to beat you up, okay?  There’s nothing wrong with needing help.  Hell, you start feeling down, you call me, day or night, okay?”

Shota nodded rapidly again, the bad thoughts banished for the moment.  He knew they’d be back.  “Okay!”

Seemingly satisfied with that, Ground Zero nodded.  “Which is kind of why I wanted to talk to you in the first place, kid.  You know how All Might’s taking over from Nedzu as principal?”

“Oh yeah!” Shota said. “He’s gonna be really awesome at it, I just know it!  He said he might still teach a few classes, but that we’re gonna get a new Heroics’ teacher!  He said they were looking into some people, but he didn’t really know who it was going to be…”

Ground Zero cleared his throat and interrupted him.  “It’s going to be me.”

“Oh, wow!”  Shota said.  It was only then that he realized what Ground Zero had actually said.  “Wait, what?”

A smile passed over the Hero’s face.  “It’s gonna be me.  All Might offered me the job before you all went off to Ponytail’s island.”

“Oooh,” Shota said. “You’d be really good at that!  I learned a whole bunch when I was your Intern! And Kirishima-Bakugo’s really super talented, so you must have taught her a whole lot too, and you’re one of the most awesome Heroes around, with one of the best fight records and…”

Ground Zero held up his hands.  “Breathe, kid.  Breathe. I know I’m pretty awesome.  So you’re damn right I’ll be a damn good teacher. Even if I have to drag some of your classmates forward kicking and screaming.”

Shota didn’t know who that would be.  All his friends and classmates worked so hard and had such amazing Quirks!  “But… why would you want to talk to me about that?” he asked.  He wasn’t family or anything.

Ground Zero gave him a small, sympathetic smile.  “Because I knew you were probably still blaming yourself.  Even though I told you not to.  I didn’t know how you’d take it if you had to see me every day.”

“What?” Shota asked. The question didn’t make any sense.

“Kid,” Ground Zero said patiently, “you practically had a damn panic attack when I showed up at your door.  You’re going to be seeing me every Heroics Class if I take this job.”  He tapped his knuckles against his knee.  It made a small metallic clang. “And you’ll be thinking about this.”

“That’s not,” he started to say, but stopped himself.  He can’t help but stare now, his eyes wide and wet.  What if Ground Zero was right?  “Maybe.”

This got him a nod. “That’s what I thought.  But here’s the deal.  If I’m going to be a teacher, then I’ve gotta look out for my students first.  Which means I have to look out for you, before I even teach a single class.”

Shota felt his eyes growing wet.  “But… but…”

“Aw, for the love of…” Ground Zero started, waving his hands rapidly.  “Don’t cry, kid!  I cannot deal with crying!  You’re worse than Deku, I swear…!”

Shota sucked in a breath and fought back his tears.  He couldn’t just cry like that in front of one of his heroes!  He wasn’t a baby, even if he was a little younger than all his classmates.  He was training to be a Hero.  He had to be strong!  

Ground Zero was being a Hero.  He was thinking of someone else, Shota, putting his needs first, even if it meant he didn’t get to be a teacher.  Shota… Shota couldn’t take that away from him!  And he’d be a good teacher too, he knew it!

And if he knew what to expect… then maybe he could be ready for it!  He could psyche himself up!  Hound Dog said that getting in the right mind space was important!  He’d even know him all kinds of exercises for how to do it.

“A Hero’s got to be brave,” he said finally.  “I can be brave too!”  He was almost sure he meant it.  He could do it!  He could do it!  He was getting better every day!  He had his bad days, but maybe if he really worked on it…

Then Ground Zero held his gaze and if Shota hadn’t known his Quirk was Explosion, he would have been certain he was reading his mind.  “All right,” he said.  “I believe you.  But I’m going to be watching you.  And I’m going to hold you to telling me if you start having trouble, got it?  You’re going to be a damn good Hero someday, kid. Especially with me in your corner.”

***

Chihiro Kaminari in Kiss and Make Up

“Chihiro! Chihiro!  Watch!  Watch me!”

Chihiro looked over to where her eight year old sister, Hikari, was playing on the monkey bars.  The purple-haired girl was hanging on by one hand, her other limbs dangling in the air.   “Okay, okay,” she said, “I’m watching.”

“Okay…  Watch!”  Hikari released all her fingers and Chihiro’s heart lurched.  If her little sister got hurt on her watch, she was going to be in a load of trouble!  She started rushing forward only to realize that Hikari wasn’t falling.  Despite her fingers not touching anything, her palm was still flat against the bar and she wasn’t falling.

Chihiro’s Cords perked up as she got closer, tiny sparks dancing along their tips.  There was enough electricity flying about that she could feel it.  The fact that Hikari’s hair was standing straight up was another clue.  She crossed her arms.  “Let me guess, Spark Plug,” she said.  “You’re using your Quirk?”

“Yep!” Hikari said proudly. “Daddy and I worked real hard on this one!”

Hikari’s Quirk was called Static.  It let her absorb ambient static electricity and release it and apparently also stick to things with it like a balloon.  She had to laugh a little bit though.  She and Dad had certainly driven Mon to yelling at them more times than she could count for doing dumb things with their own Quirks.  Her younger brother Reylo got yelled at less often, but only because his Quirk was sound-based and Dad couldn’t teach him anything dangerous.

Chihiro gave her a thumb’s up.  “Cool trick,” she said.  But she noticed that Hikari’s hair was starting to settle back down.  Her Cords were starting to spark less too.  She took a few steps forward and held out her arms, letting Hikari fall into them.

“Off!” Hikari said, looking surprised and annoyed.  “How come I fell?”

“Ran out of juice,” Chihiro told her.  “You don’t make your own electricity, remember?”

“Oh.  Right!  I knew that.”

Chihiro just laughed again and set Hikari down on the ground, letting her run off to the next piece of playground equipment.  Well, at least her little brother Reylo had half a brain.  One Kaminari ought to have at least half a chance.

“Stay where I can see you!” she called out.  “And that goes for you two too!”

She looked over to where her other charges (Heh.  Charges. Why was she always this funny when no one else was around?), a small brown-haired girl and a blond boy:  Mako Midoriya and Tai Kirishima-Bakugo, both five years old.  When the kids’ regular sitter had bailed, she’d volunteered to watch them.  She was already watching Hikari anyway and didn’t have any plans.  Plus she was getting two thousand yen each for the two of them.  They gave her a friendly wave.

There were also, she would readily admit, advantages to living in a gated community, including a private playground.  Almost all the families that lived here were Pro-Heroes, though there were also a few Support Company officers, and a few other careers, such as Mom’s split career as Hero and musician.  The kids certainly seemed to enjoy it anyway.   She’d already been ten by the time they’d moved in and was starting to get too “cool” for that kind of thing.

Of course, to hear Mom tell it, the reason they bought the house was all Dad’s fault.   Dad had brought home a Great Dane puppy instead of groceries… somehow.  Since Sparky was going to quickly get too big for their apartment, so they’d gone house shopping.  Of course, to hear Dad tell it, Kirishima-Bakugo’s dad had nearly flipped a gasket when he’d found out they were going to be neighbors…

Chihiro let a smile spread across her face as she watched the kids play.  Hikari was making herself dizzy, spinning around on the merry-go-round, while Mako and Tai were playing on the teeter-totter.  It was nice.  Peaceful even.  She could quietly zone out just a little bit.

“Stuck on kid duty too, Kaminari?”

Taken by complete surprise, she let out a cry of alarm as she turned.  Her Cords shot out and unleashed a mild pulse of electricity the second they made contact with… something.

“AAAAGGGGGGGGGGG!””

Shiro Monoma hit the ground with a small thump.

***

“You killed him!” Hikari shouted.  “Mom and Dad are gonna be so mad!”

Chihiro shot her sister a fierce look.  “No, I didn’t!” she protested.  But as she quickly turned her attention back to Monoma, she wasn’t so sure.

“He’s still breathing,” Monoma’s younger sibling said, sounding disinterested.  Takeru, right.  That was their name.  And non-binary too.  Important to remember.  Chihiro thought they were the same age as Tai and Mako, but they sounded like they were going on forty.  They gave him a look which suggested they’d long grown bored with seeing accidental misfortunes befall their older brother.

“She really made him go zap!” Mako said.  “He lifted up and then… Bzzzzt!”  As she talked, her hands copied the motions Monoma had gone through.

“Yeah!” Tai agreed. “I saw sparks!  It was so cool!”

Chihiro gulped and looked down at Monoma.  He was still breathing.  That was good.  She probably hadn’t hit him with that many volts.  He’d just surprised her.

“It’s not my fault!” she said, throwing her hands up in the air as she paced back and forth.  “He snuck up on me!”

“Uhhh.”  A noise from Monoma caught her attention instantly. His eyes fluttered open.  How could someone be electrocuted, fall in the grass, and still be so damn pretty?  Especially while wearing a t-shirt and shorts?  “What hit me?”

“You snuck up on her and she electrocuted you,” Takeru told him flatly.

“I did no such thing!” Monoma protested.  He ignored her hand up in favor of bouncing to his feet under his own power, dusting himself off once he landed.  

“You were doing that thing where you don’t make any noise,” Takeru said.  “No wonder she didn’t hear you coming.”

“Yeah!” Chihiro said, pointing at him.  Maybe she could spin this as his fault after all!  “Why do you gotta ninja around all the time?!”

Monoma seemed offended at that, putting a hand to his chest.  “I did no such thing!  I do not “ninja around!’”  He wilted under her glare ever so slightly, however.  “Well… perhaps I do have a bit of a silent tread.  I can apologize for that, at least.  I’m sorry.”

Great, how was she supposed to be mad at him when he was apologizing?  Completely unfair!  She didn’t want to be thinking about him at all!  “Yeah, well…,” she said, “I probably shouldn’t have zapped you.  You okay?”

He produced a flick comb from his pocket and fixed his hair.  “No harm done, I suppose,” Monoma said.  

Chihiro realized the children were all watching them still.  “Okay kids,” she said, waving her hands vaguely in the direction of the playground.  “Show’s over. Go play!”

Hikari crossed her arms. “Aw, I wanted to see you zap him again!”

“Go!” Chihiro repeated, pointing more dramatically this time.  Her little sister turned tail at that.  Meanwhile, Takeru was being dragged off by Mako and Tai under half-hearted protests.

“So…,” she ventured, looking back at Monoma.  This was definitely awkward.  Why the hell didn’t she keep the kids around?  Now all she could think about was how he’d kissed her and how Mika had said she should date him!  Maybe she should shock him again, run away, move to a new city, start a new life on the run singing for coins on street corners…

Okay, maybe not that bad.

“Um, yes,” Monoma said, and she was somehow glad to see the awkwardness was mutual.  It was so rare to see him as anything less than composed that she considered it a victory even in embarrassment.

And then he said the most dangerous words of all.

“Can we talk?”

***

They were far enough away that they wouldn’t be overheard, but not so far away that they couldn’t keep an eye on the kids.  Hikari had met up with one of her friends and Chihiro gave a wave to the kid’s parents before giving Monoma as much of her attention as she could.

“So,” she said.  Her Cords make small circles through the air, as she crossed her arms.  “You wanted to talk.  Talk. I’m listening.”

“Ah, yes, well,” Monoma began.  Alarm bells were already ringing in her head.  Granted, her guard was always up around him.  Sure, she’d eat lunch with him with Mika, Koda, and Fukidashi or Tetsutetsu.  He was tolerable in small doses.  Especially if he kept his mouth shut.  But she’d never seen him as at a loss for words as this.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have just kissed you like that without asking.  It wasn’t very gentlemanly of me.  I was… overcome with emotion at resolving some of my own issues, and let my exuberance get the better of me.”

Chihiro blinked slowly. She definitely hadn’t been expecting an apology.  Even with the one he’d given a few minutes ago, she wasn’t even sure he really knew how to apologize.  But she looks over and he was so earnestly apologetic that even her background level of irritation at him started to fade.  “It’s, ah, it’s fine,” she said.  “You were excited.  Happens.”

He looked a bit surprised. “That’s happened before?”

She had to laugh at that. “No, that one was definitely a first.” Her left Cord shot out and gave him a soft poke in the chest.  “Definitely wasn’t expecting my first kiss to be you though.”

He looked offended at that. “That was not a first kiss.  All I did was kiss you on the cheek!”

“A kiss is a kiss!” she shouted at him, moving closer.  “Doesn’t matter where it was!”

“You’re out of your mind!”

“I thought you were apologizing!”

“I did!  You were the one who tried to turn it into a semantics argument!”

“It’s not semantics if I’m right!  That! Was!  A!  Kiss!”

Their faces were mere centimeters from each other now.  His eyes were big, blue, and ever so close.  He really was just too ridiculously pretty for his own good. Probably spent more time in front of the mirror than she did.  About the only person who might outdo him in the hair and skin care regime was Aoyama.

“That wasn’t a kiss!” Monoma snapped.  “If I’d really wanted to kiss you, I’d have done it like this!”

Before she could blink, he’d reached out and put his arms around her, spinning her around into a low dip, before planting his lips on hers.  Her eyes went wide as he held the kiss for a long moment, before spinning her back into a standing position.

“What the hell?!”  she snapped.  “What the hell was that?!”  Her Cords flew about her head like angry snakes, sparking with electricity.

“I… I don’t… it just happened!” Monoma said, backing away from her nervously.  He looked ready to run and hide.  Good!  Who did he think he was, kissing her like this was some made for tv romantic movie where they yelled and kissed?!

She pointed her Cords at him aggressively, taking aim, her face flush with anger.  “I oughta just take you out!”

His eyes widened in surprise, but then he smiled that same smug, irritating, and entirely too good looking smile.  “Well.. Why not?” he asked.  “I am finding your company surprisingly enjoyable, even without Mika as a barrier.   Pick me up at seven tomorrow evening then?”

Her mouth dropped open. She could feel her mental footing slipping away as she shifted lanes from furious to baffled in the space of an eye blink.  Mika’s advice to give him a chance came back to her.  And she definitely wasn’t about to admit that she’d really enjoyed that kiss. But the other hand, he was absolutely infuriating. And sure, he’d shown her a more vulnerable side back at school…

Her Cords sagged, the sparks fading.   “…What?”

“That, ah, that is… if you want to,” he said. Awkwardness replaced the smugness.  And now he had his hands up, protecting his face, as he backed up. “We could go on a date.  And I promise no more kissing.”

The words unless you want to hung silently in the air.

“Why me?” she asked, after letting him squirm uncomfortably for a moment.  “I know Mika’s your ex.  Going from her to me has to be a pretty steep downgrade.”

He looked puzzled for a moment, until his eyes widened in realization. He crossed his arms. “You do remember I used to date her before she, ah, blossomed. I’m not so shallow as to be purely attracted to… that.”

Okay, he did have a point there.   “Okay, but the first question still stands.  You’re all fancy pants and I’m… me.  In fact, up until you kissed me, I was pretty sure you didn’t even like me.”

A blush spread across Monoma’s face and he smiled sheepishly.  “Mika insists I have a thing for women who can beat me up.  You do fall into that category, of course, but the fact remains that you are a fascinating and attractive woman.  You’re talented, with varied interests, and you are entirely willing to call me out to my face when I’m being a pretentious asshole. After some rather blunt conversations and realizations… I’m… trying harder not to be that person anymore.”

Okay.  That was… actually pretty respectful sounding.  Which was definitely a first for him when it came to her.  Sounded like somebody had called him out.  Mika, maybe?  Or Tetsutetsu?  Koda was too nice to have done it…

“Okay, fine,” she said.  She tried to project with her tone that she was doing him a favor, not that she was actually possibly maybe kind of interested in him.  “We can go on a date.  On one, no, two conditions.”

He seemed surprised at that.  “All right, I completely understand if you don’t wish to….  Wait, what?”

“One, no more kissing me out of the blue.  You try it, and I’ll shock you so bad you’ll never get your hair to look right again.”

He chuckled. It was actually somewhat pleasant when it wasn’t paired with taunts.  “A tremendous threat.  Very well. And the other?”

“Don’t you dare tell Ojiro about this. Or put it on-line or anything where she can somehow find out about it. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Monoma nodded.  “I suppose that’s reasonable.  So long as you do the same with regards to Fukadashi.  I don’t need her comparing me to some anime or manga more than she already does.”

He had a point there.  Fukidashi was weird.  And given the company she kept, that was saying something. “Deal.  It’s a date.”

“YAY!”

Chihiro’s head snapped around and she saw that the kids were staring at them. Hikari was the one who’d shouted, but they all looked enthralled.  Well, everyone but Takeru did.

“How long have you been watching?!” she demanded.

“Long enough,” Takeru said.  They looked over at Chihiro.  “You should have shocked him again.  Otherwise he won’t learn anything.”

She had to laugh at that.  “Okay,” she said.  “You, I like.”

“Yay!  A date!” Mako said.  “My big sister went on a date too!  With Haruto Sero!”  She danced about as she talked, kicking up a little bit dust.  “Ah… ah… choooo!”

Chihiro’s eyes went wide as Mako’s Fire-Breath Quirk went active with her sneeze.  Instantly, she tackled Monoma to the ground, as a blast of flame went through where his head had just been.  Her face went flush as she realized how close they were again.  Hastily, she shoved herself up and off him.

She offered Monoma a hand up and this time he took it.  His hands weren’t anywhere near as soft as his pretty boy imagine would have suggested, she realized.  “Sorry about that.  She doesn’t have full control of her Quirk yet.”

“Quite, quite all right,” Monoma said, sounding a bit shook from his near-fire experience.  He was blushing too, she noticed.  He dusted himself off.  “But seven, tomorrow then, if that’s agreeable to you?”

“Yeah, all right,” she said.  

Great.  That gave her more than a day to figure out how to explain to her dad she was dating a Monoma.

One date.  Not dating.

She definitely wasn’t thinking about kissing him.  …Dating him!  And she wasn’t thinking about that either!

…Crap.

[chaosbcrne]

anyway yeah re: the tsr short im gonna skip some stuff bc im sure plenty of people have gushed about the animation and the music and all around great characterization and such so im just gonna talk about shadow for a hot second bc thats what this blog is all about

im so glad ? they’re giving him a personality again ? hes got that confident, badass attitude (the way he just nods @ that wisp like ‘u know what to do’ 👌👌👌) that he had in his early days, without being nothing but edge and a raspy batman voice ? he actually smiles ! he’s not the most expressive of the bunch but you can tell he does have some playfulness about him and enjoys the competition (when he’s winning anyway). and hes an actual threat, his skills werent completely disregarded for no reason other than making sure sonic gets the spotlight, hes actually giving them a run for their money. and forfeiting the race before he can lose bc he’s 2 cool 2 lose is also reminiscent of his early days character traits that i missed so much in recent portrayals. i wish we’d seen him interact more with his team but since team sonic had to win ( bc lets be honest if the rest of team dark had been in the race up until the very end too ? team sonic would have eaten their dust 😏) im okay with him getting the independent lone wolf role, it makes the most sense for him to be the one to keep going since he had a good lead and couldnt really have helped his team anyway. and he rly wanted that win.

tl;dr im very pleased with his portrayal all around and am praying that its kept up for this game (and for whatever’s after hopefully). still really miffed @ the yellow eyes tho

[ganymedesclock]

i just read through a ton of your eggman-related posts and Hell Yeah, so i hope you don't mind a random question--what are your headcanon/thoughts about him and chao?

I mean, something I’ll be honest about with regards to the Sonic series is that continuity can be, well… pretty shaky in the gameverse in terms of character psychology, so, what I’ve often seen is that fans of the games sort of pick their favorite reads and augment it off of other media they prefer. 

My read on Eggman is roughly an amalgam of his appearances in Sonic Colors, Unleashed, and Adventure 2, with some of the Archie Reboot thrown in.

I’ve never really been able to get behind overly vindictive nature-and-animal-hating Eggman, because I’ve always felt like Eggman and Sonic read as a very powerful order vs. chaos kind of divide. Of course Eggman is a reasonable person with standards for the most part, because ultimately, he wants to make the world a better place! He just thinks it’d be a better place if everyone listened to him and did things the exact way he wanted them to. 

And the badniks are sort of the ultimate statement of that- he doesn’t want to hurt the wildlife, oh, no, he just thinks that all those frolicking little buggers could be so much more productive with a little….. help.

I also think it’s interesting in Adventure 2 that Eggman and Tails are painted as thematic rivals, given that the other two pairings in this setting ultimately tell us that despite initial appearances, there’s a deeper thread of similarity than expected.

Shadow turns out to be driven largely by a compassionate streak similar to Sonic’s, which Gerald’s postmortem revenge manipulated. Rouge, despite first seeming like someone who’s selfish and only in it for herself, has a sense of honor, and even the gruff way she downplays returning the emerald fragments to Knuckles just emphasizes the similarity. 

So what it says for Eggman that he’s compared to Tails, is, I think, that Eggman, like Tails, is someone who operates without a singular outstanding skill, though, like Tails, some of his stats are impressive- Eggman’s physical strength vs. Tails’ flight ability- overwhelmingly Eggman fights by exploiting anything and everything, so I think that a nice way to look at Eggman’s thought process is that he is very observant of his surroundings, and evaluates everything he encounters as an opportunity or an asset.

Bringing this all back to chao- I can’t really see Eggman as the type who’d really adore being mobbed by a bunch of adorable little cooing hairless toddler-critters. Especially because the thing about chao is… they’re alarmingly powerful. The only natural predator of chao that we have seen is the Ifrit- which is a multi-dimensional fire demon of immense power. And in the Advance games, Cream the Rabbit verges on game breaker because of her ability to have Cheese, a baby normal-type chao without any real distinct markings or aptitudes, suggesting his stats are pretty low, attack Eggman’s machines.

Because of that, while chao are very sociable and incredibly easy to imprint on, I can see Eggman being pretty wary of the little guys. Especially if, y’know, he has to relocate a colony of them for a building project.

You’re effectively dealing with hypersocial animals powerful enough to smash military-grade robots, smart enough to operate a television set and various toys, with a nebulous relationship with a ‘god of destruction’ that also seems to suggest they’re highly attuned to chaos energy… in a setting where this may come down to shooting lightning or causing natural disasters. 

That’s, personally, my understanding of the chao garden that can be found on the Egg Carrier in Adventure 1. I think that Eggman would probably chalk the chao up to potentially dangerous enough he’d really just as soon not cross them, but the perfect building site sometimes overlaps with wild chao colonies, and moving them to a safe, contained environment with enough to keep them busy and entertained is less stressful than trying to have however many construction robots around them.

And, sure, they’re also cute. It’s not like Eggman has no soul for aesthetics, he could appreciate that and maybe even pat one on the head now and then if he really needs to study their relationship with chaos energy and that one was a good baby for the entire session. But Eggman’s mostly a man of science who likes things neat and tidy or at least properly contained and I feel like that means he’d probably be less enthusiastic about a pet that you could come home to only to find it has discovered the amazing game of unscrewing all the drawer knobs and then hiding them and is sitting there on top of your desk beaming triumphantly at you with its pointy little frugivore teeth.

…Like… there’s probably a reason that while most of the populace of Station Square will coo about chao and how adorable they are, you virtually never encounter them outside of specifically sealed areas. Look up the horror stories of anybody with a pig or macaw or other highly intelligent animal and consider chao have excellent manual dexterity and the ability to fly. They also sometimes relatively spontaneously morph into a more powerful form in response to environmental stimuli.

Chao are probably not starter pets is what I’m saying.

But at least they’re probably pretty hypoallergenic!

(I could see Eggman getting along very well with a fancy aquarium and a bunch of fish, honestly. They’re quiet, they don’t shed, they’re unlikely to get anywhere you don’t want them, and can be managed mostly with automated systems so if he gets distracted in some kind of intense research project or lost in the middle of Holoska his fish will be fine)

[vedj-f-bekuesu]

“War, Empathy and Scales”, or “A Lookover at the Chaotix as Portrayed in Sonic Forces”

So a lot of people have said a lot of things about the other characters in Sonic Forces, but I haven’t seen a whole lot said about the Chaotix and their presence in Forces. Now that I have some time, I guess I can say some words. 

So let’s get the more negative things out the way first;

-Charmy’s portrayal was pretty garbage for him. Like, he gets barely any dialogue on missions (and all of it superfluous), and he’s regarded as a liability in-universe (well, Knuckles acknowledges that he is nigh useless). Charmy’s in such a sticky situation with his standing in Sonic Team and combined Sonic Community so this isn’t surprising but still. Seriously; While Aaron has the Big meme from a combination of knowing his fandom reputation and a genuine fondness for him, his sleights against Charmy seem to be from genuine dislike instead (not hatred, maybe the regular annoyance level). And Hoshino was actively embarrassed by the fact he created him, when he takes pride in creating Amy, Metal Sonic and Shadow. I’m not sure what I could recommend to alter the situation. In any case, you’re not going to get much interesting analysis out of him.

-There wasn’t much material there in general, even less so than the other resistance characters get. Mind you, that’s not as negative as you might think; Generations didn’t have much material either, but there were still points on how they were still doing their job during the course of the game, how the reptiles were able to differentiate the Sonics first time when the others couldn’t and got exposition duties for it, how the reptiles were the only ones aside from Tails assigned to challenge Modern Sonic,Espio’s ability arsenal expanding to include moral sensory detection, and some other stuff. So amount of material doesn’t necessarily dictate how rich or poor a discussion on it you can have. 

So with those said, let’s move onto the meat.

Vector and Espio’s portrayals, while without much for them to do, were overall good. They didn’t seem out of character (no, Vector’s ego is not out of character, why do you think he values the impression other people have of him so much), and they were able to incorporate their existing skill and traits naturally, something I think even more prominent characters don’t get. The one thing that is a bit weird is that they don’t get to do any recon stuff even though they’re detectives, but that stuff is done by team Dark in Episode Shadow, and they’re pretty well suited to war recon, so it’s not like there isn’t a reason they can’t (actually, considering how we first see Vector, he might have been doing recon right before that point). 

In fact, I think Sonic Forces brings some interesting new material for them. I mentioned Espio’s moral sensory detection earlier, but in Generations it was more of a neat little trivia point amongst other discussion points. Here, empathy is something that’s played up more.

-That sensing is expanded more in Forces; not only can he feel darkness with the Time Eater, he used it to sense Sonic around the location the avatar was at in Prison Hall. Aside from being able to locate someone with what is essentially a sixth sense (which is useful for a detective), Espio seems to be a good judge of moral fibre thanks to it. You can even apply it retroactively, what with Espio not judging the client in Heroes due to all their interaction being done via Walkie Talkie from miles away which would make it impossible (although there’s still the discrepancy of the team battles. I’m sure I could reason that out if I had more room). 

-Vector, meanwhile, has a different sort of empathy, and one that’s not been shown off in the games before. Vector is able to use his observational and reasoning skills to work out a character’s emotional state. This is best shown off with the scene following Prison Hall (what is with that place and all this new material??). The avatar encounters a situation that leaves them scared and shivering. Vector observes this, and brings up concerns directly about that (which Charmy dismisses as the place just being cold). He’s the only one of the lot whose doubts on the rookie’s ability come from what is presented and not just a blanket “oh they’re new” rhetoric. This makes Vector being the one to say he had doubts but the rookie proved themselves a lot more significance. 

Together, Vector and Espio seem to complement each not just in terms of personality and skills for their job, but the ways they read people and empathise with others. It’s really quite fascinating. 

That being said, Forces still keeps them to themselves for the most part when in cutscenes where they’re present in person. Even Charmy got to hang with Amy and Silver for a bit of a cutscene, but they’re just like “nah, we’re cool not socialising with anyone else in the room”. 

So yeah, that’s my perspective on the Chaotix in Forces. Overall positive for the reptile, not so much for Charmy. 

PS Knuckles was a terrible choice for being the leader of the resistance. He does not have the skills needed for leadership. Just a random aside.

[maxthetiny]

Here’s the article, it’s long and awful:

The Pitch: When I was a kid, I used to watch other kids play video games more than I ever played them. I wasn’t very skilled or cool under pressure. I didn’t own a Sega console, so I never got high scores on Sonic The Hedgehog. I did, however, admire the steadfastness of the premise. He speeds through obstacles, collecting seemingly arbitrary rings. At its best, the game encouraged us to become pure momentum, which in microcosm is the joy of video games in general — total escape from reality at the speed of sound with the pleasing melody of his collecting rings the only reward you needed. Fittingly, I didn’t get invited to see the new film adaptation ahead of time as press. I had to walk into a theatre looking hungover and unwashed at 11:00 a.m. to stare at a man who’d been awake for hours and say, “one for the 10:50 a.m. Sonic The Hedgehog.” Hearing yourself say it, in your own 30-year-old voice … it stuns you a little. The man behind the glass smiled through his evident discomfort in helping me achieve this Sisyphean task. “Just to let you know, there’s a school group in there … at the 10:50.” “Uhh, sure. Whatever.” The man then paused as the computer did something. “…do you come to the movies often?” I’d never been asked this by an employee at a movie theatre. “When work dictates.” “Work, sure. Do you come to this theatre often?” “Yeah.” “Oh, looks like my computer froze, hang on.” I’m getting the sense that this man does not want me in the theatre with the school group. He reboots the system or something, then he tries another computer. “Hey look, I don’t want to see the movie, I’m here to review it and I don’t want to miss the opening, can I just use one of those self-serve kiosks?” “I guess…? You could?”

The Phone Rings: “Mom, Dad, it’s Jeff! Listen, I have something cool to share! I finally got a job directing a feature! I know! I’m like … beside myself, I can’t handle it. I know … the Oscar nomination was like 15 years ago, I was starting to give up hope. I know. What is it? It’s uhh Sonic The Hedgehog. Yeah, the video game. Remember, I used to play it all the time when I was a kid, you’d tell me to do my homework. I know, I laughed when they offered it to me. I was like ‘Oh man I’m gonna rub this in their face so hard!’ Turns out video games were good for me. What? Oh I said ‘turns out video games were good for me.’ Well no, because there’s … I mean like it’s not just a kid’s movie, you can do cool stuff with it. Like remember Speed Racer? No, the movie, they made a movie out of Speed Racer like 10 years ago. We saw it over Christmas, remember? Oh, well it was cool and like … kind of subversive, it wasn’t just for kids. I’m gonna name my lead characters after the directors, actually, it was super inspiring. I think we have a chance to do something really neat. What? You have to go? But, uh… Oh, ok. Well…uhhh, I’ll see you…I’ll talk to you. Ok, bye.”

Re: Sonic, some thoughts: “Jeff, hi, so we were tossing some ideas back and forth on this Sonic thing. I’m sure you saw, but Twitter hates the trailer, so we gotta change the look. It’ll push the whole thing back a year because we don’t want them walking in remembering the old look, we gotta give em time to forget. I’m sure the animators won’t mind. How hard could it be to fix his eyes and his teeth? It’s not rocket science. Anyway, we did a test screening in Van Nuys and they hated most of it, so we’re bringing in some guys to do punch-up. Just like to make sure the parents don’t get bored. One of the guys, Bruce Vilanch or somebody, I don’t remember, he has a joke about Hillary’s emails that killed in the room. He had another thing about Shadow Wolves. I think it’s a Steven Seagal reference, I don’t know but someone’ll find it funny. Law of averages.

We’ll just do some quick reshoots, and have Ben Schwartz say some stuff while the hedgehog’s not looking at the screen, just liven it up a little. We also think we need more of a button on the cop stuff. James Marsden wants to be a big city cop, but we don’t have enough of a motivator. We should have him say that he wants to be more important, like that he’s gonna be saving lives. It’s just gonna play better in the middle of the country if we have the Blue Lives Matter thing running through it. Easier to root for him that way; can’t all just be the Andy Griffith/Barney Fife thing. We’re gonna also add some more of Jim’s adlibs as Dr. Robotnik. Every second he’s on screen people are laughing, so we’re gonna put some outtakes back in. Are you married to his name being Wachowski?”

In the Theatre: I’m doing math in my head as the last trailer for some movie about pro-wrestling monsters wraps up and the movie starts. Calculating rent against groceries. I’d gotten my direct deposit from the bar job, but I have some auto payments about to take a few hundred bucks out of my account, should I pocket the rent money now, or wait until next week? I have two interviews planning to run, which should be a few hundred extra bucks but I won’t get the checks until March. I remember my time in film school. Did I know it’d be this hard to live after graduating? Hard, yes, but I guess I expected the worry to stop at some point. Jeff Fowler went to an art school in Florida. He was a kid from a town literally called Normal, Illinois, who had an Academy Award nomination by the time he was 26. Now? He’s apologizing for giving Sonic The Hedgehog human teeth on Twitter and forcing people with families to work overtime to fix a movie no one will remember having seen in a month. Millions of dollars, weeks of sleep lost, families neglected, pets unfed, all so that Sonic can have less realistic teeth. His attempts at Wachowski-esque compositions, color grading, madcap game logic, all of them fail. The movie succeeds only when it’s plugging The Olive Garden and its half dozen other corporate tie-ins. Like the Bloomberg campaign, Sonic The Hedgehog can pretend it’s in good fun to run amok with branded content, but it isn’t fooling anyone. This wasn’t a movie, it was a boardroom meeting with some poor hapless dreamer strapped to the “directed by” credit like a keelhauled sailor punished for his idealism.

The Verdict: I didn’t laugh, but I’m maybe not the target audience for the thing. Who the target audience is I couldn’t tell you with a gun to my head. The school group I was told would be watching this flop sweat-soaked trifle is mostly 12 year olds from the looks of them. They laugh as a group three times. I counted. One of them laughed at one sight gag by himself. That’s it. They quietly talked amongst themselves the rest of the time. What a school is doing taking kids to see a movie based on a video game when they all own cell phones? Couldn’t tell you, but I’m guessing they enjoyed not being in class even if they clearly didn’t enjoy the movie. Goddamndest thing, though, they all cheered like hell during the post-credits scene when Sonic’s sidekick Tails showed up. I couldn’t believe it. They snored their way through the first movie, and then cheered like zealots when they were threatened with another one. It may happen, too, even if the box office isn’t rousing. You’re still going to die.

Where’s It Playing? Everywhere. Sonic is everywhere

when you get the chance, read some of this absolute dogshit. the worst thing ive ever read i cant really put it into words. its like some dipshit freelance finally got paid to write something and decided the sonic movie review was his venue to be as sardonic as possible

[tenscupcake]

electrostatic potential (24/?)

ten/rose. adult this ch. sorry x1000 for taking so long. hope the chapter is worth the wait. i’ve certainly missed it. thanks @goingtothetardis​ for the read-through. summary: as the doctor and rose traverse time and space looking for adventure, they slowly fall victim to a mysterious energy that can manipulate their emotions. though confused and unnerved by the cerebral affliction, neither of them understands its cause, or realizes that it could jeopardize their friendship. what will it take for them to discover the truth? this chapter on ao3 | back to chapter 1 on ao3

Having woken up as early as they did, the Doctor and Rose make it to breakfast with Kalei with plenty of time to spare. The daily report on the ruki population is quite promising – there were hardly any fish washing ashore the night before. There’s a fishing expedition planned for this morning led by Kenai, and he invites them to come along. But when they discover Kalei won’t be in their company (he was never good at fishing, he says), the Doctor and Rose kindly decline Kenai’s offer. Recalling their difficulty reeling in their last catch, they insist they wouldn’t be much use to the professionals in attendance. Instead, they opt to shadow Kalei at the woodshop, to see firsthand what he’s working on. But just knowing their proprietary treatment is working puts an even bigger skip in Rose’s step (if that’s possible).

They start out the morning meeting some of the other expert woodworkers, some of which are friends of Kalei’s, and others that are much older. Rose silently categorizes them as apprentices and mages, respectively, though she doesn’t know how much truth there is to the labels. Once they’ve been introduced to everyone, they follow Kalei to his workstation, and he drags over a couple of extra chairs for them to get comfortable. He explains a few of the ongoing projects he’s working on: some are daily commissions, and others are months-long tasks in collaboration with experts in other fields.

They aren’t any help, of course, though that doesn’t seem to bother Kalei. Rose is entirely unfamiliar with woodworking, and though the Doctor has a natural predilection for engineering, without any threat of danger or requests for help, the projects are too mundane for him to volunteer assistance. But at least for a while, they both enjoy hearing about what he’s doing, as the Doctor is always keen to learn any tidbits about a foreign culture. But eventually, Kalei’s explanations die down, and the lull in conversation is making both Rose and the Doctor a bit bored.

“So, make any headway with Dakota?” Rose asks to break the silence. There hadn’t been a chance to ask him the day before, as she wanted to avoid embarrassing him by asking in front of his entire family. She keeps her tone as casual as possible, trying not to let on that she had encouraged Dakota to talk to him the other night.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you yesterday!” he exclaims, pausing his work on the stack of planks he’s currently cutting and shaping. “I haven’t told him yet. But we talked the night of the bonfire.”

“Oh?” Rose feigns ignorance. “What did he say?”

“Not much, really. He said he wanted to hang out. We’re supposed to meet at Nani’s once we’re both off work.”

“Oh, that’s exciting!” Rose doesn’t hide her excitement.

“You think so?” he tilts his head to the side and screws up his face, skeptical.

“Well, yeah! I mean, how did he ask you? Did he sound nervous?”

Kalei pouts his lip, thinking back.

“I guess he was acting sort of weird… but, we hang out all the time. It didn’t seem like an out of the ordinary request.”

“He didn’t invite anyone else, though, did he?”

“Well, no…”

“Did he say anything else that night?” Rose feels like she’s giving him the third degree now, but she can’t help it. The implausible success of her and the Doctor’s relationship has her floating on an inflated sense of romantic optimism.

“He did tell me again how much he likes the wolf charm. And that I was the best craftsman he’s ever met.”

Rose quirks an eyebrow, waiting for the revelation to hit him. Blimey, all blokes across the universe are equally thick.

“You think he likes me, too?” he asks, pointing to his chest with his thumb.

“Think he might,” Rose says nonchalantly, trying but failing to hold back a grin.

Kalei’s jaw drops open, his eyes going wide.

“Oh, wait!” he exclaims. “You were talking to him that night, too. I completely forgot! Did he tell you? You didn’t tell him I liked him, did you!?” Kalei quickly turns hysterical.

“I didn’t tell him anythin’,” Rose assures him, holding out her hands in a peaceful gesture. “An’ he didn’t… specifically tell me anything either. I just got a feeling, talkin’ to him.”

“Wow…” A wide grin spreads across Kalei’s face, making him look even younger than he usually does.

Rose happens to glance over at the Doctor, and finds him leaning back in his chair precariously, his feet up on the nearest desk, staring up at the ceiling as he plays a game of catch with himself. Despite his obvious boredom, he still looks rather pleased with himself, and it’s not hard to figure out why. Heat floods through her with a rush of memories of her wake-up call this morning. But even though the Doctor could be playing the ‘stud’ card right now and offering Kalei advice of his own, he still seems entirely uninterested in the romantic affairs of others. Not wanting to purposely ostracize the Doctor from the conversation any longer, she wraps up this particular discussion.

“Please, just let me know how it goes tonight, yeah?” Rose asks.

“Will do,” he agrees, turning back to his work.

“So, uhm, how’s Kairi’s project going?” she changes topics.

At that, the Doctor perks up, stuffing the sonic back in his shorts and dropping his feet (and the two front legs of his chair) back on the ground.

Rose gathers that she worked on the project late into the evening, and it’s going well, but there’s a long road ahead.

They spend another fifteen minutes or so with Kalei, and he solicits the Doctor’s advice on a geometry problem with a special order that has stumped him. But after his brief (for the Doctor) questions have been answered, the Doctor gets restless. Though to be fair, with no one to help and nothing to occupy his hands or intellect, she’d be worried if he didn’t get antsy.

So with one more benediction from Rose for his date tonight, they say goodbye, and promise to meet up with him tomorrow.

“So, what now?” Rose asks as they step outside to a cloudless sky. She covers her forehead with her arm to protect her eyes from the bright sunlight.

The Doctor pulls out his sunglasses and darkens them quickly with the sonic.

“I know just the place,” he announces with gusto, like he’s had it planned out for a while now. “C’mon!” He tows her down the stone steps with him towards the shore, and something tells her she’s going to like the surprise.  

---

The Doctor leads her along the coast, past the edge of the village, and past the tidepools they admired a few days ago. At some point as they venture on, the lively ruckus of the bustling little town is completely lost to her ears. The further they get from the tiny civilization, the fewer footprints mar the pristine sand. Engaged as she is in the Doctor’s ramblings about the astrophysics of waves (though she can’t understand it, he’s as endearing and sexy as ever when he talks science to her), she doesn’t notice how far they’ve gone. When she turns back around to check, she can’t even see the village anymore – it’s disappeared around the natural bend of the island.

When she looks around, the amount of sand around them has diminished considerably. Only about ten feet of damp sand now separate the tide from the towering purple rocks. They’ve gotten steeper, too – not a gentle slope on which to build a village, but treacherous cliffs that wouldn’t be kind to the most skilled of climbers. Looking on ahead, she notices the beach disappears entirely not too far ahead, supplanted by the unwelcoming rocks.

But the Doctor looks unconcerned that their path is ending.

“Doctor,” she interrupts him.

When he looks over at her, she simply gestures to the disappearing sand, the expanse of water and great, big cluster of boulders blocking their way forward.

“Right, then!” he announces with glee. “Almost there.”

Without warning, he starts unbuttoning his shirt.

“What’re you doin’?” she asks, gawking at his newly exposed chest. If he wants her to mind his personal space until they’re properly alone again tonight, stripping isn’t a good choice.

“Just a bit of a swim to get there. You don’t mind, do you?” He wriggles his arms out of the shirt one at a time, and crumples it between his hands.

“No,” she stammers out, trying to keep her cool. Averting her eyes from his exposed form, she tries to suppress the memories that his now bare torso brings to the surface. What it felt like to drag her tongue along the length of his pale neck, to sink her teeth into his shoulder as he moved within her.

She’s at least glad she decided to wear a swimsuit beneath her clothes again. It’s never quite off the table, here, going for an unexpected swim.

They leave their clothes on a natural shelf of the rocks, far enough away from the tide they think they’ll be safe from the ocean spray, then wade through the low crashing waves until they can comfortably swim parallel to the cliffs.

Eyes peeled for whatever spectacle the Doctor is taking her to, Rose soon spots a curious recess in the cliffside, swallowing up the waves as they crash into the rocks. In the bright light of the sun gleaming off the water, it’s too dark to see inside; it’s just a misshapen black hole. But it looks big enough to swim through without being harmed, even with the roll of the tide. And sure enough, the Doctor is leading them straight for it.

“A cave? Really?”

“It’s not just a cave,” he retorts, indignant. “There’s a whole cave system in there. It contains the metal ores I told you about.”

“All right,” she tries to trust that this excursion won’t be as dank and cold and filthy as she’s imagining. The Doctor hasn’t steered them wrong yet, after all.

They hold their arms up against the rocks as they swim through the entrance, to prevent hitting their heads should a sizeable wave come through.

Once she’s properly inside, shielded from the midday sun, it takes her eyes a moment to adjust to the relative darkness. But when they do, she can immediately see why the Doctor wanted to take her here.

The small entrance opens up into a large pool, maybe fifty feet in diameter, surrounded on all sides by the purple rocks that make up the mountain. Overhead, the ceiling is domed higher than she’d expect, at least ten feet. On the far end of the pool is a shelf of rock that looks perfect for sitting, gentle little swells lapping against its slanted surface. Beyond this, a stony path disappears into the shadows, where she supposes the ‘cave system’ begins.

But none of these things are what make this place spectacular.

The entire surface of the water glows turquoise, projecting an eerie radiance onto the surrounding rocks. With each moment that her eyes grow accustomed to the reduced lighting of the inside, it becomes more spectacular. It reminds her of neon signs, translucent blue jellyfish… the bioluminescent bacteria in that canyon where the Doctor gave her his jacket. The hidden grotto takes on a strangely dreamlike quality, like they’ve crossed into a parallel dimension of fairies and trolls and wizards. (Though realistically, she expects it is actually some unknown physical phenomenon that she hopes the Doctor will explain.) Regardless, she finds herself staring down at her body, ensuring it hasn’t grown scales or fins or something in the luminous water.

Looking back at the Doctor behind her, closer to the entrance, she sees a mere silhouette of his head.

“Bloody brilliant,” she marvels. She’s surprised at how sharply her voice echoes off the close rock walls, and lowers her voice to just above a whisper before she speaks again. “How’s the water glowin’ like this?”

She starts to swim towards the shelf up ahead while he provides an explanation, something about the light traveling through the water, certain wavelengths being filtered out as it travels through the gap in the rocks beneath the surface.

Some parts of the explanation make sense; others are gibberish. But the water around the island has always looked uniquely teal compared to oceans on Earth. The light in here at least seems reflective of that.

She hauls herself up onto the rock shelf, enjoying the way the small waves trickle beneath her thighs and recede again. The view is better from up here, but she’s still puzzled by the water. What he said about the light coming from underneath makes sense, because there’s only the one tiny hole in the rocks illuminating a small patch of the surface; most of the light emanates from the water itself. But even with an explanation, sometimes, it’s easier to stop scrutinizing it and just consider herself lucky to witness something so magical. She’d lump it in the same category as rainbows and meteor showers.

“Thought you’d like it,” the Doctor says as he hops up onto the shelf next to her. He’s more visible now, away from the glaring white spot of the entrance. The light from the turbulent water ripples on his expanse of fair skin, a perfect canvas. Looking down at her own arms and legs, she sees the same is true for her, though perhaps to less of a degree, so she doesn’t comment on it.

“It’s wonderful,” she grins at him, the one she reserves for congratulating him after his obvious attempts to impress her.

He grins back, swishing his legs back and forth in the water with delight.

She’s always thought of caves as damp, cold places, but this one is comfortably warm. The water is like tepid bathwater, as usual, but the inside of the cave has seemed to trap some of the sun’s heat, somehow. Like the inside of a car on a cool sunny day – it’s warmer in here where the air is stagnant than outside in the breeze. It might be stifling in normal circumstances, but since she’s wet from head to toe at the moment, it’s quite a comfortable temperature.

“So what kinds of metals have they got in there”?” she tilts her head back towards the path that leads into a black abyss.

It might be a frightening orifice, if she wasn’t already certain the island had no large animals to speak of. But then again, she’s with the Doctor. The Loch Ness monster could come skulking out of there, and she’d probably just point and laugh as long as she was with him.

The Doctor goes on about the elemental composition of the ores, and how each of them is harvested and used.

Though he’s talking about iron and copper and silver, he’s keeping his voice down to quell the acoustic effect, and it just ends up coming out seductive. She tries to listen to what he’s saying and just stare out at the water, but all she can seem to think is how alone they are, and how close to naked she and the Doctor are. She glances over at him, water still dripping from his hair and beads coasting down his arms and chest. Thinks about how she’d like straddle him right here to lick the droplets from his skin. Taste the salt on his lips. The can of worms opened, her thoughts flit back to earlier this morning, waking up with his arms around her, bodies touching everywhere. His teeth on her neck, fingers on her clit, her bum pillowing the impact as he thrust inside her again and again. The sounds of ecstasy he breathed into her ear as he held onto her so tightly.

Fuck.

She’s done for.

The Doctor continues his monologue for several more agonizing seconds before it hits him, and he gasps lightly as he turns to her, lips parted, his eyes as hungry as they are startled.

She bites her lip, and breaks eye contact as soon as he makes it, but sees him shake his head in her periphery.

“You’re insatiable,” he teases quietly.

At his playful tone, she glances back at him, and he offers a smile to let her know he doesn’t find the observation problematic.

And to her surprise, he’s the one who leans closer to kiss her. His lips are cool and salty, and they move against hers easily with the extra moisture between them. Beads of water trail down her face, from his hair or hers, she doesn’t know. As his hands reach up to cradle her cheeks, the little sparks of lust humming through her are suddenly amplified. A shudder rolls through her body down to her toes as whispers of the Doctor permeate her mind, the charged filaments of his arousal intertwining with hers. Being reminded how quickly and powerfully she can affect him this way only makes matters worse. For years, she struggled to try to discover what could possibly turn the Doctor on, and consistently failed. Now that she knows exactly what she needs to do to get him hot and bothered, and can do it successfully, it’s rather intoxicating.

She’s about to wrap her arms around his neck and simply see where this heated kiss leads them, but remembers they’re technically still in a public place, remote though it is. Reluctantly, she breaks the kiss, panting.

“Want to go?” she breathes, hoping he’s on the same page.

He glances to their only exit.

“Far walk to the hut.”

She narrows her eyes.

“What are you sayin’?”

He arches one eyebrow with a smirk. Quite a devilish one, at that. She didn’t know he had it in him.

“Oh.”

He reunites their mouths, determined to make her forget where they are. His hands quickly find her waist, rubbing droplets of water into her skin with his thumbs. His lips brush leisurely against hers, patiently, like he intends for this to last all night and sees no point in rushing it. He’s focused, too, attentive to her every shift, every tiny noise of contentment in the back of her throat, so he can respond in kind. As persuasive as the Doctor can be with words, he’s even more persuasive without them. With only a few minutes of snogging, he’s nearly convinced her that pleasure is the only thing that matters for the foreseeable future. That he’s here for whatever she wants, indefinitely. She sighs against his mouth and he returns the encouragement, softer, deeper. Pulls her ever closer.

And it almost works. Her mind wanders as she realizes her indecent fantasies from the canoe a few days earlier are being fulfilled, and she’s about to pass up her opportunity to savor it while it lasts. She runs her hands up the length of his torso, smearing the water on his chest beneath her palms, and brings her hands up into his still dripping hair, twisting the slick strands between her fingers. It’s just as good as she could have imagined, if not better.

But one of his hands moves, then, leaving her waist in favor of teasing the inside of her thigh, fingertips brushing slow, irregular circles that draw closer and closer to her center. She shivers in anticipation, clinging onto the back of his neck. His thumb makes contact with the wet fabric of her swimsuit bottoms, and he traces along her slit with caution until he stops and presses in a light circle, just over her clit.

She gasps as she breaks their kiss, shackling his wrist in one hand to pull him away. 

“Are you daft?” She scans quickly around the cave, though she knows there’s not a single soul inside.

“What?” he breathes innocently, pouting a little that she stopped him. His eyes are dark, clouded with lust. “You don’t want me to?”

His mouth shifts carefully down to her neck, and he places a few kisses there, wet and lingering. She leans her head back, wordlessly telling him to continue, and her eyes close with a little moan. Her grip on his wrist weakens, and he gently breaks free of her hold, this time slipping his hand inside her swimsuit. A wet digit slips between her folds, slick and warm with something besides seawater. Her rebuke is lost on her tongue when he grazes her clit properly for the first time, and a shudder ripples through her at the sudden rush of intense sensation.

His lips leave her throat, and his forehead comes to rest against hers. “Hmm,” he breathes out slowly, deeply, though he’s the one being touched. “Feels like you do,” he murmurs. She tilts forward to capture his mouth again, figuring she can let him touch her a few more moments. Just a few more deliberate strokes over her clit is all it would take, really… and maybe if she’s finished fast enough…

He’s a tease, though, moving in the perfect circumference exactly where she needs it, but never giving enough pressure for her to climax. Only for her to beg for more.

Her mouth slips from his and she calls his name, already resorting to begging. It’s louder than she meant. Just loud enough to echo off the walls of the cavern, a tangible reminder of where they are.

“We can’t…” she breathes out. “Someone could…” she doesn’t have to finish her sentence before he stops, his hand retreating. She could cry from the loss of his touch. He opens his eyes, frustration evident on his face.

“There’s no one here,” he reassures her in his quietest, most soothing voice. He looks around briefly if only to humor her. “Today’s not a mining day.”

Clit still throbbing with need, she considers his words. Bites her lip. Wanting more than anything to give in.

“We’re alone.” He peppers kisses down her neck again. Over her collarbone. “And if someone were coming, I’d hear them before they could see us.” He pulls back her bikini, and before she can stop him, swirls his tongue hot around her breast. Taking her nipple gently between his teeth, he flicks his tongue just there, and she gasps.

“You sure?” she asks, but she’s already made up her mind.

“Yes,” he assures her, only pausing his ministrations briefly.

He continues in this manner for several moments, and her head spins as she succumbs to it. The throbs of pleasure with every swipe of his tongue radiate down to her center. Planting her hands on the rock, she leans back on her arms, letting her head fall back, allowing herself a little moan. Fantasies flit through her mind, imagining his tongue lower on her body. Guiding her to a climax with the exceptional focus and precision signature to her Doctor.

The Doctor suddenly groans, and releases her breast with a shudder.

“What is it?” she asks, crushed that he stopped.

“Mmf…” he tries to stifle another groan as he sits up straight, meeting her eyes. He suddenly looks nothing short of desperate. “What were you just thinking about?”

She flushes from head to toe.

Did he just…?

“Why?” she asks, merely to buy herself time, because she’s already fairly confident of the answer.

“I, uhm… felt a particularly… strong pulse of, er… excitement just then.”

Yep, as she suspected. Damn, he said this thing between them would keep getting stronger, but she wasn’t prepared for it to betray her this fast. She can’t possibly tell him the truth. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours that they’ve been intimately involved, and it seems like the sort of thing that only happens after a few months of the basics. At least, that’s what it’s always been like with other blokes. And even then, it was always too rough and slobbery for her to ever finish that way. She isn’t sure why she’s fantasizing about something that’s never been particularly successful.

She just has a feeling it would be different with the Doctor. That he’ll know how to make it feel good, or learn quickly if he doesn’t.

The Doctor grunts out her name, his face contorting with restraint as he grips onto her waist. For a moment she feels quite powerful, having the ability to make him squirm like this. “Please, tell me. I’d like to know what you want.”

“I was…” She swallows hard, potential explanations dying in her throat. She’s holding him to principles of honesty, though, and she should hold herself to similar standards.

“I really like your mouth,” she blurts out.

Okay, it’s a start.

“Yeah?” His resulting smile is one she’s seen variations of a hundred times before – the hallmark of masculine pride.

“Yeah,” she can’t help but smirk back a little at his elation. “I was thinkin’… what it’d be like if you…” She bites her lip, then slowly nods down to her legs.

His eyebrows shoot up as he realizes what she means. Then his smile grows even wider.

“Well,” he draws out the word seductively. His eyes are well and sparkling with pride now. “I’d like that very much.”

“Yeah?” she asks, throat dry.

“Oh, yes.”

He brings his mouth to hers again, with a sense of impatience and urgency that’s unusual for him. The kiss is over quickly, though, and before she can voice any reluctance, he’s kissing his way down her chest. He twists around as he sinks into the water slowly, his mouth on a determined path down her stomach, his intentions clear. When he reaches the hem of her swimsuit bottoms, he pulls back, hooking his thumbs under the skimpy thing, looking up for assistance. With a few awkward maneuvers, she manages to help him get it down past her bum, and he pulls it the rest of the way down, freeing her of the garment one ankle at a time. With another devious look, he pulls it out of the water and hands it to her, still dripping. She takes it with a roll of her eyes, and drops it on the rock next to her. The Doctor skims both hands down the inside of her thighs, coaxing them to open for him, and he sinks lower into the water as he nestles between her legs.

Staying afloat with one of his forearms resting on the rock just beside her leg, he hooks his other arm under her knee, creating even more room for himself. There’s certainly no hiding from him now, nor time to be shy. He turns his head, pressing warm, wet kisses to the inside of her thigh, occasionally nipping with his teeth, swiping his tongue for a taste. Slowly getting closer to where she’s aching for him. It’s almost painful how slowly he moves, her heart galloping in her chest while pleading sounds fall from her lips for him to just touch her. She’s about to sacrifice her last shred of dignity and properly beg him to get on with it, but then he’s there.

It’s just the tip of his tongue, at first, pushing into her slit until it’s cushioned between her folds, near her entrance. She gasps at the delicate pleasure it brings, and holds her breath, waiting. Slowly, he pushes forward, the flat of his tongue slowly spreads her folds apart. Warm and so wet, slick and perfectly rough at the same time, he licks a slow, deliberate line, tasting.

She can already tell this is going to be very different from previous attempts.

A cry of his name tells him he’s found her most sensitive spot, and he lingers there with a deep hum of victory. The tension she’s holding to try to conceal herself melts away, and slings her leg over his shoulder to free his other arm as he continues his exploration, tentative and curious. Just enough pressure to make her lift her hips in search of more, not so much that he risks desensitization.

How is he good at literally everything he does?

She reckons this can’t be his first time doing this properly, with the developed skill he clearly possesses, and the stab of jealousy makes her dig her heel into his back. She reaches a hand down to his hair, fingers combing through it before she clenches her fist, tugging him closer with gentle persistence. Claiming him for her own.

She has never cared to watch this – always thought it was messy, awkward, and an unwelcome reminder of how intensely vulnerable she was. But right now she can’t tear her eyes away. His own are closed, too focused on other senses to be distracted by sight. He has that same look that he has when he’s concentrating on something intricate; though she can’t see his eyes, she’d recognize it anywhere. It’s the same look he had when he was fixing the watch in the arms closet. When he’s got his glasses on, trying to decipher minuscule text. Handling something fragile as he tries to identify what it is. He’s analyzing. Studying. And he’s enjoying every second of it.

He doesn’t mindlessly employ a method he has predetermined to be best, but attunes himself to her signals. He persists when she’s vocal, changes tactics when she goes quiet. Lets his technique be guided by her movements, whether encouraging or cautioning. She loses herself in the intimate attention of his mouth, and shortly runs out of energy to keep herself upright. Slowly, she sinks back until her bare back hits the wet rock. She can’t watch him anymore, and something hard juts into the back of her head, but she doesn’t care. She can hardly feel any of it, anyway. Can hardly feel anything but the persistent caresses of his tongue between soft, wet lips. Her cries begin to echo in the watery chamber, but, every jarring, embarrassing moment that her own voice pierces the air is quickly soothed away by the Doctor’s mouth.

The only thing he won’t allow her to control is his pace. He gently rebukes her when she pursues more, slowing down when she whispers ‘please’, pulling back altogether to leave marks on the inside of her thigh when she becomes desperate enough to rock her hips up against his face.

But it isn’t long, a minute later, at most, before his lesson in delayed gratification pays off. The climax builds from deep in her bones. Pleasure pulses to life with every stroke between her legs, slowly spreading its roots, blossoming through her body, warm, tingling, shivering. Her toes curl even as her limbs turn to jelly. It all finally reaches a spectacular peak and she writhes against the hard ground, her hand fisting in the Doctor’s hair. It’s too much to hold in, and she shouts her praise, the fact that they’re in a cave with extraordinary acoustics once again completely forgotten. Startled by the volume of her own voice echoing around them over and over, she slaps a hand over her mouth, gasping for breath as she tries to keep quiet. Lifting her hips to his willing tongue, she holds him fast with her leg around his shoulder as he carries her through it, extending the pleasure as long as he can with slower, softer motions.

As the last waves of her orgasm fade, the Doctor groans deep and long against her, his tongue faltering in its rhythm, making her shudder with overstimulation. His head lolls against her thigh as he pulls back, panting against her skin.

She thinks he hear him mumble the word ‘fuck’, but it’s so quiet she can’t be certain.

The Doctor very rarely curses, and for a moment, Rose panics. Perhaps he didn’t enjoy it after all, and it was but a chore he wishes he hadn’t done.

It takes her a moment to come down from the hormone high to process the other clues he’d provided, and soon arrives at a more savory theory.

She sits up, and winces as the change in position alerts her to several tender spots on her bum and back. Oof. She’s sure to have bruises tomorrow.

“Did you just come, too?” she asks, staring down at him with a hint of a smile.

He sighs against her leg and finally looks up at her, sheepish.

“Straight into the water.”

She laughs, and, affronted, he leaps back up onto his spot next to her, stopping her laughter with his mouth.

“I must be good,” she teases when their lips finally part.

“You are.” He whispers something in his unfamiliar tongue, something that sounds vaguely like a curse, but is almost too beautiful to be anything profane. “I was about to lose my mind. Tasting you. Feeling you. I had to…” He pauses, flustered. “Relieve myself.”

Rose is rendered nearly speechless by this confession, but tries to reassure him.

“Right. S’okay.” She tries not to burst into flames imagining it. She hadn’t known he was playing with himself, but desperately wishes she had. Blimey.

“You should’ve told me, though,” she adds. “I would’ve made you come up here so we could, y’know… help each other at the same time.”

“That’s just it, Rose. I couldn’t stop. It was…” He hesitates again, like he may be about to confess something else. “You were driving me mad.” She thinks that isn’t the whole story, but leaves it be. She’s been on the receiving end of something like this, and vividly remembers how overwhelming the urge was to touch herself during it. She can hardly blame him. Nor expect him to delve into details of how he got himself off, the same way she wouldn’t want him to expect it of her.

“But now you’ve gone and soiled the water on this beautiful island,” she makes a joke out of it, mostly so she doesn’t climb on top of him and have her way with him again right now.

“At least it isn’t the drinking water.” He shrugs, and kisses her again.

With so much bare, wet skin touching, and Rose’s bottoms still lost somewhere behind her, they almost get carried away again. Hands wander, little moans fill the small cave. Somehow, she ends up on her back again, the Doctor hovering above her. Rose is just beginning to feel his erection rekindling against her thigh when a noise startles them apart.

A quiet, but ferocious growl echoes through the chamber from somewhere deeper within the cave.

The Doctor clambers off her, leaps to his feet, and swiftly positions himself between her and the maw of the cave, reaching into his pocket for the screwdriver before settling back on his haunches. He reaches around for her bottoms, scoops them up with his index finger, and hands them to Rose. Eyes glued to the darkness before him, he flicks a few settings on the screwdriver until he can shine the light towards it, illuminating the first few meters of the abyss. What they can see is simply more of the same, a roughly cylindrical tunnel of purple rocks.

Once she has her swimsuit on properly again, she gets to her feet and wraps her arms around one of the Doctor’s.

“What was it, a dog or something?” she whispers as quietly as she can, stifling the dread rising in her gut. It’s a stupid question, and she knows it. But she needs the Doctor to think out loud. To tell her what he’s thinking.

“There are no dogs here,” he responds coldly, quieter than she had managed. “No mammals larger than a rabbit. Certainly nothing capable of growling.”

They stare down the darkness for a few long moments, waiting for the unseen creature to repeat itself, but nothing happens.

“We should go,” Rose suggests.

“Whatever it is, it could put the Kaelondaians in danger,” the Doctor counters, with clearly no intention whatsoever of heeding this advice. “You can wait here, though, if you like. I’ll shout if you need to run.” He turns to her with a twitch of his mouth that’s almost a smirk, knowing how unlikely it is for her to take that option.

“Yeah, right.”

They pad slowly down the cave, and Rose is thankful that their lack of footwear lends them an unusually quiet passage. If not for the light rustling of the Doctor’s shorts and Rose’s loud human lungs, they might be completely silent, at least to her ears. The Doctor is on alert like a police hound, every sense hyper-aware for cues of danger. He’d be the first to hear or see something anyway (or even smell it, she thinks). She doesn’t say anything as they continue down the way, not wanting to distract him.

Aside from the occasional shimmering pockets of metals in the rock, the route is monotonous. Rose wants to ask how much longer he intends to follow down the endless path, but figures he’ll tell her when it’s a lost cause.

It’s still strangely warm inside the tunnel, like all the sun’s heat is trapped in here as it shines every day on the island above, nowhere to escape. It’s curiously circular, too, as though purposely carved by people, rather than formed naturally by the water, and she realizes it probably was. This is basically a mine, after all, and the Kaelondaians continue to surprise her with their skills for innovation. They hit two forks in the road, but the Doctor barely pauses at either of them, only taking a short moment to emit a sound from the sonic, and make a decision whether it’s the path he wants to follow.

As they continue on, the sound does not recur. If there were a real threat, she thinks they’d have encountered it by now, and Rose’s anxiety dwindles as time goes on. The Doctor’s seems to, as well.

“We’re about to hit a dead end,” the Doctor says, still quietly, but nothing like the fearful whisper of before. “Nothing here.” He sounds disappointed, like he was hoping this investigation would finally yield some answers to the mysteries they’ve encountered here.

“We can check the other paths?” Rose offers, and she’s surprised at herself. She thought she wanted to get the hell out of this haunted cave. But she supposes no small part of her was looking forward to some adrenaline-filled adventure, too.

“They were dead ends, too. Not more than ten, twenty meters deep.”

“All right then. Should we head ba –”

Before she can finish her sentence, the end of the tunnel comes into view in the pale blue light of the sonic. Rose sucks in a harsh breath and covers her hand with her mouth.

Scratched violently into the cave wall in crude handwriting are two familiar words:

  BAD WOLF

 Rose’s heart stops in her chest. Her stomach turns sickeningly.

It can’t be.

Neither of them moves or speaks for several long moments, both of them in shock, entranced by the menacing writing. Fear and confusion reverberate between them, compounding the sensations.

When she finally turns to the Doctor, his eyebrows are sunk low over his eyes, his jaw clenched. Rose doesn’t ever want the Doctor to be afraid, but she finds herself selfishly glad that she can discern his true feelings now. If she didn’t know better, she might think the only emotion he was feeling now was anger, the way he’s giving the cave scribblings a full-on Oncoming Storm glare. It’s reassuring to learn that deep down, they operate more similarly than she thought; even if it manifests in vastly different ways on the surface. Comforting that maybe humans and Time Lords aren’t as different as the Doctor wants people to believe.

“That’s impossible,” he finally breaths, stepping closer to the wall.

He reaches a hand out to stroke his finger across the letter ‘W’. Finding it real enough, his arm recoils, and he steps back again, only to adjust the sonic and wave it around the letters, analyzing the rock. He flicks through several settings in rapid succession, compiling as much data as he can. But all of these assessments seem to yield nothing of import. He growls in frustration when he runs out of settings to try, and runs a hand through his still-damp hair, making it stand on end.

“What’s this mean?” Rose asks gently, unsure if he’s through brainstorming or not.

“I don’t know,” he rushes out, directing his anger at the stone face rather than at her. “There’s no trace of anything here, no residual energy, radiation, abnormal elemental residue, nothing alien at all.”

“What then, one of the blokes here playin’ a trick on us?” She doubts that’s it, but doesn’t have any other ideas.

“Have you told any of them about this?” he asks rhetorically, knowing the answer.

“No,” she admits.

“Besides, this wasn’t written in Kaelondaian and translated by the TARDIS. It’s carved in English.”

“Who else here knows English?”

“No one,” he says on a sigh. “They’ve never had extraterrestrial visitors, save for us.”

A chill runs down Rose’s spine.

She takes a moment to compose herself.

“So, what then, end of the world? Daleks? Destruction of the universe?”

He’s silent for a few beats, shaking his head, and some of his fear starts to show through. His eyes betray him.

“I don’t know.” He sounds defeated.

They stand there a bit longer, both unsure of what else they can ask, or what they can do to reassure one another. In the past, this has only meant imminent catastrophe.

But eventually Rose can’t take the silence anymore, and being in the vicinity of the ominous writing is making her feel physically ill.

“Well, starin’ at it’s not gonna do much,” she suggests quietly, rubbing his arm. “Why don’t we head back?” When he doesn’t respond, she suggests a plan of her own. “Do a bit of explorin’, see if there are any other clues ‘round the island?”

He reaches his hand out to thread his fingers with hers, but it takes him a few moments to answer. Still staring at the words, his mind visibly racing.

“Yeah.”

He nods and lets Rose lead them back out of the cave. 

[crusherthedoctor]

Crusher’s Sonic Intelligence Tier List

Lately I've been making up my own tier list in regards to how intelligent the Sonic cast is, as it's an interesting thing to think about in my opinion. So now that it’s done, I'm gonna show my list to you guys and see what you think. Obviously not every character in the game universe is listed since that would take forever, and there were a few other characters who I wasn’t sure about.

What do you agree on? What do you disagree on? Or do you have your own intelligence tier list you would like to share? All responses are welcome. :)

GENIUS TIER Robotnik - Obviously.

Gerald - I realise that Ivo himself considered Gerald to be the greatest mind there ever was at the time of Adventure 2, and yeah, I can see why. However, I think the doctor's own achievements - and the sheer amount of said achievements - have surpassed his grandaddy's by THIS point in the series at least. (Also, Gerald's dead, so it doesn't matter either way.) All the same, Gerald was a very gifted man to have created a lifeform like Shadow, as well as other accomplishments like the Artificial Chaos and the Space Colony A.R.K. Especially when you remember that he lived during a time in which the world as a whole was much less advanced.

Tails - How many kids do you know who can create different types of highly advanced contraptions and vehicles like it's nothing? Let alone fake Chaos Emeralds?

VERY HIGH TIER Wave - Her engineering prowess speaks for itself.

Rouge - Comes with the job. An expert in infiltration and hacking, a master of deception, and an expert treasure hunter. Given how she explained Soleanna's monarchy system to Shadow at the drop of a hat, that would also indicate she's well read and capable of remembering a large amount of info.

Blaze - More to do with implication, but she did once ask Tails if he can build a device that scans and analyses plasma and electromagnetic signals, in a tone that implied she knew what she was talking about.

HIGH TIER Sonic - Being able to avoid obstacles and fellow citizens with no issue at such insane speeds would imply that Sonic has a sharp mind and thought process. He's also been shown on numerous occasions to adapt very quickly to unfamiliar situations, and his advice is usually profound in it's simplicity.

Shadow - He doesn't always have it right, but most of the time he'll figure out what's going on pretty quickly. And since the Black Arms incident, he's also been wise to villainous trickery.

Erazor - Played his cards right from start to finish. Didn't really make any especially stupid decisions, and made great use of what he had to work with.

Metal Sonic - Another one born out of implication, but given how he was created to be a match for Sonic in every way, I would assume Metal is just as clever as the real deal. He was pretty sharp in the OVA at least.

Merlina - She managed to keep Sonic distracted from her plan for long enough, all the while doing a competent job at portraying herself as a helpless bystander.

Zavok - He had a simple plan, but it was an effective one. He was also good at rolling with the punches whenever things didn't go his way. Definitely the most intelligent of the Deadly Six. (Aside from maybe Master Zik, but that's up for debate.)

Vector - Despite his occasionally bumbling attitude, he's still the brains of the Chaotix at the end of the day, and his deduction skills have proven to be accurate most of the time. (Note how he correctly guessed that someone was pulling the Time Eater's strings.)

AVERAGE TIER Knuckles - He may be incredibly gullible, but he also knows a lot about ancient history, and like Rouge, he's a very skilled treasure hunter.

Espio - Maybe he should be higher, but we haven't seen much to know for sure...

Amy - Can be ditzy at times, but generally has a good amount of common sense, and despite the lack of focus on it, her skill with tarot cards would add further evidence to her being far from stupid.

Marine - She was able to create a decent ship in spite of her boisterous personality.

Cream - Naturally her youthful innocence makes her a little naive, but she's still prone to surprising moments of insightfulness.

Big - Some fans might think he should be lower, but one of the themes with Big is that he's simple, not dumb (something Bioware clearly forgot, despite hyping their Big up as being more intelligent than SEGA’s Big). And given how we've seen him do things like piloting the Tornado - a plane he was unfamiliar with - without any obvious trouble, he may be more on-the-ball than most fans give him credit for.

LOW TIER Jet - He probably isn’t that stupid overall, but aside from his legitimate hoverboard skills, his arrogance makes him out to be a bit of a fool more often than not. Usually more bark than bite.

Silver - Despite his incredible powers and competence with using said powers, he's proven to be very foolish, and doesn't often plan things out that well.

Charmy - He has to be somewhat competent to still be working with the Chaotix, but he's generally an airhead.

VERY LOW TIER Storm - Clueless individual in general. Mostly a yes-man through and through.

INCOMPETENT SWINE TIER Mephiles - Total muppet.