#partner posting; posts representing me & partner; f/o posting; me posting; saving-for-later posting

[arcregn]

[blueeco-aurath]

Az's Sonic Self-Insert AU Introduction | Part 2

OKAY so I made part one like a week ago, and now I'm finally following up with part two! This one will go over the actual AU a little bit.

Before I get into that, though, there's one thing I want to make ABUNDANTLY CLEAR;

Shadow and Eternal's relationship is NOT sexual/romantic in ANY manner.

I may call Shadow an F/O because idk what other term to use, and Eternal might high-key represent me, but there's none of the typical F/O attraction. It's almost more an OC/Canon ship to express how ridiculously important Shadow is to me. He's a character I've known my entire life nearly, and he/the things he's been through/the things he stands for have gotten me through a lot of things that I otherwise may not have. I have a really strong emotional connection to him because of this, and thus express that via this ship. I view Eternal and Shadow like two sides of the same coin, or two halves of a whole. Not as romantic/sexual partners, and I never depict them doing anything inappropriate. It's cool if it's still not your jam, it's okay to block me. But let's be civil about it.

TLDR; I do not find Shadow romantically/sexually attractive. He's a character who bears deep emotional significance to me and I express this via his relationship with my Sonicsona.

Pre-Retcon

So let's start off with pre-retcon. I am, of course, still working out details on a lot of parts of this entire AU as a whole, so some things may be vague, some may change later. In which I will update this post.

In pre-retcon, Eternal meets Sonic when he's still a girl. When he's at his lowest, really. I haven't ironed out the details yet, but Sonic sees that Eternal needs his help, and helps him come out of his shell. He helps Eternal realize that he is, indeed, not a girl. He makes a hero out of Eternal, which proves to be literally the best thing Sonic's ever done.

Eternal meets Shadow at almost the very beginning of SA2, when he's fleeing from the police after stealing the Chaos Emerald. Eternal sense his incredibly strange energy (As well as the Chaos Emerald), and gives chase. He gets his ass handed to him, and that sparks his curiosity and determination.

He proceeds to spend SA2 helping Sonic and chasing Shadow in equal measure, with the two goals overlapping rather frequently. He soon learns that Shadow is not the bad guy, not really, and helps him come around and realize what he really wants.

Eternal is devastated by Shadow's fall and presumed death, and carries it with him henceforth.

And then Heroes happens, in which Eternal tags along with Sonic to stop Eggman. In the process, he discovers that Shadow is still alive, but has no memory of him whatsoever. Helping him remember becomes priority number one for Eternal, and he thus spends the entirety of ShtH trying to talk some sense into Shadow.

Which he eventually does, and convinces Shadow to once again save the world. After this, Shadow looks to Eternal as his moral compass, and he finds his new place in the world. The two become inseparable henceforth.

And then there's 06. A lot happens in 06. It's 06. I can't spoil all my ideas bc I think they're pretty damn awesome; Too awesome to just throw around outside the actual story. This is where Violet comes in, however. She hails from the same future as Silver and Blaze, and team up with them to try saving their future. But when all is said and done, the timeline gets erased and reset, and in the new timeline, everything happens in an entirely different way...

Post-Retcon

In post-retcon, Eternal's powers have manifested... Differently. It's not just psychokinesis, it's something else. And even he doesn't know what. But he starts off in this version far better than his pre-retcon self. Sonic doesn't have to pull him out of such a deep hole, this time. He falls into the hero role much easier.

This time, he doesn't encounter Shadow right at the start. Instead, his first encounter with him is when he goes with Tails to rescue Sonic on Prison Island. He senses Shadow there, an unidentified energy source. But he chooses to leave it alone; Sonic is the goal.

But then he notices the Chaos Emeralds too, and realizes that Eggman is there for them. So he goes to find them, and gets into a fight with Rouge. This results in Shadow taking both of them to the ARK...

...Where they decide to keep Eternal at leverage against Sonic. He tries to fight back, being massively powerful compared to most, but Shadow is more than a match for him, and his ability to teleport throughout the ARK at a moment's notice means that Eternal can't do much of anything to escape.

So he turns to something akin to mind games. Prodding and reaching, trying to untangle Shadow's motives and mind. He gets the feeling... He gets the feeling Shadow isn't evil. And soon he gets the feeling that Shadow is someone who needs to be saved.

Things get messy as time ticks; Misunderstandings are had, and much to his dismay, Shadow finds himself caring about Eternal. Which slowly breaks down his false memories, and makes him realize he was wrong.

Shadow's fall hurts Eternal a thousand times worse this time. And carrying it is a thousand times heavier when he has one of Shadow's Inhibitor Rings, and a list of things Maria and Shadow never got to do on Earth.

He honors them by going down that list himself.

He spends Heroes in this version 100% chasing Shadow. He gets sidetracked and interrupted along the way, eventually joining up with Sonic for the final showdown, but Shadow is his driving force. He's hurt to find, however, that Shadow doesn't remember him.

But it's Eternal, he doesn't give up. He once again spends ShtH chasing Shadow and trying to jog his memory. It's far easier to do, this time, for some reason...

Once Eternal gets Shadow to come around, they once again become inseparable. Even more-so, having a strange telepathic-type of bond via their abilities to sense each other's energy.

At some point, Silver and Violet are re-introduced, and the two Rush games also happen, but details have yet to be ironed out.

06 doesn't happen in this version either, and I'm unsure about what I'll do with the very fine-cut plots of Unleashed and Colors, which brings us to Generations.

Which is sort of fine-cut as well; Eternal is at the party with everyone else, and gets sucked into the white void with everyone else, being suspended in time at the battle with Perfect Chaos. But... Being thrown through time as it gets torn apart has some... Strange side-effects.

In which everyone realizes that the pre-retcon universe wasn't entirely erased... Pieces of it still exist within everyone. And Violet in particular remembered everything from the start. It sheds light on what Eternal's powers really are.

Not sure what I'm doing with Lost World, but Forces...

Forces is one hell of a ride. Omega and Shadow are presumed dead. Sonic is presumed dead. The world belongs to Eggman and Infinite. Eternal is pissed. The role of the Avatar isn't a thing, with Eternal mostly taking that role, sort of. I do use the default Avatar as a character, using the popular name of "Gadget" for him. Bc I think his design is cute.

The war is fought in earnest; Sonic is rescued, and Shadow finally turns up alive. And in the end, Eternal and Shadow put an end to Infinite's reign of terror (Does that mean saving him? Maybe it does. Maybe. You'll never know until we get there. Wink wonk).

And, well, that's it. Until Frontiers comes out, anyways. In which I will probably go feral trying to put plot together. I greatly look forwards to it.

If you actually read this wholeass post, I once again applaud you.

[maynardtrash]

Of All People~Josh Pieters

A/N: wowza it hasn’t been a month and i’m posting again go me. i’ve seen josh has been highkey unrepped in imagines and i feel like he’d fit this prompt so ye here u go all u filthy josh pieters’ stans. btw this is kinda AU bc i have no idea if grant went to school w caspar and josh pls dont abuse my inbox w aggressive facts k thank u.

     For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been popular with my peers. Maybe because, for the most part, the popular people aren’t the ruthless satanists you see on TV. 99.9% of us are decent people. I’d like to think I’m a good person, at least. That being said, there are a certain few I’d have to associate with that represented our group poorly. They were all football players and they thought they were somewhat of demigods. There was always one specific group they would target as well. Those they considered beneath them. The theater kids.

     There were three specific people they would target: Caspar, Grant, and Josh. I felt so bad for them. They didn’t deserve the abuse in the slightest. They were such sweet, caring, witty guys, especially Josh. Watching Josh get made fun of was especially hard for me to see since I’ve always had a little crush on him. I never really noticed him until our drama class, but when I saw him, I couldn’t get him out of my mind. He was so passionate about acting and the art of theater. I got lost in his debates and rants while trying to defend his critiques and praises of certain pieces. He got so heated, and so did I. I had to admit, when he was in his element, he was pretty damn hot.

     I walked into drama to the usual scene: everyone in their individual groups mingling, then Jacobi and Martin, two of the football players, torturing Josh and Caspar. For some reason, I was not having it today. Maybe I had finally gotten sick of it, but I decided enough was enough. “Jacobi. Martin. Why don’t you just leave them alone?” I asked, exasperated.

     “Because it’s none of your fucking business, (Y/N),” Martin snapped back at me.

     “Yeah, since when are you gonna defend a bunch of losers?” Jacobi chimed in, his tone suggested he was hurt.

     “Since I realized they’ve done nothing to deserve your abuse!” I spat. Before the two idiots could finish their argument, our drama teacher came in and we took a seat. I decided to sit with Josh and Caspar. “Are you guys good?” I asked.

     “Yeah, we’re good,” Caspar responded. Josh did nothing but stare blankly. “Thank you for that.”

     “Of course,” I assured him. “You guys are way better than them anyway.”

     “Oh, trust me,” Caspar said. “We’re aware. They’re just insecure or whatever.” I laughed at his response and nodded. “They don’t even know the half of it,” I thought to myself. “Where’s Grant?” I asked. He would have come in by now, but he was nowhere to be found. “He stayed home for the day,” Caspar said. “He’s taking a personal day for video games and pizza. Lucky bastard.” I giggled at his response. Caspar and I talked for a bit while Josh just sat there. We were eventually hushed by our teacher.

     There was about a half hour left of the class when the teacher hit us with a curve ball. “Okay, class!” she announced while we read through West Side Story. “I have an assignment for you all. I understand the weekend is upon us, so I’ll be giving you a gift!” The class clapped and buzzed with excitement. “You will be doing a summary and synopsis of West Side Story with a partner that I am assigning to drive you out of your comfort zone!” she announced. The class groaned in harmony. There’s nothing worse than having to work with someone you barely talk to over your weekend when you could be doing literally anything else.

     She posted the list on the board right before the bell rang. We all shuffled over to see who we were stuck with. Once I saw who I was paired with, my heart fluttered. “(Y/F/N) (Y/L/N)-----Josh Pieters”. I was with Josh. I had to contain my emotions, but I was more than excited. I finally had an excuse to talk to him. He was beginning to pack up when I approached him. “Hey, partner!” I said excitedly. He looked up from shoving his books in his bag and stared blankly again. “Oh,” he deadpanned. “Cool.” I shifted my weight, feeling disappointment set in. “He could be a little more excited,” I thought to myself. “How about we meet at my house later? I wanna get this out of the way so we can at least try to enjoy the weekend, you know?” He only nodded, then began to walk away. “Wait!” I yelled after him. He turned with the same blank expression on his face. “Gimme your phone.”

     “Why?” he asked cautiously.

     “So I can give you my number and address?”

     “Oh, yeah.” I typed my number in his phone then texted my address to myself so I could save his number. “Come by at five, okay?” I told him.

     “Yeah, okay,” he responded without a hint of emotion in his voice.

     Five o’ clock had rolled around, and there was no sign of Josh. I was about to be extremely upset, but, two minutes later, there was a knock at my door. I swung the door open to the tall ginger I’d been waiting for for so long. He gave an awkward smile and wave. “I’m here,” he said, a little more life in his voice.

     “Perfect!” I responded. “Just drop your bag in there.” I led him to the living room and plopped down on the couch. “C’mere,” I said, patting the seat right next to me. “I don’t bite, I promise.” He placed his bag in front of the cushion next to mine and sat down. His posture was rigid and he looked extremely stiff. “You can sit back,” I informed him. “I mean, we’ll be here for a bit.” He only nodded and slid back. “So,” he finally spoke up. “Where are your parents?”

     “On a business trip,” I told him and he nodded in response.

     “So you have the whole place to yourself?” he asked.

     “Yep! It’s pretty nice. I get to do whatever, whenever. I have it to myself for another week if you’d like to come back over.”

     “You know, I don’t need your pity!” he snapped. I was taken aback. I did nothing to deserve the tone he had, and I was fed up. “Now, listen here!” I snapped back. “I don’t pity you! I think you’re a very interesting and dynamic person that I’d like to get to know! I’m not trying to treat you like a charity case, I just think you’re cute, okay!?” I realized what I said once it left my mouth and I went bright red. We sat in silence for a bit when Josh broke it and asked, “You... You really think I-I’m cute? Like, not in a baby way?”

     “No, not in a baby way,” I responded with a giggle. “Like ‘someone I’d be interested in dating’ cute.” That’s when it happened. Josh grabbed my face and kissed me. His lips felt as soft as velvet. Everything happened so quickly. Before I knew it, I was straddling him and both our tops were gone. Our make out session was getting heated by the second, then Josh pulled away. I was upset to say the least. “I-I’m sorry,” he stuttered. I was awaiting rejection. “It’s just... you have no idea how often I’ve dreamed of this happening,” he said. “I never thought in a million years this would happen.”

     “I feel the same way,” I added breathlessly. His face broke out into a goofy smile and we continued to kiss passionately. I then stopped the fun to lead him to my room. We walked in and he immediately closed the door and pinned me to it. He kissed my jawline and neck sloppily, bounding my wrists together with his one giant hand, the other hand exploring my curves. I whimpered under his touch. “It’s always the quiet ones,” I thought. 

     “Have you done this before?” I asked him. He chuckled darkly. “Jacobi and Martin may think I’m a gay virgin, but they’ve never been more wrong,” he answered. With that, his free hand went to my soaking panties. “Excited, are we?” he asked excitedly.

     “Yes,” I responded breathlessly. He began to rub vigorously and I screamed in response. “That’s right,” he encouraged me. “Scream for me, babe.” I felt like I was about to burst from an orgasm when he stopped. I groaned in frustration and he smiled. “If you’re gonna cum, it’s gonna be on my cock,” he growled. He then threw me on my bed and I giggled in delight. This was the best time I’ve ever had with a guy, and it was with nerdy, quiet Josh. I couldn’t have been happier. 

     He leaned his thighs on the edge of the bed and before my open legs. He dropped his pants and boxer briefs at the same time and held his hard cock in his hand. He slowly stroked his erection to the sight of me, and I couldn’t help but touch myself in response. “Fuck, (Y/N),” Josh groaned. “You’re so fucking hot. Who got you this fucking wet, huh?”

     “You did,” I whimpered in response.

     “Louder!” he yelled as he stroked himself vigorously.

     “YOU DID, JOSH!” I shrieked. He then stopped jerking himself off and climbed on the bed. He grabbed a condom from his pants on the floor and rolled it on. He sat down and pat his leg. “Sit on my lap, baby,” he commanded. I wasted no time and climbed on top of him. He lined himself up to my dripping pussy and rammed himself into me. We were in sync within seconds, pounding up and down at the same time. We groaned, moaned, and screamed as we pleasured each other. I came within what felt like seconds, and Josh followed shortly behind. 

     After we calmed down, I began to lay down as I thought it was over. Josh had other plans. “Lay on your stomach,” he told me. I followed his directions and lay on my stomach. “Now get on your knees so your ass is up in the air.” Once again, I did as I was told. I couldn’t see much as my face was somewhat in a pillow, but that’s when I felt him enter me again. I responded with a drawn out moan as he pounded me from behind. I felt all new sensations and did nothing but moan nonstop. We both came quickly from the position and because of how sensitive we were from our first round.

     He then collapsed next to me and brought me into his chest. “So,” he said, his o slightly drawn out. “Does this mean... like... are we a thing now?”

     “Do you want to be?” I asked in return.

     “I think you know my answer.”

     “Then yes.”

     “But what are people gonna say?” He had a point. I could hear it now. “Josh Pieters? Really? Of all people?” But I didn’t care. As long as I had him, nothing mattered.

[sharethisgemwithme]

“Raising the Barn” instant reaction

So now's when we pull Peridot and Lapis into the conversation? [scrolls down to synopsis] "Pumpkin goes missing!" [aquamarine face] I know from one of the convention trailers that Lion also goes missing at some point (and we haven't seen him since Connie rode him into the portal), but it's really weird to do a missing "persons" storyline SO IMMEDIATELY after we just did a missing persons storyline.

My predictions: I think this is when we're going to get the La-pissed off phone call from the promo, but I wonder what Steven will say or do to set her off. Don't have a coherent guess, so I'm just gonna play the episode.

I'm watching via on-demand, and will start the clock with "We!" As always, first time I'm watching straight through with no pauses or rewinds.

Note: I watched the whole set over the course of the day on Sunday, but decided to space out my reaction posts. These are authentic in that I haven’t gone back and changed earlier reactions after watching later episodes. Also, for the benefit of those on mobile who can’t blacklist, the rest of this post is behind a cut.

0:00 - Who's it gonna be this episode? 0:20 - Amber debuts! With Hilary. 0:28 - More sad looks at Connie's picture. Which is now in color. 0:42 - song time song time 0:50 - SONG TIME 0:58 - and cut off 1:06 - here's the call from the barn. IT'S NOT CONNIE, STEVEN! 1:25 - pumpkin is still weird 1:38 - aww lapis is blushing 1:51 - spaaaace. i wonder how much they already know 2:04 - oh yeah. that'll set her off. 2:19 - and BYE 2:42 - you can.. yeah you can bring the TV 2:50 - lapis is D O N E 3:04 - you keep saying that "we're safe" thing 3:22 - peridot, it's time to make a decision. lapis has made hers 3:45 - peri is not planning to leave. lapis is gonna leave without you. 4:18 - uhh... what are you doing there, lapis? 4:30 - yikes. 4:35 - oh. so that's what you mean by "raising the barn". literally. why didn't I expect that? 4:54 - lapis's goodbyes are never permanent. 5:08 - seriously, where did she go? 5:23 - or did peridot hide her to try to delay lapis's departure? 5:50 - yeah, the cluster. that's still a thing. 6:04 - a basketball is good enough 6:20 - "we'll never know" YAY [/sarcasm] 6:33 - "she loves this", we don't need to know about your, uh, habits 6:56 - hahahha 7:02 - "onion's onions" 7:20 - ok, so peridot didn't hide her, she hid herself? 8:10 - you do have a choice. if anyone knows about having a choice, it's you, peridot. 8:30 - bye. again. once more. 8:45 - peridot, claim it for yourself. 9:07 - yay, standing up for earth! 9:20 - honestly, there was no good time to tell you 9:48 - "I think we can win. I think you can win." 9:58 - "No." 10:03 - Oh good, shaded eyes Lapis. 10:12 - Uhh... 10:25 - Bye. Again. 10:45 - Aww, Peridot's moving back into the bahtroom. 10:58 - That's the saddest wow thanks ever. 11:07 - And still no Connie. 11:12 - "What do we do now?" is basically a shoe-in as always the saddest possible last line of a TV episode.

IMMEDIATE THOUGHTS: She'll be back. She always is. This time, not for Earth, and not for Steven, but for Peridot. I don't know how or when, but Peridot is going to get through to Lapis and get her to come back. On another point, it is now officially time to start worrying about Connie. Has Steven tried calling her parents just to make sure she is OK? Did Lion ever come back? Peridot was definitely trying everything she could think of to get Lapis to stay or at least think about it, but it seems even if she had started out with "I'm not going", that wouldn't have been enough to convince her. We've now seen Steven interact with several different groups in the direct aftermath of the Aquamarine kidnappings: the townies, his family, and the adopted Homeworld gems. I don't know if there's plot space for another group, or whether we'll now have gems and Peridot playing off each other. In any event, I don't think we're going to see the Diamonds (or their representatives) attack by the end of this block. One way or another, Connie is coming back into the picture soon, and I expect fireworks. The TV show I most closely associate with the phrase "What do we do now?" is Sliders. After being screwed by multiple networks in a way that might even make an SU fan say "Wow, that's terrible", the show ended on a cliffhanger with one character traveling alone back to what he hoped would be his home planet. He and his fellow travelers had been warned by a fortune-teller that if they went, they would die. After the one guy goes by himself, everyone else stands around for a few seconds. The fortune-teller dies. One character asks "So... what do we do now?" Another says "I don't know." And the show ended forever. Thankfully we don't have to worry about that. (yet)

Second watch notes:

Steven. Buddy. I know you're sad, but dragging your ukulele through the sand cannot be good for its sound. Also, I wonder where he was gonna go with that song. I read/heard some speculation about the meaning of "I wish I could tell you..." but none of it landed on "She's just not answering the damn phone."

Happy Lappy is always great, but blushing Lapis is also cute. It's a shame that it didn't last.

Lapis knew that Steven had been to Homeworld and back, but it wasn't until he mentioned that he'd specifically met with the Diamonds, and specifically BLUE Diamond, that she went full-speed "fuck this shit i'm out"

Peridot's desperate bargaining might have worked if not for Lapis's "FINE WE'RE BRINGING F*CKING EVERYTHING" attitude (and the ability to do it).

Reminder to all: Lapis does not give two tenths of a shit for the Crystal Gems as a whole. She was ready to leave with just Peridot, and considered it a bonus when Steven showed up (presuming he'd come with), but she would not exert any effort to save Garnet, Pearl, or Amethyst (no matter how much fun it was to act like her).

I wish Peridot had reacted, even just flinched, to Lapis saying "This is different. Steven is important."

"They would upset you, so in general, I don't say those things." "Peridot, that's lying!" Useful relationship advice. Supporting your partner's well-being is one thing, but continually suppressing your own self to do so doesn't help either of you.

Steven is me any time two of my friends are arguing. It's awkward as hell, and I just want to be not there.

I haven't had the opportunity to point out the soundtrack for these episodes, but right as we see Lapis' shaded eyes, we hear one of the most iconic leitmotifs in all of the show: four ascending notes, then four descending notes, hearkening all the way back to "Mirror Gem". To Lapis's tortured past. It's unmistakable, it's one of my favorite instrumental pieces.

Lapis looking back and then moving on has nearly brought me to tears each time I've watched it so far. When she said back in "Same Old World" that that's just how it is with her, she wasn't wrong.

Christ almighty, this is a depressing ending. Just a brutal gutpunch.