#sonic on the other hand does not believe he is dead

[neomel]

Knuckles is Sonic's inverse in lifestyle and personality. Knuckles is alone, steadfast, isolated and on a one-track mind. Sonic loves making friends, is always on the move, surrounded by community and loves to crack jokes.

Metal is an attempt to replicate WHAT Sonic is without capturing WHO Sonic is; he is, in Sonic CD terms, the "Bad Future" Sonic. He has the same superficial look and powers as Sonic does, yet on every deeper level he's twisted and wrong. What makes Sonic great runs deeper than going fast, being powerful and being blue, and Metal's struggle through Heroes/IDW is failing to recognize the deeper reasons that make Sonic who he is

Shadow is like an amplified version of Sonic's core traits, sharing them on a surface level, yet different to an almost hostile degree in execution. Sonic fights humanity whenever it tries to harm nature; Shadow (in SA2) outright believes ALL of humanity is better off dead. Sonic is inexplicably fast and powerful as a marvel of nature; Shadow was CREATED to be a marvel of nature. Both Sonic and Shadow will do whatever they think is right, but Shadow extends that philosophy to borderline disregard for any other factors; and while both Sonic and Shadow are cocky and confident, they obviously express it in incredibly different ways.

Jet, not mentioned in the post above, is a similar idea to Shadow but on more of a satirical, caricature-type level than of a reimagining. Take everything that defines who Sonic is – Speed, cockiness, freedom, self-driven lifestyle – and imagine making the absolute worst of them. That's Jet; a boastful, prideful thief who does what he wants and gloats about how great he is.

Surge then, finally, is someone who serves as the ideological opposite to Sonic, as opposed to opposite him in personality. The core to Sonic's ideals is that of freedom, both for himself and for others. It means that he will live however he sees fit and believes that anyone else has the right to that freedom; everyone has the right to live, and only if that freedom is used to oppress and hurt others will he act to stop them, yet rarely in a way that would inhibit said freedom. Surge on the other hand is someone who's yet to be capable of being truly free, first working as a tool under the brainwashing control of Dr. Starline who continues to haunt her to date, and then being forced to obey the orders of Clutch during Misadventures/Phantom Riders. She doesn't know what to do with her life, and she believes that those who have hurt her – Dr. Starline, Dr. Eggman and indeed Sonic himself – don't deserve the freedom to keep living either.

TL;DR: They're all twisted versions of Sonic in their own distinctly different ways which the original tweet fails to rly capture imo

[sparklingdemon]

more thoughts about monochrome.exe and the character dynamics bc i have brain worms-

tails: believes that sonic is still inside nix somewhere deep down, and tries to do anything he can to bring him back out. tails would never hurt nix on purpose, but he ends up leading them into dangerous situations…

but even after any accidents nix might get into, tails is never concerned about their safety, because he knows that sonic will always come back from anything, no matter what!

knuckles: after years of torture, knuckles has finally given up the master emerald as his object of worship, realizing that it is powerless compared to exe. knuckles reveres nix as a wrathful god, expecting to be wrathfully smitten for acting out of turn. is convinced that this "new side" of exe is just a test of his devotion. any time nix is visibly annoyed by knuckles, he immediately grovels and begs for nix to punish him by killing him again. nix DOES want knuckles and the others dead, but feels extremely weird and uncomfortable about killing them with their bare hands now…

eggman: while eggman does believe nix's claims that they aren't exe anymore, he can also very clearly tell that this isn't sonic, either. nix has the same sharp wit as sonic, and the same god complex as exe… but none of the power or confidence to back it up. sonic never got motion sickness from running too fast. sonic was never afraid to jump across pits of spikes. sonic never ran away from a fight with eggman. this WASN'T sonic anymore. eggman is outraged. he should have been the one to best his rival, not have that victory be ripped away from him by supernatural forces beyond his control. sonic the hedgehog was murdered, and his dead body is being inhabited by this cowardly little nobody who killed him. nix tries to bargain with eggman, saying he can conquer the world for all they care, they'll LET him do it, but the only thing eggman has on his mind now is getting some long-awaited revenge.

[simplyofthestars]

I'm yapping about some sonic shit i came up with (maybe a fangame if i actually knew how to game develop but im learning)

Okay so everybody knows and loves shadow right? and then there's Shadows shadow who every one knows is Mephiles and Mephiles doesn't get shit from Sega.

Yeah he might be in some games but that's just as playable skins and makes cameos every now and then (correct me if im wrong). His main role as an antagonist went to one of the worst Sonic games in history and I personally believe that he deserves something better than that.

HE'S SUPER COOL

He was a big bad who was a sun god split in half like how cool is that? And his design was fucking awesome, like look at this:

Even just by looking at him you're like "This guy is up to no good" cause he's so evil and icy looking which is the opposite of Iblis (still evil looking but fire related instead)

Now I don't give a flying FUCK that this guy is canonically dead, it's Sonic 06 so nothing is canon (aside from the managing to actually kill sonic part, i wanna keep that in)

You rn: "Okay pump the brakes yapfest, the tags promised me sonadow and rouge the bat. What do they have to with Mii-files."

Me: "SsssshHHshHSHsHHHHHHHhhhh. I getting to that."

Now imagine this with me Rouge stans,

✨Evil counterpart that is like the Rouge version of Mephiles��

"Oh but that can't happen cause Mephiles wasn't originally a copy of shadow he just took that form"

"Mephiles didn't even meet Rouge"

"Mephiles is dead"

SHUT UP, SHUT THE FUCK UP, LET ME DREAM

EVIL ROUGE

Rouge is a boss bitch who's such an under-used concept in Sonic games and she deserves a game when she's the STAR and not on the sidelines.

Like you can't be serving this much cunt and just be a side character

So Mephiles was named after Mephistopheles who's a german demon guy (either that or Mephitis which is poison gas from swamps and volcanos and stuff) So why not give evil Rouge a name that'll make half the christian population angry? (And to the chill christians who're fine with that, you guys are cool i like you guys)

So I was thinkin: "Hmmmmmmmmmm. Rouge wants the chaos emeralds for her own gain and cause they look pretty. I mean that would sit her somewhere under Envy (cause she WANTS that shit, also im not calling her mammon(greed) or belphegor (sloth)) so that's Leviathan. I would have to re-name her into something that still lets you know 'yeah that's rouge' but also lets you know 'that's not our rouge' so I guess I'll make it Levia (Leh-vee-ah) or Levia (Leh-v-eye-ah)" (ya'll choose which pronounciation ya'll like)

THE STORY OR SOMETHING

So Levia and Mephiles are like "Okay, brother we ain't having that shit, time to kill everyone" for no reason (my excuse is cause I haven't figured it out yet)

Sonadow fans: "LIAR"

Me: "FINE I'LL EXPLAIN THE SONADOW PART"

SONADOW SEGMENT

Everybody knows how fruity they were in Prime and the fact that Sonic (sort of) HUGGED Shadow and he was just like "yep this is happening" and didn't force Sonic to take his hand away like in the past was a dead giveaway

Now obviously they're still arch enemies (what's he arching? his back? okay I'm done I'll get back to explaining) but they would obviously be closer after the past 23 YEARS that they've been fighting. And everyone knows that when it comes to fighting each other they don't hesitate (I mean maybe Sonic does) but then an even bigger evil shows up (Mephiles for example) and they work together.

EXAMPLES:

Nines in Prime (Working together to get their univese back)

Black Doom (Stopping Shadows evil dad from killing all of humanity)

Mephiles and Iblis (Trying to stop them from forming Solaris)

Eggman in fucking everything

Okay I'm out of examples since I know Sonic stuff but im not THAT much of a nerd

So yap yap yap, yada yada yada, they gay

BACK TO THE STORY OR SOMETHING

Levia and Mephiles build a giant evil omega (no i'm not calling him Alpha or Beta, im tired of those jokes) who is basically as big as eggmans death egg in the 2nd movie (but like half the size since he still needs to go everywhere with Levia and Mephiles)

He doesn't actually fight or that would be unfair so he just puts his arms around the battlefield, smacks them down every now and then to shake the ground and keep you on your toes and just sits there.

Now for obvious reasons, Mephiles changes his form a little since he can't look like Shadow forever and learns how to sustain himself without Iblis and fights like a champ but Levia is like "Dude, we can't do nothing without the chaos emeralds if we want to destroy this world and it's meaningless purpose" and Mephiles is like "Ight" and that's as far as I've gotten

I'm going to draw them maybe and ya'll sit tight 🫡

[skaruresonic]

https://www.tumblr.com/skaruresonic/758528409170313216/yes-woolie-you-can-win-any-argument-if-you-just

I want to point this it. The person defending the comic unknowingly completely eradicated any ground their argument could have stood on.

"Criminals don't deserve to be free if they're gonna hurt people"

Then why does IDW Sonic keep letting his villains run off scott free when he himself acknowledges that they're gonna continue being evil and hurting innocents?

The single real and true answer is that this comic has abysmal writing. But stans don't want to accept that. They'd rather make up increasingly baffling conspiracy theories.

Exactly. It gets even worse when you realize Sonic presents himself as an arbiter of freedom: he wants people to do what they want, as long as it's the "right choice."

He is the one who decides what is right. He may not explicitly come right out and say so, but that is what he says through his words and his actions. And rather than accept the notion that some people will choose something other than what he wants, he'll punish you by chewing you out or beating you up, despite any mitigating circumstances, such as Surge's abuse at Starline's hands or Metal Sonic and Eggman TELLING HIM THE KILLER ROBOT HAS NO FREE WILL.

The only thing more dangerous than an authoritarian is an authoritarian who's a fucking idiot.

That may or may not be the comic's intention, but that's what ends up being the takeaway when we're given these lengthy lectures about the supposed sanctity of freedom, only for Sonic to betray his own principles.

He doesn't give a shit about anyone's pain. That much is clear.

He leverages Shadow's trauma against him to win an argument.

He ignores how Espio is grieving the loss of his friends to obnoxiously argue "oh so we should murder everyone, huh, Espio? is that what you're saying? we should never give anyone a chance?"

He makes fun of Belle at several points and even looks annoyed when she's angsting about her situation in one instance.

He claims he'd be willing to give "even [Eggman and Starline]" a second chance, only to eulogize Starline with "big oof."

He ignores Surge's pain just to say he'll kick her ass, then eulogizes her with a line so cold you'd think it came out of Eggman's mouth.

He shuts down Tails' misgivings about Metal's release not once but twice.

He drops the "Surge is dead" bomb on Kit without any real tact or follow-through to make sure the traumatized child is okay.

He tells Kit that Surge is "hurting herself."

Yet he throws a fucking pity party for himself in issue 23 about how Eggman "makes him pay" for daring to believe in the "good in people" every day.

Cry me a river. Kick rocks. Get bent.

IDW!Sonic lacks the emotional intelligence to distinguish when someone in pain is lashing out vs. a bona fide unrepentant asshole killing people for fun.

To him, both are the same errant children in need of a paddling. Just as he'd lack the pragmatism to seal the Erazor Djinn in the lamp because muh freedom, he'd lack the empathy to comfort Shahra afterward.

[cartoonedin]

sapphire dorm + video games hcs. probably ooc but idc <3

sophia touches grass too much to be considered a gamer girl but after rory introduces her to first-person shooters? you're dead. you're gone. you're her dad you're reporting her but she'll never be dead or gone because pro teams all over the country are trying to recruit her. which country. who knows. she only plays at her friends' houses on saturdays because she doesn't want her brother to snitch on her swearing but sometimes she uses her 'oops i fell off a cliff again and need to call for help' projection and gets banned from those houses too. she and her horse-poop-covered hands hate mobile games. her parents are the reason new candy crush levels are still being added but she has neither the patience nor the long-term planning skills for level one. did the genocide route on undertale in record time because she thought it was how the game was meant to be played. into red dead redemption for the horses and the bearded cowboys who learn about fatherhood via gunfights.

ava is a handheld console girlie. if pokemon nurse were an actual profession she'd be employee of the month thirteen times a year. her animal crossing island has a better economy than every continent combined. that being said the day her brothers introduced her to warioware was the day the world was introduced to true bloodshed. has broken at least one controller because of sheer emotional attachment to a cute character. treats pikmin like a survival horror game and dead space like a sci-fi romcom. got the pacifist ending in undertale and does not understand why other rpgs don't have the mercy option. unless rory's in the game at which point she brings out the laser guns or whatever to get back at him for making her reveal her middle name. you know he's let that slip to more than one call of duty lobby ok let a girl live.

layla's favourite game is google chrome. she's boring and i love her for that. she speedruns minesweeper and solitaire to get her mind off particularly devastating biographies. she's friends with everyone's parents on candy crush and scrabble. she could be a gm on chess.com but she overthinks her moves to the point of losing on time despite playing as white. she's almost been hacked so many times because she can't resist correcting bad moves on word formation advertisements and gets led to online casino #infinity or something. she has a lifelong streak on every new york times game except vertex because you cannot tell me wildstar's constant use of her magic didn't destroy her eyesight even further.

isabel puts the bro in smash bros. rotates between king k. rool, sonic, and greninja because she has a brand and it must be tangential to adhd medication. in the same vein as sophia i think she touches grass too much to be considered a gamer girl but she makes rory keep up with madden and fifa news just to figure out if she's been added to the latest installment. she has a skateboard on her dorm wall but never uses it so i'm thinking she played through the og trilogy of tony hawk's games as a kid and echoed every voice line to the point of perfect memorisation. take the word dude away from her and she's mute. also i think she discovered happy wheels on her mom's computer and ruined several important business presentations that way.

valentina is a slightly grown ipad kid. i'm sorry but you can't tell me she didn't steal her style from dress to impress. also she rates everyone one star on those games not because she's a corrupt voter but because she has a sixth sense for when a bitch is hiding bacon hair beneath a hundred layers of sparkles. up there with isabel in terms of lacking screen time video game wise because i truly believe her family would spend their money on better (read: elite-r) past times but she 1000% plays the sims. one world is for planning fashion moments and carrying on the digital furi bloodline. one world is for drowning people by deleting their pool ladders and saying "not now sweetie mommy's cyberbullying the mayor" to her baby who's on fire.

rory's room looks like a gamestop. idc about his canon phone case he is SILLY. he will play anyone in smash as long as it looks funny next to the other character but he has a soft spot for kirby, yoshi, zero suit samus (isabel side eyes him very hard for this at first but it's still a very gay choice i promise) and wii fit trainer. his personality is held together by goat simulator, untitled goose game, and donut county. also duct tape and blue raspberry gum. he trolls a little (a lot) on first person shooters and mmorpgs mostly so he can pretend with an ounce of plausible deniability that he's just having a fun unserious time when sophia and/or ava beat his ass at both even though they're on the same team.

[neolynne]

Pit Babe episode 11 rewatch/live commentary (part 1)

Well, i'm telling you its' not !!! But you already know that Jeff.....

How about yourself, Jeff ? (am i unfair right now ? yes, but give me some time)

What's going on in your pretty little head Babe ?

Hiiiii Pete !!!!! Hiii Nut, your pretty (it was either that or "va manger tes vieux morts couillon")

I love this shot, no other reason

That not really how you drink a shot but you do you

🫣don't do this to me

Here, i have an idea for you Way -> go to hell

Okay, but what does Pete sees in Way that make him act like this towards him ? Why did he have such strong feelings for him from the moment they met ?

I didn't put it in my post about Season 2 , but i would love too see more of Pete and Way relationship

Sir, he's talking to you, you could at least look in his eyes......

"Husband of the nation" ???!!!

The more i watch episode 10 and 11 the more i believe that, if Charlie was really dead, Babe would have let himself die after taking Tony out

"Lalala i know nothing" -> probably what's going on in Jeff mind at this moment

"C'est pas moi, j'ai rien fait, lalala"

Mais c'est qu'il est vivant le bougre !

Hello handsome older man

Hiiii Charlie !!!!!!!

So it really took Babe almost getting killed for him move in with Alan and co

The fist time i heard Charlie ask this question, i was like :"yes of course he is DUH !"

Then I re-watch the show and for Charlie, this question is legitimate. After all it’s Pit Babe, King of the Hallow. So yes Charlie loves Babe and Babe says she loves Charlie, but it’s only temporary right? After all, Charlie was always ready to sacrifice himself, not only to bring down Tony but also for Babe. And Babe, Babe shouldn’t be sad, devastated by the death of Charlie. Because, again, this relationship was meant to be only temporary. And more importantly, he doesn't want Babe to be sad, even for him

I think that Charlie's lack of self-worth and tendency to sacrifice himself should be discussed in season 2

Jeff says that he will cause Charlie's car to have an accident, and ye Kenta goes to see Dean.......

Deeeeeaaaannnnn😭😭😭😭😭

Kenta appuie vraiment la où ça fait mal.......Pauvre Dean, il avait aucune chance face à lui

Now, let me just appreciate Dean/Lee's beauty one last time in this series.....(until season 2)

Bye bye Dean🥲

Once again, props to the make up teams

Poor Charlie🤭

So if i understand what Jeff says, he escaped from Tony's house twice? Once alone when he was much younger, where he meets Reval and then later with Charlie ? Or did Charlie escaped without Jeff and Jeff got out later???

It's both cute and frustrating

I get why Jeff is saying that, but Alan already made his decision since ep 6

Alan, honey, you didn't ask him.....a least not directly

No really what are those pants ???!!!

Hello babies

Stop looking at him like that ! (please, never stop)

They're the worse, i love them

You can smell the bullsh*t that North is about to say from the other side of the planet and yet ....

The kiss on the hand ???? Sonic smile ??? i'm dead

And why does it look like Alan is actually considering North idea ???

At this point, i'm convinced that the only romantic experience that North and Sonic have comes from drama and romcom......

Hey ! That not nice !

A d*ck joke, really ? But at least it's a good one

Hiiiiii Kim !!!! Glad to see you made yourself at home

Now say it with me -> Pack home

Sorry Alan, but it 's not just your house since you invited them to live with you

Old ? No.....just.... not young anymore🤓

Holy moly he's an idiot

And that it for tonight !!!!! Bye bye

[phantom-fleetways]

I was wondering if you have any kiturge thoughts/headcanons to share?

Sorry I just like to see ppl talking about them and I was curious what you think

Sure sure! I love gushing about these two!!

Personally, I think Surge and Kit are a Queer Platonic Pair. This is due to my personal idea that Surge has no frame of reference for Romantic Love, and Kit is just brimming with it.

I also believe the two are T4T. Mostly because I just read Surge as trans-masc and Kit as being nonbinary.

I don't think they're wholly healthy per say, but I do think they are perfect for one another. They are both possessive. While I think Surge might be willing to let Kit and her go their separate ways, I know Kit won't. Despite this, they are genuinely better together than apart. As odd as it might be.

Now this is just a more personally niche headcanon of mine, but I think both have weird ways of expressing their affection to one another. Surge does so by allowing things that others won't get away with.

If Kit decided in the middle of the night to crawl into Surge's bed and snuggle her, nothing would be said. Surge would simply just let the fennec make a blanket burrow next to her and go right back to sleep in a few minutes. Maybe even permit him to actually lay on her like a proper couple would. If Sonic was insane enough to attempt this, he would be covered in 3rd degree burns. Along with a good couple bite marks for extra measure.

Kit on the other hand, shows and has always show his affection for Surge through acts of service. Example:

If Surge wants something, Kit will do everything in their power to get it. Surge wants Sonic dead and no distractions? Kit will pull crowd control until she achieves her goals. Surge is crying and needs comfort? Kit will drop literally everything to rush over and attend to her needs.

Kit is naturally selfless towards Surge, but don't mistake it for altruism. Kitsunami isn't actually altruistic, he's plenty selfish. They're merely obessed with being Surge's person.

Anyways, I just think they're neat at the end of the day. And while they're not perfect people, and a bit toxic, they were simply made for each other. Literally.

[mirersc]

MLB AU x SONADOW

What's the result?

A chaotic AU with the most unbearable slow burn of all ages.

Yep, we're doing this. Or at least we will talk about it, because I need to share it with someone. Anyone.

Warning: contains spoilers of MLB movie

So ever since the new movie of MLB came out -btw you should go see it, it's pretty light-hearted and adorable- my head is spinning and thinking what would happen if our two hedgehogs had been instead on the main characters' place, but with their own personalities.

Sonic would take Marinette's role, I haven't thought of a backstory yet, -and no he is not shy and without confidence, he is sly and cocky as ever- but he lives with Tails -when he isn't on one of his trips- and together they attend Chaos High on Green Hill -I'm still planning the settings and the names in my head-

On the other hand, Shadow takes Adrien's role, but unlike him, he's actually moving from his home in Station Square to go live with his best friend, Rouge, for a while, who miraculously lives in Green Hill as the others. And surprise, surprise, Gerald is alive! Does that mean that he is Hawk Moth and that Maria is Emily? To be honest, I'm still debating if Gerald is the real villain, because I want to include GUN in the game as well, but oh man, stuff like that takes time.

For sure though Maria takes Emily's place.

There's a high possibility though that she isn't dead. Just pretty sick. For now at least ;) *cough* I meant, she will be fine!

Tikal is the guardian so she takes the place of Master Fu and there are no kwamies. Yes, that's right. Instead of kwamies -do I even spell that right?- we have chaos, thus and why Tikal is the guardian of them. And instead of having a plethora of them there are only seven of them, each of them bearing a chaos emerald.

So skipping into the plot we have first day of a new year with everyone knowing everyone and Shadow being the new transfer student, who clings to Rouge's side and his personal robotic assistant Omega -yeah we're bringing him because we stan Team Dark!-

Introductions are made and oops, the two hedgies make a brief eye contact while at class. Neither of them shows any interest. Ouch I know, but wait, we have track. That's right. And where Sonic believes that his only rival is Jet here comes Shadow to steal the spotlight with his AIR SHOES, even if Sonic deems them rocket shoes. And just like that the blue blur finally pays attention to the stoic new student. Not as if he's fallen in love, but he is intrigued by him! I mean, have you seen any other running as fast as him?

Note; there are no super powers in this world, but Tails still is the smartest of the group, lol. That's just his nature. However he doesn't know that he can fly with his second tail. That's something that he'll discover later.

Anyways moving on, Hawk Moth -or however I'll remain the character later, because I'm not keeping those names for copyright issues- suddenly awakens the purple emerald, thus and the chao with it that have been lost in the fight that have broke between the echidna race and Tikal is forced to call upon the chaos of the dark blue and red chaos emeralds, named -that's actually a good question, I'm debating on Azul and Shade, but that's just basic? Or nah- Anyways, both chaos don't go well with each other and decide like in the movie to select on their own their champions.

Long story short, because there's no way I'm revealing everything, Azul ends up with Sonic and Shade with Shadow and they both activate their powers -after a lot of convincing by both ends, I know surprise for a specific blue hedgehog but sus- I was thinking that the could say, “Chaos Activate” with their respective chao on the start of the sentence, but working on it. Oh they are on their super forms, when powers activated, because I couldn't think of something better and thus their original abilities are unlocked, a.k.a Sonic's speed and Shadow's manipulation over chaos energy.

So the heroes meet while trying to discover where the corrupted with dark chaos energy is -yep, no akumas either- and they do not get along. Shadow having thought of it more, had already picked a name for his secret identity, named -I'm bad at names, but I was thinking something to do with Chaos, like Chaos Controller, but that's just too big so I'll think of something better-. Sonic soon realises that he still haven't thought of his own name, but then the corrupted arrives and interrupts them.

So they fight, they banter, Sonic haves a panic attack, Shadow almost loses his emerald, but they work it out. But like in the series they forget to cleanse the dark chaos energy something that BOTH Sonic and Shadow are able to do with the power of the chaos emerald.

They both find their way after that, working together, learning from their mistakes. Surprisingly, it is Shadow that finds a name for Sonic. Without even thinking of it too hard. He just calls him something and Sonic likes it so he keeps it.

And here's the moment that you all waited for.

The love matter.

Which takes a LOT OF TIME to finally come.

So to put it simple.

Sonic loves Shadow.

Shadow loves Super Sonic.

-this is where you all start clapping and fangirling-

There I said it. You can all just toy with the idea now, if you haven't thought of this already. And oh they both get refused by the other like the movie. But first is Shadow who declines Sonic and then Super Sonic who declines Super Shadow. Why? Because one thing led to another and Sonic accidentally reveals his like to the other hedgehog. Shadow of course is taken aback, because he didn't expect Sonic to like him. Not that Sonic would like to change anything in their current relationship, because it's perfect as it is. He just wishes to know if Shadow would like to keep it like that and after graduation. Shadow, however, likes Super Sonic and thus declines Sonic. Of course he doesn't express this in a harsh manner. He is considerate of the other's feelings. But Sonic of course is hurting. So imagine the SAME time in the evening to getting asked by Super Shadow, if he would like for their relationship to grow into something more. Sonic just can't and he leaves immediately like he'd done a prior hours ago.

Of course I'm not telling you how they get together or how they overcome this, because where's the fun in that? Don't know, if I'll make it into a fic this idea yet, but feel free to send me asks, if you have any questions.

Furthermore you can even take this idea and turn it into something unique. Just be sure to let me know so I can keep an eye out of it. I wouldn't mind reading an AU like this or seeing art of it.

Thank you for managing to come this far. I am super grateful and hopefully my next posts will not be as big as this one. Be safe and be happy! Gotta love our two hogs.

[johnny2071]

Why Team Dark Doesn't Work (As Established)

Thanks to a few rude individuals, I now have to include this disclaimer: I HAVE played both Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes. This is just my opinion, so don't attack me for it.

I think that Team Dark is team that was simply thrown together for the sake of gameplay convenience. While I don't see anything wrong with bringing Shadow back from what many were expected to believe was his heroic sacrifice at the end of SA2, it's everything else that comes after that.

At the point of Shadow's re-introduction, he clearly has amnesia. But then we're introduced to Omega (meant to be a Gamma 2.0, since that character is canonically dead, as well as the Knuckles/power-type for Team Dark), who comes in guns a-blazing, and an epic scuffle ensues. Next, we have Rouge break up the fight, piece together their situations and motives from her mouth and not theirs. At this point, Rouge is clearly interested solely in stealing Eggman's treasure hoard (that he apparently has). So with two character conveniently nearby, Rouge proposes that they team up and work together.

In short, Team Dark was form solely on a whim, of someone else's material ambitions. There are so many problems I see with this, so I'll explain each of them.

Rouge. Since her introduction in SA2, Rouge has been portrayed as a vain jewel thief who is a stark contrast to both Knuckles' noble sense of duty (regardless of what little we know about how he came to this role, and how much he's held to it) and the value of the Master Emerald itself. Later on in the game, Rouge nearly falls to her death, but is humbled a bit when Knuckles saves her. Rouge still maintains her arrogance and snark, but has enough decency to hand over the rest of the emerald shards out of gratitude. After the entire drama regarding Gerald Robotnik's post-mortem motives and Shadow's sacrifice, Knuckles ask Rouge if she plans on stealing more gems once they return to Earth, to which Rouge vaguely replies that she has something else on mind. But with gem-obsession aside, Rouge has another side to her character, where she's also a freelance spy who will take on any job if payed upfront, and we eventually learn that she's been hired by the president to investigate Project Shadow. So in short, even though she's still somewhat of a mystery, what she does make known is that she's quite the lively and extravagant jewel thief who just happens to take her spy work professionally from time to time. She's also not big on bonding with and warning up to other characters and their personal woes. So why on Earth should any of us believe that Rouge is the type of character who gives a crap about teamwork and people getting along with each other, while also invested in Shadow in particular socializing with others (Sonic and Amy's respective birthdays). And that's not even getting into her character in both Sonic 2006, the Archie comic reboot, and other entries in the franchise since.

Shadow. In Heroes, Shadow has zero memory of his past and any of the events that unfolded in SA2, but his personality is as antagonistic as it was in that very game. By the time of his reintroduction, he just awoken from a chamber-like device and was greeting by Omega launching an open fire barrage on him. Since Maria's death, Shadow never had any reason or obligated to befriend anyone, especially those who attack him first, but has even more to deal with taking his amnesia into account. Why would this already angst hedgehog work with a robot that just attacked him and a take-charge bat girl telling him to play nice. In a better written scenario, Shadow would just fend off Omega, and after getting enough distance from the robot, Rouge would then show up and greet Shadow. Shadow naturally wouldn't want to be bothered, but Rouge would tempt him to meet her at specific location for more information on his past: the one thing that would be of concern to him. But in Team Dark's actual formation, it just feels like Shadow is an easy person to bait and that all his angst/distrust is small potatoes to what Rouge wants from both of them.

Omega. Back in Sonic Adventure, we filled the entire campaign of E-102 Gamma, from the moment he went online, to his interaction with Amy, to his sacrificial explosion. Then we cut to Sonic Heroes, which tries to bring back several characters as part of an all-star adventure game. However, unlike Shadow, Gamma couldn't just be brought back due to the nature of his existence (exploded robot parts and one small bird happily living its life). So SEGA created a new robot who was meant to be a spiritual replacement. SEGA also made Heroes very teamwork-focused and wanted each team of three characters to lazily play the same way as Team Sonic, so they needed this robot to fill the same power character role as Knuckles. Cue Omega, folks. Yeah, we know next to nothing about Omega as a character, since unlike Gamma, he never had any individual focus or character growth. He's simply a robot who likes to destroy things and is angry at Eggman for keeping him locked up, something that no other Eggman robot has felt (if anything at all, and don't even get me started with Metal Sonic). And also unlike Gamma, he feels like a one-note parody who boasts about all his targets being inferior consumer models, and even has cringe one-liners that would never come out of Gamma or the other five E-Series robots. There's Duke Nuke'Em and then there's Duke Nuke'Em the Robot. In creating replacement character that was meant to last for several decades, SEGA forgot what made Gamma (or any robot character since) special in the first place. Omega just feels like team formation filler who's simply there, and a distant reminder that Gamma once existed (and that's without getting into Chaos Gamma from Sonic Battle, who's even more questionable).

The Team. Since the name of the game is Sonic Heroes, each team is formed and established from the get-go or on the fly without regard for any of the team members' other roles and responsibilities, or if they have any close connections (if at all). Team Dark is pretty much no exception to this. Again, this entire team is formed mainly to fulfill HER worldly desires. We never get to see Shadow seek Rouge out on his own ends and steadily form an alliance with her. We also never see Rouge's savvy of the intel underworld/proper bargaining skills, and we never see Omega take on other E-Series robots solo, get way in over his programming with the later bosses, get a beat down that humbles his elitist character, and see Shadow and Rouge properly invite him as their third member, with Shadow now acknowledging him as a kindred spirit. Heck we never see Sonic encounter and clash with him as stand-alone enemy, just as a hangers-on without any nevermind as to how/why is Shadow back, and what Team Dark's business is. The sad thing is, this was a missed opportunity. The whole plot could focused on Shadow's return, Omega, the rest of the E-Series robots, the formation of Team Dark, and THEN the big reveal of Metal Sonic's return, instead of the "🎵 We're on our way to the wishing star 🎵" romp we ultimately got. Also, these guys (especially Shadow) have absolutely no business or obligation working for G.U.N. (especially Abraham Tower, since that name is now canon).

Despite Team Dark's shoddy execution, the team has since become quite iconic and I would never breakup or undo any of that. In terms of Sonic trios for three-person events and plots, these three absolutely belong. I just wish things would have been handled better, instead of this team feeling ironic and used for "light humor" under Flynn's pen, where they're OOC or have "UC" (unfitting character).

But yeah, this has been my write up on my thoughts on Team Dark as whole.

[jyndor]

nights are so starry, blood moon lit

@andorerso: I'd like to request a ficlet about Jyn discovering Cassian has a kyber crystal necklace too (because he does, fuck you Luthen) happy early birthday <33

lmfao well sissi it’s OUR birthday fic now but jk this is for you lol hope you like it and also ofc the pretentious swiftie title asjdskjaskjd happy birthday bitchh

She was sleeping where she sat down hours ago. The asset, Galen Erso’s daughter, the girl with the smothered need and the fire in her green eyes. Jyn Erso. I’ve never had the luxury of political opinions, and she had lied about that. Cassian had known that from her history with Saw Gerrera alone, but… her eyes, those twin truther-tellers, had given her away. He just wasn't sure anyone else had noticed.

On the ship, her eyelids twitched and her brow furrowed; she was dreaming.

The ship reverting to realspace over Jedha shook Erso out of her fitful sleep. The old pendant under his shirt turned to ice against his sternum. He stilled by the terminal and swallowed a gasp. Waited for the other shoe to drop.

Over the years Cassian had come to find some level of comfort, of focus, in its presence. Cold and ever present, like the man who had given it to him; if he were the sort of man to attribute moods to rocks and things, to believe in the Force, he’d have said the frigid sting against his heart was a warning.

Jyn pulled something clear and bright out from beneath her collar. Light from beyond NaJedha’s little moon catches in her hand - and refracts.

In her fingers (the dust of Wobani still underneath her fingernails, even after a long anxious wait for her to finish up in the blasted sonic) she held a crystal. Kyber, he was certain. What sort was irrelevant, and that she had one was not terribly surprising given her father’s work.

But it set him ill at ease, like the trembling suppressed need he'd seen in her green eyes back on Yavin IV. Dread (or anticipation, he’s not in the habit of deluding himself. Not anymore.)

He blinked as Erso carefully tucked the crystal back under her tunic, and dragged himself away from his hiding spot behind her. There was, as always, a job to do.

And no time for familiar stones or dead religions.

//

Cassian has that baby-soft freshness to his hair and skin that only comes with a dip in bacta. He’s in the midst of a dream, Jyn thinks as she sits beside his cot in the medbay. His brow is furrowed, and his eyes dart back and forth underneath his eyelids. He has long lashes that dust those sharp cheekbones of his. His hair falls into his face as he sighs and shifts to turn towards her, like how her father’s flowers would tilt towards the Lah’mu sun, unthinking, that DNA-deep need for light.

She wants to brush out the tension in his face with her fingertips, and so she does. Unthinking but conscious.

His brow relaxes. A hand reaches up to grip her wrist, gentle but firm. His eyes blink open, dark brown and very much awake.

“Jyn?” he rasps. She tries to pull her hand back, but he holds true.

She glances down at their hands, her heart racing in her ears. Surely Cassian can feel her pulse under his thumb. “How are you feeling today?”

“Like shit,” he says, voice gravelly from disuse.

“Here,” Jyn pulls her hand out of his grip and reaches for the glass of water she’d placed on his bedside table earlier. She brings the glass to his lips and watches him sip. It’s so intimate, a quiet moment for which she frankly isn’t sure they have the time. Not now.

She sets the glass down when he’s had enough and reaches for her kyber crystal.

His eyes track her fingers. The warmth of the pendant and the warmth of his gaze… she doesn’t know what to do with either.

“Tell me.” He tears his gaze away from her hands.

Jyn wants to cry. She wants to wrap him up and put him on a ship headed anywhere that isn’t Yavin IV. Instead, she sits back down on the side of his cot.

“Okay,” she says, voice cracking through the grief. “Princess Leia arrived a little while ago. With the plans.”

Those vibro-sharpened eyes study her. “Jyn.”

“It’s coming,” she tells him, hardening her spine. “The Death Star is coming.”

//

The strongest stars have hearts of kyber. That’s what that old Guardian, Chirrut, said to Jyn that morning. It was a pretty thought but it was also Cassian’s biggest concern - a weapon like this alleged planet killer, powered by massive amounts of kyber. Kyber from Jedha and Christophsis and Ke- well, so many places. Worlds he probably doesn’t even know about.

Some he was trying not to forget. Lost words, lost worlds, and always in the background: crystals.

Pointing the way, leading him to the ancient place Gerrera had holed him and his people in. It was crumbling around Cassian as he ran. Desperate and thinking only of the constant refrain Jyn Jyn Jyn I have to find Jyn, and his pendant was so cold against his skin it burned.

//

It turns out that metal stars with kyber hearts don’t stand a chance against a Jedi. Jyn stares at the darkening sky and the glittering pieces of her father’s other creation, her twin, as they break apart in the atmosphere. Leaning on her shoulder and the cane the medics had given him after he discharged himself is Cassian. He’s shaking a bit from the exertion or the view. Perhaps many things.

He’s changed out of his medbay gown and into some of his usual khakis. With his arm around her shoulders and her head beside his neck, she can see for the first time a gold chain mostly hidden underneath his tunic.

She leads him to where Ruescott Melshi and Taidu Sefla are standing near a parked x-wing. Melshi’s got a mug of something in his hand, and Sefla grins at them. “Nice of you to show up, Sarge!”

“Cass,” Melshi says, relief clear in his face. “Heard you took a tumble.”

“Word travels fast.”

“You’re a hero now, Andor,” Sefla laughs. “Best get used to the gossip."

Cassian looks a bit queasy at the thought and pulls Jyn closer to him. She feels Cassian’s breath against her temple. Melshi looks at them for a moment as he sips his drink and laughs. “Come here, you lucky son of a bitch,” he presses his lips against Cassian’s temple before reaching over him and ruffling Jyn’s hair. She scowls from underneath her fringe. “Pathfinders could use your balls, Erso.”

“Yours not big enough?” But she can’t help the smile that’s cracking through her exterior.

Beside her, Cassian looks up at the sky again, his thumb tracing the knot tying her necklace together. “Stardust,” he murmurs, and she feels her pendant hot against her skin; when he meets her eyes again his are burning too.

//

Over the years Cassian had gotten used to the kyber against his chest turning cold. It was a strange thing and as he learned more about kyber and the Jedi and Galen Erso, he had experienced a funny little hope that perhaps he would get the opportunity to ask the literal preeminent expert in kyberite why his crystal behaved less like a thing and more like the echo of a sentient. A silly delusion, he'd known, even before General Draven gave him the order to kill Erso.

For the first time in his memory his kyber burned white hot against his skin. If he were a superstitious man, one prone to fancies like belief in the Force and crystals, he might have called it an omen. Instead he exhaled the thought away and brushed his soaking hair out of his face. 

Eadu was cold and damp and cruel. His vision blurred in his viewfinder; rain dripped from his lashes.

Cassian was going to kill this man, a man who had unleashed a monstrosity onto the galaxy and abandoned his child to do it. What kind of a man willingly left a child behind? He didn't know the details nor needed to. Cassian doubted he’d live long enough to ask her if Galen had put up a fight before she slit his throat.

He would have done it if it were him. For Kerri, for Jeron and Tlalli. For Clem he'd tried and for Maarva he'd not gotten the chance, too busy saving the living to deal with the dead.

And for Jyn I already have, he thought despite himself. And I would do it again. He readjusted his finger on the trigger, cold righteous fury demanding justice and revenge.

Justice from Galen Erso, who was probably a prisoner of the Empire, who had very likely rigged the planet killer, the Death Star, to blow. Who Jyn believed in despite everything he'd never been for her.

He thought of her terrible, beautiful need - a bright point in the galaxy. He’d known martyrs and loved and hated them, he'd seen them burn bright and fast, read their manifestos and heard their theories. Eaten their food. Laid in their beds once or twice.

Killed more than a few of them, too.

In his sights was a singular moment of clarity: Galen Erso had his daughter’s eyes. That need, that fire, flashing and cracking and so familiar.

He wouldn’t be the one to pull the trigger on her. He couldn’t be the one to snuff out her fire. He doesn't think he would survive, oxygen-deprived in the absence of her need.

But in the end, Galen Erso still died in his daughter’s arms. Cassian pulled her away from the body and dragged her away towards the next fight, a thrice-abandoned child. Another orphan.

He was beaten and bloodied in the wake of her grief. Her words cut like knives, sharp and wounding.

Bodhi piloted them in silence. He imagined Jyn was right where he left her, shaking and bitterly cold. Or alone under the Kenari canopy, small and afraid, quiet except for in his memory.

It was like looking into a mirror and seeing all those long-buried hurts, surfacing under such sudden attention.

She won't want to see me right now, Cassian thought. She may never want to see me again.

His kyber was cold. He wanted to reach into his shirt and hold it, press it into his palm and coax that heat back. 

But he didn’t know any of these people - and Kaytoo couldn’t keep a secret - so he just watched the starlines.

//

Cassian gets a promotion. Bodhi gets a ship and the Guardians a Jedi to train. And Jyn finds herself with a commission. They all turn down Leia’s medals, preferring what little anonymity they might have left to the perks of being heroes of the Rebellion. 

Medals and ceremonies are nice, but Jyn thinks that there is no better reward than hustling assholes out of credits with Bodhi, or going to the shooting range with Baze and Cassian, or sparring with Chirrut, or playing coding games with Kaytoo. She runs missions with Melshi and the Pathfinders from time to time, and she joins Cassian and Kay on intel ops that require less… subtlety. She’s got their backs, and she knows that they’ve got hers. 

But. Cassian’s gone sometimes for weeks on end, but then he comes back, and her kyber burns against her sternum, burns like her need to tell him what she’s more and more certain of with each passing day. 

She always wants to see him. She wants to stand by his side, cover his ass. She never wants him to have to work alone again. 

If he wants that. If he wants her to stick around.

There are other wants: sharing bunks and breathing in the same air, lying skin to skin or not, just being seen and held and wanted. 

But she’ll take what he’s willing to give her.

//

“I’m not used to people sticking around when things go bad,” she says. He’s certain now, falling into her orbit, his kyber burning like a sun. The kyber crystals: they’re the point. They’ve always been the point, the biggest picture.

He’s been running to something this whole time. His whole life. Running towards, even though it has always felt like away. Searching for connection, for something he has thought he’s lost. And all this time, kyber. A navigator to lead him to this moment, pointing him towards this cause, this particular moment. These exact coordinates under his worn and calloused feet.

Pointing him in the direction he’s been heading his whole life, guiding him home. Crystals in the sky, green and gold. Heat breaching shields, pressure all around.

Her eyes are warm, too.

“Welcome home.”

//

He’s bleeding from a blaster wound to the shoulder. Jyn bites her lip as she shepherds him into their ship’s little kitchenette, heart racing, palms sticking to the worn leather of her gloves, and she pulls his tunic off without ceremony, professional and single-minded despite his protests that he’s fine, and that he can handle dressing his wound, and that she should go check in with Draven.

She wants to punch him. She also wants to kiss him, and isn’t that just like him - to be so completely charming after jumping in front of her and taking the shot she hadn’t seen -

Kyber. Blue like the sky and hot against her fingertips. Against his chest. She presses her palm against the pendant, drawn in like some sort of merryfly to a light. Cassian wipes his thumb against her eye, brushes against her damp lashes. And she remembers herself. 

Jyn opens a medpac and cleans the wound. It’s relatively minor, more of a graze. She focuses on fitting the bacta patch over it neatly; smoothes over it with her fingers so that there are no bubbles or crumpled edges.

“It’s a Kuati signet. Kyber.” He catches her hand and places it over his heart, right onto the burning shard of kyber. She curls her fingers around it, scratching lightly against his chest hair. He shivers. “But you know that,” he adds, his voice low and near. She looks up to see him leaning close to her, as he is wont to do. They orbit, they pull each other closer all the time. Like some inevitable collision, held in stasis.

His dark eyes are bright in the dingy fluorescent lighting.

“My mum was a geologist.” She snakes her hands up his chest and around his neck. “And you know about Papa.”

“I’ve wanted to show you,” he says imploringly, hand back on her cheek, calloused thumb rubbing so gently against her skin. “I’ve got a lot to tell you, Jyn.”

She gasps into his air as her kyber cools against her skin. She gazes through her lashes at his lips and pushes up on her toes to close the distance between them. “Tell me, then,” Jyn murmurs against his lips. “Show me.”

[one-half-guy]

💖 :)

Bom dia!! :)

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

Sega haven't done any character as dirty as fans claim they have!

By that I mean: Yes, we have had some really poor portrayals of some characters across the games for example:

Amy in Sonic Battle and in Sonic Free Riders, Shadow in Sonic Free Riders and Sonic Boom and Knuckles in Sonic Rush and in Sonic Lost World

But in other hand some fans complain of characters who are actually okay, for example: Sonic in the Colors Era, he still takes the things seriously and does what we would expect, but he seems to joke more because the games aim to a lighter tone; Tails in Lost World was just considering it unfair and ridiculous of Sonic to trust on Eggman when he already filled that role and in Sonic Forces he spent six months believing Sonic was dead because he failed, the boy was still processing, okay?!; also Shadow has been solid in his appearances in Sonic Rivals 2, Colors DS and Forces, he didn't do much, but he was pretty coeherent to his development.

They complain of that while praise IDW and fanworks that do far worse 🙃

[badnikbreaker]

@camotix : "i'm not going to hurt you." espio is far from a pacifist, but they've heard enough to not want a fight here. they briefly hold out their hands as if to say 'see?? no weapons.' before crossing their arms. besides — something about the kid's appearance nags at his mind. "[ ... ] i'm espio." // for kit!!

The words are no comfort / Kitsunami flinches away from the other, even as apparently unarmed as he appears. Surge says that everyone wants to hurt the. Surge says the whole world wants them dead. SURGE KNOWS EVERYTHING / SURGE IS PERFECT / SURGE IS WHY HE EXISTS. Surge — isn't here, doesn't know he's here, and that leaves Kit feeling cornered, bad at making his own choices. They're afraid but they're not drowning the other. Not yet. Tendrils of water curl instead of the frightened fox, protective.

They would always be afraid, but being in THIS PLACE makes it unfathomably worse. He'd wrecked almost all of the lab when he and Surge had fled after the last fight, but since she'd awoken, Surge keeps talking about returning, about their pasts — HE DOESN'T WANT PASTS. HE BARELY WANTS A FUTURE. He'd come back to destroy the last of it before she could try to return, as if the lack of this place might enable him to trick her into giving up — the last of the tubes and the last of the fields Starline had used to test and kill them. There shouldn't be anyone else here. NO PERSON SHOULD BE HERE, IN THIS PLACE WHERE TWO UNPERSONS WERE MADE AND KILLED.

"E — Espio ——" They whisper, repeating the sound back like they're testing it out. Espio. Another person in the world. It's so jarring, to remember that the world isn't just Surge and Sonic and Tails and Starline and him. It doesn't feel fair. His terror is so all - consuming / his agony so big and so specific all at once / what right does anyone else have to exist? To exist free of pain? It isn't fair. It isn't ———

This person says they won't hurt him. Espio says they won't hurt him. Kit doesn't believe that, but he wants to. He wants so badly to believe someone, anyone won't hurt him. Even Surge hurts him, sometimes. "I — I'm Kit....Kitsunami. I d - don't — understand why anyone would come here." No one should come here.

[true-blue-sonic]

The thought of Eggman Nega having a hand in Silver’s “creation” is hilarious. The Robotnik bloodline just cannot escape the curse of at least one of their best creations turning against them in some way.

…Actually, right after I sent that last ask, I happened to remember something. I know it’s been mentioned before that Silver likely isn’t an artificial creation because he mentions having been born, but isn’t it possible in the Sonic universe to implant fake memories? I always thought that that was the way Gerald got Shadow to believe he had to destroy the world. And that was 250 years before Silver’s time, so imagine what the tech from his time could be capable of

I think it would also fit with the fact Eggman Nega is just so bad at being a credible villain that he never managed to get Silver back under his control again. Eggman reprogrammed Metal after the events of Heroes to have unwavering loyalty to him once more, and Gerald was long dead by the time Amy managed to make Shadow remember his true wish (and in ShTH Gerald's video message furthermore inspires Shadow into a second wind that allows him to beat Black Doom, so he managed to undo the destruction of the world after all like his sane self would have wanted).

But indeed, on the topic of Gerald and Shadow, in Gerald's speech in SA2 in the Last Story he says: "I designed its mind to be perfect, pure…", implying to me that he meddled with Shadow's mind somehow (because the Shadow we see in earlier flashbacks is quite kind with Maria, while pondering over his purpose and why he was created). We also see that Shadow at first does not recall Maria's actual wish ("Give them a chance to be happy. Let them live for their dreams."), and instead only remembers bits and pieces. Here it is interesting to note that in those, Maria never says the word revenge or anything urging for it. She just says "Shadow… I beg of you… please," and "Do it for me… for all the people… on that planet…", which Shadow fills in with her desiring revenge. I'm not certain if this is indeed what happened, but I figure Gerald actively repressed the parts where Maria asked Shadow to protect the world and put the idea of revenge in Shadow's head instead, while still leaving enough pieces of Maria's presence and words for Shadow to recall she had a wish for him to fulfil. So from that, I figure tampering with memories is absolutely not impossible in the world of Sonic.

In canon, I doubt Silver is indeed an artificial creation because there is nothing pointing towards it, but I quite like the idea of a story where Nega created him to be the ultimate fighter in his army or something like that... and somehow managed to make a hoglet with such a strong sense of justice and desire to help others that it all backfired on him immediately. I can imagine Nega pulling a Starline-esque move wherein he kept erasing Silver's memories in attempts to this time get him to be loyal, except Silver somehow managed to escape and be free from his control between memory wipes. He'd remember enough about Nega to know he's very dangerous and wants to destroy the world, and he also knows enough about himself that he doesn't want that to pass, and thus them being archnemeses is settled for life. And Nega is never going to be able to defeat him, haha! I think it'd be even more interesting if he made Silver with just some base powers (some telekinesis, maybe being able to teleport), but Silver keeps developing himself further. And now he can fly at the speed of sound! And make knives from pure psychic energy! Some precognition and telepathic abilities, why not? Lifting literal tons of weight at once, sure! Eggman Nega can't even be proud of the fact his creation is able to do all this, because it's only ever used to wreck his plans. He'll be beyond bitter about it!

[brucenorris007]

The result of being Sad about Archie plus the usual inherent learned state of quasi-sadness led to... this? 

“What else didn’t you tell me?! Since when do you even keep secrets in the first place?!”

“Look, I didn’t bring you out of stasis expecting you to be... Sally again, okay?!”

“Oh, right,” Sally huffed. “How silly of me. What did you expect, then?”

Sonic pinched his mouth shut, glaring back at her. He stood, rigid and gripping the strap of his bag tight.

“What?” Sally demanded.

“Put it this way,” Sonic grumbled. “My best case scenario and your worst case scenario probably read about the same.”

He readjusted his pack and turned around.

“Wait–!”

He sped off before she could get more than a word out. 

“What does...?”

She gave chase, still turning over what he’d said in her mind. Her worst case scenario would’ve meant...

‘No.’

She broke into a dead sprint; some engine she was still unfamiliar with kicked in and rockets sent her careening over the grass, overtaking him inside of a minute.

He only had a second to glance back with wide eyes before she was on him.

“NO!”

They hit the ground. He would feel it more than she did; she wasn’t thinking about that.

“Ow.” He grunted, hands around her wrists and straining to push her off him.

She held fast to his shoulders.

“You can’t... you’re not allowed to–!”

She couldn’t bring herself to say it. Sonic’s grip slackened and he broke eye contact. Sally couldn’t breathe.

“You can’t–!”

“My plan obviously changed, okay?” He grunted, dismissive. “You were you when I brought ya back online.” He looked back at her, smiling; it didn’t reach his eyes. “Believe me, the others will be stoked when you go back.”

Sally couldn’t process what she was hearing; what he’d just admitted, in so many words.

He swung his legs to one side and spun sideways to slip out from under her. He rolled to his feet and dusted himself off.

“Just, when you do go back,” he said. “Do me a favor and don’t tell anyone where I’m headed. Doubt they’d send anyone looking for me, but I don’t think anyone who would would be all that happy to see me anyway.” 

[just-a-guy119]

(This was originally posted on #shadamyheadcanons as a submission but for some reason when I submitted it the paragraphs were missing, no idea why that was the case so I’ve decided to resubmit it here to make it much more easier to read)

Convoluted title I know but this one is going to be pretty jumbled up as it’s just an idea I’ve thought off and wanna see if anyone does anything with it.

You know how Amy has the rings similar to Shadows inhibitors, hers are probably weights whilst shadows are inhibitor rings, I’m not sure if this has been mentioned or something but I think this idea could be cool, though it would also deviate from the original story of SA2 quite a bit, let me explain.

My idea is that with Amy’s modern design for SA1 and SA2, her outfit would be the exact same but without the rings on her wrists (maybe replace them with the bands she has on her riders design).

Instead she doesn’t get the rings until the end of SA2 when sonic returns to the ark after him and shadow fought the final hazard. Obviously the story would have to get reworked slightly with Shadow and Amy possibly having a few more scenes together and give Amy her own character arc, she still doesn’t fully believe in herself as she isn’t treated as an equal. (because let’s be honest the early 3D days Amy was ignored and not taken seriously by almost everyone in CD, SA1 and SA2, including Sonic).

One way to make Amy more important to the story of SA2 is to have her get to the ark much quicker so there could be an extra scene or two with her and Shadow. (It doesn’t even have to be shipping stuff but Shadow having flashbacks of Maria through Amy’s words similar to the how Amy helps Shadow remember Maria’s final words in SA2)

A way I think would work best to get Amy on the Space Colony Ark quicker is during prison island, instead of Rouge being trapped fighting the R-1/A Flying Dog she fights Amy instead.

The way this would occur is that when Amy would free sonic, he would tell her he needs to find that faker and make him pay, then runs off instantly, leaving Amy behind. In the hero story, after the stage metal harbor there would be a cutscene with Amy walking around, saying that she’s lost and she’d get annoyed and say out loud

“I would sacrifice anything for everyone to take me more seriously, even that fake hedgehog”

(Remember this)

(Also this might seem out of character for but at this point she‘s like 13? I’m not sure but she’s angry and this is something someone her age would say. Keep in mind she only sees Shadow as a Sonic copy, thinks he’s a Villain so she doesn’t really care about like, same with her and metal sonic.)

This part would be in the dark story Playthrough.

Then she runs into Rouge, Amy remembers she was with Eggman and fights her, trying to get answers however they both get locked in the room like Rouge did in SA2. The story would continue as normal with shadow showing up and surprisingly, he’d save both of them without hesitation, teleporting to the ark just before prison island blows up.

A scene would take place right after with Amy looking confused and relieved however Rouge instantly begins questioning why he saved them, Shadow says it would’ve been more hassle for him to get the emeralds off Rouge in a few seconds but Rouge counters by saying that’s a fair point but he could’ve just left her behind (pointing to amy) however he actively ran over to her and saved her too. He just walks off saying she talks too much however amy runs grabs his hand and says.

“Thank you”

Shadow just stares back for a second and says “it won’t happen again…” then walks off. (This would purely be a dark story cutscene)

To me this makes more sense as she doesn’t really do much in the story other than help shadow, maybe even have sonic and tails think she died (and in the hero story, actually have the player think she’s dead for most of the story) and have sonic realise that he should’ve treated her much kinder and as an equal and not someone who holds them back. This could even make sonic wanna go after shadow even more as he thinks that him and eggman killed her, to further set up the rivalry his shadow but that part is just me throwing ideas around for a potential SA2 rewrite I’m thinking of doing. This new concept also won’t be a typical “damsel in distress” as it’s flipped on its head since Shadow actually saved her by “kidnapping” her.

Let’s say in this hypothetical rewrite Shadow starts off like the others, he doesn’t take Amy seriously at all similar to everyone else as he’s only known her as “sonic’s fangirl” but Amy begins to learn that there’s something more to shadow, he doesn’t just want to conquer the earth like eggman, he wants revenge on everyone on earth (maybe he’d say something like “they took everything I cared about away from me” when she’d ask him why he’s doing this, I dunno) and she’d grow to understand him.

Through this, shadow would learn to treat Amy as an equal as she says she’s fed up of not being taken seriously by anyone so shadow does just that, he actually begins to listen to her closely. Through shadow treating her as an equal and talking to her, he begins to realise she’s making valid points about how no-one deserves to be killed but he doesn’t falter in his mission however she’s slowly chipping away at Shadows exterior as he acts slightly kinder to both her and Rouge.

Maybe even Rouge could get some development from Amy too with Rouge listening in on one of their convocations and amy says that

“I try to be kind to everyone, even though sonic doesn’t treat me as an equal…I know being kind works because you’ve treated me as an equal because of it…”

This causes Rouge to hold some of the master emerald shards and think…She’s used to being around selfish people so that’s all she knows but being kind…She’s never tried that.

(this could explain why Rouge gives the master emerald pieces to Knuckles after he saves her because she’s learning to be kind as well)

At the end this, all this buildup and the extra scenes would would make it more believable for Shadow to be convinced by Amy and she will also learn a lesson here, correct me if I’m wrong but shadow would be the first person to treat her as an equal. The way shadow would truly treat her as an equal is by actually thanking her, at the risk of sounding too cliché he would tell her.

“Thank you…you’re worth much more than you think, Amy Rose”

This coming from the ultimate life form himself would mean something, at least to Amy.

After that he says

“I need to keep my promise to Maria…and to you” then he runs off.

When Shadow appears to fight the Biolizard, Knuckles would ask why he suddenly changed sides, he could say something like

“That friend of yours, Amy Rose, you should all thank her…”

With sonic responding with a in a guilty tone

“Yeah…I know that now…”

And the same thing would happen, Super Sonic and Super Shadow would fight the Final Hazard and using the chaos emeralds to become super for the first time along with taking off his inhibitor rings would take its toll on shadow and cause him to fall to earth…only leaving his inhibitor rings remaining like in the original story.

The final scene of this version of SA2 would have Sonic returning aboard the ark without Shadow, he has a smile but it looks sad most of them would congratulate Sonic but Rouge would ask where’s Shadow?

Sonic would close his eyes and let out a shaky breath, saying that he couldn’t have won without Shadow…

(I do recommend that this part is best experienced whilst listening to SA2s “the last scene” OST on loop whilst reading this part for extra emotional kicks, trust me it makes a difference. this all is purely emotional but in a good way so you have been warned.)

(Each “ending scene” between the rivals would take place in this order)

Firstly a unique one, amy and rouges reaction to shadow death.

Sonic walks over to Rouge and Amy who are standing at the centre of the room, giving them Shadows inhibitor rings and says

“This is all I could get before I saw him fall to earth…”

He’d give one to both of them and say he’s sorry. Rouge would look away and walk off, holding her tears in however Amy’s eyes widen…like she’s realising something. The blue hedgehog would look at amy and speak.

“I’m sorry…I never took you seriously, even after you’d stop chasing me…I promise to listen to you like I do with Tails, Knuckles and even Eggman…”

He puts a hand on her shoulder to comfort her but she drops shadows ring and she slaps sonics hand away and shakily whispers…

“No…”

This confuses everyone but this time she shouts...tears streaming from her eyes

“I did this to him…I don’t deserve any of your respect… I sent him to his death, he wanted to help because I begged him too. I killed him”

“I even said I would sacrifice anything for all of you to take me seriously, even him and…it feels like I did! It feels like I sent him to his death just to get you guys to listen to me! It’s all my fault!”

With that she runs off, running past everyone, sonic and tails would try to chase after her however surprisingly Rouge tells them to leave her, that she’ll talk to Amy.

The second “ending” scene would take place and it would be another unique one.

Rouge would find her where the convocation between Shadow and Amy took place about how she knows being kind pays off because shadow begun to treat her as an equal. She’s crying and Rouge walks over to her and just watches, unsure of what to do however Amy wipes her tears and says she can’t be weak…

Rouge nods her head and helps her up however Amy asks Rouge something…

“S-Shadows inhibitor rings… could I have them?”

Rouge at first looks confused but then after smiles and nods her head, giving them to her.

The final scene between Tails and Eggman would play.

Eggman and Tails look ahead at the stars…The fox is unsure on how to feel, they won but it feels like they lost…surprisingly Dr Eggman speaks up in a tone Tails has never heard before.

“As a child, I looked up to my grandfather because of all the great things he accomplished in his life. He was my hero, and I wanted to be a great scientist like him. But... did he really mean to destroy us? To destroy Me?”

Doctor Eggman, the most renowned genius in the world sounds so defeated, even cracking at one point, even after Tails and Sonic have stopped him time and time again, the mad Doctor has always bounced back…but now…he sounds so defeated.

Much to the doctors surprise, Tails speaks up, attempting to comfort him.

“I’m…Im not sure but one thing I know, he was tipped over the Edge, pushed to a limit that no person should ever have to endure, he lost everything and took it out on everyone…he had the right to be mad but he didn’t have the right to destroy everything… I…I don’t know what to say Eg-“

Tails stops himself

“Ivo Robotnik, I’m sorry you had to go through that, I can’t imagine what it must feel like.”

The Doctor looks down and wipes his glasses clean…

“T-Thanks… I’m going to be shutting down the Space Colony Ark in 30 minutes, that’s all the time everyone has up here, then it’s never to be set foot on again”

With that, the Doctor walks off, tails looks back to see Sonic look at Ivo Robotnik. They seem to stare at each other, almost as if they’re having a mutual understanding through their sight alone but the Doctor kneels down and sonic does something unexpected, he surprisingly hugs the Doctor, he can’t hear what they’re saying but Tails figures it’s private…but he could’ve sworn he saw the Doctor wipe his eyes…

The scene between Rouge and Sonic would play after that

Rouge walks over to the blue blur and speaks.

“I calmed Amy down…I don’t know when she’ll feel better, could you and the others…be there for her? Help her get over her grief?”

Sonic looks at the bat and slowly nods…

“I will, I promise. Me, Tails and even Knuckles will help her, or at least try as much as we can… Again I’m sorry about Shadow”

Rouge looks at him and shakes her head.

“You tried your best…in the end that’s all that matters. But do you think…that the doctor only creates him for revenge? Or something more?”

She questions with sonic looking at the planet below.

“I’m not sure…but what in do know is that he was a brave and heroic hedgehog who sacrificed his life to save everyone, that’s who he was.”

Rouge nods her head and walks away.

The scene between Knuckles and Rouge would play.

Rouge is standing, looking out to the coldness of space, uncomfortably with her Arms crossed and biting her lip, trying desperately to hold back her tears, she may not have known shadow for long or as personally as Amy did…but it still doesn’t change anything, right now all she feels is the coldness surrounding her.

“Got any plans”

A gruff but soothing and kind voice asks, Rouge slowly turns around to see the Echidna looking at her with…worry? Surely that can’t be right, the same Echidna who crashed the shuttle the heroes used to get here…

“Y-yeah, I think I’m going to give up this line of work, too much work for too little pay, plus-“

She looks at Knuckles’ reflection in the window

“I’ve got something better than jewels in mind…”

She says with a crack in her voice, she hopes that the Echidna didn’t pick up on it, that’s he’s as dimwitted as everyone thinks he is but obviously he catches on…

“Hey…are you okay?”

“Y-yeah…I’m just looking down below. It’s beautiful, don’t you think?”

She says, desperately trying to steer the conversation away from current events.

Knuckles looks down at earth and grunts…

“It was…but after today…I can’t look at anything the same way again”

He pulls out the master emerald which has shrunken down.

“Heh, Tikal helped me learn to do this, makes it much more easier to carry around, want to hold it? I know you love jewels…”

Rouge looks at him wide eyed…why had he offered to let her hold the master emerald? Surely he’d know she could easily run off with it, Knuckles opens up her hand with his own and gives it to her, letting her hold it.

“I-I think it might make you feel at least a little bit better…”

That’s when it clicks in her head…he’s trying to comfort her, in his own little odd way, he’s trying to comfort her, make her feel better, sadly at the realisation of this, here eyes begin to water up, her vision getting blurry and the facade breaks, she slowly begins to let the tears fall from her eyes…

She drops the master emerald on the floor and cries into knuckles’ shoulder, hugging him as hard as she can, expecting him to push her away or shout at her that she dropped the master emerald but…that’s not what happens, he holds her tightly and tells her.

“Don’t worry…It’s alright to cry, he was your friend”

And finally the scene between sonic and Amy would place but slightly altered.

Here it is…

Planet Earth, such a beautiful and disturbing place, after this day, after what he’s heard and seen happen, he can’t look at it the same way again, what anyone can be capable off if they are pushed enough to the edge…

Sonic looks ahead at Earth, the stars and and feels…guilty…he was there, he saw Shadow fall however he lied to everyone…

After the final chaos control on the Space Colony Ark which retuned it to its normal position in space, no longer heading towards earth, Super Sonic looked around and saw two Rings floating, he picked them up and flew over to where he saw shadow, no longer in his Super form, very slowly moving away from the ark and towards earth.

Suoer Sonic quickly flew over to shadow however what happened…was heartbreaking.

Sonic would’ve been able to catch the ultimate Lifeform, in fact he should’ve but Shadow…Shadow pushed him away, he said that he doesn’t deserve to live after what he’s done, he broke Maria’s promise, hurt so many people and almost killed everyone. Sonic told him that he deserves a second chance to make them happy but Shadow smiled…

“Sonic…it’s funny you know, I think in another time, we could’ve been friends, maybe if things turned out differently we would be…but we’re both running out of energy, my super form has already run out and yours… it’s going to run out anytime now. So this is my final gift to you…goodbye, Sonic The Hedgehog.”

“SHADOW! NO!”

Shadow ended up using his remaining energy to use chaos control on sonic to teleport him back to the Ark, which right after it happened, Sonic’s Super form ran out…

From the observation deck Tails told sonic that Eggman was going to shut down the Space colony ark in 30 minutes which was around 20 minutes ago so the teleporters from earth and the Ark wouldn’t work, Sonic said he’s gonna catch up with tails nodding and walking off, leaving Sonic alone in the observation deck…

“The Ultimate Life form…Shadow The Hedgehog”

Just as he goes to walk away he sees Amy walk over into the observation deck, her eyes are puffed from crying but he can tell she’s trying to be strong, he smiles and walks over to her.

“I’m…Im so sorry Amy…I don’t know how close you got with Shadow, but I couldn’t save him… I appreciate you easing off on the romance but I shouldn’t have just ignored you when you needed my help…”

“I forgive you”

Amy replies with a smile, a sad smile but a smile nonetheless.

“People make mistakes, we’ve seen that today…but we also know that we can change for the better…so here’s to a better tomorrow Sonic.”

Amy extends her arm for a handshake with Sonic smiles and accepts.

“Here’s to a better tomorrow”

However he looks down at her wrist and sees something…new.

“Hey…are those?

Amy looks at her wrist and let’s put another smile, but this time it’s not a sad one…

“Yeah…these were his, I asked Rouge if I could have them, she said yes. Even when Eggman saw me wear them I could’ve sworn I saw a genuine smile from him. I think they look great but I also want to remember him like I remember you.

As a hero, someone I admire and want to be like.”

Sonic closes his eyes smiles.

“Me and you both Amy…me and you both”

Amy asks if he’s ready to leave and sonic Smiles.

“Yeah, let’s go back to the planet as cool and blue as me…”

They leave the room and the lights turn off but sonic looks back one last time.

“Sayonara…Shadow The Hedgehog”

The End…

Author’s notes:

(you can skip if you want cuz this is long enough already but it gives additional context to some scenes. There are also some other submissions I’ve written noted here to)

If you haven’t noticed I have written some submissions here before as (I think?) an anonymous user but finally made an account, specifically for this blog.

Most notably

Submission #59: A take on Shadamy

I’m 60-40 on this, it’s not written the best but I think my concept of their relationship is good enough

Submission #68: Yet another take on Shadamy

Not particularly proud of this one I can’t lie, the concept is decent but I didn’t proof-read it so it’s it’s sloppily written, I might either make a part 2 as a submission or just rewrite it and make it a complete story, though there was that one person who enjoy commented that they enjoyed it, I’m glad they did

Submission #74: Yet another Shadamy Scene Rewrite

I think it’s my best Shadamy piece I’ve done, it’s a very simple SA2 (can you tell it’s my favourite sonic story/game yet?)scene rewrite based on shadow and Amy’s first encounter on prison island.

Though I kinda wish I called the title of my first submission “yet a take on Shadamy” to fit in line with my “yet _____ Shadamy _____”

I wanted those final scenes to pull at the heart strings, sure it’s possibly too emotional for a Sonic story but I really don’t care, all of those scenes were based on experiences in my life so I tried to write the characters as “realistic” as I possibly could. I even snuck in some Knuxouge because I think it’s the only sonic ship that should be canon in the games, it makes the most sense to me. I also really hope I didn’t come off as bashing Sonic, that really wasn’t my intention, I really like Sonic as a character but I think this was the most realistic character development I could’ve given him. Rouge was definitely more emotional here but I think that makes sense, I didn’t even think of knuckles consoling her until a bit after so I promise it wasn’t just for a knuxouge moment. I couldn’t really do much with Tails, best I could do is have him sympathise with Eggman and referring to him as “Ivo Robotnik” was my was of showing that tails truly cared about Eggman in that moment. Also Sonic hugging Eggman might be slightly out of character but everyone is at their emotional limit here, including Eggman himself was hurt here, he found out the man he admired, his grandfather didn’t just not care about him but was willing to kill him, if felt personal to him and sonic saw that…

What I tried to do was not to create a Shadamy story (even though it certainly comes across as such because even though I love Shadamy, I don’t want any relationships in any main sonic games, hint at them sure but not proper relationships). Instead I tried to create a story with the basis of Sonic adventure 2 (my favourite sonic story) and improve certain aspects.

It just so happened that in my eyes, giving Amy a proper role would do exactly that and filling in details such as making it even more believable that Shadow would turn good at the end, giving a proper character arc to Amy and improving on Rouge’s and giving Sonic a character Arc with both realising that people can change for the better because knuckles wasn’t evil in 3&K, he was tricked. Sonic would also learn to take Amy more seriously.

Side note but I’ve always head people say that sonic has always been a flat character however I disagree, I think that became the case after SA2 because in that game, he learned that not everyone is purely good or bad, he learned that people will do bad things for good reasons and good things for bad reasons.

Another detail this adds is making it way more believable for Sonic to go back to Eggman when he takes Amy hostage because in SA2, sonic and tails just leave amy wondering around, both creating a liability and ignoring their friend however up to this point (in the hero story), Sonic, Tails and eventually Knuckles thought Amy had died on Prison Island but hearing her alive and being taken hostage would make it a good twist from a story standpoint along with making it WAY more believable that Sonic would rush back to Eggman. (even though tails was there).

Of course I had to add a scene between sonic and shadow, making it make more sense as to why shadow fell to earth and sonic couldn’t save him, I wanted to add shadow saying that they could’ve been friends in another time because that WAS true at one point, in heroes and 06 they respected each other and were friends with a slightly rivalry. In shadow the hedgehog, minus all the “evil” paths (which I don’t seem as canon) shadow and sonic are usually on good terms. Only in Boom is where there was an active distaste between the two.

Anyway that’s enough of me rambling. I originally wasn’t going to write some scenes and just skim through them like I have done with others but the ones near the end were too important for me to just simply skip. I’ve been writing this for about close to 3 hours now on my phone and I still have a few things to say but I’m satisfied with what I’ve written for now.

I’m going to be honest but this is the most emotional piece of work I’ve ever written, (coming from a guy who doesn’t think these characters beyond a few should be all “lovey-dovey” but speak through their actions and what they’re willing so do to make friend/partner happy) like I did with knuckles here.

Anyway I’m not going to link my AO3 here because my work isn’t nearly as emotional, it doesn’t have much shadamy and I also don’t wanna self promote here as well but if I write a SA2 rewrite with this concept, if I’m allowed to link it I will however it won’t be for a while as uni is killing me.

I hope you all enjoyed me rambling, I apologise for it being so damn long but I just has WAY too much to say and just ended up writing another part of a fanfic. Leave your thoughts below and owner of the blog (is that what I call you? Idk) keep up the great work.

[theuntoldoriginsoftheportmafia]

Part Ⅴ Escape - Chapter 1.5

☽ The Hitman's Dream ☾

2,215 Words

Dazai Osamu has never run faster in his life. 

As soon as the car he commandeered pulls into the dead end he starts full out sprinting. The large warehouse is easy to spot. It looks just like any other, save for the blue and red glows coming from inside. Flawless and Strait is the Gate locked in battle.

Slowing himself to a silent stop, Dazai creeps along the edge, picking the simple padlock on the side door. In seconds, he's in. The men stand, face to face, guns drawn.

Oda dodges and in three seconds Gide fires. Oda does the same, and just like him, Gide dodges. Matching each other's movements. Pushing and pulling like magnets.

'At this rate it's a battle of stamina. It can't go on forever, eventually they'll begin to tire, one of them will be too slow and then . . .'

Dazai doesn't want to think about that, and doesn't want to imagine his dear friend lying bloody on the ground. So he doesn't think. He acts. He fires his gun. The bullet finds its mark in Gide's back causing blood to spurt like fireworks from his mouth, spill over his lips, down his chin, and onto the concrete floor.

There's an old phrase by an American author, Ralph Waldo Emerson. "When you strike at a king, you must kill him." Marksmanship has never been Dazai's strong suit, and having only one eye in use doesn't help. Gide isn't dead yet.

In his final act, Gide raises his arm weakly, but it's just enough. Both men pull their guns at the same time. They pull the trigger, the sound echoing through the empty space. A sonic boom. Gide falls to the ground . . . so does Oda.

The red puddle grows, resembling a fallen rose, the shreds of a torn kimono, as it creeps across the ground. 

Dazai's eyes widen, round like the wound in Oda's chest. He runs to him, falling on his knees. "Odasaku!"

"I'm here Dazai. Thank you for coming to save me." he says, voice weak.

"Of course. Let's go back." Dazai grabs his older friend's hand, seeming to ignore the bleeding wound. He's in denial, refuses to think that he won't make it. He has too. If he doesn't, nothing will be the same again. "Yosano will heal you. I'll get you to Yosano. She'll heal you. You'll be good as new."

"Da . . . zai, I . . . can't."

"Yes, you can."

At this moment Dazai has never been more grateful for Nakahara Chuuya. If not for his endless competitions with his chibi in everything from martial arts to just plain running, if it wasn't for the drive to be the better one, the stronger one, then he'd never have been able to lift Oda.

He takes back what he said before. The way here was barely running. Nothing compared to now. He runs until his chest hurts and he's out of breath, and even with his feet aching and his head pounding. 

'The poor civilians will have gone by now and taken their car with them. Mori could have a car here in minutes, but I don't trust him. No car or bus will take me. I need Chuuya. I need . . . my phone! I left it! I can't believe I . . .'

Where the thin alleys turn back into full road, a car waits. A shining, dark green jeep with painted orange flames and no top, engine still on. A boy with hair like the flames on his car sits in the driver's seat.

"Get in!"

Dazai doesn't need to be told twice. He hops in and lets his partner use his ability to lift Oda into the back.

"How did you . . .?"

Chuuya gives a tense eyeroll, "You really think you're the only smart one around here, don't you."

Dazai says nothing, indicating that he's not amused.

"I forced the location out of your pal- Don't give me that look, I didn't hurt him! He wants you back safely as much as I do. He agreed as long as I promised not to go until you left the warehouse."

"He put a tracker on me!" Dazai realises with an uncomfortable start and begins patting himself down.

A memory comes to him of Ranpo's last shove, right before he fell. He slipped something in Dazai's pocket. Dazai digs around with his bloodied hands until he pulls out an oddly symmetrical sweet.

As annoying as it is to have Ranpo pull one over on him, he has bigger things to worry about now than his friend's unorthodox protectiveness.

'Does Mori have access to this? I can't ask Chuuya, I can't show him my doubt, not yet.'

"Yeah." is all Chuuya says, shrugging and shaking his head in mock amazement as if to say 'You really thought I'd just let you go? You didn't think I'd come for you? Don't be an idiot.'

A groan comes from the back seat, Dazai turns his head so fast it hurts.

"D-dazai?" Oda coughs.

"I'm right here. You're safe. Gide's gone. You're safe."

"You can slow down now, I won't make it, and driving this fast isn't safe." Oda furrows his brow, raising himself as if to try and see the speedometer. Even near death his protective instincts don't include himself.

Dazai turns to his partner "Chibi, floor it."

"What do you think I'm doing?" the red head mutters, knowing better than to start a fight when someone's dying in the back of his car.

'The warehouse was all the way across town, and we're still a few miles from HQ. There's only so many cut throughs I can take before I'll have to enter the business and tourist areas. I'll have to slow down then. Better bank as much time as I can.' Chuuya thinks, frowning when the speedometer reads only 160 kph, willing the pedal to sink down further.

"Dazai! Please slow down! You'll both get hurt." Oda pleads

"No. We're close."

'We're not.'

"We'll take you straight to Yosano. She'll fix you. Yosano's going to fix you. Fix you right up, just like new."

Everyone in the car can hear Dazai beginning to unravel as the life drains out of Oda through the hole in his chest and the car seems not to be getting any closer to it's destination.

"Listen, the bullet's close to my heart, I think. It's still in there, I can feel it. No matter how good a doctor she is, I don't know if there is any fixing this. I want . . . I need you to be ready for that."

"No. I'm not ready! Chuuya, use gravity, take the bullet out!"

"I can't, not from here. If I just yank it out, it might hit something else. Even if it didn't, it's holding the wound closed, it needs to stay in or he'll bleed out. You know that. Calm down, you're not thinking straight."

Small drops of water form in Dazai's right eye and behind his bandages, wetting them as they get bigger.

"He's right . . . I want you to know that I want better things for you."

"Stop!"

"I-"

"Shut up! Save your breath."

"Dazai, let him speak." 

Dazai glares at his partner, who keeps his eyes fixed on the road ahead. Oda grabs the boy's hand, looking sadly at his own blood that stains it. It's only this that keeps both men grounded.

When Oda speaks only a whisper comes out, scarcely audible over the wind's roar. "Dazai, listen to me, please. I know it makes no difference to you, but please become a good human being. Save the weak, protect the orphaned. I suppose you don't care for either justice or evil . . . but striving to be a better person is a wonderful thing."

Oda stares into the distance, Dazai follows his gaze. It's golden hour, when the sun casts a bronze glow onto everything in reach. In the evening light the five towers of the Mori Corporation glitter like the ocean. 

'How can something so evil look so angelic?'

Lost in thought, Dazai doesn't see Oda's eyes close. 

When he does turn again the man is limp, but smiling.

"Odasaku! No!"

Chuuya's voice shatters the moment, "Dazai, we're here!"

He nods, numbly.

-

They run to the lift, Dazai pressing the buttons over and over in panic, Chuuya floating Oda behind him. When they get there the door is open. Ranpo and Yosano are waiting.

The Angel of Death works quickly, removing the bullet, her dark rainbow of butterflies surrounding the unconscious Oda, healing him from the inside out.

When the butterflies disappear, Dazai starts to shake Oda, calling out to him.

Nervous, he looks to Yosano, "Why isn't he answering?"

"He's fine, just unconscious. There's nothing more to do but wait."

'Even I'll admit that it was close. If its had been two centimetres left. If they'd got caught in traffic . . . He's not going to wait is he? He's going to make himself sick pacing around here. But he'll only do the same thing in his office if I kick him out . . . best to just let him stay I guess.'

'I always wish he'd look less dead, but I think this is worse.' Chuuya looks at his distraught boyfriend. He's never seen emotion like this on him. It makes him reach out, despite Dazai's aversion to touch.

Dazai turns at the contact, but doesn't flich. An improvement.

"Hey, Osa, you stay with him. I'll fill the mission paperwork."

That big brown eye looks up at Chuuya with utmost gratitude. 

'Chibi hates paperwork.' but more important in his mind 'Chibi is going to face Mori for me.'

With a sympathetic smile Chuuya drops his hat onto Dazai's head and walks out. The two masked executives follow him.

"All the cabinets are electronically locked. Don't try anything. He'll be fine in a few hours." Yosano's voice calls as the three leave.

Dazai doesn't answer, instead observing Oda.

'He thought he'd died. He thought he'd died and he looked so happy. He's not happy now.'

"Are you happy, Odasaku?"

Only the whir of the air con and beep of the vital monitors answer him.

"How can I make you happy, my friend?"

In the silence that follows, Oda's words come back to him, as if the man is truly awake and beside him.

~ 

Two people sit with a stool between them.

"Read any good books lately, Dazai" Oda asked, trying to fill the silence in the unusually empty bar.

"Yes. A Shameful Life by Oba Yozo is a delight to read. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know . . ."

"Don't you?" Dazai had asked with those eyes that stare into a person's soul.

The gaze forced the 22-year-old to answer, "I've always wanted to be an author . . . it's the reason I don't kill anymore."

Dazai laughed, a single bark, more out of rare surprise then humour. "Oh? Do you think it'll keep you out of trouble? You've committed plenty of other crimes that the police could have you for."

Oda shook his head, pausing for a sip of his drink. "No, it's not that. I know I've done many wrongs, but long ago, I met a man who told me who told me that one who kills, one who causes death, has no right to write about life."

"Hmm." Dazai tapped his chin in thought, "Well, it sounds as rational as anything else elders say. I don't see a problem with it. Let's drink. Bartender! Another round, put it on my tab."

~

More recent words flood his brain before Dazai can fully process what he's just remembered.

"I know it makes no difference to you, but please become a good human being. Save the weak, protect the orphaned. I suppose you don't care for either justice or evil . . . but striving to be a better person is a wonderful thing."

'Doing good he says . . . is that what would make him happy? Then why hasn't he left?'

"Why are you still here. After all this time? Why didn't you leave?"

Oda's hand twitches, grabbing onto Dazai's.

"Odasaku! You're awake."

Oda snores softly. Dazai deflates.

'That's my answer, isn't it. He stayed because he had nowhere else to go. He stayed because of me. I'm the one that did this to him. I have to help him.'

"I'm going to help you Odasaku. I'm going to get you out of here. I just need some time to prepare, please trust me."

As day turns to night Dazai holds Oda's hand.

When Dazai feels sleep nagging at him he bows his head, ready to let it come, instead he's met with a hat in his lap. Chuuya's hat. It smells like his conditioner, a warm scent. To Dazai, it smells like home.

'Nakahara Chuuya. What am I to do about him? He'd never come with me and I could never hurt him by leaving him.' In the cold dark silence the thoughts that consume Dazai's restless soul are much louder, impossible to ignore 'But would it hurt him? Does he truly love me or is this just a fling for him? He deserves much better, someone as lively as him, someone who can keep from insulting him at every turn. I mean, he's probably going to leave me anyway. I could never stomach the heartbreak, so I should leave while I still can.'

"I'm such a coward, Oda, would you mind if I came with you. Would you mind it if we could run away from all this together?"

Soon, sleep overtakes him. He'll have back cramps later, but for now it's okay.