#procrastinating on art like a boss

[z-h-i-e]

More ornaments than you can shake an aluminum pole at

It may have been around 10:30am while I was in a very important meeting on Friday that it hit me that Christmas Eve was Saturday and that I had to have all my shit together for family gathering in just over 48 hours from that point.

And about 10:35am when I realized I had no shit together what-so-ever.

I then thought, I'll go out early to shop for food needed for the other side of the family gathering on Christmas Day, and that should take like an hour, and then I'll have ample time for drying.

And my expected single trip to one grocery store for an hour ended up becoming EIGHT - yes EIGHT - fucking stores over the course of FIVE HOURS. I do not recall giving permission for anyone else to be out there doing this at that time today, but I blame Smaug, because he decided to say the following when we were five blocks from our house and I was making a left turn: "At least it doesn't seem too busy on the road."

That's because all those motherfuckers were already AT the damn store.

God bless the woman who had to fix my self-checkout register 14 times at store #3. Even on the fourteenth time, she still cheerfully said 'Have a nice day now!' which was exactly what she did the previous 13 times. Yes, I counted the number of times the register flipped out on me.

And since it's the holiday season, I won't say what I want to say about the woman who decided to blatantly side cut into the line for the self-checkouts in front of me, and obviously knew what she was doing because she had to keep her cart awkwardly sideways in the line. But kudos to the individual in the store also rocking a black leather trench (most comfortable coat ever, for the record), for the facial expressions and reaction they had from their lane a few feet away mirrored exactly what I was thinking. I feel like we had some unspoken outerwear solidarity going on.

So I now have about three dozen custom ornaments drying in trays around this room. Allegedly, they are supposed to take 24 hours to dry. Sometimes they dry faster.

It's 13 hours to go time. Hoping for an overnight Festivus miracle.

I need these...

To start looking like this...

Fun fact: I watch a lot of Project Runway while I work on art last minute like this so that I can keep hearing Tim Gunn say 'Make it work' in the background as motivation.

Happy Festivus!

[grubbin22]

character reference sheets for my fic smooth operator.

[yeahiguess3232]

vaycay teens, vaycay teens, vaycay teens!

Previous Polaroid Next Polaroid

Should I attempt a Dood design and have them be in the next polaroid? I'm scared of doing their design tho

[maulfucker]

forcing myself to leave these doodles unpolished was hard. forcing myself to leave the colors unpolished was even harder

[kakusu-shipping]

Sorry if this is a weird idea but it has suddenly entered my brain and I MUST tell you jfnckshcks

You should let Koro-sensei meet Jelly!Emile!! He’s yellow with a round head and lots of arms,, you’re yellow with a round head and lots of arms,, There’s uh, not that much else to it, it just sounds funny to me hdbcjdbsjn

Fun fact: Koro-Sensei is ALSO a selfshipper, he also has self inserts in a lot of the media we consume together, so if I have an S/I for a media you can pretty safely assume Koro-Sensei has one too, including Splatoon!! (and actually I've posted a funny half joke doodle version of it before.)

Anyway, I think if our S/Is met it'd probably be very brief. Something like this?

I could also see him popping into Jelfonzo's shop every once in a while in disguise. Egg wouldn't recognize him until a few days later though. They probably wouldn't see eachother much at all after Egg moves to the Splatlands.

[immagrosscandy]

oh shit i haven't been posting art in a while 😅

[rune-of-delta-au]

I need to stop procrastinating and finally post Splatton

He replaces Spamton, he mostly gets called Splat for short. He's the one dude who's mega egocentric, ever since he became crazy, he wants to become the boss of everyone, to be in control of everything. And of course, he wants to sell his junk art.

Instead of a phone, he has used a mirror to "communicate", with the dude or saw him who like with Spamton, made him crazy.

His theme song coming soon maybe idk I just need to draw smth for it since it's done

Also this drawing is smth I drew in class that I colored on my phone when I was borred (the peak investissement I put in the au is this lol)

[sunnylolli]

How many au's do you got? and what's their names

Oh sweet mother, that's like counting grains of sand at the beach at this point-

I'll handpick from what I've posted and then add two or three more:

1. "Can I stay for a year or two?"/CISFAYOT- Alfred's Mentally Ill and goes to stay with Arthur to unwind so he can get back to work ASAP. Just to be jumpsacared by Arthur having gotten therapy and who is now enforcing obligatory therapy on Alfred which absolutely works. He has a stern dad-to-president talking to with Alfred's boss after christmas and has him put on paid sick leave so he can start actually getting better.

2. Lighthouse au - Arthur's a lighthouse keeper, Francis is a myserious specter of the sea that lures him in

3. Time Travel au - Alfred forgets to mind his business when out for a walk in the English Woodlands and ends up stepping through a fairy-circle-esque circle of branches and trees and is teleported back to early middle age England to meet England when he was 200 years old.

4. Domestic FACE au/Domestic au: A modern day, human au centered around the FACE-family, but where I've branched into including the nordics for self-indulgence. There's not really any plot, it's just a slice-of-life/Buying groceries kind of au :,)

5. Pirate au: (They are countries in this) Arthur's a pirate on the run from the English Crown, Alfred's a wee lad that hides in a crate of oranges and sneaks onto Arthur's ship. Arthur recognizes that he's a nation, thus let's him stay at the price of menial labor. It's an au where Arthur weren't there to discover Alfred in the 17th century and were held prisoner i England until he broke free and went to sea. Meanwhile Alfred's been growing up with his people around the east-coast but wants to explore and do more things, feeling like he's meant for more, so he finds a ship and sneaks on.

Gonna make a read more so this doesn't go rogue on the dash:

Here are the ones I haven't posted about because there's not really any art of it:

5. Medieval comedy sketch: In which we follow Arthur (Nation) through his very eventful life in the 15th century as a personal guard to an excessively annoying prince. The prince eventually grows on him and Arthur's ready to lay down his life several times for him, but turns out so is the prince. I started it initially as a full-on comedy sitcom (think Monty Python), but it became a comedy melodrama in the end.

I'm not mad about it though, one of the more lighthearted and fun au's to write - It's honestly my favorite one.

6. Big, little empire: This is prime example of biting off more than you can chew for me. This au is also medieval, but much much earlier- It's set in around year 1000, during the reign of King Cnut the Great and is about Arthur's and Asger's (Mathias, once he's properly christened) relations, personal and political. My plan for it was to explore Arthur as starting out watching empires and becoming one himself - Though with the constant nagging at the back of his head that he is not meant for greatness and the doubt is what consumes him in the end.

7. Race you to the end: Yet another prime example of too much plot for a skilled procrastinator who gets easily overwhelmed with details. This au is genuinely one of the saddest, most heartwrenching au's I have ever had, and I have MANY.

The au is nationverse and is about Gilbert and Ludwig maneuvering Gilbert's bucketlist once it becomes apparent that Gilbert is terminal. The title itself makes me want to cry, because it refers to the first scene where they're at the beach; Gilbert insists they race to see who reaches a group of seagulls first and ends up winning by tripping up Ludwig. I know it's a spoiler, but Gilbert does die at the end and Ludwig goes back to the beach from the beginning and chases a pack of gulls by himself.

8. Portrait of the modern nuclear family/Family unit: Tw for talk of drug and substance abuse for this one, lads.

This au is about FACE, but unlike my other FACE au's, it's dysfunctional. MAJORLY dysfunctional. Alfred is caught up with meth/cocaine and juggles a failing career on the side that leaves him to take up loans to fund his addiction. Matthew's caught up with weed and alcohol, though he's managing to seek help and make an attempt to get better, because he does not want to end up like Arthur and Francis. Francis is a bonnafide wine-alcoholic ("but it's wine, so it doesn't count!") and Arthur's "just" an alcoholic who has too much to say and too much work for his own good to maintain.

Together they make the perfect cocktail for family get together's like birthdays, holidays and whatnot, because all four of them together always ends up ruining the occasion. But they all want to pretend they're normal, so they keep doing it. Over and over again. (Nationverse)

9. Alfred gets lost in the Canadian winter wilderness au: Exactly as the title says, Alfred's on his way up to visit Matthew over the holidays just to get caught in a blizzard. He sees something in the middle of the road, swerves and crashes. It's just about Alfred wandering through the thick of it surviving and encountering ✨folklore creatures✨. It's a bit of a mystique, a bit of a horror au.

10. Haunted house au: Alfred forces Arthur to come along with him on several trips to American and European haunted or abandoned houses for the thrill of it. They end up in an actually haunted one in the US and things go south very fast. A very cliché horror, but one that I also enjoy writing immensely.

I am ending it here, but know that I do have more 🪩💃

[randomsloredrops]

Random's Filler Drops - The Canonfell Bros

Well, it's time to make filler drops so i can procrastinate on Alpher longer. as you can tell by the name, today...

that's right, canonfell bros. (art made by THE Fella (underfell creator)) Now let me just find the part to add a read more... where is it? let me just find it... and...

. . there we go, read more. Anyways, time to hear my annoying yapping (i got my phd in yapanese instead of english) You see, the fanon interpretations of the fell bros is... disgusting, to say the least. Mainly because of how they assume Fell makes the guys literally ready to kill each other (when canonfell Sans can quite literally WIPE the floor with papyrus, asgore, and undyne when he's pissed off) and also makes the relationship between papyrus and sans... not the greatest. But, canonfell, canonfell, yes, canonfell i forgot i was yapping about that. anyways, cnaonfell (post-edit: i misspelled it but it's funny, so i wont change it) does NOT do that, instead making the brothers just more distant from eachother, considering Papyrus is in the Royal Guard in UF. The canonfell bros are definitely better than the fanonfell bros, seeing as Papyrus and Sans have each others backs, surprisingly. The distance between the brothers is caused specifically by Sans, due to Sand making excuses to not accept help from Papayas. According to the Underfell tumblr (Fella themselves), the relationship is:

Sans to papyrus would be : big brother who feels responsible AND guilty about the outcome of both their lives . He feels useless and can’t bare that he can’t be the one to protect his little brother anymore because he feels like Papyrus doesn’t want him to. Nonetheless he remains distant, but close enough to be there when Papyrus is in serious danger.

Papyrus to sans would be: little brother who became strong enough to be on his own, and somewhat match his older brother. He managed to become who he wanted to be and feels he’s capable of protecting his older brother. He has his own responsibilities to do, so he is often distant from Sans, but still close enough to be there when he’s in serious danger. (that's from the UF tumblr, one of the asks about papayas and sands) Sans also always refers to Papyrus as any sort of word similar to boss, like "jefe", "head honcho", "boss" (ofc), "chief", "commander" (not confirmed), basically anything that means boss. Papyrus also knows NOT to fuck with Sans unless safe to do so, like when Sans is fucking with him, and YES, Papyrus DOES toss Sans across the fucking earth when that happens. Papyrus is also (from my assumption), somewhat protective of Sans, just a little bit, based on a comic of Sans and the chain collar. Time to yap about the comic (sorry). The comic has Papyrus thinking of a plan to restrain Frisk as they travel, while Sans makes a stupid idea. Papyrus finds leash, asks if it belongs to Sans, and Sans says yes. Papyrus says (just assumption on the anger-filled part cause some of it's cut off by papyrus' body and the borders) "OH MY DEAR BROTHER... I KNOW I CAN BE JUDGMENTAL... BUT I AM ALWAYS HERE FOR YOU. YOU CAN TELL ME ANYTHING... NEVER HESITATE TO TELL ME WHEN SOMEONE IS HURTING YOU... BECAUSE SO HELP ME GOD, I WILL TEAR THEM LIMB FROM LIMB (cut off) I WILL TORTURE AND (cut off) UNTIL THEY KNOW NOT TO MESS WITH MY BIG BROTHER!" Yeah, Papyrus DOES care for Sans, he just isn't completely showing it unless it's something like Sans possibly being "hurt" (i still dont know canonfell Sans HP, and I dont want to disturb fella for it, I only saw somebody saying it was 20 instead of 1), but even if he did get hurt, it's obvious that there wouldn't be a trace of them left on the planet. I bet you even the dust is going to be gone. Bro will ULTRAKILL them faster than Papyrus can react. But yeah, the bros technically still care for each other, but it's not very apparent unless it involves something like Papyrus or Sans getting hurt... OH YEAH AND THEY'RE FIGHTING OVER WHO'S COOLER, BUT IMO, SANS JUST GOT THAT CLEAN-ASS DRIP, BRO IS FUCKIN DRIPPED AS FUC-

[sadclowncentral]

now just who are you larping spinach cultists with.

while desperately trying to finish my essay on ecological futurism during a study session, i read in one book that research indicates that spinach can be used as a lithium substitute in batteries. upon sharing this with my study group, my equally academically exhausted and equally strange best friend asked a question that would shape the next three years and counting of our lives: "if spinach is the future of energy, why the fuck are we in college and not spinach farmers?"

this set in motion a frantic and procrastinating research on everything from spinach cultivation to farm lot prices, and in only a few hours the plan b of farming unfertilized spinach for battery production was cemented. the next day, when asked by our baffled friends why the fuck we were so obsessed with spinach all of a sudden i, with the unhinged hysteric energy that only severe sleep-deprivation mixed with energy drinks and the pressure of a deadline can bring, decided to summarize the previous evening with: "spinach is our beacon of hope." things escalated from there.

i have an entire wall in my apartment filled with art about spinach. there is a spinach mixtape, spinach clothing designs, and a spinach manifesto. for my last birthday, three people independently gifted me spinach seeds. me and the spinage (age of spinach) group meet every second monday to brainstorm new ways to spread the gospel. i spent three hours last night compiling satellite data images of the production site of a german spinach distributor and our enemy #1 (long story) to figure out their harvesting patterns. my real boss at work has asked about "my spinach thing" and i didn't even know where to begin explaining the motivational spinach poster i had put up in my office.

you know, i'm not even sure it is a joke anymore. apart from commiting to the bit with your friends being a joyful activity, spending my free time researching spinach and creating art about it genuinely makes me feel like there is a brighter future and helps relieve my anxiety about failure. should i get fired from my job, my life doesn't end - my life as a spinach farmer begins. by claiming spinach to be a beacon of hope, i spoke it into existence. the future is now, and it's leafy green and rich in nutrients. spinach forever

[karlwriting]

Your JJK darling but with a reversed personality

Featuring- Gojo Satoru, Nanami Kento

Warnings- none, only fluff (A shy gojo and playful nanami)

Gojo Satoru (art by @teaforgods )

A quiet and self-contained sensei in JJK high school. Students often address him as a man of few words.

Acts cool, seems nonchalant to his surroundings. You always catch him quietly immersed in his thoughts. Sometimes, the corner of his month goes up , then a sigh follows.

‘What is he contemplating under the blindfold?’ You can’t help but wonder. It’s difficult to understand the strongest man.

He may seem cool, however, all his cool appearances change once you are around him.

To gojo, you always stand out.

Since when he can easily spot you out of a bunch of people? The way you walk, your cute gestures… Is it all because of the ability of his six eyes?

And why does he get so annoyed and upset to see you crying over Yuji’s death?

‘I’ll make sure the higher-ups die in the most painful way possible.’ The hate towards the higher-ups grew stronger in gojo’s mind.

Gojo didn’t know what these feelings were, and the knot tied in his heart was growing tighter everyday.

The moment he realized it’s called ‘affection’. Lord, it only gets so much worse.

He started to notice more about you. Your collar bones, the curve of your muscles when holding a bow.

Gojo feels so embarrassed to be like a stalker. He is just too… mesmerised by you.

He wants you to know how he feels, he wants you to know being friends is not enough and it’s driving him crazy.

He genuinely wants to tell you all of these, only the thought of it makes him impossibly shy. But deep down, he knows that action is needed.

‘I am a possessive man after all.’

Gojo invited you for a lunch today. You realize that you two spent more time together than before. To be honest, you have never felt this good.

“It’s not fair.”

“…Why do you say so? Did something happen to you recently?” Gojo says as he hands you a can of already opened coke.

“Oh thanks. I mean the blindfold. You can stare at anything without anyone knowing what you are staring at.”

“I get overly sensitive if i take my blindfold off.”

“Like all the stimulations to the senses get magnified?” You ask curiously.

“Yea, you can say that.”

‘…also how your existence stimulates me.’ He quietly thought.

“I see you always do the smirking thing under your blindfold… do you sense something that we don’t?”

You just caught Gojo off guard by this question. What should he answer? Will you think that he is a perv? Will you go away and never see him again?

“The reason of the smirk -” his voice trembles.

“- is that i find your reactions cute, unbearably cute. And you are the one i am always staring at.”

The only question on Gojo’s mind now is that:

Is there a blindfold for ears? So i can cover the redness of them?

Nanami Kento (art by @myaoruki)

You have never seen a lazy ass can be this sexy as Nanami Kento

Known to be the god of procrastination in the company. But his boss can’t brag anything about it because the work is excellently done.

If Nanami is believed to be the top employee, then you are the second. Despite the fact that you work overtime a lot, and he just leaves immediately at 6.

Your dark circles are what Nanami found cute and funny. How can this man tease your dark circles IN FRONT of your colleagues non stop?

“Did you not get enough of sleep because you kept thinking of me the whole night?”

“Darling I am sorry, i should have let you get enough of sleep last night. Sorry for being so rough.”

“Should we set boundaries every night?”

The colleagues around share each other a gaze, blushed.

Thanks to him, the entire office thinks that you both are dating. And he doesn’t deny it when people ask.

He seems playful, but deep down to his heart, the respect he has to you is tremendous.

If you want to stop the tease, he will gladly stop it and apologize.

He is 100% serious about you, he just doesn’t want to be too deadly serious at first. This is his strategy to grab your attention after all.

And to be honest, you don’t really hate it. It’s fun and talking to Nanami makes work more bearable.

But one day, a male employee approached you despite the rumours between you and Nanami.

That’s the moment he knew he must do something to show his growing affection to his girl.

You are working overtime as usual. Sitting alone in the office makes you feel kinda sentimental. Is your life just like this? Working non stop?

“Still working? Diligent girl?” You are so immersed in your thoughts that you didn’t even realize the approaching footsteps.

“Nanami? Such a surprise to see you in the office after 6.”

“I knew you would be here, hey- i bought us some food, let’s eat it.”

“What brings you here? Don’t tell me you are gonna work, people said you hate working.”

“Tell them to shut up, i love this company.” Nanami takes the food out then hands you a pair of chopsticks.

“For what?” He loves work? No way.

“Cuz you work here as well.”

“Oh cuz there’s a pair of dark circles you can tease at?” You roll your eyes.

“Ok i am deadly serious now, i worry about your lack of sleep.”

“Thanks, that new employee said he will take me to a sleep therapist. I guess i will go,”

“No. Not with him.” Nanami suddenly puts the chopstick down and stares at you. His hands grabbing your. You only sit here, confused.

“I mean… teasing you is not only for fun, i only want you to notice me. And maybe you don’t even need a therapist if you have me? I am offering myself to you now. Please?”

At least Nanami does not procrastinate in confessing.

[hwljpg]

So, I just finished watching all 9 episodes of Smiling Friends in one sitting.

I dunno why, but I just have a bit of a natural aversion to immediately diving into like Internety things that blow up really quickly. I still need to watch the pilot episode for The Amazing Digital Circus, I have no clue what the game Content Warning is about, I know I got into watching videos on Lethal Company late and such.

One of those things was Smiling Friends. I had seen it blowing up originally, and so naturally, I just drifted away from it. I had subsequently seen it in like some memes or stuff afterwards, but besides that, not much.

It doesn’t help I’ve not really gotten into Adult Swim cartoons at the moment. I love random, but Adult Swim cartoons can be really cynical in a way that makes me wary of them.

Then, I saw you post some art of it. Then some more. Wow, more! What about this show makes this person I consider a good Tumblr friend like it so much to dedicate so much time to doing at about it? Well, you said in an ask that it wasn’t as cynical as other Adult Swim cartoons, especially when it came to Pim and Charlie. Huh, okay, I think I’ll go watch it!

I procrastinated on it for a few days because I was busy. But, finally, I decided, “You know what, I’m just gonna watch it!” I watched the first episode. Honestly, it is my least favorite episode. (Weirdly, just like how the first episode of the Sam and Max TV show is my least favorite.) I didn’t like The Boss breastfeeding, I didn’t like how Desmond kept the gun pointed to his head, I didn’t like the spinning baby. That all felt too jarring for me.

Of course, maybe I wasn’t properly acclimated with the show yet. Besides, there was good with the bad. I thought Pim and Charlie’s dynamic seemed funny, the ending was great, and I liked Allan and Glep as the other two Smiling Friend workers. So, I pushed through.

I ended up really enjoying my time watching the show. There was a lot more I liked than I disliked. My main thing: You were right, it definitely wasn’t as cynical as I thought it would be. Sure, the world still is cynical and messed up at points, but I felt an authenticity to the reoccurring characters and how they dealt with the situations they ended up in. Plus, for every single episode, I didn’t see the ending coming AND felt super satisfied by the resolutions! My favorite episode is probably the Salty’s one.

So, I guess this is a really long way to tell you: Thanks for getting me into Smiling Friends!

ooouuu i’m glad you enjoyed it!! surprising i’ve gotten some people to start the show because of my fanart.. wuohhh

Completely understand the parts that felt jarring; i could only look past it or at times find the humor in it mostly because of how my friends and i perceived and translated it into our own funky little brains. And i don’t necessarily feel as if adult shows need to step away from that very random/jarring humor/gags but more of Figure Out How To Do It Right and that’s what I feel smiling friends does perfectly. But some people are gonna be left with a bad taste in their mouth anyways and that’s completely fine yk.

What I like is how they mix those very jarring elements in their show + the characters world and contrast it with simply how realistic the characters are. They typically converse as if most of this stuff is normal and it only adds more to the joke when they actually freak out. Like i’ve said before i adore the mixture of extremely realistic dialogue that sounds so similar to real life conversations we’ve very have had before with people in everyday life. (that’s why i especially love the trip to brazil episode)

And obviously the lack of cynicism. I’ve been avoiding most adult animated shows for YEARS because i genuinely just can’t stand the cynicism and it’s constantly negative fanbases it always brews. And i’m very heavy on looking to the fanbase to get an example of how good of a media may be or simply how much it may appeal to me. I remember telling a friend that the difference between the rick & morty fanbase to the smiling friends fanbase was just one fanbase is known for constantly having a negative outlook on life and saying shit like “you need to have a high IQ to understand this show” while the smiling friends fanbase just DESPERATELY wants to make out sloppy style with Charlie. There’s no tasteless misogynistic, queerphobic, or racist jokes. Hell they have two fat characters as the main characters and we have not heard a single fat joke. It’s a breath of fresh air and with its inclusion of having many youtube/twitter/online creators be part of the show (and RUNNING the show) i feel as if we’re hopefully stepping into a new age of adult animated media.

hopefully one with a more positive outlook on adulthood.

aaaa enough of my rambling you literally watched the show!! feels so odd i used to be influenced by fanart and now my fanart is influencing others. i will do everything to use this power for good 😭 just happy to see people start and enjoy things im really fond for.

hope u having a good morning/evening/night tumblr friend 🫶

[l0v3sickl0s3r]

you’ve caught a wild ⚡️🌈 Liz! 🌈⚡️ aka the 🌟💟 N kisser of the year frfr 🌟💟

CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER…

“Wow, that love sure is sick!”

stats: childhood trauma, alright self-esteem, bisexual/asexual, she/her, sleep-deprived, advanced rp-er, easily distracted, and aquarius ♒️

weaknesses: being aggressively yelled at, crowds, loud/overwhelming noises, certain textures, being aggressively told to be quiet/shut up, remembering things, picking up social cues, procrastination, lack of self-care, being called ragatha, creepypasta momo, insomnia, ART BEING TRACED/REPOSTED, and bugs.

strengths: can go for long periods of time without food or water, advanced literature, daydreaming, yapping, drawing, loyal to a worrying degree, very smart, and barely ever gets upsetti spaghetti

inventory: two n plushies (please ask why), infodumps, forgotten candy wrappers, gum, music, broken rubber bands, keychains, and TONS of art :3

diet: silly cartoons, snacks, serial designation n, chips, popcorn, comfort and validation, music, candy, chewing gum (actually chewing sum rn), and silly lil guys :3

hyperfixations/interests (results may vary): pressure, stranger things, murder drones, ATSV, cats, animals, ramshackle, bullet train, hazbin hotel, scott pilgrim, one punch man, helluva boss, animaniacs, the owl house, lackadaisy, gravity falls, undertale, the disastrous life of saiki k, class of ‘09, psychology, art, music, and good memes

relationship status: @th34utistic-0ne my girlfriend :3

if missing, her last words are “don’t worry, i’ll just respawn!” if found, please walk the other way. she’s missing for a reason. /j

THIS LIZ IS A MINOR‼️‼️ DON’T BE DOIN WEIRD THINGS 😡 😡 also please no sharing f/o’s :( it hurts my feelings /silly /gen

DNI (Do Not Interact) if you apply to any of the following: Genocide supporter, proshipper, nsfw blog, homophobic, racist, sexist, ableist, trump supporter, or just a bully in general.

[banapsha]

Surviving the Writing Struggle: How to Keep it Cool While Slaying Stress

Hey, fellow word warriors and aspiring scribes! 🚀✨ Let's talk about the not-so-glamorous side of being a wordsmith - the stress, the self-doubt, and the eternal question, "Will I ever finish this damn story?" Spoiler alert: You will, but first, let's spill the tea on handling the chaos without losing your sanity.

Spotting Stress in Your Writing Journey: OMG, Drama!

So, you're staring at your blank doc, contemplating life's great mysteries like, "How will everything be done?" and "Will I survive this rollercoaster?"

Calm down, Shakespeare; stress is part of the game. Recognize it, embrace it, then show it who's the boss.

Strategies for Keeping it Sane: Adulting Level - Pro

Chop it Like it's Hot: Seriously, don't look at your project like it's a massive iceberg about to sink your Titanic of creativity. Break it down into bite-sized pieces. You'll feel like a genius crossing off those mini milestones, promise.

Realistic Goals, Duh: Setting goals that aren't straight out of a fantasy novel is crucial. No one's writing a 100,000-word masterpiece overnight. Be real with yourself, and maybe you won't end up hating your own deadlines.

Time Management (or Just Wing It): Procrastination is an art form, but so is managing your time. Create a schedule that doesn't make you want to run for the hills. Balance is key, my friends. Write a bit, Netflix a bit, repeat.

Edit Like a Ninja: Writing is messy, like trying to eat a burrito in a car. Embrace the chaos and save the perfectionism for editing. It's where the magic (and sanity) happens.

Crushing Self-Doubt Like a Boss: Because You're a Rockstar 🌟

Check Yo' Self: Negative thoughts? Nah, fam. Challenge those bad vibes. Replace them with positive vibes only. You got this. Remember, doubting yourself is so last season.

Squad Up: Join a writing community or bug your friends for feedback. Share your struggles and victories. It's like a support group for word nerds, and it's fab.

Party Like it's 1999: Celebrate your wins, no matter how small. Finished a chapter? Treat yourself to a victory dance. You're basically the Hemingway of the 21st century.

Conclusion:

So there you have it, my fellow scribes! The writing journey is a wild ride of stress, self-doubt, and creativity. But remember, you're not alone. Break it down, set real goals, manage your time, and kick self-doubt to the curb. Keep it cool, keep it sassy, and most importantly, keep on writing. Your story deserves to be told, and you've got this! 💪📚 #WritingLife #WordNerdVibes

[eryiss]

[Jet x Freed] Cubicle Capers - Chapter Three

Summary: Jet was meant to do more. He was meant to do something with his degree. He was meant to have a purpose. He'd taken a job at Grimoire Pharmaceuticals to work his way up into a lab position, but found himself stuck in a cubicle. Every day the same. At least he had a new boss coming. Freed Justine. He’d be like the rest, though. Boring, outdated and.. hot as hell?

Notes: Hi all. Back again. Work hours are over, let’s see what happens. Again, this was requested by @jethro-art. Hope you enjoy.

Links: Ao3, Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven, Epilogue

Chapter Three – The Late Night

Jet

Quarterly reports were a necessary evil, or so Grimoire Pharmaceuticals said. For the bosses and big wigs, it probably meant a better look into how big their Christmas bonuses – born from the exploitation of the sick and dying, of course – would be. For the menial workers like Jet, it meant pulling an all nighter finishing paperwork that apparently just couldn't wait another day.

The work always got dumped on Jet's desk. He'd been new to the workforce on the first quarterly report session, and hadn't known that it was always better to dawdle and procrastinate in the office. A fast worker was always given more to do. As such, five years later, Jet found himself alone in the office, slumped over his desk with the intake reports for the entire state, forced to input them into their own separate spreadsheet which would compare how their new rollout of allergy tablets were doing compared to market trends. It was boring as all hell, and he would rather be anywhere else.

An empty coffee cup, and the packaging from a convenience store sandwich cluttered his desk. He would have wanted something more to eat, but fast food wasn't allowed in the building. It was bad for the brand image, apparently.

Bull crap. Jet wondered what health benefits the BBQ Ribs, cheese fries and chocolate cake that was served in the executive canteen had.

"Jet?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin, spinning in his chair and brandishing a hole punch to throw at whoever had spoken. He had been sure he was the only one left in the office. Sure of it. But when he turned to see Freed looking down at him, it was obvious he was wrong.

"Hey, boss man," Jet said slowly. "How you doing?"

"Perfectly fine," Freed frowned. "Are you intending to throw that at me?"

Jet glanced to the hole punch. "Nah. Just like holding it. Like a, erm, fidget toy thing. I don't throw things."

"Right," Freed smiled a little. He did that a lot; smiling but not all the way. It was a good look – a little cocky, a little reserved – but it did make jet wonder what it would be like to see a full smile on Freed's handsome face. "Why are you still here? You know they won't pay you for work outside of your regular hours."

"Yeah, I know," Jet nodded slightly. It was weird. His old boss said that a few times, and it felt like he was rubbing it in his face, but when Freed said it it felt like an actual reminder. "But this has gotta be done, right?"

Freed followed Jet's wave of the hand towards the stack of papers. "That's quite a lot for one person. Shouldn't your team be helping?"

"Ah, it's kinda my thing to do the quarterlies," Jet shrugged, then glanced at the clock at the bottom right of his screen. "Eight o'clock's pretty late for you too? Get caught up in the paperwork?"

"Conference call. The board of directors wanted preliminary assessment of the figures despite the fact they're getting a full analysis at the end of the week. Entirely pointless," Freed sighed, his gaze still lingering on the paperwork. "Do you really expect to do an entire team's worth of work on your own. It hardly seems fair."

"It's fine. I'm like eighty percent done already," Jet shrugged. Freed kept looking at the stack of papers, then walked to Laki's cubicle and switched on her PC, taking half of the stack for himself before sitting at her desk. Jet watched him with bafflement for a moment as Freed logged into his own account. "You don't have to, man. I can handle it."

"You shouldn't have to," Freed dismissed. "This way, it's done twice as fast."

"Seriously I can handle-"

"If you don't do as I say, I will discipline you, Jet," Freed warned with that half smile on his face, and it made Jet's inside squirm with a desire he couldn't quite quantify. He simply nodded, forced himself to put on a grin that hid the weird effect the threat had on him, and gave Freed a salute before he rolled his chair back to his desk and got back to working again.

The next hour was odd, to say the least.

It started off as quiet, with Freed occasionally asking questions on how to work the spreadsheet in a way no other boss would have. They'd assume they knew better and mess it up, leaving more work for Jet to do in fixing it.

At some point, the quiet of the office must have gotten to Freed, because a local radio station began to play from Laki's computer, tinny and annoying but breaking up the silence. Jet hadn't thought of that. Someone had brought in a radio once with their old boss, and they'd gotten yelled at for distracting the rest of the workers. It had been a nice hour while it had lasted. Maybe Freed wouldn't mind music on a workday.

Then, the radio had a competition. One of those stupid competitions; they played a small sound clip and asked people to call in and say what they thought it was. Freed idly huffed and said the sound was obviously the clatter of a fork on a plate. Jet had gaped at him and told him he was an idiot because that was a spanner on a metal tray! That turned into a twenty-minute argument between the two of them, wherein Jet told Freed his business school degree didn't mean crap in radio competitions, and Freed threatened to make an hour-long presentation on PowerPoint on the importance of hearing checkups because Jet seemed to be going deaf.

It was fun. Really fun.

Also, the noise was apparently a spoon in a sink, and then their argument had turned into who was closer. Freed claimed he was right because his contained cutlery. Jet claimed he was right because his had something hitting metal. Neither relented, and their arguing continued as they worked.

Then, just as the working night seemed close to ending and Jet paced his cubicle to stretch out his legs before the final stretch, he actually looked towards Freed. His tie was gone, top button undone, and his sleeves rolled up again. Fucking hell he looked sexy when a little ruffled.

And Jet might have sworn Freed did the next thing on purpose just to drive Jet to a state of madness. Freed picked up a bottle of water and squirted some of it over his face, sighing as the cold water hit his skin. Jet could do nothing but watch as his boss ran a hand over his damp face and through his hair, ruffling it enough to look unkempt for the first time. Droplets of water ran down his jaw, down his throat with his overly pronounced Adam's apple, before sliding down his partially exposed and rather defined chest.

Jet had never understood the desire to lick a man until then. Christ; a dizzy part of his mind screamed to drop to his knees.

"You hot, huh?" He said instead. Freed turned to him, smiled a little guilty.

"I've been trying to get building services to fix the heating. It's ridiculous they haven't," Freed said in explanation.

"Yeah, that's not happening. We've been stuck in sauna mode for years," Jet laughed, glancing at the always-on heaters in the corner. "Gotta say though, late nights really are tough. Gonna need a drink after this."

"Me too," Freed agreed.

And Jet, for reasons he'd never understand, spoke again without thinking. "We could go out when we're done maybe. There's a good bar down the street. Not exactly fancy or anythin', and it might not be up to your rich boy standards but-"

"I'd like to get a drink with you," Freed cut in, and Jet had to take a second to understand what he said.

When he did, he just nodded, and silently digested the fact that he was going to go and get a late-night drink with his boss. His boss who was sexy as all hell, terrible at guessing sounds from radio competitions, and had just made the last hour of work better than anything he'd done in the office for five whole years.

———

Freed

The walk to the bar down the street was just long enough for the small awkwardness between Freed and Jet to return, and Freed was having none of that. That was why he walked directly to the bar and ordered them both a large pitcher of beer to share and two-pint glasses. Jet grinned at him, and they walked to a small table in the corner of the room and settled.

Despite what Jet had said, the bar was incredibly nice. Modern in a hipster sort of way, with arcade machines and pinball machines lining the walls. It wasn't where Freed would choose to go, nor did he think it was one of Jet's regular haunts, but it was nice enough for one evening.

As Freed got accustomed to his surroundings, Jet downed an entire pint of beer.

Freed knew he was wandering into dangerous grounds with this. Jet was, by and large, his favourite employee. Through the few months they'd been working together, more and more of the office had been coming out of their shells, slowly and cautiously. Jet was the outlier, the front runner in being himself, and Freed had grown accustomed to the glimmer of fire that Jet had inside of him. Freed's eyes always were drawn to Jet, and breaking down the barrier of an employer employee dynamic could be a step too far.

But, Freed could handle this. He'd known Jet was handsome from the off. Maybe not in an Abercrombie and Fitch way, but who actually liked models? Jet was sharp, pointy and had a stern resting face. He looked like he could be nasty, but chose to be cheerful. He had bright ginger hair and pointy teeth and, were Freed to let himself think such things, Freed would love to run his fingers across both. He'd seen all of this from the first time they met, and he could control himself perfectly fine. Being at a bar made no difference.

He would keep things to manageable and responsible topics, make sure not to act on those split seconds where he saw Jet as a tempting friend and not his employee, and he would be perfectly respectable. How he could do that while also having fun at a bar, Freed didn't know.

"Rule one," Jet said, cutting off Freed's internal ministrations. "No work talk. Not at all."

"Fair enough," Freed agreed. "And rule two?"

"We take turns buying drinks. I ain't a charity, and I don't like it when people imply that I am. I pay my way, and if you suggest I can't, there's gonna be trouble."

"Noted," Freed nodded. "Are there any other rules I should know about?"

Jet grinned at him. "Not a rule exactly, more like a clause."

"Which is?"

"The loser has to go to the bar, buy themselves the largest pitcher of beer this place sells, go out into the beer garden, and tip the pitcher over their head."

Okay. Freed had a habit of getting into his head from time to time, but he was certain he hadn't missed whatever would make that sentence make sense. "Excuse me?"

"I got a lot of energy, y'know, and I'm kinda tipsy and just wanna have fun. I'm competitive, and I think you desperately clinging onto your dumbass idea that it was a spoon clattering onto a plate proves you're competitive too, so I think we should have fun," Jet shrugged, looking around the room. "We play every game in here that has PVP, and whoever wins the most games by the end of the night wins. Loser does the forfeit."

"And where did the forfeit come from, exactly?"

"Well, I was drinking and I was thinking about the game and then about how you squirted that water over your face and the two things kinda mingled together and then, hey, came up with the perfect way to put my boss man in his place," Jet grinned at him, and Freed tried to push down the burning pleasure that came every time Jet called him boss man. "But you gotta drink too. Otherwise, it's not fair."

Truly, as ridiculous and out of left field the demands were, it sounded like a lovely way to end the day. It had been a long, hot, tedious and endless day, and playing video games and forcing Jet to perform his own forfeit – Freed would not lose – was the perfect way to rebalance the scales.

The second Freed's empty glass was on the table, Jet took his wrist in hand and dragged him towards the nearest arcade machine. He explained what the game was and how to play it, as if Freed were fifty years older than him and needed to be told what a joystick was, and in a rather patronising voice, asked if Freed wanted a practice go. Freed smirked at him full force and a little tipsy, saying that he'd be able to pick it up soon enough. Apparently, Jet didn't know that in every city in the world there was some form of arcade hall, and it was one of the cheapest and easiest ways to pass the time, and Freed had gotten quite good at playing them.

One hour and twenty minutes later, and their completion had been a close run thing. Jet had a natural talent for arcade machines, and also had a competitive streak which refused to allow him to lose. Which was a shame, because he had lost. By three points.

"Oh dear," Freed hummed sarcastically. "That was the last game, wasn't it? Which means you have no chance of getting any more points? Which means you lost, correct?"

"Shut up,"

"Making you the loser," Freed continued. "The loser who has to buy a pitcher of beer and dump it over his head, correct?"

"Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna do that," Jet shrugged, and his sharp little teeth made it hard for him to hide his smile. He was playing the role of unhappy loser rather than actually being one. Then Freed would play his role too.

"Oh I think you will."

"You gonna make me, boss man?" Jet jutted out his chin for that.

"I could," Freed leant in, and spoke low. The booze they'd both been drinking had an effect, and he used a voice seldom heard outside of the privacy of his own home. "But I think you'll do as your told, won't you? Even if you need a little push."

And, with a hand on Jet's lower back, Freed gave him a little push towards the bar. Jet made a show of slumping his shoulders, huffing, and walking towards the bar. Moments later he was holding a large pitcher of beer that sloshed precariously. They walked into the small beer garden side by side, Jet looking at the beer hesitantly as they did so. Freed took a seat at one of the benches and watched Jet with a patient expression.

Jet lifted to pitcher so it was eye level, then stopped. He looked at Freed as if expecting to be told he didn't have to do it, but Freed cocked a brow. "Would you let me get out of it if I had lost?"

Rather than answering, Jet sighed out a quiet 'dammit' and raised the pitcher higher. He clenched his fist, jutted his chin again, and poured the beer over himself in a quick, loud movement. A hush fell over the beer garden as everyone looked at Jet. Freed leant back, a cocky smirk on his face as he relished the moment.

It had been too long since he'd felt like this.

Jet looked at him, ruffled and wet and dripping. He was a mess, and had that look of determination that vowed a need for revenge, and that set a fire inside of Freed that he relished.

"We're coming here next Friday," Jet proclaimed, pulling his hair back in a delightfully tight ponytail. It would be fun to pull on that. Make Jet gasp just like he had when the beer had hit him. "And when you lose, you're getting two pitchers. One goes over your head. The other down your pants."

It was petulant, determined, and so entirely sexy that all thoughts of seeing Jet as a predominantly platonic part of his life died on the spot. Freed was just tipsy enough to not care in the moment. "I look forward to it.

[sapphiresterreart]

So here I am. Procrastinating. Staring at this art and unable to stop thinking thoughts.

Shadow in a dress aiming a pistol. Shadow carried bridal style by Sonic. Originally considered a Masquerade AU but the artist’s tags about Body Double AU had me reeling with its potential. Got carried away so here’s some loose brainstorming. It’s long.

Imagine an AU with mutual Sonadow and/or one-sided Mephonic where:

Mephiles from ’06 game is the prince and prolly brother to crown princess Elise of Soleanna Kingdom. Referencing that re-color of a character design joke bc it has potential if his ‘crystalline’ final form is used instead of the re-skin.

Rest under the Read More.

Maybe Mephiles was adopted or maybe he was also the result of science experiments like Shadow. Except instead of mixed hedgehog-alien DNA it’s similar to that ‘messed with their sun god Solaris’ concept resulting in his creation.

Could even have similar backstory of ‘experiment found a sister in his creator’s daughter’ for fun. Sonic would delight in annoying Shadow with all those fun facts.

Mephiles’ crystalline form: Coarse black-purple fur, jagged white-tipped quills, notched ears, clawed hands with no gloves. White muzzle with fur so fluffy it looks like he has no mouth…

Bonus points if the pink sclera switches btwn white and pink depending on if he’s using his purple-pink powers or not. Green reptilian irises could be considered unsettling on his non-reptilian face.

Extra bonus points if lack of gloves are seen as scandalous by other mobians. Soleanna is a human-majority kingdom so Mephiles wouldn’t understand the culture-shock Team Dark and co would experience. But Sonic could blush, politely avert his eyes, and wonder what Shadow’s bare hands look like.

Mephiles’ powers could be liquified chaos energy and his body crystallized chaos. Could melt or solidify btwn liquid and solid states at will.

Either way his general shape is still similar to Shadow from far. FAR away. To humans anyway. Could act as a joke: ‘species blindness’ where humans struggle to notice differences btwn mobians bc ‘they all look the same’ 

Extra bonus points if mobians feel the same way about humans. The reason Eggman is so distinctive is bc he’s ‘notably egg-shaped’ Or something silly.

ANYWAY. All that is to establish Mephiles as his own person distinctly separate from Shadow. A person who happens to be a prince and the latest target in an assassination and/or kidnapping attempt ordered by humans from a rival kingdom. 

Maybe by G.U.N itself? Or a traitor within G.U.N’s ranks? Could work as juicy inner conflict for Shadow if he also works for G.U.N. Their government would be a structured way for him to ‘help the world be a better place’ while also keeping a close eye on them should they try to massacre innocents like they did decades ago on the ARK.

Thus the reveal of G.U.N trying to secure more ‘weaponry’ by kidnapping ‘a rogue, dangerous experiment’ a.k.a Prince Mephiles could put him at odds with them. Having to decide whether the entire organization needs to be destroyed and built anew. Or to root out out any parasites to prevent the dastardly infection from growing.

Someway, somehow, Shadow hears something about some prince from somewhere who looks remarkably like him and might be in danger. Maybe his teammate Rouge informs him because she’s a nosy spy and has been smelling somethin’ rotten brewing in their G.U.N ranks?

Or maybe their boss is unaware of those treasonous plans and sends Team Dark on a mission: Go Undercover and Protect Prince Mephiles of Soleanna Kingdom.

Shadow begrudgingly agrees to act as the body double to the prince. 

He doesn’t think they look similar at all but then the first time he had truly interacted with people outside of the ARK they had all mistaken him for his rival. His rival who is bright blue. A lovely shade of blue, yes, but blue all the same. Sometimes he wonders if the mix-up was deliberate.

Regardless, he accepts the task and learns the role. Supposed similar appearances or not, his behavior and knowledge had to mimic the prince well enough to be passable. 

Still. He doesn’t understand why he can wear clothing like a dress but not clothing like gloves. It is so… immodest. Ugh. Prince Mephiles may have been raised by humans but so had Shadow and he at least understood common decency!

It doesn’t help that Sonic of all people shows up.

Ok. So. Not sure what would be more fun:

1] Established Sonadow relationship:

Sonic and Shadow are a couple but the public doesn’t know that because it’s their private lives and they’d like to keep it that way. But then when Shadow has to pretend to be the royal prince of a famous kingdom and Sonic comes swinging by to visit, he naturally flirts with his boyfriend whenever they think they’re alone because it’s probably been awhile and undercover missions take time.

So Shadow’s firmly cemented as Prince Mephiles while the real prince is away at a vacation home or something and Sonic is all up in Shadow’s business. Maybe they’re fight-flirting and taking turns pinning the other against the wall of the empty hallway when one of them knocks over something that makes a soft thud and of course someone goes to investigate.

They’re accidentally spotted while swappin’ spit, maybe someone even scored a sneaky photo of them but only got Shadow’s back and Sonic’s front, and the crowd goes wild! Social media, news outlets, tabloids. Anyone and everyone everywhere starts talking about how the Hero of Mobius (“Hero of Earth” some commenters, presumably human, would argue. A never-ending debate btwn the two species) and Prince Mephiles are not only dating but are undoubtably soon to be engaged!

Sonic shrugs it off. “That's gossip rags for ya. So long as we know it’s not true then what’s the big deal? We could say it’s our big couple reveal if we wanna!”

Shadow and everyone else who’s ever had a life outside running around wherever and whenever they wanted and leaving anarchy in their wake, do not shrug it off.

Basically playing with social consequences of someone as famous as Sonic and someone as high ranking/politically influential as a royal prince (even one not immediate heir to the throne) being mistaken for a couple by the masses. 

Sonic would not immediately realize this means civilians AND villains would not only assume Prince Mephiles has emotional significance to him, but would target both of them in diff ways.

The prince’s personal council would see Sonic as a pawn to use in their political games. Get him to marry their prince and that would boost their own power/influence alongside their kingdom. Lots to gain. Like control over others.

Political allies would the see the same. Could either turn them into enemies of Soleanna due to seeing the courtship as a threat to their own power. Soleanna gaining more power would cause a power imbalance amongst their circle of allies and thus threaten that circle’s status quo. 

Or the allies could see a way of keeping status quo and/or gaining power by making a point to ‘aide their ally in this endeavor.’ Take credit for getting the two together. Legally binding contracts or whatever.

Enemies or rivals to Soleanna would see the courtship as a threat and would make plans to cripple Soleanna’s budding power. Maybe team up with Soleanna’s resentful and/or nervous political allies to either stop the courtship through legal means. Or through underhanded means like threats of assassination.

Coincidentally, this sudden surge of conflict amongst the collection of kingdoms would really help whoever was targeting Prince Mephiles in the 1st place and the reason why Shadow had to act as a body double at all. They’d absolutely take advantage of the chaos to plan an attack.

Villains like Eggman would see this as a chance to attack Sonic on a personal level. Target the prince and they’ll be getting the upper hand over Sonic emotionally. Supposedly. 

Who the heck knows where or what Prince Mephiles is doing. Maybe he returns to the kingdom to try and turn the false courtship into the real one because he sees the value in securing Sonic as a legal partner on a political level. He likes power. 

Though it’d be hilarious if he actually develops a crush on Sonic because “What an adorable spitfire. He’ll be a delight to crush beneath my heel.” 

Sonic doesn’t realize all this could also affect his boyfriend Shadow.

Legally, Shadow would have to “clean up this mess we've made, Sonic” by awkwardly clarifying to his G.U.N superiors that yes, he is in a romantic relationship with Sonic the Hedgehog and that, no, he had not intended for his personal life to affect his work life especially not while undercover as Prince Mephiles in the Kingdom of Soleanna but that, yes, he would work non-stop to fix this national nightmare they’ve created. 

So he’s running around trying to sort this out and stop world leaders from trying to poach his boyfriend while also figuring out how to stop the masses from fueling the fire because “How many copies of this one photo can possibly exist, Omega?” 

Emotionally, Shadow is upset that his private life has not only been blasted all over the place but that everyone got his identity wrong. So if he wants to kiss his boyfriend outside of this ridiculous charade then their reputations will be smeared. 

Sonic doesn’t care about reputations. But Shadow does. Cue conflict of personal values and the diff btwn ‘stability and right to privacy’ vs ‘freedom and public figures as public property’ 

If Shadow’s seen as a scandalous, shallow harlot who’s trying seduce the planet’s beloved ‘can-do-no-wrong’ hero away from ‘top-of-the-food-chain’ royal prince then how could he be taken seriously ever again? He has a job to do and no one in a position of power will listen to ‘arm candy!’

Shadow grumbles to himself as his partner oozes his way across his shoulders and down toward the desk where the paperwork he’s working on sits. “You’ve made my job tremendously harder.”

“Sorry.” Sonic cringes where he slumps half-folded like a prickly scarf. The weight of his warmth is nice. “In my defense, neither of us saw this coming. We were careful. Kinda.”

“Clearly not careful enough.”

...

2] Not established Sonadow. Mutual pining but presumed unrequited. One-sided Mephonic.

Could play with Prince Mephiles still living in palace instead of going to a vacation home for whatever reason. Maybe during timeframe of him teaching Shadow the role and having Shadow shadow him to learn subtle nuances like Mephiles’ body language that he himself isn’t aware of? Dunno.

Either way Prince Mephiles sees a cute piece tagging along and flirts with Sonic.

Sonic is very much not into it.

He’s not into it right up until he sees Shadow clenching his jaw in the background and is absolutely delighted by this fact. Perhaps Shadow feels something for him after all? Or maybe he’s just mad Sonic is interfering with his job. Could never tell with him sometimes. Could be both. Hopefully both. 

Sonic would very much like his friend to reciprocate his feelings. But since he’s an emotionally constipated idiot with a death wish, Sonic decides to mess with Shadow and see what happens. 

Why be direct and honest and painfully vulnerable with such things like feelings when he could just. Not. It’s gotten him this far and it’s worked just fine, after all! Why fix what ain’t broke?

Cue Sonic flirting with the prince. Always watching for Shadow’s reactions instead of Mephiles’. 

Checks to see if he ever looks jelly or interested in any way. Maybe Shadow will finally make a move or do something that makes it clear that he wants Sonic to be his romantic partner instead of just an occasional teammate or rival. Something. Anything. Shadow is so chaos-damned hard to read but maybe being in close quarters and flirting up a storm with someone else while he’s standing right there will help Sonic read him better.

This will not end well for anyone. Feelings will definitely be hurt. On all sides. Consequences will ensue.

A prince with too much power will not allow such insult to slide.

Cue Prince Mephiles deciding to retaliate against Sonic because “How dare you play a game only I may play? You are not a player in this game of life and so you shall bow down to me. Your king.” 

Or something equally demented where he tries to box Sonic into something bad. Like agreeing to an arranged marriage.

Or to openly support the kingdom in a political way. Like advertising Soleanna’s latest controversial research project or something? Who knows.

Some sort of payback for Sonic having no romantic interest in him despite having the gall to flirt back like he was some commoner of no importance. How dare he!

Maybe Mephiles targets Shadow as a way to lash out against Sonic? Either way he’d antagonize Shadow because: 

1st] He delights in spreading misery. Fanning Shadow’s jealousy is a fun pastime. 

2nd] Sonic is a villain who fancies himself a hero. How dare he not be sincerely enamored with Mephiles! It was one thing when that playboy played the game to rile that boorish stunt double. It was another when he realized the jerk only played because of genuine interest in that stunt double. How dare!

3rd] Mephiles shall not be used like a mere pawn! He is the prince. Only he can use people and throw them away.

There's so many ways for this Body Double to roll!