#like eh im just so chil about these too now

[squeiky]

This is going to get long. Sorry Op, but sometimes a post just happens to conincide whislt my writing/anlysis brain is on and well.. this happens:

I know this is sonadow posting but ignoring the shipping aspect- this actually encapulates a constant trait of Shadow the Hedgehog (and team dark as well) in which he often lacks the desire or need to constantly SAY or act (in the socially obvious sense atleast) as if he cares or is concerned about you (most people will consider his behavior "tsundere"-like in the fact that he openly has tendencies to deny any allegations of caring for someone, especially that of Sonic).

However,

whats intresting to is that not only does Sonic seem aware of this factoid (that others, aside from team dark memebers as they all dervive from similar ways of expression, dont seem to actievly be aware of), but openly engages with it in a fun, lighthearted and teasing way. Though Sonic is known for his mockery and clowning, when its particularly aimed at Shadow, it always feels like a confirmation rather than a sign of "just messin with him" (though of course it can always be the case).

Its not the best example but- lets say sonic is in need of help and Shadow is on a mission and on the way he decides has to save him. So, on the outside he appears more focused on external things, simply "doing this cause buissness is buissness" or he may be annoyed and scold Sonic for being too reckless and forcing him to have to save him on a mission.

Sonic, brushes it off and is joking about the situation- showing the more braver and stronger front of his persona. This however, may cause Shadow to get angry or annoyed as the light banter contrasts with the emergency.

So basically, the whole thinh could be chalked up to "Shadow get annoyed at Sonic for being dumb and Sonic teases Shadow cause he likes to mess with people" and nothing more.

But then if you examined it a bit more, it could be something more akin to "Shadow is very worried and concerned with Sonic being in danger and actively dislikes it when he is put in troubling situations, he has doesnt express this in a "oh my gosh are you okay🥺?!" So intead he resorts to simple correction of action via light "scolding" or simply telling him not to do it again. (In colors DS, when shadow was worried about his saftey, its simply a "good, your back." Or something similar. Again. Its always implied with him and never stated upfront.) Whilst Sonic, whom understands that hes worried, but requires some amount of vocalized validation to this fact, prys it out of him via the teasing, through the light banter of "why? you worried😏? ", "i didnt know you were such a good hugger" or something like that.

I think this attitude is what makes him feel safer around the people he is with, as if they are able to handle the mocking tone of Sonics more present persona, it would be safe to say that he can trust them enough to feel comfortable lets say.. be carried in someones arms in the middle of space while hes practically dying, because if they can handle the "annoying" part of him and still care about him deeply, then thats a keeper.

I think theres a trust and validation in that aspect.

(I think this especially also plays into characters like team dark, or even knuckles and Blaze. I think hes much softer on characters like Amy and Tails.)

Especially when you realise that Sonic was so pissed off at shadow he actively antagonized and called him a "faker" (yeah thats Sonic's thing. He started that.) And somehow, not only was Shadow about to play off of that in a fun way, he used it to make himself look "better" than Sonic and might actually be one of the first characters in game (that i know of) other than eggman to actually have seriously gotten on his nerves (to the point he was pacing around in jail all like pissed off), which is hilarious.

But overall, it just shows that Shadow can effectively take the worst of Sonic and send it back in a fun way (which grabs at Sonic's addrenline junkie fun-time addicted brain). If anything, once Shadow understands that Sonic literally is "what you see is what you get" he accepts that.

I think there thats where that respect comes from. In both parties as Shadow respects Sonics autheticty and expression, and in i think he may even find an appreciation for it.

Furthermore, you also can see how Sonic is capable of reading people quite well, and is able to understand other peoples thought proccess (which makes him good at making quick jabs that piss them off).

So when swapping the tables and haing Shadow in danger and Sonic the savior, the two probably would function the same way as i discussed prior- except sonic is much more capable of expressing the easy-to-pick up on "oh my gosh are you okay🥺?!" Type stuff. He might even literally say "ohmygosh r u okay 🥺?!" If hes THAT worried.. So Shadow never needs to "pry" anything out of him. In this light, Shadow is well aware thay Sonic cares about him (hes just annoying about it). Which makes it so that what Shadows gains from Sonic is less of that "validation & trust/comfort" and more of.. acceptance and understanding.

Because Shadow is often a character that in-universe is either mythologized, demonized or inhumanized ( inhedgehogized???) But when introduced to Sonic (who remind you is the FIRST character to seriously call Shadow a "heroic hedgehog" or something akin to that)

He becomes well. "shadow the hedgehog" not "Shadow the sciene project" or "Shadow the Ultimate lifeform" or "Shadow the dangerous entity" or what not. Theres a sense of "i take you as you are" type of way that Sonic gives to him. And with that he accepts whatever form Shadoe comes to him with. Never forcing anything on or away from him (to the point where Shadow straight up gives him his own "title" which again, is something SO intergral to who he is that the fact Shadow even did that just shows how much importance Sonic reprenst in his life. It took one person to show him that authenticty and acceptance thats hes

been craving ever since well.. probably maria). I think thats where that particular respect comes from and in some ways? Especially during the very last parts of SA2 where Shadow yells out to him the "i think your the ultimate lifeform!" To sonic and in turn when Shadow "dies", Sonic says hes "Shadow. Shadow the hedgehog" theres a tradeoff there.

The fact of the matter is, i think its more than just "oh look at this shadow says he isnt going to save him but then actually does" because 1. Two difrenet contexts (obviously) but 2. I dont think its even unrealistic for shadow to say he "wont save him" but then actually does.

He cares about Sonic too much to actually let shitty things happen, but wont actively coddle him like team sonic would. If anything, i personally think its more of I "i wont save you, so dont do something stupid, because then thats your fault and im not responsible for cleaning up after you." And less of a "i wont save you, I would let you get hurt/injured and die" type ordeal?

Idk, what do you, dear reader, have to say about this?

thinking....

[firebuug]

ok here’s this. pokemon au ramble. because this week has just been me loving my ocs but bass boosted. under the cut!! this post will be REALLY long mainly because of the teams sorry!

pokemon au is pure bc no deaths or rlly bad things happen

buggy is a trainer who went on the pokemon journey for fun and as a coming-of-age kinda thing(also because he may or may not have burnt his house down with a litwick), but kinda stopped getting gym badges half way and decided to settle down and just take the road casually. he settled down with apoccy and they both run a little pokemon sanctuary and care for pokemon that aren’t able to go back to the wild or have some little quirk (for example a litwick that cant keep itself lit easily). he likes battling for fun rather than for glory, and when his rival (farrow, obvs) was like “ha im gonna beat u and become the champion and ur not” he was like “i mean ok have fun!” which makes farrow pissed. he’s a guy who really cares about pokemon’s feelings and basically got back into action from pokemon santuary-ing and fought against the coven (the bad guy team) to stop them from hurting anyone.

team: 

- Ari (talonflame) (he flies around on her!)

- Lulu (chandelure) (his absolute baby and child)

- Fluffy (ampharos) (he named it fluffy when it was a mareep but then it evolved a bit and it wasnt fluffy anymore. its name is still fluffy tho)

- Big Boy (pelipper) (he’s a big ocean enthusiast but can’t swim and is a bit afraid of the water, so he uses pelipper to navigate over it and help him fish)

- Ellis (sylveon) (he wanted him to be a flareon but he loved them a lot and he ended up becoming a sylveon but buggy still loves him 100%)

- Musha (musharna) (musha helps him go to sleep easier and stay awake better as well, it’s basically his service pokemon ahghjhdjkf. she’s usually floating by his side!)

i think mendel would be a pokemon professor bc he studies pokemon. how he was even trusted enough to hand out pokemon to small children is a mystery, but gene takes care of most of the friendly stuff with handing u ur pokemon and stuff, mendel just does the research. later on it’s revealed that mendel is part of the region’s bad guy group, the coven! (>:3cc) their goal is to fuse multiple powerful pokemon together into the perfect pokemon that is able to beat everything and everyone else, in a combination of every type in existence. (Idk if this is the plot of any game bc i dont remember the plot of any game past pokemon b/w honestly) eventually the protag gets them to not fucking destroy everything and befriend the big boy pokemon (juggy, but like pokemon) and the coven disbands their group and just live life as normal people not criminals bc pokemon verse is best verse

team: - Juggy (sivally) (idk shit about sivally or the sumo plot but it looks like a fusion pokemon and its cute so like um there we go ig. in the actual au itd probably be a completely new pokemon but im lazy)

- Cofagrigus (obvious reasons. if i didnt want to keep this au pure i wouldve mentioned he still grave digs)

-Mimikyu (shut up its cute)

- Flabebe (flowere) (”oh what a pretty flower, it will be great to work on. oh no its a pokemon. guess its my child now”)

- Arbok (its a snake he loves snakes he gives it little pats on the head and rattatas)

- Claydol (it has a ton of red eyes and its black and red what more do you want from him. also he thinks it is cool and its psychic so like hhuiionnghgh yeah)

gene is a pokemon docdor (he heals those boys up for you and takes care of them) and helps mendel out in research since they both share an interest in researching pokemon!!! he doesn’t know that hes part of the bad guy team that snatches up pokemon and doesn’t question any weird things he decides to research about until like the end. he’s really nice and’ll probably catch up to you along your journey just to see how you’re doing, check up on you, and give you cool stuff like the master ball n stuff. he has a big greenhouse where he grows berries and’ll give you some as gifts along the way. he battles you occasionally to see how strong you’ve gotten and’ll heal your pokemon when your done, giving you tips. he likes hanging out around forests and little garden areas.

team:

- Serperior (long boi. good noodle boi.)

- Comfey (C O M F E Y flowere boi) 

- I lost my old gene team im so sad so i dont remember any of it

- Bitty (budew) (BABY BOY BABY! he loves them sm) (it evolves into roserade later on but shhhshhh baby budew)

- Swanna (pretty birb!!) (helps him water the plants in the greenhouse!!)

- Ana (unfezant) (HE NEEDS ANA OK)

- Audino (mega) (he needs that healy pokemon it’s essential) (theyre his little helper)

farrow is the stereotypical rival guy tbh. with buggy he was like “im gonna be better than u” and buggy was like “stop bullying me” but then just “ok” so he got bored. with skuggy it was more competitive, and they even battled each other right at the victory road’s entrance to see who was better, but they never got to complete the elite 4 trial since the coven juggy shit happened and they basically had to team up temporarily to stop these guys. when all of that was done farrow got back to challenging the elite four and trying to become champion, but he’s still struggling and is trying to train his team to become better while skuggy went “eh i’m done that was fun tho” and gave up. farrow hates being seen as weak and wants to have the strongest team, but he still loves his pokemon even if he pushes them near the limit sometimes while all focused up on winning.

team:

- Ally (linoone) (theres no possum pokemon and im mad but he likes ferrets too so) (or uh. long raccoon?) (either way he loves ally and she’s kind of a tank)

- Mittens (incineroar) (this was his starter, somehow, since he took the traditional trainer coming-of-age path and went to become the best.) (he loves his cat even if it did become....bipedal and buff??????) (They share the same big ego and victory flexing) (he rides on mittens’s shoulders sometimes or mittens carries him with arms in the air like a king)

- Rogue (liepard) (cate!!) (also it really fits him!!!) (he loves his thief cat and steals everyone’s items with it and makes them mad) (skuggy has cursed this cat out for stealing all his pokemon’s items at least twice before while both her and farrow looked on grinning smugly)

- Jasper (noivern) (i associate farrow with bats a lot, i think he likes bats now) (big fuckig boy who farrow flies on and farrow really likes battling with) (when farrow is out travelling and is tired and it’s late but he can’t find anywhere to stay, jasper shields him and makes whats basically a mini tent with his wings around him)

- Doggo (houndoom) (Farrow named him doggo as a joke but it stuck) (Fire dog with evil aesthetic! Farrow loves this) (He’s a good dog and farrow pats him for doing good work. he sniffs out berries and items for him on the road and is like his guard dog.)

- Snippy (gliscor) (another bat babey) (i might change it but idk) (it’s a sneakey boy) (he is also a tank and poisons everyone’s pokemon) (farrow accidentally gets stung by him like twice a week)

skuggy is a trainer who set out on the pokemon journey as a means to get out of his shitty house and family, collecting pokemon to help defend himself, but ended up really loving pokemon (especially bug types) and trying to take on a few gyms while he was at it. eventually he met farrow and it became kind of like a little race to see who can get the most gym badges first, giving him a motivation to travel the region and take on the elite 4. after the juggy fiasco he got a bit tired of fighting and decided he valued his pokemon a lot since they defended him and helped him fight back so he said “yknow what im gonna take a break from our race thing, im just gonna find somewhere to finally stay and chil out” while farrow was shaking the elite four’s door like “LET ME IIIIIN”. he’s kinda chill now and is thinking about going back and trying to fight the 4 someday, but for now he’s just a guy who catches bugs. he and gene hang out sometimes and go into forests n stuff. he’s still a butcher in this world ig. mans gotta make some money

team:

- Clove (scolipede) (his first pokemon, he caught it and went with it, but got really attached really fast) (she is his baby and he made it so far with her by his side and is really proud of both clove and himself for getting this far) 

- Big Tony (armaldo) (he found a fossil pokemon and kept it since it’s rock type and can help ward off fire types, which is a big weakness of his team, but he ended up loving big tony too. i know theyre supposed to be like 4 foot 9 but please imagine big tony as a BIG boy that skuggy can ride on its shoulders and back to get around.)

- Babie (ribombee) (he caught this thing and said “this is the cutest shit i’ve ever seen.” went on to destroy dragon types and be the best bee ever.) (actually it’s pretty weak but skuggy believes in them)

- Toaster (heracross) (heracross was too cute for skuggy NOT to catch. it’s the powerhouse. this boy rips thru pokemon likes it’s nothing. unless it’s a fire or flying type. then it dies.) (it likes to f i t e and shares skuggy’s quick temper, because u know what they say, like pokemon like trainer)

- Big old boy (stoutland) (this was also one of the first pokemon he’s ever caught and it was really strong, defended him well and was kind of like the tank of the team, so he kept it. he likes sleeping on its back, and sometimes it has to remember it isn’t a tiny dog anymore because it tries to jump at skuggy to greet him and he gets fucking smashed.) (hes a very good boy, he’s very fluffy, and skuggy loves him so much and owes him his life)

- Jeff (swadloon) (skuggy loves his emo-looking son.) (ever since he beat depression in the dick he just cant help but see himself in swadloon) (but swadloon is happy, just very comfy and grumpy) (swadloon loves skuggy and skuggy loves swadloon) (i mean just look at him) (it’s perfect for skuggy)

okay i’m done here there’s obviously more people but this post is getting alarmingly long and i still need to make their teams. if u read this entire thing u deserve 20 cat images and more jesus christ u madman !!!!!!