#its the same in Being Mobian

[sonic-au-collision]

SONIC AU COLLISION: ROUND 1

click to see full image

The Kelpie: A Folklore AU belongs to @scrunglepaws [link to masterpost]

Resurrected AU belongs to @superscourge [link to masterpost]

Explore each world below the cut!

The Kelpie: A Folklore AU:

A fantasy setting where fae creatures and mobians are at odds with one another. It primarily focuses on Tails, a young mobian fox with incredible talent for crafting and enchanting magical objects. He uses his skills to protect his town from dangerous and harmful fae. This has led him to be the target of mischievous fae that like to prank him or meddle with his work. He is often menaced by a freakishly fast pooka named Sonic and a nosy gremlin named Marine. Tails' life is forever changed when he creates an enchanted bridle to subdue a bloodthirsty kelpie that has been preying on mobian visitors of Willow Lake for years. He merely intended to tame a monster; he didn't expect to feel compassion towards the creature as he got to know it and discovery its humanity. His entire worldview on fae is flipped on its head. // From Kit's perspective: His lunch sticks a thing on his face that makes him unable to eat it. Also, he has to do everything it wants and thus ends up living with the gross, smelly mobian. Despite all of these horrible things, he ends up learning that maybe mobians aren't all mindless, inherently evil beings like he's been led to believe.

Resurrected AU:

What starts as a strange, unlikely alliance between Scourge and a mysteriously resurrected Infinite somehow turns into some kind of freaky sitcom situation where a bunch of previously-not-alive villains are all living under the same roof as a family!

[napstabl00k]

Plural headcanons for the 3 other Tails in Prime?

Nine

Miles! Miles is the original- a small fox hurt by the world and the people in it. He’s still very young now, and falls easier to mean words than any of the others. While they all have walls well built up around them, he never quite managed to. He doesn’t front often for fear of facing the world, but he’ll sit in cofront sometimes.

Mal. A one tailed fox, essentially the “normal” version of Miles. Showed up when learning how to bite back against bullies, though unfortunately happens to think like one too. Considers their second tail strange and a nuisance, and is always confused by its existence when fronting for the first time in a while. The creator of the extra metal tails.

Nine. Considered Mal’s twin, due to being a split off of Mal, and holds all of the same memories as Mal, prior to becoming their own person. Nine is the current host, and has, in contrast to Mal, nine whole tails. They and Mal both think similarly for the most part, though Nine is connected to their tails and also believes that the extra tails are good for them, even if no one else in the world seems to notice.

Drone. A robotic ant mobian. Has the best control over its emotions. Is usually the one that fronts when they go outside, where the chaos council can see. Very good at acting like the perfect, downtrodden citizen, but extremely bitchy when safe in their lab.

Mangey

Mangey. The original and the one you likely think of when you think of the name. A feral fox who is far more animalistic than mobian, and falls to his predator and prey tendencies more often than not. Easily frightened, even by those he trusts, but also easy to guilt due to this.

Safe. Named prior to even mangey, who was named by the forest dwellers, safe was the first word they ever knew. When they were alone, she took on no particular form, but was very good at bringing a sense of calm to them when she took front. Now, with her sense of safety, she appears as a large shadow in the shape of an undetermined animal. She has the size of Hangry, the fluffy-warmness of Prim, the voice of Thorn, and the rumbling chest of Gnarly. All she does, is make them safe.

Also Mangey. Mangey has no other name, but all three are aware that they are separate. This second Mangey is softer. Sweeter. Cuter. Easier to love, as he does not bite and kick and cry. Rounder at the edges. The first Mangey notices, but there’s nothing for him to do. He doesn’t mean to bite. The second Mangey barely seems to know how.

Sails

Leagues. The original. Born on a small island, Leagues was brought out to sea on a small boat when a horrible storm hit. His ear was infected something bad, and at the time they had to amputate. By the time of amputation, even, Leagues no longer used front, but his depiction of himself matches their body entirely, and he feels the lack of ear always.

Cece. An octopus mobian made of water. Comes to calm easily, and enjoys being within water in ways that Leagues never did. Detached from their body, and the one that took over for the ear amputation.

Thunder. An albatross mobian. Has the smallest fear of lighting out of them all, and is forced to front at the first sign of a storm. Appeared first on the day of the storm at sea.

Minnow. A small fish - and truly, just a fish. No mobian - who is a bit of a prankster. Has not a serious bone in their body.

Sails. A scorpion and the host. The nickname appeared for Leagues just about the time he appeared in the body, and as the one who heard it directed to him the most, it became his. While he once found the extra tails to be strange, he came to appreciate the ability to fly, and then went on to create a third tail to act much like his own.

[sharpedgedfool]

This turned into a huge amount of words my bad, im on mobile and can't figure out how to do the read more bit sorry yall

But I have a huge hc that shadow can't see screens the same cause his eyes work differently and he doesn't have the rgb colour cone things that most mobians have

He doesn't do well at video games or with computers and it frustrated him cause he blamed himself for not being able to process the visual information fast enough, but eventually Rouge realises he's struggling with basic stuff like reading things on a screen and without the competitivness he admits he can't see things properly but he sees words fine on paper, so he knows its screen related

After a while they get their hands on colour correcting glasses for him that work with his alien eyes and he's absolutely gutted that he'd spent so much time blaming himself

One of the first things he lets himself open up to Rouge and Omega about and it sorta opens the floodgates of 'what else have I been getting angry at myself for something out of my control' and he begins to work through the internalised shit that was put in his head during the ARK where he was supposed to be 'perfect' so he assumed that it was his own fault if he wasn't able to do something and he just 'wasn't trying hard enough'

But he's has so many things that he's repressed or hidden just because they didn't fit this narrative of 'perfection' set up by people who were narrow-minded to begin with and he struggles with letting himself just exist with these 'flaws' cause it was drilled into him so much that he wasn't supposed to be anything less than perfect or otherwise he's a failed experiment.

(projecting hard here lmao) but the concept of the 'ultimate lifeform' being disabled and beyond social norms while still being fully worthy of that title, and reaching full acceptance of themselves and becoming even more powerful after they let themselves exist above what other people want them to be is a very healing thing to explore, and a very specific type of freedom that i think is important to write for a character that narratively has had very little freedom.

Sonics whole thing is fighting for freedom from Eggman in a physical fight, but Shadow's version of freedom is freeing themselves from expectations and self-doubt, its more of a mental fight.

While Sonic advocates for fairness and equality, Shadows already been treated unfairly and is having to undo a lot of the things that were done to him that now other people are trying to prevent, and theres a sense of grief about that that I think Shadow is a great opportunity to explore that narrative.

[metal-organic-au]

💎 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF METAL ORGANIC AU (Sonic AU)

What is Metal Organic AU?

[This is an alternate universe where Metal Sonic became an organic hedgehog due to an accident caused in a fight with Sonic, now he will look for a way to return to "normal" no matter the cost, although in the search he discovers things that will question…]

Extra Clarification: Some drawings are not Canon within the story, at the time of publication the Canon ones will have a pink flower, the NON-Canon ones an orange flower and those belonging to an alternative version of the same AU a clover

🌺 (Canon) 🏵️ (No-Canon) 🍀AV (Alternative version)

📍In what world does the story take place? 📍

The universe is set in a world where the events of the games and the IDW comics are combined, some things are modified but they are not as relevant. Being an alternative universe, it will have its differences, as well as changes that I, the creator, implemented to avoid making a copy and paste of the original material.

📍Will the other robotic versions and other creations of Eggman appear?📍

Some of the robotic versions derived from Metal Sonic himself are not taken into account for the Canon, these versions would be those that appear in the Archie and Fleetway comics. As well as certain minor games, here is a list of all those that are NOT Canon in the main story.

Rocket Metal Sonic ❌

Amalgam (Minecraft) ❌

All robot versions of the Archie and Fleetway comics. ❌

Tails Doll ❌

I will only take as Canon within the AU story certain versions that have appeared in main games and IDW comics. Here is the list of those that ARE Canon in the main story.

Metal Sonic ✅

Neo Metal Sonic ✅

Mecha Sonic Mark 0 (prototype) ✅

Mecha Sonic Mark 1 ✅

Mecha Sonic Mark 2 ✅

Mecha Knuckles ✅

Belle The Tinker ✅

Metal Knuckles (in the future) ✅

Sage (in the future) ✅

Another point to clarify is that not all the robots created by Eggman will have an organic (Mobian) or cyborg version, as is the case with Omega, Sigma, Gemerl, among others.

📍Why do Metal and Sonic share memories?📍

The reason why this is possible is because it dates back to the events of Sonic Forces, where Sonic became a prisoner of Eggman thanks to "Infinite", who did a small experiment without Sonic being aware of it as he kept him asleep with a pill (it was so Sonic wouldn't ask him questions and not bother him). The experiment consisted of transferring part of Sonic's memories to Metal Sonic, this was thanks to a helmet that Master Eggman made, he only managed to transfer only a quarter of Sonic's memories into Metal Sonic's Memory Chip. To clarify at that time Metal was still a robot, the connection was not shown until Metal became organic, is not such a strong connection, example.

If Sonic gets sick from a cold, Metal will not affect him, he will not get sick but he may feel discomfort as if he were sick, such as having certain symptoms, as chills and sneezing.

This connection of Metal with Sonic's memories is something important since, since it is not a very strong connection, it can be on more than one occasion, on the edge of the tightrope and the connection breaking up, which would have catastrophic effects if that happens.

⛈️ What are the Sky Endings and Dark Blue Endings? ⚔️

Both are endings within the AU story that happen simultaneously in different circumstances, the reason they are two endings is to see the perspective of how certain things would have ended, how the simplest decisions end up causing greater good or evil even if they are insignificant.

Apart from the fact that I didn't want to leave things with a single ending, it didn't seem like a good thing to me, what better way to imagine this as those games that have more than one ending. I was inspired by Undertale itself with the routes pacifist and genocidal.

⭐ Sky Blue Ending ⛈️

It is a good ending that Metal can have, but not completely, he is not an ally of Sonic, nor is he a hero as expected even if he is far from his creator, it is a bittersweet ending.

⚔️ Dark Blue Ending 🩸

Being a very bad ending where the world is in complete chaos, one that would describe dark, a worse scenario than Master Eggman taking over the world. Where there is no hope and no future is visualized.

THE OTHER ALTERNATE VERSIONS OF THE AU

The fact that alternative versions exist is something quite open and Canon. Although they are not related to the main story, alternative versions do not always have to belong to the universe of origin, an example of this is Metal Archie, which is a very separate universe because the events of Metal Organic take place but in the world of the Archie comics, which will mean that things can change and happen differently.

🪡 What is different about alternative futures? 🪡

Simple, the events do not happen within the same world, it was previously explained in which world the events of Metal Organic take place.

It is also the case that there are so-called What If? (what Marvel does). These are stories that happen in the same universe but raise the question: what would have happened if such an event happened but in a different way?

📍Why say all this?

It is because the creator likes these things and there may be few What If stories shown from Metal Organic wo the future.

📍The alternative futures (Sky and Dark Blue Ending), how different are they from the What If stories?

In the latter, the story from the beginning can change completely, being something very different from the original, in the finalys Sky and Dark Blue Ending the title itself says so, it is already an ending that concludes the story, but not does completely change the story, but rather the how hes concludes it.

EXTRA NOTES 📝

The interactions of the characters in the answers to the questions asked to the AU do not happen canonically, it is only a hypothetical interaction of how the interaction between certain characters could happen if they met. There are things that can happen canonically but not in the way that can be shown in the answers, nothing is what it seems.

If you are someone who has seen the publications from 2021 to 2022, the drawings such as the information in said publications are no longer completely Canon, the creation of this publication was made to make the information clearer, also to clarify certain points that some others they do not can understand.

Because this is an alternative universe, there may be new characters that are not found in the games and comics, there may be certain inspirations but only that, they will appear at specific times and will not be recurring or central unless the creator says otherwise.

If you expect certain events to focus on Sonic and company, I must inform you that this will not happen, they are not the important focus, they become something secondary that complements the story.

Not all of the creator's drawings (scribbles, drafts, etc.) are canon content, it is simply content that the creator creates for artistic taste, unless it is something canon, the creator will clarify it.

The chronology is based on the creator's own perspective so don't expect it to be the same chronology as the games/comics are theorized to follow or as some fans say.

Any suggestion of what the story should be like or changes to it, with all due respect, will be denied, this story has already been written from start to finish since 2023, if there are changes will that be at the discretion of the creator.

It is possible that the story is aimed at an audience between 17 and over 27 years old, for a better reference a shonen combined with touches of seinen.

It's just a single artist drawing and writing the content of this AU as story, because he draws on the phone there may be errors in the art, so excuse the quality, don't expect him to be totally professional but he does his best, the reason he does all this is out of love for the Sonic franchise, being the product of a fan created for fans.

Fanarts and other things can be done with the AU characters, as long as credits are given and it is not controversial.

The creator can be very forgetful, so if he overlooks something, it is not done on purpose, he will clarify it at the time.

Creator's Note: Some things I show may not make sense but they are there for a reason, I'm someone who likes stories with clues like an RPG, I guess it was from watching a lot of Gravity Fall

Important point: Romance is not something central in this AU, any request for couples will not be taken into account, sorry, the creator already has plans for the couples that will be Canon in the story, although he does not care if people form their own shipps as long as they are not controversial. Additional note: Friendships between men do not always end in Yaoi, the same goes for girls.

📍If anyone ever wondered what the voices of Metal, Lord Neo and Mecha would sound like, here I leave it, it's just a Fan Cast

🌀 Metal Sonic - Voice (Fan Cast)

🌻 Mecha Sonic - Voice (Fan Cast)

⚡Lord Neo - Voice (Fan Cast)

🩸Lionen Meuric - Voice (Fan Cast)

📍Extra note: Any new information to clarify points will be added to this post.

[fantasiac]

Incoherent Shadow Hedgehog Rambling

sonic games have never felt like they were adding on to the previous games story before, they always just felt like they're own thing, you could always connect the games together, but it never really felt like one game specifically came after the other, heck, even sa2 feels like a separate thing to sonic adventure 1.

but guys... THATS CHANGING!!!

sonic frontiers specifically feels like it comes after forces, it was the first one that I played that I went "oh, because that thing happened in the previous game" (sonic talking about classic levels doesn't count)

and guys...

Dark Beginnings feels like it comes after SA2 in story!

of course everything with Shadow logically came after SA2s story, but this is different, this feels like a continuation to that story, more than anything else ever has

the moon is broken as if it always has been, and Gerald possibly being alive making shadow go and search for him and answers is a perfect sequel to SA2s story, no matter how long its been in canon between SA2 and now

also talking about Gerald, Sonic Movie 3 makes it clear that Gerald is alive in the movie universe, everyone collectively went "wait, but he's not alive in the games", what if he IS!!

what if he's alive, this actually feels like it adds on to the stories of the games, this is so cool!!

and what's even cooler is the fact this is (probably) going to become the new normal (we all know sega), games with stories that go beyond games the way Marvel does, and I'm all here for it, games that establish a set canon, instead of doing whatever the game wants for however long the game is, without consequences, a set canon, it seems the main race of creatures are the Anthros / Mobians, but humans do exist because Eggman, and now X Generations has Maria and Gerald back, they actually fit into the game's style, they look like they're designed the way Eggman is, and it's really cohesive and I LOVE IT

also I think Dark Beginnings is a prequel to shadows campaign in X Generations

also also I think it's funny that Gerald is voiced/played by the same person that plays/voices Eggman in all continuities this year lmao

[shadamyheadcanons]

I saw a while back you were asked what your favorite interpretations of Shadow and Amy were.

While I don’t disagree (haven’t played heroes so can’t comment there, but have beat SA2) I was curious on your views over Sonic 06 version of Shadow? Ignoring the heavy problems with the game itself, I’m personally a heavy fan of the VA and how he acts.

It may be selfish of me… but I kinda wish Amy got more interactions with Shadow instead of Silver. I get WHY they did it, but I feel like it could of been nice to have them reunite and maybe even contrast the end of SA2 y’know?

First post about my favorite Shadow & Amy portrayals, SA2 and Heroes

Follow-up about Sonic Battle and Sonic Chronicles

I love both Shadow AND Amy in that game!

06 Shadow in particular has been getting a ton of interest in the past few years, and it’s wonderful to see. I considered including it in that first post about my favorites. 06 being such a failure gameplay-wise really screwed things up for the series for a long time. Sega learned all the wrong lessons. No more humans apart from Eggman. No more dark, serious plotlines. One-dimensional characters. No playable characters apart from Sonic in mainline games. None of the others can talk to anyone but Sonic. Obviously there were exceptions to this, but the series lost so much. Sonic 06 is older than most Sonic fans, but we’re only just now getting all of that back with Frontiers, IDW, etc.

This would have been bad enough on its own, but coming off the heels of Sonic 06, it hurt that much more. Sega decided Team Dark weren’t friends directly after their most poignant interactions. Shadow knew who he was. He knew what was important. And he knew he could trust the best friends by his side. When’s the last time he was so self-assured? That’s the downside of the 06 timeline being erased in the end. We know Shadow and Team Dark’s potential, but he doesn’t remember any of it.

That said, I’m ultimately still glad it’s erased. I’d hate for Shadow to go through life knowing the humans would reprogram his own best friend to hunt him down and lock him up forever. It says great things about Shadow, but it makes me like the humans a lot less.

It’s thanks to 06 that I consider Shadow to be the biggest hero in the franchise. This clip encompasses everything that makes his heroism unique:

“If the world chooses to become my enemy...I will fight like I always have.”

Iconic. Badass. I love the way he drops his inhibitors as he talks. This is Jason Griffith’s delivery at its best.

Sonic fights to protect his friends and the planet he calls home, along with the humans and Mobians who all love him, but there are SO MANY people who’ve treated Shadow like filth, and he still protects them. There’s no one else in canon who’s that selfless, and I also like that 06 doesn’t lean on Maria as the reason he does all this. Shadow himself is a good person and does good things for his own reasons, not just because she told him to.

Heroes proved this, too. Shadow didn’t even remember Maria in that game, but he still made the right call. Maria’s important, but she’s not the only reason he’s a good person.

Jason Griffith does a very good job as Shadow here and elsewhere, but David Humphrey is and always will be my favorite Shadow VA. If Jason is an A-rank, David is S-ranked. I’d be thrilled to have either of them back.

You’ll never see me judge anyone for wanting more Shadow/Amy interactions. I’ve thought the same thing with 06, and I love the Silver/Amy bits, too. She has an adorable scene with him AND starts him on the path to redemption. It’s the Amy Rose Special. I also like how she and Shadow inadvertently worked together to turn him around. Amy raised a question Silver hadn’t thought to ask, and Shadow showed him the answer.

But what this demonstrates to me is that this didn’t have to be an either/or situation.

It would’ve been nice for Amy to reunite with Silver and see how he turned things around. They were both there for the final battle, but they didn’t speak to each other. What if they’d had a scene with all three of them together? I hypothesized about that possibility in headcanon #99.

Side note: I just want to say that I think Amy is great in 06. She has the same cute accidental hug/elevator speech combo she used to turn Shadow around in SA2, but people sleep on it in 06 for some reason. On top of that, a lot of fans willfully misinterpret one particular line of hers. And anyone who knows Sonic 06 knows which one that is.

“If I had to choose between the world and Sonic, I would choose Sonic!”

I’ve seen so many people say she’s a dumb, ridiculous fangirl for this, and I can’t stand it. She’s not saying the rest of the world doesn’t matter, she’s saying that she has so much faith in Sonic as a person that she’d take his side even if the rest of the world said he was wrong. And, uh...she has good reason to! It’s not the first time he’s been falsely accused of something. It’s like these fans conveniently forgot what happened in SA2 the second they saw an opportunity to hurl insults at Amy.

You know what Amy’s line reminds me of most?

“Even if you believe everyone in the world will be against you, know that I’ll always remain by your side. Remember that.”

Yeah. That line everyone loves about ultimate loyalty for someone you care about. The line that many consider to be Rouge’s best. The only difference is that Rouge is a calm young adult talking about a friend, while Amy was an upset young girl whose feelings were too big for careful phrasing and restraint. Combine that with how much hate there was for her at the time, and you have a great, dedicated line absolutely drowned in ice-cold, bad faith takes from the fandom. And Silver needed that fervor to make him question Mephiles, too! It had to be her! It was because he saw how strongly she felt about Sonic that he started having second thoughts. You think a calm statement like Rouge’s could have made him back down from attempted murder?

Much like with Shadow in SA2, it had to be Amy. 06 did a great job with her. Some fans still need to wise up about it. They’ve been recognizing how awesome 06 Shadow is, so maybe, just maybe, they’ll do the same for Amy someday.

[erictmason]

“BOUND FOR FREEDOM, YEAR SIX, DAY SEVEN: “Transformation”

“An Unexpected Transformation”

“SALLY!”

Sonic cried out as loud as he could against the thundering storm, racing through the swampy forest with desperate speed.  The dark skies made it difficult to see, and the thick gnarled trees left him little room to navigate.  Yet he continued to run all the same.

“SALLY, COME BACK!”

He could still see her looking at him with such fear in her eyes…could still hear her ordering him to leave her behind.  The strange blackened veins running along her body…the weakness of her breath…the cold weight of not knowing what was happening to her even as they both feared they knew the answer.  And when the hedgehog had refused her order, the princess had used what remained of her strength to knock him down and run off into the depths of the forest.

“SAL, PLEASE!”

It was foolish to give chase, even by Sonic’s standards.  He had no real clue where Sally was by this point, and the rain from the storm was only making the forest harder and harder to move through.  Yet he couldn’t just…leave her.  Even if…even if she was already…!

That grim thought was swallowed up as Sonic suddenly found his momentum stopped cold; something had caught his feet!  Lurching forward, the hedgehog’s eyes widened as he saw the familiar sickly green-brown of Mega Muck all around his ankles, barely able to twist his body around in time to prevent himself from landing face first in the stuff.  That still meant, however, that his arms and the back of his head found themselves caught in stretchy slimy strands of it, leaving him thoroughly trapped.   

Then a terrifying roar filled the air, piercing through even the thunder.

Sonic grit his teeth, struggling with all his might to break free of the muck.  He knew that sound very well by now, after he and Sally had tried so hard to run from it.  They had only barely managed to keep one step ahead of it…until now.  The muck held fast despite Sonic’s best efforts, however, and so he could only watch as several nearby tries began to tremble and crack…as the sound of a low growl drew closer and closer…until a towering figure emerged from the darkness.

It had the broad, muscled body and fierce mane-crowned head of a lion, but it stood taller than any Mobian Sonic had ever seen; bat-like wings spread from its back, a scorpion’s tail curled behind at the rear.  Its eyes had an eerie ember-like glow to them, and soon they became fixed on the hedgehog.  With a growl, it bore its considerable fangs at him, slowly but sinisterly stalking towards the muck-pit where Sonic remained trapped.  “Gotta get free!” his mind screamed at him.  “Gotta find Sal!”

 The beast raised its sizeable paw into the air, claws gleaming against the lightning that flashed behind it.

Yet just as it was about to strike, a new roar echoed out.  Sonic’s ears perked up; it seemed impossible, and yet all he could think of was, “That…that almost sounds like…!”

From out of the forest, a sharp form cut through the air, tackling into the lion-beast with the strength and speed of a bullet.  Even low to the ground as he was, it was impossible for Sonic to mistake what he saw: Sally, flying through the air on leather wings.

Her eyes burned with the same eerie glow as the beast’s, her knees and elbows were now accentuated by sharp barbs that seemed to grow out of her body, and her chipmunk-tail had been replaced with a longer reptilian one.  With speed and ferocity, she attacked her beastly adversary.  Biting, clawing, pulling, pushing...even though she was far smaller than her opponent, her attacks were fearless and relentless. 

The beast would not yield easily, however.  Even as Sally scrambled across its body to avoid being grabbed in its claws, it thrashed and stomped about, rattling her fiercely.  It gave the beast chances to scrape and slash at her, even as she managed to keep avoiding its grasp.  “You’ve got this, Sal!” Sonic shouted up, even as he continued to try and free himself.  “Wipe the Muck with this creep!”

He could not tell if Sally heard him, or if she could even still understand him.  But he had to smile as he watched her assault continue, slowly but surely forcing the beast to back away from him.  That did make it harder for the hedgehog to make out how things were progressing, however, and he felt a cold surge of fear as both Sally and her enemy let out howling roars again.  “Who’s crying out in pain, and who’s crying out ‘cuz they won?” he wondered anxiously.

An answer came when the beast sank to its knees, and then collapsed entirely. 

Sally stood over its fallen form, wings spreading out just a bit further as if taking in her victory.  She briefly shook herself off before turning her attention back to Sonic, slowly approaching him and kneeling at his side.

“Hey Sal,” Sonic said softly as the squirrel leaned closer.

She sniffed at him, ears flickering and eyes slowly moving over Sonic’s prone form.  Her clawed hands reached out to him, taking sharp grip.  Then, with a yank, she pulled him free of the muck.  “How’re you…feelin’?” Sonic asked, tentatively reaching out to her.

The squirrel stepped back, however, her ears and wings both folding down.  “…oh…” Sonic whispered, his own ears drooping a bit.

They looked at each other uncertainly for a few moments.  Then, crouching down to all fours, the squirrel darted back off into the forest.

This time, Sonic did not chase after her.    

[cyberbabyangell]

₊˚⊹☆ all my drs!!

have a list of all the drs i officially shift to (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ (in order of discovery) The ages are accurate to the moment i will shift in these drs if that makes sense..

───────── ౨ৎ ─────────

Better CR ⪼ Soren Minerva, 15 years old

this is where i'll permashift to 😼

Solar System ⪼ Soren Minerva, 8 years old

this dr is very similar to my bcr, but its the one with lore and history and gods etc also i shift at 8 just so i can bask in the 2010 years again because lets be honest they were the best ( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )

My Hero Academia ⪼ Aiden Konoike, 14 years old

i'm just a girl in this one. ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

Demon Slayer ⪼ Hoshi Tomioka, 16 years old

i'll have to figure this one out again, i just know i have cosmic breathing 🥳 zenitsu is probably my s/o •ᴗ•

Genshin Impact ⪼ Fleur, 18 years old(physically)

this one is lore heavy as well, but rn im just a court multitasker/protean at fontaine. i picked neuvillette as my found family, and kaeya & thoma as my lovers •ᴗ•

ParadoxLive ⪼ Nova Fall, 18 years old

aka one of my most hyped drs. im an idol there and a very cliche one at that. like that one barbie popstar movie where she transforms on stage, me core. i date nayuta because he's the only true one for me ദ്ദി ˉ͈̀꒳ˉ͈́ )✧

What in HELL is bad? ⪼ Selene, 19 years old

i sort of follow the game plot, as in im the daughter of solomon. i didnt go too far in the game yet but i jst KNOW i either get close with satan or leviathan

Sonic the Hedgehog ⪼ Lune, do mobians have age..

this is the closest i currently am to being a princess, but im not royalty..sonic and shadow broke me out of my castle and brought me to green hill 😐 anyways i summon crystals with a wand weewoo! with the chaos emeralds i summon a crystal golem thing ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜

Land of the Lustrous ⪼ Opal, 400 years old

not much to say except that opal looks uncannily close to diamond in appearance. i date zircon! or idk but we're best friends! ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜

Helodon ⪼ Atria, 20 years old

this is my partner's world - he writes a lot like me so of COURSE he has his own world like me and allowed me to shift there. i dont have much info on myself either i just know im cute and i love sothoth ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

Spiderverse ⪼ Blair Fall or Minerva idk, 16 years old

my alias is haxxor bunny, because its literally bronya's haxxor bunny skin in hi3..i attack like her too! and i got beef with aiden<3 im not sure but i think i'll date a spiderman version of sero there ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

90's dr ⪼ Kami Bateman, 26 years old

im a model hehe. and i date a perfectly sane and healthy patrick bateman really i just like his looks, i scripted he was really sweet ( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)

AFK Journey ⪼ Merlin, 300 years old

again i lost interest in the game but im still shifting there. my alias is jinx and im a vampire, also im a dude lol. my s/o is valen<3 but soren is so close to taking the cake and i'd be so mad cause dude got the same name as the host 😨 also im dura's son!

Wuthering Waves ⪼ Orion, 20 years old

okay bare with me i still love the game but im unable to play it so i cry every day. anyways..my original plan was to be part of the fractsidus under the alias Hikaru but i dont think i wanna do that anymore. so yeah i dont much abt myself here either! i really like (male) rover i hold him 🫴 maybe i'll be like jinhsi's brother or something ( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)

? ⪼ Viktor, 25 years old

bare with me (bis) when i say i love viktor but i became aware of him just because i love the steampunk aesthetic and because we dont have a mechanic in this list. i'm still hesitant of him being from belobog and possibly dating luocha or jing yuan, i need to play hsr more. "( – ⌓ – )=3

Undertale ⪼ Rune, 7-8 or however old Frisk is

this is actually my first ever dr. ive had a huge undertale hyperfixation (1-3 years) and i basically made an oc which was a self insert. it was also my first ever lore which was super complicated idk how 7 year old me thought of it. when i was 9 i accidentally manifested that what happened to frisk would happen to me, i didnt know what was shifting or manifestation i just wrote down the same thing about 100 times while believing in it a lot. guess it worked with a 7 years delay because now im shifting there! i dont know how it will go but i see a happy "ending" with the monsters living with me n frisk at the surface cause WHY TF NOT.

Kaiju no.8 ⪼ haha i dont have any info on them.

i recently started watching k8 and i love it and could see myself going there, but i don't know anything about myself there ദ്ദി(｡•̀ ,<)~✩‧₊

───────── ౨ৎ ─────────

[hejjhug]

This is gonna be a weird question! Do you have any tips or recommendations on how to learn drawing sonic characters similar-ish to the series?

Hello! Hi! I’d like to preface this by saying I have no idea how to teach anything ever and what I’m about to say is based on my own observations! Mobians come in a variety of shapes and sizes! Not all of them carry the same proportions as Sonic – However, despite there being a wide range of animals used in the franchise, they all share specific design choices that allow them to convincingly inhabit the same world. I will do my best to list these choices in a way that sorta breaks down how to design a Mobian character!

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RECURRING SHAPES: All Mobians carry two or three recurring shapes within their design! Let’s look at Sonic as an example:

Sonic is made up of circles (primary shape), triangles (secondary shape), and a secret third thing (squares). While recurring shapes is basic bitch character design rules, primary and secondary shapes with Sonic characters tend to occupy equal ground! You can look at just about any Mobian character and break them down into almost equal amounts of two different shapes, with a tertiary shape occasionally butting into that tango. MOST Mobians have bodies that consist of a circle on top of a square, or vice-versa. Smaller characters like Charmy Bee or Chip are the exception to this rule. Their torsos are made up of one shape entirely (Charmy's is a circle and Chip's is a triangle). Big is a one-shape-body boy as well, of the circle variety.

PROPORTIONS: Hey remember that picture of Sonic I literally just scribbled over and then showed you three times? Let's look at it a fourth time, and this time without the scribbles.

So his head is huge, right? Cartoon characters like him tend to have those! and big hands and big feet and yeah you've seen all of this before. But what about Mobians, specifically? Is there a way to mathematically break down the proportions of those little critters? Well sure, but I'm total dogshit with math, so instead I eyeball the proportions of large characters and small characters to get a sorta basis for what looks right! For example, Sonic's torso is roughly half the size of his head, and his hands and shoes are all each the size of his torso! Meanwhile, if you put a second Sonic head behind the base of the first one, you'll notice that the quills are about the same width! The opposite can be said for large characters like Vector or Big:

Here, it's kinda the opposite. The torso is the biggest thing, whereas the head dictates the size of most other parts of the body! Sure, you may get instances like Big's ears, which are the length of his torso's height, but ultimately, the rule of Sonic character design, as far as I've observed, seems to be to have one part of the body determine the size of all other parts. Nothing gets its own size, everything can be measured with something else (smaller details don't count).

WHAT WHAT'S UP WITH THOSE EYES: Famously, Sonic's got some kinda cyclops eye thing going on. Not every Mobian is like this, however! In fact, most aren't! The type of animal that seems to consistently have a mono-eye in their design are hedgehogs. The exceptions to this rule are Charmy and Vector, as far as I'm aware (I'm not aware of many things). So with that said, there are three eye types Mobians tend to have:

Respectively: The Mono-Eye, The "I'm Not Mad At You I Swear," and The Standard Set. All of these can be pushed and pulled to fit the character's overall design better. For example, we can look at Shadow and Rouge! Shadow has the Mono-Eye and Rouge has The Standard Set -- But that doesn't mean their eyes look exactly the same as Sonic's and Tails's!

Shadow's eyes are a soft triangle shape more than a circle like Sonic's are, to match the general star shape of his design. Rouge's eyes look as if Tails's eyes were rotated slightly outward to give them more of a slant -- This fits into her heart secondary shape. The Mono-Eye and Standard Set are the easiest eyes to convey emotion with. The "I'm Not Mad At You I Swear," which can also be found on Jet

Is defined best by a furrowed brow, the bottom of which will always touch the top of the muzzle/beak. Emoting characters who have this is tricky, but can be done by moving the center of the brow on each side of the face (NOT the middle of the head). Some examples:

Birds and echidnas tend to have this one! There is also no actual hard and fast rule for it! I've seen the "I'm Not Mad At You I Swear drawn as a Mono-Eye AND as a Standard Set by different artists just doing their best to emote a fella.

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When figuring out designs for Mobians, please also consider looking at what Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog (Issue 160+) and IDW's Sonic the Hedgehog comic artists have created for inspiration! There are a TON of background Mobians in both of these books, all different species with different shapes and sizes!

This is all I can think of for now when it comes to basic principles in Mobian design! If you (or anyone) has anything specific in mind question-wise, go ahead and reblog or leave a comment letting me know what's on your mind! Otherwise, I'm signing off on this post! Good luck!!

[moderator-monnie]

The First Days... (A COTH Story)

It was a night like any other in a small town known as Aislinn in the southern part of Mobius. Everything was quiet and Plutonium The Mongoose was sitting up in her bed, unable to sleep because of a mild case of insomnia.

Her husband, Copper, was asleep next to her, but he moved in a strange way. Plutonium didn't notice, of course, as she was too absorbed in the book she was reading. That was until he made a strange, almost eerie gurgling noise. She quickly turned to her husband, worried, and as soon as she did, he grabbed her.

With a broad smile on his face, his eyes were pure white, his mouth a gape and tears rolling down his face, he spoke in a slightly echoed voice. "You should go to sleep, join me in the world of dreams... Everything will be better, everything will be perfect, we can live better lives... You just need to sleep like I am. Go to sleep Plutonium The Mongoose."

Plutonium herself pushed him away from her, screaming at the top of her lungs. The sight before her frightened her beyond anything she could understand. She quickly ran out of her bedroom door and blocked it off with a chair, huffing and puffing, "C-Coppy hun, you just stay in there. I'll figure out what's going on. Don't worry!" She was determined to find out what had happened to her husband.

Copper began to slowly hit the door. Although he wasn't that strong, he spoke in that echoing quiet voice once more, "You needn't run... He will find you soon and we'll be joined together in our eternal sleep, where all our needs will be met."

Plutonium found the words coming out of her husband's mouth. Clearly, he wasn't in control of himself. All she needed to do was to find help, so she went to go open her door hoping someone, anyone even would be at the hospital.

But as soon as she opened the door, she looked up in horror, her hand still on the doorknob as she looked up at the sky. It wasn't black and full of stars, as one would expect at 3 am. Everything was a dark crimson. And the sun still seemed to be out, being a blinding white. Most of the grass on her front lawn even seemed to be a shade of purple.

So many thoughts ran thru the woman's head as she saw all that had changed in a matter of hours, but she didn't have long to process this as she heard a loud crash with some screaming and saw a few of her through running in fear while others slowly and calmly walked after them. 

All the ones who were walking calmly all had the same looks as her husband did, their eyes white as snow, tears leaking down their faces.

And something she didn't notice before was a strange symbol on their chests, a sort of marking perhaps.

She didn't have long to react properly though, as a shadow soon loomed over her and all the mobians with the symbols on their chests turned to face her, staring blankly with wide smiles on broad faces. The looming shadow couldn't be seen, not at first just covering her and her entire house in a thick shadow.

The eyes of the affected mobians lighted the darkness slightly, before a small eye with a black pupil appeared where the shadow was being cast from and it grew larger within moments, and finally, the one behind the shadow could be seen. 

It looked like Sonic The Hedgehog but his face seemed to be a black void, with an eye in the middle of it that stared right down at her, his arms were also skeletal with rings around them and a sort of cape around his neck attached to which he could be seen as like chaos emeralds.

The towering hedgehog was 75 feet tall and as Plutonium looked up in terror, the figure spoke in a rough, deep, echo-laced voice, one almost in a similar manner to her husband's voice.

"Little Mongoose, you needn't threaten, you needn't worry... Rest your weary head for its time for bed, time to rest and help others like yourself rest, for I am the one they call Zepperaith and I've come to your town to help you and everyone here sleep... And dream sweetly into the forever night. I mean no harm, no anger, all I want to do is help... The question I ask is simple... Do you accept me?"

There Plutonium stood and shook in fear for a few minutes, the voices of her neighbors all saying at once, "Accept Our Lord, Accept Our Lord, Accept Our Lord, sleep like us, we're all happy, don't you want to be happy too?"

Plutonium shook her head before she screamed out of fear and anger, "I'LL NEVER JOIN YOU! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO MY NEIGHBOURS, MY FRIENDS OR MY HUSBAND. BUT I WILL FIND OUT AND I WILL STOP YOU, YOU MONSTER!"

The Mongoose then ran away as fast as her legs could carry her out of town, while everyone else was gathered up and put into a sleep by Zepperaith. Of course, with his power and speed, he could easily find the mongoose. But he proceeded to giggle and put his hand to his face, finding her attempt to run from him quite entertaining.

He just wanted to help her and everyone in Mobius, but he'd let her run for now, wanting to see what she did for the sake of his own entertainment. In just a few days, he'd track her down again, but for now, he turned his sights on the town.

"Sheep, Sheep, Sheep... It's time for sleep. Rest your heads. It's time for bed... You need not worry about me for I'm your friend till the very end and all I want to do is help you all : )"

He spoke out loud to anyone in the town who could hear him he had not been put into a slumber. Plutonium herself just kept on running. She had to find help. She would save her husband ... right?

ONLY TIME WOULD TELL.

[number-one-shadisper-shipper]

Behold my Sonic fankids!

Buckle up y'all I'm about to lore-drop

Dash the Hedgehog: Son of Sonic and Amy. He's a speedy, fun-loving kid with a big heart. Future hero of Mobius but for now is mostly having fun exploring with his dad and racing anyone he meets. Also has a hammer like Amy's, with which he can do cool tricks.

Mouse the Owl: Adopted daughter of Sonic and Amy. Found and brought home by Dash after her parents were killed by an Eggman scheme. She's really sweet and a bit shy, and is basically the equivalent of Tails for Dash. Best friends with Tikal.

Nova Prower: The girl that grew from Cosmo's seed. Raised by single dad Tails and is a great mechanic like him! Loves sunlight and nature and going on adventures with her Papa.

Ash the Cat: Son of Blaze and Silver and twin brother of Aura. As the crown prince chosen by the Sol Emeralds, he inherited Blaze's fire powers. He's very stoic and serious, taking his role as future king very seriously.

Aura the Hedgehog: Twin sister of Ash. Is far more spunky and playful, and tries to drag her brother out to do fun things instead of studying. Inherited Silver's telekinesis.

Knuckles the Bat-chidna, a.k.a. Knux: Firstborn son of Knuckles and Rouge. Relatively rare in having mixed species features rather than only taking after one. He's rather rebellious and doesn't want to take on the warrior lifestyle on Angel Island, preferring thievery.

Spear the Echidna: Second son of Knuckles and Rouge. Far more serious about his tribal heritage than his older brother, and because of this is next in line to take on the Guardianship of the Master Emerald. Devoted to the warriors lifestyle and protecting his family.

Jewel the Bat: Daughter of Knuckles and Rouge. Sweet and simple, well-trained in fighting but prefers not to. Is dedicated to finding all the secrets of Angel Island, taking care of its Chao population, and recording the history of the Echidna for future generations. Not named after Jewel the Beetle but they do become friends after realizing they share a name.

Hunter the Bat: Son of Knuckles and Rouge. Inherited both of his parents' treasure hunting tendencies and loves to explore. His wings grew in too small, making him the only member of his family who can't fly/glide, although he can hover for a short amount of time. That doesn't stop him from traveling all over the world! Honorary member of Team Kid Chaotix (the next generation of the Chaotix).

Tikal the Echidna: Youngest daughter of Knuckles and Rouge. Small and spunky! Is still a bit young for warrior training, but she's ready to go when she can! Loves animals and swimming and playing around Angel Island. Goddaughter of her namesake, and is able to interact with her and Chaos. Best friends with Mouse.

Night the Wolf: Son of Shadow and Whisper. Autistic and almost entirely non verbal. Is super powerful, with Shadow's abilities, but is very quiet, calm, and stoic. Because of his resting angry face, people think he's kind of grumpy like his dad, but he's actually pretty chill. Very close with his "cousin" Knux.

Maria the Hedgehog: Daughter of Shadow and Whisper. Fun, spunky, loud, and energetic. Basically has the energy and noise of the rest of the family combined. Loves to get into fights and Night constantly has to bail her out. Also has Shadow's abilities, especially running. Loves to run. Always has a different fun design on her T-shirt.

Mint the Bunny-dile: Daughter of Vector and Vanilla. Like Knux, is a rare mixed-species kid, although mostly crocodile. Is hard of hearing due to physical issues with the connection of rabbit ears with a crocodile head. Is very big and strong, sometimes not knowing her own strength. Sweet and a bit rough-and-tumble. Is a big proponent of body positivity due to being mixed-species as well as growing up around primarily mammal mobians who were a lot smaller than her at the same age.

Gale the Hawk: Daughter of Jet. Fast, cool, and a bit egotistical but ultimately good-hearted. Loves racing and pushing herself to learn new tricks and new types of racing. Like wearing the "retro" hand-me-downs from her Aunt Wave (okay actually I haven't decided if I ship Wave and Jet or see them as siblings so for now it's just "aunt")

Thanks for letting me ramble! Feel free to ask me about my babies 😁

[redpenship]

Hi! I loved your response on the question about whether or not Sonic is okay with being misidentified in terms of his species. I wanted to do an ask too! Might be a bit dark though. Do you think GUN would ever try to capture and use Sonic and/or experiment on him to capitalize on his speed, stamina, and power? I imagine they’d want to be the #1 world power, and although Shadow can utilize Chaos energy, no one is as powerful as Sonic in the lore. If he WERE captured, how do you think the world would react? And finally, how do you think Eggman would react?

Hi! There are a few questions in here, so let me break them up:

Q1: Do you think GUN would ever try to capture and use Sonic and/or experiment on him to capitalize on his speed, stamina, and power?

A: Since there doesn't seem to be any history of militaries kidnapping powered individuals in the series to weaponize their powers (iirc), GUN would need to assess whether such an action is worth running the risk of entering a security dilemma with other states. A security dilemma is basically the theory behind arms races, in which a country bolstering its own security leads another to view it as a potential threat and then bolster its own security in response. So, Country A captures one superpowered Mobian. Country B says "oh shit, I don't have any superpowered Mobians to defend myself against their superpowered Mobians!" and then captures two Mobians so it can maintain a comparative advantage. Country A then kidnaps another Mobian to regain its advantage. And so forth. GUN would need to decide if it's willing to kidnap more people after already kidnapping Sonic.

Now, not all superpowered Mobians are created equal. Sonic is much more powerful than Tails, and I think it's fair to say that he's capable of beating Knuckles or even Blaze in a fight when it really comes down to it. That doesn't mean he's going to guarantee victory every time. If we run on the assumption that power is found in a state's ability to retaliate to an attack, so really, its second strike capability, then even a military wielding Sonic or Sonic's level of power still wouldn't be very interested in flexing him against someone with the equivalent of Knuckles. Really big bombs are scary, but normal big bombs are scary, too. I think most other states would be able to find Mobians powerful enough to deter against Sonic-powered military assaults.

However, they could most likely get away with using Sonic for non-combat purposes. As we saw in Unleashed, it's very possible to simply drain Sonic of his power (although he was Super at the time) and use it to power weaponry. This weaponry could be very advanced, and while it still risks a security dilemma, I imagine it would be much easier for GUN to restrict access to its weapons technology than it would be for GUN to stop other militaries from kidnapping Mobians. They can also fuck around with sanctions, trade restrictions, and other means to reduce the ability of enemy states to properly develop the technology necessary to wield Mobian power. Using Sonic as a living battery to power machines would be the most practical use of his abilities.

Q2: If Sonic WERE captured, how do you think the world would react?

A: The world would very much not like it. Other states would need to assess what Sonic's capture means for their military and respond accordingly. His friends would probably try to break him out, and I think if they or the Restoration (assuming they're willing to go to bat for Sonic) made enough waves in the process they would get the attention of other states as potential actors to be used for asymmetric balancing. For example, if Mazuri is worried about a weaponized Sonic, they might provide support to the Restoration (or Sonic's friends in general) since they're trying to free Sonic. This is the same thought process when governments fund rebels/militias in different countries. You scratch my back, I scratch yours!

From here, it would largely depend on what they're using him for. I've already kind of explained that in my answer to the first question so I'll continue on from here!

Q3: How do you think Eggman would react?

A: Believe it or not, I've written a fanfic about this! I've always really liked looking at how the Eggman Empire fits into the world at large. I think I'll approach this from a post-Forces angle since that's where the timeline stands currently.

I believe Ian Flynn said something about Eggman "putting GUN in their place" during Forces, so let's assume that he embarrassed them by attacking their military bases and using hypersonic (ha!) missiles against their aircraft carriers in the sea. He took over 99% of the planet, so this presumably happened to everyone else, which means that GUN isn't necessarily at a disadvantage when compared to other militaries. Everyone got fucked and they're all only starting to re-establish themselves now.

This means that everyone is going to be gunning for Eggman. They may have ignored him in the past a bit because he was easy to beat, but now he's proven that he can outsmart Sonic and do immense damage if he really applies himself. That's going to scare everyone very much. That kind of security risk cannot be tolerated, so they will want to destroy him and all of his resources. Eggman is presumably smart enough to realize this.

Once GUN has their hands on Sonic, he will need to react immediately. Sonic is the reason he loses every time he tries to do anything. (This is also why I generally believe that it's in GUN's best interest to let Sonic be, since he takes care of Eggman for them at no cost). They will certainly use him against the Eggman Empire. It would be stupid for them not to.

If I go at this from the perspective of harsh offensive realism, his best move here would be to figure out where they're holding Sonic and simply destroy it with Sonic as a sad, but necessary casualty. However, Eggman clearly isn't about that, so his next best move would be to utilize his forces against GUN to free Sonic and even protect him until he's safe.

This is for a pretty simple reason: it's better to have Sonic as his enemy than GUN. Sonic might stop him most of the time, but he doesn't kill him when he does. Eggman has lost enough family members to GUN to understand that they don't offer the same mercy.

Anyways, I'm glad you liked my answer to the other question! Thank you for sending another one, I love this kind of stuff.

Have a great day <3

[son1c]

rouge wins the prize of "most trustworthy person sonic has met so far" by default

falling stars fic masterpost

The bat Mobian was deathly silent. The whole room, in fact, had suddenly become a void of noise. The only sounds to be heard were the soft hums of the fluorescent lights, and the bubbles lazily rising in the tank in the middle of the floor.

With an icy glare, the bat Mobian looked at Sonic. His accusation felt like a slap in the face. "What do you know? You're just another one of Eggman's toys." She adjusted the bands on her wrists protectively. Almost like she was daring Sonic to take them from her. "Shadow is gone, sweetheart. You can't steal from the dead."

Sonic shook his head. He felt dizzy from the sudden resurgence of memories--memories that his ruptured code couldn't hold back anymore. In his mind's eye, he saw Shadow, asleep in the pod in the basement. Now, it made sense why his wickedness, Doctor Eggman--blech, no. Let's try that again.

It made sense why Mr. Ivo didn't want him going down there. He would've broken free from the doctor's vice immediately if he'd seen Stripes. And Omega was down there, too. Trapped behind that locked door. Sonic felt himself growing angry just thinking about it.

The Robian said, "You're wrong. He's alive, and I can prove it!"

With her hands balled into fists, the bat spat, "This isn't a very nice trick, Blue. Even for an Eggman robot--it's low."

"I'm not a--" Sonic started to say, but stopped. He looked down at his hands. They were made of steel and screwed together with bolts. His argument held no water. Right now, he was an Eggman robot.

But it didn't matter. Robian or Mobian, Sonic wasn't gonna let this thief walk out of here with Shadow's inhibitor rings. And once he got them back, he was going to break his friend out of the basement, and then they would leave. Whatever information the doctor still had about their pasts wasn't worth being at his mercy.

However, before Sonic could charge at the bat, a badnik appeared at the base of the hole that had been smashed into the wall during their fight. It wasn't the motobug with the star on its head; it was a caterkiller that Sonic had saved from falling into the trash compactor last week. It looked worried.

Then, a buzzy bomber appeared. The same one that Sonic had caught after it flew into a live wire that caused its wings to lock up. And after that, a pair of eye stalks peeked over the ruined wall. They belonged to the crabmeat that somehow always managed to fall over and get stuck on its back. Luckily, Sonic had been there to pick it up and flip it back onto its feet every time that happened.

When Rouge saw what Sonic was looking at, she tensed. She knew this place was crawling with robots. She'd seen them when she'd snuck in. But that was why she'd been sneaky--so she didn't have to fight all of them. And now it looked like she was going to have to deal with a whole motley crew.

"Phoning in friends already?" Rouge asked the Robian. She kept her voice light and casual, despite the danger. "That's hardly fair. But you're gonna have to try a little harder than that to intimidate me!"

Sonic ignored her. He actually took his eyes off her entirely, so he could look down at the caterkiller and crabmeat that were now at his feet. The buzzy bomber joined them, although this badnik chose to perch on his head instead. It buzzed at him insistently.

"Sorry, guys, but you gotta go," Sonic said. He attempted to shoo the badniks out of the room, but they didn't budge. "I'm kinda in the middle of something right now, and it's not safe for--"

While Sonic was distracted, Rouge attempted to stomp on the crab robot. Take out the easy ones first, then worry about the big guy, she figured. But she was unsuccessful. Sonic caught her boot with one hand, and shot her a red hot glare.

"Leave them out of it," he said, his robotic voice crackling. "You want to fight? Fine. Waste your time. Just don't forget who you're up against!"

Sonic's grip on Rouge's boot tightened. Then, he grabbed her leg with his other hand, and spun her around, before letting go. She sailed through the air and crashed into one of the computers lined up against the wall. When she tried to push herself back up, her hand caught on a switch, and flipped it down.

The tank in the middle of the room started boiling like the water inside was being heated by lava. But Rouge ignored it, her eyes focused on the strange blue robot that was still glaring at her from across the room. She'd never seen anything like him before. It was already a rarity for Eggman robots to be able to talk, but to be protective over other bots? That was unheard of.

And he'd mentioned Shadow. But there was no way he was serious. She'd seen it herself, through the windows of the Ark--Shadow had fallen to earth, along with the blue hero. They were both dead.

Right?

"Let's get back on topic, hmm?" the bat said, a little tightly. She didn't want to think about that bad memory anymore. "I'm here for Eggman's secret treasure. Should be behind a big locked door. Ring a bell?"

Sonic frowned. The only locked door he knew about had Shadow behind it.

Rouge saw his expression change and smiled. It wasn't a nice smile, though. It was greedy. "Perfect!" she said. Her wings stretched out behind her. "Thanks for the confirmation. Now, are you going to tell me where it is? Or should I get my hacking gear ready for after our little dance? I'll get that information out of you one way or another!"

The crabmeat snapped its claws in Rouge's direction, and the caterkiller hissed at her. The buzzy bomber trilled threateningly.

Sonic stepped in front of the badniks, so that he was between them and the bat. He glowered at her. "You want what's in that room?" he asked. He might've been willing to take her there before, but not anymore. Not now that she'd threatened the badniks. "You better get used to wanting. Cuz you're outta luck! Those inhibitor rings are the only things that'll be changing hands!"

Rouge's smile faltered. The rings again, huh?

Sonic rocketed forward. He attempted to grab the bat's shoulders, but she was expecting it this time, and caught him by the wrists. Using his own momentum against him, she hurled him into the frothing tank in the middle of the room. He hit the water and sank to the bottom of the tank like a stone, momentarily disoriented.

The three badniks screeched. They charged at Rouge, their various blades and pincers ready to run her through like a shish kebab. Rouge turned to face them, prepared to defend herself.

But they never collided. The Roboticizer, with someone now inside of it, activated. A bright white light filled the room, and Rouge had to cover her eyes with her arm to keep from being blinded. She and the badniks flinched at the horrible noise emanating from the machine, a noise that sounded like rusted brakes, metal on metal.

And then, as quickly as it began, it was over. The water drained from the tank, and Sonic, no longer a Robian, was laying flat on the floor of the machine, shivering.

It was cold. So cold.

Rouge covered her mouth with her hand. She was shocked. No one could've survived falling from space. Not even Sonic the Hedgehog. That was what she'd thought, anyway. Even when Sonic's little fox friend insisted upon the contrary; she stayed realistic. And so the possibility that, this whole time, Sonic was alive and had been captured by Doctor Eggman had never even crossed her mind.

But if he was here, then that could mean Shadow was, too.

Rouge set her jaw. She ignored the black smoke pouring out of the cables hanging from the ceiling and flew into the tank. "Hey there, Big Blue," she said, offering her hand to him. "Long time no see. No hard feelings about our little spat, right?"

Sonic forced himself up onto his elbows. It felt like the world was spinning, but he was tough. Tougher than post de-Roboticization sensory overload. He pried his eyes open. Looked at Rouge. She looked back at him, her own eyes widening a bit.

"You're no good at first impressions, lady," Sonic said, his voice hoarse. Still, he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up onto his feet, using the wall of the tank to keep himself steady. "But if you're done trying to dismantle me, I won't complain."

Curiously, Rouge looked Sonic over. "I think I get it," she said after a second. "You don't remember anything, huh?"

"I remember plenty," Sonic said, a little annoyed. He hoped this exchange wouldn't happen every time he met someone from his past. "Like those rings. You gotta hand 'em over. Stripes needs 'em back, pronto!"

Rouge raised an eyebrow at the nickname. "Stripes?" she repeated.

"Yeah, you know, black hedgehog. Red stripes. The name's pretty on-the-nose, if you ask me." Sonic remembered what Eggman had told him before, that Rouge couldn't be reasoned with. But the doctor had turned out to be a scoundrel, so maybe he was lying about her. "He's in trouble. Without those rings, he'll be in deep water. You gotta give them back!"

Rouge glanced at the badniks on the other side of the glass. They looked like they wanted to kill her.

But only her.

She turned her attention back toward Sonic. "Usually I'd ask a pretty hefty price for something like this," she said with a dramatic sigh, "but since you saved the world and all, I'll cut you a deal. Consider it a 'thank you,' from me to you." With one twist of her wrists, she removed the inhibitor rings. But she didn't hand them over to Sonic just yet. "You can have these, on one condition."

Sonic looked from Rouge's face, to the rings, and then back to Rouge. "Better make it count," he said.

Rouge gestured to the badniks with one of her wings. "You keep those bots off my back. All of them. The only thing I want to worry about while I'm here is how much loot I'll walk away with! Not how many nails I'll break fending off Eggman's guard dogs."

"Deal," Sonic said. His opinion on Rouge was still pretty low, but if she was willing to give up Shadow's inhibitor rings without a fight, then maybe she wasn't the absolute worst.

Rouge smirked. "Glad we could work something out!"

The bat handed Sonic the inhibitor rings, and he wasted no time pulling them onto his own wrists. Then, Rouge watched as he jumped out of the tank, and knelt in front of the badniks on the other side of the glass. He said something to them. Flashed them a thumbs up. They all looked at Rouge, still angry, but not outright murderous anymore.

The bat was a little surprised. She’d thought that, now that Sonic wasn’t a Robian anymore, he would go right back to destroying Eggman robots like he used to. That was what she’d meant when she told him to keep them off her back, anyway. But maybe his fall had changed him more than she’d realized. Not that it mattered to her—so long as the badniks left her alone, he was staying true to his end of the bargain.

Sonic motioned for her to come out of the tank. Rouge did so, a little warily. But the badniks stayed where they were, at Sonic’s side. The buzzy bomber was on his head again. It glared at the bat, but all of the anger left its expression when Sonic stood up, and the robot looked down at him, its electronic eyes now big and wide. Like she wasn’t even there.

"We're gonna need to go all the way down to the bottom of this place to get to that door," Sonic told Rouge. "It'll be faster if we skip the lift, but it's a long drop to the basement. Think you can handle it?"

With a hand on her hip, Rouge easily replied, "If the only thing standing in between me and Eggman's treasure is an elevator shaft, he can kiss his riches goodbye!"

It took some convincing, but Sonic was able to get the caterkiller and crabmeat to wait for them at the top of the lift. Originally, he was going to tell the buzzy bomber to wait there too, but then he realized he didn't have rockets inside of his shoes anymore. So, when he and Rouge jumped down into the dark elevator shaft, he did so while holding onto the wasp robot's abdomen.

Once they reached the deepest part of the Brain Bowl, they stepped out of the elevator shaft and onto the basement landing. Sonic let go of the buzzy bomber and looked around. There were three branching hallways to choose from, but luckily, Sonic remembered which one led to the room that was locked behind the blast door. He started toward it immediately, with Rouge trailing not far behind.

When they got there, they were faced with their next problem: the door. The only way to unlock it was with Eggman's handprint. But maybe if he had a running start, he could--

"Hey, kid," Rouge said, derailing Sonic's train of thought. "You still with me? The lock's almost cracked. Make sure you're ready for whatever's inside."

Sonic blinked. He looked over at the keypad, and saw Rouge standing in front of it with a small black device in her hand that she had plugged into the wall. So, her comment about hacking into his systems earlier wasn't a joke, huh? Sonic suppressed a shudder.

Then, the keypad changed from red to green, and the blast door slowly started rising. Sonic turned toward the buzzy bomber floating by his shoulder, and said, "Be right back."

The wasp robot circled his head, buzzing indignantly.

Sonic gave it a lopsided grin. "Hey, that's not true! Who else is gonna watch the door, huh?"

Rouge pocketed her hacking gear and glanced over at Sonic and the buzzy bomber. She frowned, but didn't say anything.

By the time the door had lifted three feet off the ground, Sonic had joined Rouge in front of it. She nodded at him, and they both ducked inside the room. It looked exactly how Sonic remembered it. Same gray interior, same blinking machinery stacked around, some of it tall enough to touch the ceiling. And the green pod, glowing faintly, still holding Shadow inside.

However, before he or Rouge could make any moves toward it, Omega jolted to life. His rage from being locked down here for so long was palpable, practically microwaving the air around him. And when he saw Sonic, the settings were cranked up from defrost to high wattage in a nanosecond. He pointed his blasters at the blue hedgehog and opened fire.

"ELIMINATE ALL EGGMAN ROBOTS."

[sci-twi]

Some Information About Spark!

Brief Relevant AU Synopsis: Sonic Frontiers where just about everything is the same, but Shadow Chaos Controlled at the same exact time that Sonic first entered Cyber Space, causing a rift where he can interact with Sonic throughout his journey. Unfortunately, without concrete memories of Shadow (Memory Tokens) Sonic cannot remember the previous day’s events concerning Shadow.  It ends the same way Frontiers does, but Sonic vaguely remembers the time they’d spent together and they go on their first date.

Fifteen years after the events in Sonic Frontiers and about ten years into their relationship, Sonic, Shadow and the gang are drawn back to Starfall Islands when a strange energy reading appears on Tails' satellites.

When on Rhea Island, they come across an abandoned pop-up GUN facility where they find an incubated infant sable. They take the sable back home with them. 

Sonic and Shadow end up taking them in after much discussion and hesitation for their own reasons.

They name Spark after the random spike in energy that shows up on Tails’ devices whenever they’re around. They’re not entirely sure why that happens because other than having seven fingers on each hand and seven toes on each foot, there’s nothing quite different about them. They don’t seem to possess any sort of superpower and it seems that they don’t have the ability to harness or control chaos energy. 

The answer comes when Rouge and Shadow find out more about their creation and discover that they are actually partially made of artificially recreated DNA of the Ancients. They’d been an experiment to study the effects of Ancient DNA on Mobian DNA and if it were compatible to combine them. GUN had hoped that the Ancient’s original connection with the Chaos Emeralds would make it so that their creation would be able to give them an advantage over those who harness the power of them if ever the need arose. 

Sonic and Shadow figure that being that Spark is a child, they should not have to handle the burden of being told about their true origins and decide to only tell them when they’re ready and give them the opportunity to have a normal life that they’re sure they can’t guarantee.

To decrease the amount of exposure Spark has to chaos energy and the Chaos Emeralds, they often leave them with Tails whenever they have to run off and complete their own missions and journeys. This leads to them looking up to their Uncle Tails as he makes his own way in life and brings the kid along on non-dangerous field trips. They want to be just like Tails when they grow up.

As Spark grows, they find that they’re more technologically inclined than their peers. With the addition of several more fingers, it makes it so that their deftness in typing and hand-eye coordination are unmatched. 

Personality wise, they aren’t very interested in making friends and tend to prefer to have their nose in a book rather than socialize with kids their age. They take after their father, Shadow, with their tendency to be aloof and broody. However, just like their dad, Sonic, they love a good challenge and possess a very upbeat attitude, not letting failure drag them down. Despite their closed-off demeanor, they are very kind and patient and outgoing with the people that they are comfortable with. 

Later on as a teen, their talents are recognized by a rogue group that seeks to enlist him. This group reveals themself to be an alliance against GUN, looking to uncover its dark secrets and ultimately take it down. They don’t believe that GUN is working in the best interests of the people, but rather their own motivations of keeping power. Their secret leader turns out to be Tails, who has been finding his own way since after the events of Frontiers.

Tails (and the group) takes Spark under their wings, unbeknownst to Sonic or Shadow, who just believe that Spark is working as an intern under Tails for harmless scientific research. However, one day that might all change when Spark comes in contact with their very first Chaos Emerald, or better yet, the Master Emerald itself…

[april]

if i could do a sonic universe reboot i would make the sonic satam stuff and the sonic adventure stuff happen in the same timeline. hear me out: all we gotta do is pull a donkey kong junior. we need there to be two sonics without any time travel.

first half ("classic"/SatAM part)

Gerald Robotnik is an esteemed human scientist from Earth in his 60s, working on creating the ultimate lifeform ostensibly for the US government as a weapon but really to save his granddaughter Maria's life.

Gerald's son Julian, father of a child Maria and infant Ivo, is absent from Earth, having inherited Gerald's intelligence but, after living in his father's shadow, has turned mega evil in his 30s and has somehow given himself a one-way trip to Mobius - a planet that has solved all its social problems and has no need for military technology, making it an easy target to be conquered. he turns Mobius into an autocratic dystopia where only he and his robotic army holds any power. desperate to cosmically one-up his father, he keeps his given name a secret in order to be known simply as "Doctor Robotnik" to his subjugated citizens.

cue the Knothole freedom fighters ensemble of Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, Antoine Depardieu, Rotor the Walrus, and a young Charles "Sonic" the Hedgehog. a miracle occurs when the freedom fighters find a Chaos Emerald by chance, and "Sonic" uses its power to remove Robotnik from power, but not kill him - in a show of idealism, he shows mercy to Julian and decides that the Mobians should get the chance to put him on trial. this backfires when Julian gets ahold of some Chaos energy for himself, which he uses to flee back to Earth. given the urgency of his escape, the process by which he flees actually swaps him with his son, stranding a very young Ivo on Mobius.

interlude/timeskip

now back on Earth, Julian Robotnik goes crawling back to his father. the residual Chaos energy surrounding him (shaped by its last natural user, "Sonic") is scanned and partially replicated by Gerald, resulting in the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog. Gerald doesn't actually want to make a bioweapon and secretly puts power limiters on Shadow. when Julian learns of this, he blows the whistle to the government, resulting in the deaths of Gerald and Maria, and Shadow being placed into stasis. Julian is put in charge of the Space Colony ARK and turns it into a Chaos Emerald-powered superweapon, but has no method of returning to Mobius to actually obtain the Emeralds.

on Mobius, society is rebuilt basically as it was pre-Robotnik. the freedom fighters grow into adults and go their separate ways. Charles' younger sister gives birth to a baby blue hoglet, who is named Sonic after Charles' freedom fighter nickname. Charles and Sally adopt an orphaned two-tailed fox, who becomes very good friends with his nephew as the two grow up into their teenage years.

Ivo grows up too, learning of Robotnik's infamy and legacy as the most powerful force on Mobius since its ancient times.

second half ("modern" part)

you saw this bit coming. Ivo has grown up into Doctor Eggman and wishes to turn Mobius (either in full or in part) into his "Eggman Empire", but is constantly foiled by our good friend Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower, who are joined by friends Amy and Cream, and additional cast Knuckles and Rouge. though not seeing any of the action directly at this point, another major supporting character is our old (and now visibly aged) friend Charles, or "Uncle Chuck" as he's known now.

eventually learning of exactly how his father's downfall occurred, Eggman gathers the Chaos Emeralds himself to ensure his victory against Sonic and his friends, but even then is foiled... sort of. the machine meant to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds transports everyone to Earth, a la the beginning of Sonic X. with our Mobian heroes now stranded on Earth and with Eggman beginning to learn of his family's earthly legacy, the events of Sonic Adventure occur.

once resolved, the cast returns to Mobius, including Shadow (wanting to leave his traumatic past of Earth and the ARK behind) and Eggman (what? that sneaky fucker).

the schemes of Eggman continue solely on Mobius as they did before. goodbye Earth forever, Eggman and his Sol Dimension counterpart Eggman Nega are the only humans Mobius ever sees again. the closest Eggman gets to his goal is building "Eggmanland" during the events of Sonic Colours.

...

aaaand scene. that's how i'd put it together. i almost hate to remove Uncle Chuck and Tails from SatAM and but i think it's the only way to reconcile the events of SatAM and the events of X/Adventure without making Eggman just like, Doctor Robotnik but after six years, which i really don't like because actual dictator Robotnik and cheesy villain Eggman are just way too different as characters.

also - and this part is vital - i wouldn't give the aged Charles lanky Modern Sonic proportions in his modern appearance. he's the Classic Sonic and he stays roundie and grows a grey moustache. one must imagine a short old Uncle Chuck at a lanky teenage Sonic's birthday party with the two of them enjoying chilli dogs together.

[werewolf-cl4ws]

Sonsally Week 2024: Day 1 - Age

I'm sure it's the 31st still somewhere in the world, so I'm not late.

I'm still kinda struggling on the creative side of things, but I already missed out on last year's Sonsally week and I wanted to at least give some prompts a go on their days. Plus I miss thinking about my blorbos.

Once again taking place in my AU, fast forwarding to the Timeskip era.

It was an all hands on deck sort of day in New Knothole for the Freedom Fighters. The night before Antoine – who had been on guard duty – had spotted a group of mobians running through border of the Great Meadow, heading out towards its distant lands with a pack of SWATbots on their tails.

Once the alert was raised the Freedom Fighters had made short work of the SWATbots and had taken the group of five in. Though because of how late it was the best they could do at that moment was give the group a place to settle in and collect themselves, as they were understandably rattled by their close escape and were unsure of their rescuers.

Everyone in the Freedom Fighters were doing their part to accommodate as they were more than familiar with how to work with refugees, so it was a well versed process for them.

Which meant that Sally should have remembered that Sonic probably wasn’t the best mobian to be left alone with the unofficial “leader” of the group, as she was swiftly reminded of when she happened to walk by the two “discussing” a matter quite loudly between them.

“You can’t order us around, these mobians are my responsibility!” the unofficial leader – a male boar – snapped at Sonic.

“I ain’t orderin’ you around, I’m just tellin’ ya wha’ your options are here,” Sonic clarified, and Sally had to give him some credit here, he did look like he was actually trying to be polite. She wondered how long it was going to last.

“We’re fine, we don’t need you telling us what to do,” the boar growled, flashing his teeth at Sonic, and Sally couldn’t help the wince when she spotted Sonic’s own jaws flex to do the same. Amazingly he didn’t, but she could see him clicking his teeth subtly instead, recognising his frustrated quirks.

“You didn’t look fine while those ‘bots were chasin’ ya down. If it weren’t for us you wouldn’t be standin’ here bein’ a pain in my tail,” Sonic pointed out. “All I’m tellin’ ya is one o’ your crew needed medical attention ‘nd I was helpin’ her get some.”

“She’s fine, we’re fine. Just mind your own business!” the boar snapped.

“Oh boy,” Sally muttered to herself as she started speed-walking towards the two, knowing what was coming next.

“Mindin’ my own business woulda meant you bein’ caught by those ‘bots ‘nd me gettin’ a full night’s sleep not even knowin’ you existed, pal!” Sonic snarled before Sally could even get a warning shout out, making her wince harder and move faster towards the two. “But too bad for you you’re in our village now ‘nd we actually want to help your ungrateful ass.”

“Okay, everyone relax!” Sally called before the boar could retaliate, pushing herself between the two mobians and forcing them to take a step back from one another. “Sir, we’re just tryin’ to make sure everyone is all right.”

“And I’m telling both of you everyone’s fine, we don’t need any help,” the boar reiterated.

“That girl has a massive cut right across her forehead, that’s not fine,” Sonic explained, giving Sally a somewhat pledging look.

That would explain why Sonic was getting so riled up about the argument. But why the boar was being so stubborn about it Sally didn’t know, and she doubted that she would as with every argument Sonic presented, the boar just seemed to dig his heels deeper into the ground over it.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s just a scratch,” the boar stated. “Just leave us alone.”

Sonic made to snap something back, but barely stopped when Sally raised her hand and gave him a stern look. A small growl still bubbled through him, which made the boar jump slightly at the sound.

“How about you go back to your team and check in on her yourself?” Sally offered. “Go make sure everyone is all right, and take some time to settle in some more. I’ll give you an hour before I come check in on you.”

“We don’t need to settle in and we don’t need anyone checking in on us. Just leave us alone already,” the boar fumed, before turning sharply on his heel and walking away.

“Yeah see if we help ya again, pal!” Sonic snarled after him, earning a back-handed smack to his chest from Sally.

“What happened?” Sally demanded.

“How should I know?” Sonic shrugged, shooting another dirty look after the boar. “When I dropped off some supplies to ‘em I saw one o’ the girls had a nasty gash ‘nd offered to walk her to Booker’s. But then Loud-Mouth McGee over there swooped in ‘nd told her to go back to their hut so he could start arguin’ wit’ me.”

“That’s all?” Sally asked.

“I swear that’s it. He was actin’ like I was tellin’ her to jump off a cliff,” Sonic huffed. “Why are adults always so stupid about listenin’ to us?”

Sally blinked at his last statement, before she turned to look at the still retreating boar just as he disappeared into their temporary hut. The boar did look a little older than them, but not by much as far as she could tell. Probably a couple of years older at best. But she also remembered what their earlier years in Knothole was like – back when it was just the Freedom Fighters and Rosie living in the village, every time any refugees were brought in they would instantly try to take over the village, not realising that the children had been living there for quite some time and had established a structured way of living there. The adults would only listen to Rosie, not realising that she was acting on the children’s systems that she had helped refine.

It wasn’t that they wanted to be in charge per se, but Sally had to admit that whenever older mobians did try to take charge of the village they didn’t seem to have any idea of how to do it. They only worked off the belief that just because they were older, they should be in charge. It had to take an embarrassingly long amount of time and being one upped by a child to humble the adults into listening, and as the children grew older and became Freedom Fighters the adults of the village realised how the pecking order actually worked.

Sonic was usually the one that had to do most of the one upping, and was stubborn enough to fight the adults until they submitted, despite Rosie’s own protests. Sally had long known that Sonic never had any faith in any of the adults, save for his own uncle, and Rosie, though even with Rosie it took a long time for him to warm up to her despite her being their nanny before the coup. It was almost comical how much Sonic mistrusted adults and anyone that tried to boast themselves as a true authority when they were anything but capable of being one.

But hearing Sonic still voicing such an opinion now, she had to look up to him and just give him a blank stare. One that took the hedgehog a while to notice because he was still death glaring after the boar.

“Wha’?” Sonic asked.

Sally blinked again, wanting to give Sonic a moment to try to realise what he had just said. But when a few moments passed with him just frowning at her while he tapped his foot impatiently, Sally pressed her lips into a fine line, hoping her next set of words wasn’t going to cause another fight.

“Sonic... you’re also the adult here,” Sally pointed out.

Sonic’s expression didn’t change, making Sally wonder if he had heard her. She was about to repeat herself when Sonic’s foot stilled and his frown deepened suddenly.

“Why are you tryin’ to ruin my day, Sal?” Sonic asked.

“I’m not,” Sally said, but her lips quirked with mirth that she could just barely contain. “I’m just pointing out that you are an adult now.”

“That is the most insultin’ thin’ anyone can call me,” Sonic huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Take that back.”

“I can’t if it’s fact.”

“Look, just ‘cause we were forced to grow up way faster doesn’t mean I’m an adult,” Sonic waved off, and Sally sighed.

“Do you actually know how old you are? Really?” Sally asked.

“My sense o’ time is messed up, you know that,” Sonic said, his ears twisting back stubbornly. “So I don’t need exact numbers here.”

“I think you do,” Sally argued. “Look, you were 17 when you went missing--"

“Don’t use that tone o’ maths at me,” Sonic cut in.

“--and you were gone for four years--" Sally continued.

“The forest is right there I will just go,” Sonic threatened.

“--and you’ve been back for nearly a year. So that makes you twenty--"

“Bye.”

Sonic had only taken a few steps before Sally intercepted him, though he attempted to side-step her as he loudly protested about not wanting to hear any more maths from her, which earned a few confused glances from the other villagers as they passed the two.

“It’s not a bad thing to be older!” Sally protested back as she matched Sonic’s side-step.

“Yeah but I don’t wanna hear about it! Just lemme live my life here, Sal!” Sonic explained, giving a short growl when Sally got in his way again.

“We’re the same age though, it’s no big deal,” Sally added.

“You’re welcome to be old. ‘nd let’s face it; you’ve been an adult since you were five so it doesn’t really count for you,” Sonic pointed out. He attempted another side-step only to have Sally block his path once more, and he clicked his teeth at her. “I will run you over.”

“No you won’t, you actually like me,” Sally stated.

“I’m startin’ to question that.”

“Uh-huh.”

The last intercepted side-step had Sonic throwing his hands up in the air with a frustrated sigh that ended in a growl, which made some of the nearby villagers scatter. He rolled his eyes at the display, before he looked down at Sally, his foot tapping rapidly again.

“Can I go now? I ain’t dealin’ wit’ that jerk no more ‘nd I ain’t gonna stand here bein’ insulted either. I got better things to do,” Sonic asked.

“I just want to make sure you actually know you’re older here. I mean I know you won’t act your age anyway because that’s never going to happen, but I just need to know you understand the concept here,” Sally explained.

“I don’t wanna think about that! Who wants to think about that?” Sonic exclaimed. “You already ruined my day by tellin’ me it starts wit’ a two, I don’t have time for an existential crisis today.”

“You say that like you haven’t had one already today,” Sally sighed.

“Which is why I don’t have time for it,” Sonic said. “Look, I get it. We ain’t kids no more. But I don’t want to think about it in exacts, y’know?”

“Even if it means we actually reached adulthood despite everything we’ve been through?” Sally asked.

Sonic paused, his lips pressing into a thin line as his next protest died in his mouth. He still tried to think of something, anything really that would steer the conversation anywhere else, but his mind still stalled at that reality.

The coup had happened when they were five, and for a few years it was only them and Rosie fighting against every odd to survive in their own pocket of Mobius that Robotnik hadn’t been able to take over, despite how far and wide his reach was on the rest of the planet. When they had decided to start fighting back they were around twelve, though Sonic himself had been doing his own improv missions since he was ten, which that in itself was a miracle he had survived. As resilient as they were, they were inexperienced kids that had no one guiding them on how to fight, create strategies or even just live day to day in their new world.

The fact that they had survived this long against so many odds was something that should be celebrated, Sonic agreed. But it still made his brain turn itself inside out at how many years it has been.

“Can we agree to disagree on this one?” Sonic chanced eventually. “I ain’t sayin’ it’s a bad thin’ ‘cause we really nailed th’ whole stayin’ alive thin’. I just--"

“Don’t like feeling old, even though you aren’t really,” Sally sighed, rolling her eyes teasingly. “Fine. It’s not like I could ever get you to act your age anyway.”

“You say that like it ain’t part o’ my charm,” Sonic teased, grinning as Sally rolled her eyes again at him.

“Whatever.”

“Excuse me?”

Both mobians blinked as a young female badger approached them, and as Sally looked her over she spotted a gash on her forehead that she couldn’t help but wince at mentally. This must have been the girl Sonic was talking about before, and Sally kicked herself for not knowing about the injury sooner as it did look quite nasty.

“My friend went for a walk, but I wanted to go with you to the doctor before he got back,” the badger explained. “I’m sorry he’s being so weird, I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

“Well, sometimes people just want to figure stuff out on their own, y’know?” Sonic shrugged. “He’ll get there, maybe.”

“How very mature and grown up of you to say, Sonic,” Sally cheered, smirking as Sonic stuck his tongue out at her. “We’ll walk you to Bookshire together.”