#taking her out of the sonic au because she no longer fits because i put the sonic gang in her place takes away a lot of what acaesia is

[silvershayde]

Yknow,

I’ve had the idea of Acaesia (concretely) ever since I was like 15 years old. It has been a good couple years since it’s first conception and has seen a lot of changes. When I finally had the guts to post some of it online, I was at that stage people sometimes get to with their ocs where they graduate from being a fandom oc to their own.

(I would say though, my ocs in general are a bit odd developmental style. I think of the OCs that I currently use only a few originate from a fandom oc (like Estella and Marcus who can be traced back to when I watched Jupiter Ascending) whilst most of them were truly their own thing, like Dahlia. Essentially I pulled a reverse Roman Empire and applied my ocs into whatever fixation I had. The biggest fixation till date is sonic. Maybe I’ll do an evolution of my ocs if anyone is interested in looking at it; it’s as complex as looking at aphrodite’s and dionysus’ history as deities)

Anyway I got sidetracked, essentially Acaesia has been developing two ways: one through my thoughts as a sonic au, and second through its own shenanigans that Dahlia has to go through or any other ocs involved. Right now Dahlia isn’t even the focus of the AU (i think cause its easier to think of what happens in Acaesia through a historical/ modern looking back lense, qnd when i say that I mean myths and legends and stuff, than a present tense narrative.

For ideas and stuff, the kingdoms I use now are different than what I have posted. For example, Snovera has become Rime, Avalora has become Alora, Turnunda has become Theia, Yuga has become Skeia. I have also taken the concept of Lemuria and applied it to my Ocean Kingdoms and have recently developed their relations to each other and one of the kingdoms, Antala has had its named changed to Alanti.

But, I keep the old names and stuff in the sonic au? Mostly cause with everything changing I might as well keep it the same when thinking about it as a sonic au, because I never got the chance to tell it. But it’s real hard to tell a story about something when a good portion of the concept is being developed independently of the catalyst of its conception.

[animaginaryartblog]

[Image ID: two versions of a digital painting of Blaze the Cat. They are based on a Trollhunters screenshot, but replacing Jim with an AU Blaze design.

Blaze wears armor similar to Percival's in Sonic and the Black Knight: small, rounded shoulder pauldrons, metal gloves with flared cuffs, and a metal chest plate on her torso with armor pieces hanging from the hips, resembling a tailcoat. Inset in the chest plate, above where her heart would be, is a gold amulet housing a shard of a red gem.

Along with the armor, Blaze wears her usual gold necklace and red bindi. Each gauntlet has a simple curling design on the top, with a red jewel inset in the center, matching her bindi. Under the armor she wears a white bodysuit, covering her legs and arms.

In the first version, Blaze is in her normal form, with lavender fur and yellow eyes. Her hair is not tied up but falling loose down her back, and violet bangs partly cover her bindi. Her armor is a silver-purple color.

In the second version, Blaze is in her Burning form. Her fur is pink, and her armor and blade are both gold rather than silver. A gold circlet pulls her hair back - not that it's needed, as both her hair and the tip of her tail have turned to scarlet flame. Her eyes, too, have the appearance of fire.

In both versions, Blaze stands against a stormy background, looming over the viewer. In her right hand she holds a flame. In her left, she holds her sword from Sonic and the Black Knight, pointed down at someone unseen. Lightning flashes behind her as she looks down at her opponent with an unreadable expression, eyes glowing gold. /end ID]

For the glory of Solaris, Sunlight is mine to command.

last Friday I had this all prepped and ready to post, wrote a whole long explanation of this AU's lore, and then the page reloaded and I lost the entire thing--or I thought I did, only for it to turn out the draft just saved to my main instead of here. so. see below for the referenced screenshot, an explanation of the AU, and some concept sketches.

[Image ID: a screenshot from the computer animated Trollhunters series. In the screenshot Jim, wearing his Trollhunter armor, stands against a stormy sky. He points his sword down towards something offscreen, his expression unreadable. Lightning flashes behind him. /end ID]

So a while back I got really into Tales of Arcadia with my brothers. it was brief, as my interests go, but during that time I, as is my wont, came up with a needlessly complicated Sonic AU starring Blaze the Cat. Because I never go about things halfway, I not only watched Trollhunters, 3Below, and Wizards, but I also went and read the original Trollhunters novel and some of the comics (and I would have read all the other novels too if they'd been available in our library and my interest had lasted longer).

Hence! The Sunhunter AU! It was originally called Shadowhunters, but I have too many AUs with "shadow" in the title anyway, and Sunhunter is more fitting anyway. Basic premise is that Blaze is the eponymous Sunhunter, and has been since she was a child, when she discovered the existence of the underworld and accidentally bonded with the amulet in a definitely-not-traumatic, totally-not-a-Disney-parent-death incident. Essentially, she fuses the roles of Jim from the show and Jack from the novel.

Blaze takes her duty extremely seriously and invests the bare minimum of time in her civilian identity. Who needs a childhood when there's an entire world to singlehandedly defend, amirite? Certainly not when the Black Arms are dangerously close to escaping and dooming the surface and the underworld both. But protagonists never get what they want.

With everything on her shoulders, it was only a matter of time until Blaze stumbled - and Marine was there to see it. Now she has to protect/put up with this young raccoon girl who refuses to leave her alone. This definitely will not lead to any burgeoning friendships, the development of a much needed support system, or discoveries about her enemies that she never would have made alone. No sir.

also it's Sonaze. because of course it is.

now for the concept sketches

that's right, we do speedpaints now! I mean, Procreate's always saved time lapses of my art, but now I'm actually going to try and share them! maybe! sometimes!

As you can see, I have a few different ideas for the exact mechanics of this AU. The first route would be to have humans still be, well, humans, and Mobians are either the equivalent of trolls, or a type of troll. This could be fun, but I doubt I'll go this route, since I like my silly little cartoon animals to stay silly little cartoon animals.

The other option is to have mobians living alongside humans, as in Sonic canon. From there I could either keep trolls the same as they are in Trollhunters canon, or replace them/supplement them with a Mobian equivalent. I do have the beginnings of some lore ideas for Mobians being split between the surface and the underground...

[sonic-love-island-official]

Amy (Bio/Character design ramble)

Oh, Amy, my sweetheart <3 Her bio & design ramble is finally here ! (under the cut x)

Amy Rose is a 22 year-old small business owner from Central City. She comes onto the Island (as an og), with the intention of finding her soulmate.

Amy is a girl who just radiates sunshine. Her bright, bubbly disposition and kind nature makes her a focal point in the villa, whether she's aware of it or not. Amy is extremely intuitive, strong-willed and has a good judgement of character, leading her to make accurate decisions surrounding her connections with the other Islanders. A true force of nature, Amy has a natural aptitude for impacting the lives of everyone she meets, with her gentle consideration or with her fiery wrath. In spite of her age, Amy comes with a handful of mature, sensible values and boundaries. But that doesn't hold back her juvenile dream of a white-picket-fence future, seen through her rose-tinted glasses...

External design choices !! (visual appearance - incl. formation of base sim, references taken, makeup choices, fashion style... etc.)

I'll try my best to describe strictly the similarities between Amy's sim translation and her canon, hedgehog counterpart, as it was my sister who created her sim !

Amy, much like Sonic, has very round facial features and Amy’s sim counterpart takes on those features as well. Her face and eyes retain as much of their soft shape and when Amy puffs her cheeks (image 4), it becomes all the more prominent. Canon Amy has a much smaller, button-shaped nose than the likes of Sonic or Shadow, and I feel like that also translated well into her sim. Can I just appreciate here that her lips are so 💕💕

For her hair, keeping her bob-cut was the direction we took. A lot of people like to depict Amy with longer hair/quills to signify she's grown up (personally, this idea never sits right with me for some reason ?? Maybe it's because I'm a short-haired girlie myself), but for this human AU, and to make Amy look as close to Amy as possible, sticking with the short hair was the way to go. We directly colour picked the RGB code from her modern canon design as well. All in all, this hair really suits her and is perfect for any occasion (it's got to be one of my favourite CC hairs we have too. It's beautiful). Additionally, there's a small hint of blonde in her roots, as my sister headcanons Human! Amy to be a natural blonde.

Another detail that's included in Amy's design is her fitness. Amy's canon and sim translation are both very active and physically strong, but it doesn't quite look like it ? They both have fairly thin arms, yet could haul something ten times their own size. Due to Amy's (sim) skin overlay, she has a set of abs beneath that swimsuit and I think that is so fitting for her character. Her skin tone has pinkish undertones as well, I've noticed, and I like that that plays quite nicely into her overall design.

I've yet to mention Amy's number one talent: she suits everything. Put any item of clothing, in any colour on Amy and she looks impeccable. Therefore, she has no set style ! Of course, she gravitates towards brighter colours and cutesy items, but she's been dressed in countless different things purely because it's impossible to go wrong with her. Amy's one of my personal favourites to make outfits for, just because her model is that versatile.

Amy's makeup began very simple. A red/pink glossy lipstick, highlighter, blush and a small winged eyeliner. That has been kept fairly consistent (I don't imagine Amy wears a ton of makeup on a day to day basis on the outside) with some variations. Other times, if she's making a statement, she'll branch out and go for something more bold, but more often than not, Amy likes to keep her look quite soft and in a colour palette suited to her.

Internal design choices !! (personality, characteristics, psychology)

I've really grown to love and admire Amy's character over time, and there's some aspects of her character that shine the brightest. I want to honour that in this project; she's truly a gem. As for my sister, she's an Amy kinnie, so she doesn't need to analyse Amy's character as much as I do when it comes to writing for her.

Amy, like the others, is a mixture of her characterisations throughout Sonic media. For the most part, she's the Amy of the game continuity: a bundle of positive energy. Persistent, selfless, bright-eyed with optimism, but also sometimes hot-headed, overbearing and a little obsessive. She's so shamelessly herself that stripping anything away from what makes Amy Amy felt criminal. Some of the Islanders may try and tear her down (and some almost succeed), but her indomitable will is immortal. Three cheers to Amy being Amy because she's incredible <3

Amy also prominently exhibits behaviours more akin to her Sonic Boom and Frontiers characterisation when it comes to maturity. Amy is still young, and she makes that evident in her words, actions and ideals, but the way she navigates her relationships with others is so much more adult than even the older Islanders. She can set healthy boundaries, address the tough stuff when needed while also having reasonable expectations, despite her 'hopeless romantic' inclination.

Even so, that side of her runs deep. Amy's prone to flights of fancy. That little girl that dreams of finding true love, getting married and living happily ever after lives on within her. Amy's journey is about finding the balance between idealism and seeing things from a more realistic standpoint (which she very well knows how to do !! It's all in convincing herself that this balance is already present within her).

Fun facts / trivia :

Upon entering the villa, Amy is accompanied by her beloved soft toy, Birdie — a reference to the Flicky she assisted in Sonic Adventure.

Even though Amy isn't anyone of influential status, she surprisingly is well-connected with famous faces within the AU.

Amy used to live in an apartment in Station Square, prior to The Flood.

[wereh0gz]

I don't feel like I can draw rn but I have ideas rattling in my brain so. Gonna talk about Shatterverse versions of my ocs

I think Ruby and the twins would be the only ones to be involved as they're the most likely to be near the epicenter of the Prism shattering. Edna, Eli, and Nox would probably be elsewhere. All of the Shatterspaces revolve around and feature the characters that were actually physically there in Green Hill when Sonic broke everything, so yeah they'd probably be the only ones. Also if I tried to make more au versions of my characters I might just spontaneously combust it's just too much for my brain to keep track of rn.

More under cut bc this is getting long already

Anyways lets start with New Yoke.

I already drew what New Yoke Ruby looks like. I didn't know what to name them but I think I'm gonna go with Rue. I already call them that sometimes as a nickname and the word itself means sorrow or regret so it's fitting. They're basically like Prime Ruby but ten thousand times worse. They were used by the council as a lab rat to test the effects of Dark Gaia Energy on people for some kind of project, but that never got anywhere as Rue uh. Got rid of anyone involved. By smashing their skulls on the floor and tearing them apart limb from limb. The council no longer employs living people probably because of them. They're very traumatized but refuse to get help and their coping methods are absolutely terrible. Not like they'd be able to get any good help in a literal dystopia. They're on the run from the council along with this world's versions of Melany and Max (which i don't have names for yet because I'm bad at names. I also need to draw them. I'll get to that eventually).

The twins don't exactly fare much better. While Prime Melany is sweet but mischievous, New Yoke Melany is downright malicious towards others while putting up a smile. Prime Max doesn't speak much and usually lets Melany do the talking, but still holds up on his own, while New Yoke Max is completely silent and hides in his sister's shadow. They have the same powers as their Prime versions too, but here it makes them a target, so they're always on the run from the council along with Rue. They're warped versions of the originals, taking on bitter personas in response to a world and the broken souls around them.

They're not all bad tho. The twins took Rue in when she was at her worst, and they still consider each other family. Not even the shattering of the universe could tear them apart :)

Now onto the Boscage Maze Shatterverse. This one's a little less depressing I think. Maybe.

Anyways this version of Ruby is a monster trapped in a deep part of the jungle who is infected by, you guessed it, Dark Gaia Energy, which has been festering under the darkness of the canopy. I'm calling her Camellia because red flowers. The Dark Gaia Energy here manifests into the usual monster mutations but also into weird glowy flowers growing on her body and on plants and such. I keep imagining her dialogue being similar to Midwife's from Hollow Knight. Like "I know, I know. You're intrigued. You want to know the tale. Well I'm sorry. I'd love to tell it, but I'm just, I'm very, very sorry, and I haven't eaten in some time......... and oh, I'm STAAAARVING........" She tries to eat Sonic on their first encounter.

The twins I think would just be called The Hunters. They watch over the area Camellia's in, but haven't been able to get a good catch because of Thorn vehemently protecting the animals of the jungle that was their main source of food. Which is why Camie is hungry and losing it. The Hunters may or may not be losing it because of hunger too. Also they know the Dark Gaia Energy is growing more potent the more the jungle grows, so they try to keep it contained, which is getting harder as Thorn blocks out more sunlight.

Alright now finally. No Place Shatterspace versions. This one was probably the hardest one for me to come up with alternate versions of my ocs for. I don't really think about pirate stuff that much? So uh. I tried lmao.

Ok this version of Ruby would be called uhhh. I have no clue I'll probably think of one later. Anyway they're ALSO afflicted by Dark Gaia Energy of course, cursed with it a long time ago which turned them into a sea monster of sorts because that's how it manifests in this world. They're a little bit like a siren, their howl-like singing attracting sailors, but instead of bringing them in to drown them and possibly eat them, they lure them in so the twins can steal their treasures.

The twins (which I also don't know what to name please help me) are a pair of pirates that hunt myths and monsters and, of course, other people's treasure. Besides the thievery they're actually pretty nice, if only a bit creepy because their ship is kinda haunted and they're friends with a wolf sea monster thing. These three versions are probably the happiest all things considered. They have a jolly ol' time stealing shit from people and hunting ghosts and other monsters and singing songs and having fun!

I believe we've yet to see one of the Shatterspaces, as each one has a shard of the prism and we haven't seen where the yellow one is (unless it's in The Grim, but I don't think that's the case because the portal color doesn't match and there's an event in Sonic Dash that shows another round purple shard that is more likely to be in there. So yeah.) I'll probably make versions of my ocs for that Shatterspace too when the next few episodes come out. If there's a new Shatterspace revealed. God I hope there will be.

Anyways I should probably go to bed now I'm tired goodnight

[azure-wolf-227]

Sonic Underground Reboot Characters Redesigns: Sonic, Sonia, Manic, and Queen Aleena

So, for my Sonic Underground Reboot AU, I decided to redesign many of the characters so that they fit in with what I have in mind for this AU. One of the major things about these redesigns is that all the characters, both male and female, will be given full outfits. While I don’t usually mind the Sonic characters’ lack of clothing, I find it weird and out of place in Sonic Underground. This is because most of the minor/background characters in the series have full outfits, while the some of the main characters (Sonic and Manic) barely wore anything. Therefore, everyone wears clothing in this AU.

For Sonic, I had two different ideas for his outfit so I decided to do them both. The one on the is his “mission outfit” that he wears during his missions as a Freedom Fighter; the one on the right is his “casual outfit” and pretty much his default clothing for everyday use. In both outfits, I changed his gloves to match the design of his shoes. The outfits were inspired by this image.

(I’m not entirely happy with how Sonic turned out compared to the rest of his family so I might redraw him in the future)

For Sonia, I mostly kept her original outfit but changed some of the colors and added some stuff like shorts and a scarf. I also gave Sonia longer hair to give her a more feminine look fitting her high society upbringing and to make her resemble her mother Aleena a bit more. Her longer hair mostly covers the spines on her head. I also made her shoes kind of resemble Sonic’s in design.

For Manic, I decided to take inspiration from the punk rocker theme that he has: I kept his vest, shoes, spiked wristbands, and waist bag, then gave him a white t shirt and ripped black pants, and changed his his gloves to black, fingerless ones. Since I found his hairstyle difficult to draw, I reduced the number of bangs but still tried to get them to look right. (It was later that I realized that I put his earrings in the wrong ear).

Finally, Aleena is NOT wearing that royal dress and crown because “you do not wear fancy dresses and gaudy jewelry while hiding from the tyrant who usurped you!” Ahem, anyway, I gave Aleena a much simpler and practical outfit that still retains the white and gold colors from her original outfit, with some gray pants underneath and a pair of brown boots. I also gave her the red cloak that she wears in the opening and in some episodes cause I like this one better than the other one. Just like with Sonia, Aleena’s hair mostly hides her head spines. Like her children, Aleena wears a magical medallion that can become an actual instrument and serve as a weapon. Hers is shaped like a lyre and its instrument form can be used to cast forcefields.

I took some inspiration from Sonic’s design in the live-action movie and gave them all separated eyes and arms the same color as their bodies.

Also, I gave Sonia, Manic, and Aleena green eyes similar to Sonic’s; all their eyes being green is a plot point in my AU. To simplify, it is an indicator that they have some Chaos energy within them.

Edit 12/22/2020: Forgot to explain Aleena’s medallion.

Edit: 12/24/2020: Fixed her belt a bit; changed the position of the buckle.

[mobius-prime]

199. Sonic the Hedgehog #131

Deep breaths, guys. I know what the cover page says. I know. We'll get to that. Just hang in there. I think you might like what I have in store.

Home (Part 2 of 4): The Gathering

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jason Jensen

So not much actually happens in this installment of Home other than the various characters talking to each other about and preparing for the upcoming battle. Since Sonic has been gone, a new Freedom Fighter Special has been constructed that can cut travel time dramatically around the globe. A journey that in the Tornado or on foot (in Sonic's case) would have taken up to two hours can be completed in a mere half hour now, thanks to Rotor's engineering prowess. And thus, Sonic and Tails head out to Old Megaopolis to stop Eggman's twin nukes from launching, along with an… interesting backup team, to say the least.

Man, remember Fiona? It's been ages since we've seen her! It appears that while Sonic was in space, she joined up with the crew in Knothole and has been helping them fight Eggman. That's definitely a better life for her than to be running with the likes of Nic the Weasel, eh? Meanwhile, Knuckles, Julie-Su, Amy Rose, and the other two (active) members of the Chaotix head to Fort Acorn, where General D'Coolette is giving a speech to the soldiers under his command. We've never even heard of this fort before, but according to the general it's been here for ten years, keeping a forward watch on Robotropolis, and this watch has been maintained even after Robotropolis' destruction in case of just such a situation as the current one. With their reinforcements from Knothole, the crew at the fort prepare to defend the city against a massive swatbot assault to lower the forcefield keeping the radiation in check. Back in Knothole, extra measures are being taken to make absolutely sure that even if the worst happens, the citizenry will be safe.

Station Square, for their part, has sent a squad of GUN commandos to help in the battle at Old Megaopolis. The commander of the military is baffled by this decision, wanting to send in their full fighting force, but the president instead opts to trust his allies from Knothole - though just for insurance, he's sent one of his own operatives along for the ride…

Now that's what I like to see! It's about time Rouge got herself some proper screentime. As all this is going on, Eggman waits aboard a docked battleship in the harbor of Old Megaopolis with his assistant M, and orders A.D.A.M. to begin the missile countdown. However, almost immediately, the sound of a biplane puts them on high alert, and Eggman is shocked to see Sonic and Tails bearing down on his location, not having expected them to be able to get here nearly so fast. See, Eggman, this is why you resist the siren call of your ego and keep your damn plans to yourself. All you did was give your enemies ample warning to prepare to foil your evil plot, you idiot!

Mobius 25 Years Later: Prologue

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jensen

Okay, guys. This is it. We've reached the most Penders thing of all time. This is something that has been hinted at here and there from all the way back in the Sonic In Your Face special to now, and we're finally seeing the culmination of all of that buildup. All the intricate worldbuilding, all the complex character arcs, all the intrigue and political spider webs and back to back wars and everything that the world of Mobius has been through up until now - there's so much to explore, so many directions it could have gone. We're about to see what this world might look like twenty-five years into the future, and with so much rich history to draw from, what might you imagine this story might look like? What genre might it fall into? Well wonder no longer!

It's a drama. It's a teen drama.

There's a reason that Mobius 25 Years Later is widely considered to be one of the worst parts of the comic. The tone of it is just so far off anything else we've experienced so far that it clashes horribly with what we've come to expect. It's not some masterful subversion of expectations or something - in a lot of ways I consider it to be a genuine insult to the rest of the preboot's material up to this point. It's painfully and immediately clear that this is a story Penders has wanted to tell for a while, but, not being able to fit his "middle-aged adults adulting everywhere and being so adult-like while ignoring the feelings and difficulties that ordinary teenagers face" plot anywhere into the rest of the comic, he's opted to just fire the world a couple decades into the future, pair all the major characters off into weird and oftentimes arbitrary heterosexual marriages, give everyone 2.5 children and a titanium picket fence, and then throw in some allusions to the old "war against Doc 'Botnik" here and there lest we forget, entirely understandably at this point, that we're reading a Sonic the Hedgehog comic here. This thing goes on for nineteen whole issues, taking up each subsequent issue's backup story, and ultimately has no real impact on the actual story involving the characters we already know and love. However, this is technically canon, or at least a version of canon (as when you play with alternate realities and multiple timelines, futures are bound to get mixed up here and there), so we're gonna be covering it - all of it. I wouldn't be tempted to skip it anyway, as by delving into each chapter in this trainwreck, we can actually explore why this whole thing fails so hard, and why it's therefore so loathed in the fandom. Plus, I do recognize that some people actually do enjoy this arc for various reasons (one of my close friends does, and has a whole AU of her own relating to it in fact), so I do plan to at least try to be fair in my review - but I really can't hide that I find this whole affair boring as hell, often downright offensive, and ultimately completely out of place. With all that in mind, let's dive in!

We begin with a full page of exposition delivered to us via high school lecture, because everyone knows the best way to establish your worldbuilding is by infodumping it directly into your audience's eyeballs. Apparently, over the last twenty years, Angel Island has been heavily developed into its own independent republic, with a new city, Portal, acting as the center of trade between the island and the mainland below. We're once again introduced to Lara-Su, who, instead of being the badass time-traveling young adult whom we followed before, is now an ordinary teenager taking ordinary high school classes among a bunch of ordinary high school echidnas.

One of the biggest failings of this story is that Penders writes every teenage character how he thinks teenagers act, from his point of view as a middle-aged adult. This becomes abundantly clear the longer you read, as every teenager is a hormone-fueled, authority-defying, entitled, whiny, fickle child who just doesn't understand how the real world works, while every adult is a wise, experienced, and highly logical individual who always knows more than their younger fellows and refuses to pay attention to the whims of mere children. Like, I'm not even exaggerating here - I'm going to be pointing out every instance of this kind of behavior over the entire rest of this arc, and you can't stop me, so nyah nyah. Penders shows so little respect for the mere concept of teenagers, which is a terrible attitude to have not just in general, but especially if you're one of the head writers for an entire series about teenagers saving the goddamn world! Anyway, case in point: the teacher, instead of admonishing Rutan for being a bully, merely snaps at Lara-Su for not acting enough like a "young lady" and tells her to stay after class. Ugh.

Later that day, Rotor arrives on Angel Island as a liaison for the royal ruling couple, Queen Sally and King Sonic, because yes, Sonic literally becomes king in this timeline. He catches a ride from Harry - hey, good to see our favorite dingo still doing well for himself at least - and meets with Espio, who is now apparently Knuckles' secretary or something. At least, that's all I can assume from this weird-ass conversation.

As a matter of fact, yes, Sonic and Sally are bringing their two children, Sonia and Manik, to the family dinner! How very mid-70s domestic family unit of them! Espio informs Knuckles of this over a television screen as the latter broods around in some kind of high-tech facility. Unlike what we've seen of Espio, the years have dramatically changed Knuckles' appearance - his right eye is missing, replaced with a mechanical one, and he sports the cowboy hat that Hawking gave him in the past (you know, the one we never saw again after he received it). While I actually quite like the idea of a main character in the comic losing something as important as an eye, I feel like there's a huge missed opportunity here - instead of just thrusting us into an alternate future where everything is fine but one character is inexplicably missing an eye, how about actually showing us the story of how that eye was lost? Show us a Knuckles who's learning to cope with the loss of an important body part, and having to adjust to his mechanical prosthetic! Go into his feelings about the subject, as someone who has so long been opposed to a faction that thrives on mechanical prosthetics, instead of just skipping over what has the potential to be the most interesting part of this story! Ugh, sorry, there's just nothing that gets to me more than a missed opportunity like this. Knuckles and Espio exchange some tortured small-talk about their kids for a little while, with the only interesting part of the conversation being their discussion of Rotor's arrival and how he's likely here to see someone named Cobar, with whom he apparently has a history. More on that later. Knuckles excuses himself from the conversation, as he has to be home in time for his daughter's "Unveiling" tonight, and as the call ends we zoom out to see that apparently nowadays, the Master Emerald is hooked up to all sorts of technology in this facility, presumably maintaining everything automatically. However, this story isn't done throwing weird curveballs at us yet - it's time to see what our former villains are up to in this future!

There is so much to unpack here. Dimitri, feared overlord of the Dark Legion, is now an amiable cyborg-head-in-a-bubble. Lien-Da, the treacherous second-in-command who regularly spoke of betraying Dimitri and taking the Legion in her own darker direction, is now apparently a single mom who's embraced the domestic life, taking care of her rowdy teenage son while, predictably, complaining about the behavior of kids these days. And weirdest of all, apparently everyone is just fine with these literal former terrorists living in their midst and doing ordinary mom and grandpa things, with Lien-Da even apparently amenable to the idea of trying to make up with Julie-Su because "they're family," despite her history of, you know, erasing Julie-Su's memory multiple times and killing her biological parents as revenge for her birth. I mean, is this what Penders thinks adulthood is? Is he even entirely sane? Does he know the definition of terrorism?

Any-goddamn-way, Knuckles arrives home to his eerily sterile-looking steel-plated mansion that looks more like the lobby of a pharmaceutical laboratory than a place where people live, and greets his loving housewife Julie-Su, who's gained a cute giant ponytail but lost absolutely everything else that made her unique, including her own cybernetic parts and just her personality in general. She informs Knuckles that Lara-Su has locked herself in the bathroom and is having herself a mighty tantrum, refusing to come out to get ready for her Unveiling ceremony, which is apparently the equivalent of a Quinceañera for echidna girls. Knuckles, instead of doing something reasonable like asking her why she's upset, starts aggressively demanding that she come out of her room this instant, while Lara-Su repeatedly yells about how she doesn't wanna. Ugh, teenagers, amiright?

Seriously, I just can't get over how little respect Penders has for teenagers in his writing. Like, yes, I acknowledge that teenagers aren't always the most logical of beings, but they're also not goddamn three-year-olds either. They're old enough to articulate their desires and express their unique opinions, and often do so in very mature ways, especially if they're raised well and treated with the same respect you'd afford any adult. I should know, I was one myself. I would have assumed Penders was one as well at some point, but perhaps he just popped into the world one day as a fully-formed 43-year-old, full of disdain for those younger than himself. It would certainly explain everything we're seeing here.

Anyway, it turns out that the reason Lara-Su is upset is because Knuckles refuses to train her to be a Guardian, and so she whines and yells about it from behind the door like a petulant child as Knuckles continually refuses to actually give her a solid reason why he won't let her be one. When Julie-Su basically forces him to calm the hell down and explain himself, he reluctantly explains that since all the duties of a Guardian have by now been taken over by other functions of their society, he feels there's no longer any need for one, himself included. This is apparently enough to make Lara-Su immediately happy enough to burst out of the bathroom and grab her father's arm, suddenly totally excited to go to her Unveiling as long as Knuckles promises her the first dance. Ah, the fickle mind of a silly, silly teenager!

Kill me.

[cutegirlmayra]

I believe I have read most of your prompts but I haven't come across a prompt like this yet so here it is: years pass and Sonic and Amy grow closer with Amy becoming more mature and Sonic being more comfortable open with her. He slowly falls in love with Amy and is really confused with how he's feeling so he talks with Amy about it. I need me some awkward wholesome SonAmy >A

OHHHHHH The ideas in my head go round and round, round and round? Round and round! All into the ficlet~

I’d also like to remind my Cuties (Followers) out there to please remember that my Prompts are on SHUTDOWN. Do not send me prompt ideas, please! Some of you have and it only adds to my pile. Wait till they open again, okay?

Plus, you can read all my prompts on @idontworkforsega !

So… There’s more ‘drama’ than ‘cute awkwardness’ but I hope it heps that it’s in Sonic’s POV XD

THIS IS AN AU, lol

Prompt:

“It’s sort of weird you would ask me here, Sonic. Usually, we hang outside of movies and try to zip in free or dart if we get caught trying!” Amy, much older and much more matured now, giggled with a slight snort that caught her off guard as she held her hand up over her mouth.

It had been a while… a long while… since we’d taken a break from each other.

Amy swapped her iconic red and white dress for something more form-fitting. For some reason, she dressed like a punky rebel now, making me think I influenced her a little too much with those ‘daring movie dates’ of the past.

Those were meant to just be fun. Over time, it started confusing me. Amy, of course, saw them as officials dates until one day… she chilled out.

It’s like she had given up on thinking romantically about me, and after she did, I started hanging out with her more.

Who knew girls could be so… so…

Awesome?

We started doing a lot of derring-dos like jumping off skyscrapers, me grabbing her and scaling down the side. The city became more alive with random karaoke with the gang to sudden—competitive—miniature golf tourneys… just us two.

Amy never reached out to me anymore. She didn’t follow. She only ran towards the hottest sales and latest fashion. I would have hated it if she became some sort of a diva, but instead, she turned into a ‘do or die’ kind of girl… and honestly?

I’ve been feeling up for a ride.

“You used to like it here.” I lifted a leg up to the raised, concrete wall that cut off the city from the park. I wanted to take her away from the city’s air… I wanted to bring her back to her roots.

Nature…-Ish, I guess.

“Every time I brought you here,… you’d try and kiss me.” I thought that was a bit blunt, but she seemed to roll her eyes to me and lower them as if sensing a joke.

Which, it half was…

She laughed again, but this time, sticking her mouth straight up to the sky to really exaggerate the bounce her chin made at the ridiculous gesture. “Hahaha! Anytime I got with you seemed like a treat! I couldn’t help but think it a fantastic opportunity… A date…” she looked off into the park, and just as I planned, she looked to a couple who were sitting close to each other.

The girl’s legs were flopped over the dudes. His hand was resting on them while he flipped through his book, and she, her own.

“…Couples are so…” Amy started, which perked me up because I haven’t heard her speak about ‘couple’ topics in a few years now… “…Annoyingly sweet.” She looked away and suddenly started digging like a meerkat into the purse.

I frowned. My sudden enthusiasm at seeing the little 12-year-old girl again was diminished at her immediate side-swiping of the thought all together.

My eyes lowered, showing more of my dislike in these results. “What? You don’t want annoyingly cute anymore? I thought you were the master of that!” I laughed, again, trying to be slick about my approach with this.

Eggman had attacked just a few weeks ago. He was getting up there in age… then again, he always was. But for some reason, this old man dipped his toe into Ponce de León’s Fountain of Youth and has been his giddy, world-conquering self ever since…

Though, his latest scheme harkened back to my glory days. I thought it a nice touch, almost as if Eggman was giving me a birthday present or something. In a… murdering love… kind of way.

But Amy didn’t get me anything for my birthday.

That’s when I noticed she hadn’t hugged or doted on me in a long time.

I guess I never noticed after all the times we’ve casually hung out together, but Amy was starting to attract a lot of attention from other men.

I would occasionally see her flirting, which itched me the wrong way, to be honest, but turn any offers down when it came to making something serious.

I didn’t watch her or anything…

It’s called guarding your friends wisely.

Good friends do that.

Well, anyway… I started thinking maybe it was time to actually THINK about Amy Rose.

Ah… The rose that blew away from the wind… I definitely wasn’t expecting that.

It’s almost like she willingly did anything I dared and then suggested reckless—admittedly fun—activities just cause she knew I would do it instead of asking for my hand in marriage or dating schedules.

I honestly… missed those dating schedules.

Usually, on my birthday, she’d insist on treating me to something and then a movie.

That ‘something’ is what I dreaded most. It was THE most boringest activity any young girl could put upon an adventurous boy’s heart!

But I digress… This time, when she just said ‘Happy Birthday!’ and walked on like I meant nothing to her… I really was concerned.

The boys didn’t bother me. I knew nothing would really happen anyway.

Her not chasing after me during adventures wasn’t a big deal. I knew I could always swing by the apartment sometime and grab a bite to eat with her.

No homemade meals especially for Sonic The Hedgehog was a change, but I got used to snacks.

No marriage proposals were especially nice.

But the day she didn’t seem to even care I existed… that struck me the most and caused some sort of… lasting, depressing impression on me.

That’s why I asked her to the park today.

And… that’s admittedly why I planted our bums right in front of the adorable and openly visible couple.

“Oh, that?” She tilted her hair back to me, some earrings clanging along with the smooth movement. “Ha..ha..ha.” she wiggled her head to me, again the clanging jingled as if mocking me as well. “We both know I’ve grown out of that. Besides, I’m far too clever to waste my time on men.” She pulled out the desired object she was looking for in her purse.

A mirror.

As she pulled out some lipstick and started applying it, I couldn’t help but ball up my hand for a second, death-glaring that cherry-flavored lip gloss and look away with a scowl spreading across my face.

How could she torture me like that!?

“You don’t… feel anything towards men anymore?” I decided, heck! If she thinks I’m just teasing her, then I will.

It’s getting me somewhere. And I honestly can’t explain everything I’m feeling. Maybe if she talks more, I can better identify why her ‘self-absorbed’ attitude was getting to me lately…

I bit my thumb to hold in my anger. That stupid mirror. She used to look into my eyes to see herself. She never said it, but I knew that’s what she was doing.

I knew if I ever asked, she’d say something crazy like- I want to see myself as you see me, Sonic! And tee-hee like the innocent but lovestruck girl she was back then.

I looked back into her eyes.

The deep mascara-soaked eyelashes made it impossible to see through to her eyes. I couldn’t even see a reflection in them from this angle. The lashes draped over like shredded black curtains that bounced as she blinked gently.

I would have stared longer to describe them a bit better to you, but sadly, she looked up at me and winked, smiling.

I turned away with a flinch. I hated when she did that!

“Woah! For a second there, I could have sworn you blushed!”

Now I grinded my teeth together, “I was just embarrassed… is all.” I ruffled some of my quills up with my hand and then shook my head to drop them back down in place.

“You’re so funny, Sonic. You always were, but now… especially so!” she clicked her feet together and let them sway a moment as her shoulders bounced, letting her head duck down between them before she held it high and pompously again.

It’s like she knew she was pretty and didn’t care.

Like I wanted to stare and she wouldn’t let me.

Not like I cared what she would have wanted me to do…

“Nah… Men are just… men now.” She looked away again, but I could tell by her tone that something was off with that.

“…You giving up?” I asked and suddenly realized how awful that sounded.

I was about to try and make a quick save by forming a ‘joke’ out of it but she tilted her head and I grew silent.

“…I mean… haven’t you?” she turned her head to me. “About girls. You’ve never really been interested in anyone. I guess after some time, I just accepted that.” She nodded and I felt like every jump of her head was another stab in my back.

I twitched painfully at her nodding and turned away, darting my eyes a bit before looking back to the couple.

“…I didn’t give up.” I stated, a bit shallowly. “I just… never started.” I looked down to my hand, seeing it flex out as it tried to remain ‘cool’.

Why was this so awkward? Why did I feel sweaty and out of my element..? All of a sudden, she had made me tense and wary of her. What was this!?

“…Oh.” Amy looked forward again, and for once, I actually saw her a bit shaken up about me again.

“I just… always assumed you… you never liked… certain girls.” She suddenly started tugging on her hair, moving her fingers through it and quickly brushing it out. I slowly turned back, fascinated by the nervous movement and seeing some real flustered pink trace against her cheeks for the first time in a millennia of hanging out with her.

I was… kinda awestruck at it.

“I mean… you just were a … you know… womanizer or something.” She cleared her throat as if that was hard to say, and honestly, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Why would I be a womanizer if I never flirted with anyone!?” I laughed, but she seemed spooked about that reaction too.

“But you-! You were always..!” she cut herself off, leaning forward to me before pulling herself back.

I hid my face behind my hand as I laughed, peeking through to hope she didn’t notice I was trying to lure out more of a confession in her.

If I knew how she felt… maybe… then I could understand what I was feeling…

She seemed really shaken up now, her head shifting about and her eyes looking at different specks on the ground.

She blushed, and I suddenly felt my heart soar as though racing up a loop-de-loop of the past.

“Amy…”

“I-it’s nothing! You just… always smiled at them and-!” she grew incredibly…

Adorable.

Her hands raced to the sides of her cheeks, “I thought you liked those wild women…” she seemed to be panicking, and quickly tugged her purse closer to her and started rampaging around in it.

“Woah, woah..! Hey! Calm down…” I couldn’t help it, I was smiling!

This girl didn’t really… transform herself to be what she thought I would like… did she?

Amy quickly took out a makeup remover wipe from her purse and held it for a moment… she shoved it back into her purse and shoved the entire thing away.

“It’s fine. Honestly, I like myself and I like our new dynamic.”

“Dynamic?” Our relationship was anything BUT dynamic…

She was a cheerful and always encouraging girl from the sidelines. Recently, she had become the fun girl cheerfully encouraging mischief from the sidelines.

Both were fine. But only one of them was Amy to me. The other was a girl I knew a long time ago… she was cute, made me a little apprehensive, but was kind and loyal in her faith that I could save the world.

Then there was Amy. The same girl, but much more interesting!

I could relax now, but she was still feisty! Just in… eh… another kind of way.

She was loud and didn’t care. Wild, always wanting a good time. Never a dull moment…

The two just… mixed. After the old Amy faded from memory, I hadn’t noticed how much I-

That’s it.

My eyes widened when I realized what I was feeling.

“Amy… I missed you!”

Her face froze and she studied something intensely in her mind, before turning back to me again. “What?”

“Do you still like me?” I jumped both my feet up to the wall now, making sure to balance myself and stay crouched by her side. “I mean… like me enough to want to… sit all cute and affectionally like those two, over there?” I moved my head in the direction of the couple but only moved my gaze from her for a second.

She was considerably flustered now.

I knew without a doubt she still had feelings for me, and it gave me courage and a thrill I hadn’t felt in an awfully long time.

“Why not?” I shrugged, “Your cute, I’m handsome. We’re especially good at thrill rides and don’t care what mischief we get into! The only requirement is that you stay the girl you want to be. How ‘bout it?” I gave her my best ‘fantasy dream boy’ look and waited—expecting everything to go my way and have her squeal in delight at my offer.

But… she remained silent and spooked… and my confidence was all but destroyed in a matter of two, long eyelash blinks.

“…No.” Amy breathed out.

It was like the sound of death, lingering on her recently moistened-up lips and trailing into my soul to gently pull my spirit away and send me packing.

“…No?” I felt my entire body grow heavy, moving back down to the wall. “No..?” I felt my voice soften, a crack was placed in the spaces of my pride and I couldn’t see clearly for a moment.

Her eyes watered up, “No.” she stated again.

This time, it was like she hesitated on the gunshot.

“Because I do care.” She looked away, down at the ground. “I do care what kind of mischief we get ourselves into.” She grabbed her purse and jumped down from the wall.

I didn’t even notice how fast my body was moving on its own. I was following her for a change… unable to rip myself away from her.

“And I do care what girl I want to be. What girl I thought I could never be. And what girl I thought you’d drop to a knee and marry! But I’m done thinking about you all the time!” she turned swiftly around, like a tornado cut short in it’s spin. But I was still knocked over, I stopped so quickly at the whiplash of her spiraling fury of wind that I got my breath shoved right back down my throat.

When had she become so…

Powerful?

“If you want me, Sonic The Hedgehog. I expect you to fight for me like every other man in this world!” she hit me with her purse, and I stumbled back, as she advanced forward. “I expect you to think about me every day!” she swung another go at me, and this time I instinctively put up my arm to try and block it. “I want you to change yourself into a better man that I would admire and appreciate! That I could have fun with and emotionally invest my time and energy into! I want you to invest in me!” She kept swinging, and I was thankful it was the purse and not the toned, ripped as a muscular body-builder hammer that’s ridiculous name only disguised how formidable it was.

“Ames…” I stopped moving backwards. I had gained the insight I wanted. But it was a little hard to swallow.

“I want you to be committed to me like you are right now!” she swung one last shot, letting it slide and dangle off after its strike landed. She breathed heavily now, her back hunched and her anger subsiding.

“I want… I want you to say it first.”

I didn’t move.

“…I want you to move first!” she looked up with a look I had only wished I never saw before.

I had hurt her.

She had felt played and cheated.

Her passion was overlooked as a game and she wanted nothing more than to keep going with it. Because she saw I enjoyed it. And she’d rather have that over heartbreak.

But now I was asking for heartbreak. I was asking her to go right back into that endless chase with me and she wouldn’t put up with it anymore.

She had grown so strong and independent. She must still care about me… but she wouldn’t allow herself to fall into that trap again.

I hadn’t realized… how much suffering I must have put her through after all these years.

It pained my heart to think about it, but I was a total butt to her when she was young and in love.

I should have been more thoughtful. Less careless about how I reacted to her praises and affections.

How could I have asked her to do all that again? Go through all that without first proving I would commit to do the same?

“…Alright, Amy. I get it. You win.”

She let out an emote that I couldn’t quite answer back with. It was as though she had cut off an intense cry and only let the first syllable of the terrible whine out.

“You idiot!” she cried out, her body sinking down as she swayed in her emotional outburst. “You never let me win!”

It was like she flicked a switch.

Behind my eyes, there was something triggered.

I bolted towards her, grabbing her and pulling her as tightly close to me at supersonic speeds.

I hadn’t moved that fast in a long time. It was a quick action. I just responded immediately to it. As though it was a cry for help.

I held her then… just held her.

She felt hot and panicked at my sudden touch.

How long has it been..? Since we’ve last been this close..? Since we’ve really, truly embraced without a shred of holding back before?

She didn’t cry, she didn’t fight me, she just…

Went limp a moment.

When she finally spoke, I could tell she was exhausted from having felt so many things and not being ready for it. It had probably been so long since she had felt these feelings for me again… and honestly…

I was just starting to understand how powerful this thing was…

If this was what Amy had felt… back when she was just 12…

“I never meant hurt you, Ames.” I pulled her closer, not daring to let her go now. Not when I knew what was going on inside my heart now. It wasn’t awkward for no reason… it was because I missed her. I missed her so much. I had recognized the resistance and lack of love and I wanted it back. I wanted to stop the game. I wanted to quit the endless chase, turn around, and actually make her smile for good this time.

I wanted to reward her.

I never knew this was what she had felt.

For so long, I had denied her any chance of an actual victory over me. Over my stupid pride. My teases. My constant ‘mirror’ that didn’t want me to see her for what she truly was.

Love.

She was Amy.

“I think I finally get it, Amy.” I felt my mouth grow dry, my throat get slightly sore as she lightly gasped and turned to look up and to the side at me.

Her hand suddenly gripped, ever so more into my chest, below my shoulder…

“Understand… what?” she inquired as if holding everything in.

I sighed, dipping into her more. “How truly hard it must feel… to be in love with me.”

She remained silent.

“Because I can honestly say now-“ I pulled her just inches away from me, looking into those eyes that finally reflected an image of me. The me I now wanted to be. “That loving you is no easy feat either.”

Her eyes glossed over, widening.

Which reminded me of those lips…

I angled my head down, staring at those moistened tempters…

“I never realized how powerful love could draw you in…”

Did she notice?

I looked back up at her, my mouth agape as her’s hung a bit too.

It would be so simple…

To just lean in and-

“But I have something to prove to you now.” I stepped away, using every amount of self-control I had to do so.

I stood tall and proud, “I have to win your heart this time around, right?” I cocked my head and smirked. This time, I was actually attempting to flirt with a girl.

She still looked awestruck, and so I continued.

“8 o’clock. Park. Bring a book.” I bolted away, “A good one!” I called out, cupping a hand over near my mouth to let the sound travel as I raced by.

I was determined to succeed!

This Amy needed confirmation that I was serious! This Amy had my heart leaping over bounds and wanting to tear itself from my chest and bound right after her.

But I had to play the charming hero now.

I had to play the game this time.

She was the object of my affections! I had to win her over!

It was… absolutely thrilling!

Once again, Amy was pulling me into her mischief and ‘ride or die’ activities again.

But this time-

I was tugging right back!

I heard something in the distance just then and skidded to a halt to turn my ear towards the sound.

“SOOOONNNIIICCC!!!” it sounded just like it did all those years ago. “YOU BETTER MEAN IT, OR DIE TRYING!”

I chuckled.

“I WON’T FORGIVE YOU THIS TIME!”

She probably would kill me if I didn’t mean every word.

I put my hands to my hips, lowering my head to hear any further messages scaling across the breeze.

“AND ONE MORE THING-!”

I smirked, knew it.

“I LOVE YOU TOO!!!”

[apparitionism]

Secret

Happy holidays, @mfangeleeta !! My friend, it is an absolute honor and pleasure to present you with a story—in fact, two stories. You asked for Bering & Wells’s first Christmas together, so your gift starts with a sort of generic-AU version of that. I also have an actual-Warehouse rendering of a first Bering-&-Wells Christmas, which will come next (I’ll put up the first part of that tomorrow or the day after). This AU was going to be a complicated piece, with a lot of moving parts and a ton of characters, but I changed my mind: here’s a quieter, simpler thing. To the best of my recollection, we haven’t, in the years of this B&W Secret Santa gift exchange, had many (any?) pieces that were actually about a Secret Santa gift exchange. (Have we?) It’s basically a clichéd mess, and I know it and apologize for it; I shaped to the extent that I could, but time ran out. Anyway, sssshhh. If you listen close, you might hear a couple of voices speaking low on a silent night.

Secret

“You didn’t come to the party.” The soft words fit the vast, cubicled space, now that the sonic sea of voices and technology had receded for the night and left the floor in silence; now that the overhead lights were out, now that the walls of windows were dark, now that the only illumination, seemingly in the entire world, was the small incandescent defiance of the desk lamp of the person who heard the words, felt their softness, and was thus not startled by them.

“What are you doing here?” asked that person. Myka Bering had expected to see no one tonight, the company’s Christmas-party night, not when the Christmas-party night was the Friday before Christmas: no one, and certainly not this vision of a woman who on a normal workday seemed to have descended from some higher plane to serve as an aspirational sight for the masses. Tonight, dressed for a Christmas party thrown by a prosperous insurance company in the toniest of downtown-hotel ballrooms? Surely the assembled would have voted by acclamation to keep her there.

“I’m asking you that same question,” said the vision.

“I didn’t want to... see.” But Myka said this with a wince, which did not go unnoticed.

“See what?”

“Any of it,” Myka now said offhand, trying to recover. “It’s really not my—”

“See. What.” It was a muted, though not diluted, version of her “I refuse to waste my time in a pointless meeting” voice, and Myka knew she had no choice but to give a plausible answer.

***

When Myka had received the “Secret Santa” email from HR...

This is an opportunity, had been her first, immediate thought.

She then revised that first thought with a significant insertion: This is NOT an opportunity. Because an opportunity would never take the form of an email that began, “Hi Myka! In this year’s Warehouse Mutual Insurance Holiday Gift Exchange, you’re the Secret Santa for...”

And there could be no opportunity whatsoever in that sentence ending with the name “Helena Wells.”

Not the opportunity she wanted it to be.

Because where had her mind gone, in that first immediacy? To roses, of rare and foreign colors and scents; to spices, to perfumes, to potions; to silks and stones; to gilding amalgams, to meteoric alloys, to all the richest and finest of ways there might be to say “look at all that I would offer you.”

Certainly twenty-five dollars was not enough to buy gold and frankincense, but certainly twenty-five dollars was enough to buy something stupidly, pointlessly revealing.

That did not have to happen, of course; she could give a generic gift. But equally, she didn’t want to have to say “Yes, that boring thing, that’s from me.” Better to be no one than to be part of the vast run of cases. So she swapped with Giselle in Claims, who, Myka had heard—heard, and felt a pain in her heart upon hearing—was interested in Helena. It wasn’t only Giselle; so many people seemed to be bold enough to show visible, vocal interest... but while Myka was not shy, not exactly, she was not prepared to show such visible, vocal interest. In this, too, better to be no one than to be part of the vast run of swooning, wanting cases.

In the swap, she got someone she’d never met, never even heard of, so she went to an office supply store, stood in front of its “Secret Santa ideas” display, and gathered vaguely disparate items, none of which she herself would have been offended to receive, to total twenty-five dollars. (Actual total: twenty-eight dollars and thirty-three cents. She tried to feel magnanimous rather than mournful.) She put them into a gift bag, affixed red and green ribbon to its handles, and left it with the gift-exchange committee chair in HR, to be given to the appropriate person at the party. “Everyone should give appropriately,” that first email had said, and she persuaded herself that this was the way to ensure that outcome.

****

You come to a new place for a new job; you try to find space for yourself in this new place, which affords a new start. “You need a new start, Myka,” a friend of long standing had told you, and you believed him and found one: a new place, a new start, a new job. New people. But there is one new person in particular at the new job. Weeks you stare at her... weeks you try not to stare at her. There is no such thing, you tell yourself, as love at first sight. If there were, you would have fallen into it before. And you haven’t before, so you haven’t now. You haven’t come to this new place to fall in love, at first or any other ordinal sight.

You keep trying not to stare.

You don’t even know her name, not for the longest time, but once you hear it and know that it is hers, you hear it constantly; everyone all at once seem to take up talking about her. Your ears, your eyes: this is not what you came here for, to look at Helena Wells, to listen for “Helena Wells.”

The company, however, doesn’t care what you think you came here for. You’re assigned to work on a project with her, and you panic, because what about the staring? Fortunately, the need to do business breaks the looking-spell somewhat, but your enchantment only deepens. The emails and meetings, just the two of you, grow longer and longer. She works in loss control; you are in risk management. You are not managing your own risk, not at all; you see that the cliff you have already unknowingly, unintentionally, jumped from is well above you. When will you hit the ground and wake up?

After the project completes itself, whenever you pass each other in the hallway, whenever each of you says that simple “hi,” you—this you that is some part of a larger thing you don’t dare think of as “us”—can’t stop smiling.

You buy her dinner, the first time, because at the end of a workday you find her standing in the lobby, despondent at whatever her phone’s screen is telling her, and you want to banish the misery from her face but also pocket it, because it is precious, a vulnerability she does not often show.

Over that meal and then others, you laugh and you linger.

When you have reason to say her name to other people (because you are now one of those who has taken up talking about her), you become conscious that the speaking of a name is a bringing-to-presence. “Helena,” you say, the name mattering in your mouth, and your secret knowledge of the disjuncture between the presence that utterance conjures for you and the presence it delivers to others thrills you.

Her material presence literally destabilizes you, over and over again, but you hold fast to one particular near-fall: it is the first time you let yourself know, without question, what you want. You are walking beside her, and you are attending intently to her voice as it speaks about reinsurance contracts. You stop, mentally, to remind yourself that you are meant to be concentrating on the contracts, not on her voice as it speaks about them, and the stop makes you stumble. You recover yourself fast, but not fast enough to prevent her planting herself in front of you and clasping your arms. Deep brown concern gazes up at you as a deep brown hum resolves into the words “Are you all right?” You nod, but you imagine bringing your lips to hers in answer to that question—revealing that ever since your first sight of her, the answer has been “no.”

****

Myka held these scenes they had played together, these episodes, very close—precious contents in a precious box. Having that cache, keeping it secret: that was special; in itself, it allowed Myka to distinguish herself from that vast run of cases. Keeping it safe, too: this risk Myka tried to manage with great care. Going to the party, seeing what she was likely to have seen, would have put it all in peril, so here she had sat instead.

But here Helena now stood, with her gowned body and her “see what” demand, and Myka saw that her carefully plotted risk avoidance had produced its exact opposite: certain disaster. She had nothing plausible to say, in response to that demand, save the truth, so she said a prayer, possibly of farewell, for the box and all it contained. “See you open a gift from someone else,” she admitted.

Helena said nothing at first, and Myka was tempted to try to retract her words, say they were a feeble joke, fall back on explaining that she was antisocial, needed to work, liked the peace and quiet. She got so far as opening her mouth and inhaling before Helena said, slowly, “Interesting that that would be your reason. Particularly since you should not have had to see that. Given, as it was told to me, that you were originally assigned to be my Secret Santa.”

“Who told you that?”

“Giselle,” Helena said. She lifted her chin, and it felt to Myka like a “what are you going to say to that” challenge.

All Myka could manage was “What? Why would she—”

“She was explaining to me how eagerly she had taken you up on your offer to let her be the one to buy me a gift instead. I believe she meant her industry and enthusiasm in pursuing my affections to be persuasive.”

“Her industry and enthusiasm,” Myka echoed. Surely that would win the day—but then why was Helena here? And why did she look so... dismayed? Or was that simple annoyance? Either way, why?

Her next utterance gave Myka no answers: “My question to you is, why would you do that to me?”

“Why would I—what?”

“And after what I’ve done for you.” This with a shake of the head, a shake of disappointment that Myka had seen directed at others and had hoped never to be subjected to.

“What you—what?”

“Do you imagine I wanted to watch you open a gift from someone else?”—and Myka took a breath to say another “what,” but Helena left her no room for it—“I could have stayed home, but I chose to engage in a more difficult means of forestalling that sad sight: I exerted a great deal of pressure on the assigning committee in HR to reveal to me who’d got you. I then proposed a swap to that person, but given my own... enthusiasm, the deal required some sweetening. I’ll have you know that as of January the first, I will be parking in a lesser space.”

All Myka could find to say was, “You love your parking space.” This was true. Corporate business culture subsisted on trivia, and everyone, even Helena, clung to these pointless markers. She’d told Myka the story of how she had, over two years, worked her way, via retirements and transfers and strategic barters, plus her own promotions, into being assigned precisely the spot she wanted.

“I did love my parking space,” Helena said. “I suspect Giselle didn’t drive so hard a bargain with you. In fact I suspect she didn’t drive a bargain at all. Am I worth so little to you?”

“You know that’s wrong,” Myka said. “I didn’t want to.”

“To what?”

“But I thought I had to.”

“I don’t need to ask ‘to what’ again. And I don’t need to ask why. I myself did think we were approaching a point. A decision point, if you will.”

Myka, perversely, tried to forestall it. If they could stay suspended in this Friday night... those scenes in the box, what were they worth now? “I never got what I wanted for Christmas,” she said. “I stopped believing in Santa when I was four.”

“Believe what you want to believe, but I have a gift for you,” Helena said. She reached into her purse and removed a small package. “From your Santa Claus, who is of course no secret now.” She looked at the wrapped package in her hands. Looked again at Myka. “I’ve changed my mind.”

“You have?”

“This should also be no secret.” She leaned down, and this is not happening, Myka thought, but then it was: a kiss of a softness that matched their voices, that warmed to the light, that nestled into the pillowed hollow of Myka’s heart where she safed her most fragile of yearnings. If she falls in love with you, she kept there, because it was unimaginable.

Myka would have said, out loud, that this kiss, too, was unimaginable. But that was not true, for she had imagined it. Not correctly... not in its fullness... she felt Helena’s lips leave hers, and she opened her eyes.

Helena’s eyes were still closed; her mouth formed a smile. Then she opened her own eyes and said, “You look surprised.”

“I am.” She had wished it would feel right, this kiss, but she hadn’t believed it would.

“So am I. This was so simple.” Another kiss, this one more firm. And even more right. “I’d originally thought to make my way to this point by impressing you with my cleverness. I would engineer some complicated giving of an elaborate series of presents, or concoct a plot with a last-minute revelation, or contrive a dash through the airport. But then I pared it down to what seemed to be the basics: you, me, a gift. In front of everyone we work with, which for some reason I was convinced was the only way I would not lose my nerve.”

The idea of Helena losing her nerve about anything was absurd—but she did look completely serious, so instead Myka focused on a different absurdity: “A dash through the airport?”

Helena nodded, sheepish but with a sly glint. “Plus a missed flight.”

“Would that make you happy? We can go to the airport right now and dash through it. We’ll miss every flight.”

“We’ve known each other some months.” Helena was smiling now.

“We have.”

“And those months have led me to believe that you would do that: you would take me to the airport and enact some silly play. If I wanted you to.” Her voice grew softer and softer, as did her smile.

Myka would have done that, that or anything else Helena wanted her to do, starting from the first-sight moment she began to try not to stare. “I would,” she said, just in case Helena had any doubt.

“Open your gift.”

“I thought I had.”

“The one in paper.”

“I don’t have anything for you.”

Helena kissed her for a third time. “Liar.”

Myka took the package from her, pulled at the paper, got to a cardboard box, opened that, and found... another box. This one was wooden, decorated with a complicated inlay-like patterned veneer. “This is beautiful,” Myka said.

“Isn’t it?” Helena agreed. “It’s from Japan.”

Myka said, “You bought me a beautiful box from Japan.” All the richest and finest of ways... she turned it in her hands. “Does it open?”

“It does. But it’s a puzzle. A beautiful puzzle, just like you.”

A puzzle. Myka looked at the box more closely, turned it with greater care, put a bit of pressure on its surfaces. A puzzle. She felt a slight give: the complicated nature of the veneer hid seams, along which segments of the sides might slide. A push here, a slide there... no, not there. She had to reverse everything she’d done and start again, and she glanced up at Helena, saw that she was looking with avidity at the box in Myka’s hands—or even, thrillingly, at Myka’s hands themselves?—her eyes brighter than usual, like stars in a hurry.

Myka set back to her task with determination: show her what these hands could do. A slide here, a push there... again, not there, but this side, here. Myka was so absorbed that now Helena’s voice, still so quiet, did startle her: “You were meant to solve the puzzle,” Helena said. “In front of everyone. Find its secret. I knew you would,” she finished, as Myka slid the tiny box’s cover open.

“Its secret?” Inside, in a nest of dark velvet, lay a small silvery piece of metal... meteoric alloys... muted in its shine, like a worn quarter. Most saliently, however, it was heart-shaped. Myka set it flat in her right hand and held it under the glow of her lamp. It warmed, there between her palm and the light.

“My heart,” Helena said.

Myka looked up at her, now with a bit of sly of her own. “Doesn’t that mean you’re the beautiful puzzle?”

“Metaphors work in mysterious ways.”

Myka very nearly asked, “How did you know it should be a box,” but Helena was right: mysterious. So instead, she said, “I can’t believe this cost only twenty-five dollars.”

Helena said, with an affected formality, “I have a receipt from the antique store where it was purchased to prove that that is what I paid for it.” Then the starch collapsed into mischief: “If I overpaid tremendously for another item listed on that receipt, that’s my own foolishness, isn’t it?”

“But why did you do that?” Myka asked. “Why did you think you needed to?”

This got her an otherwise familiar response: a small head-toss of exasperation. “I gave up on scenarios of complication, but why would I give up on impressing you? I suppose I wanted you to be so overwhelmed by this gift in its entirety—beauty, metaphor, worth—that you would fall into my arms. Unrealistic, as a scenario, but I couldn’t see how else to cause you to fall into my arms.”

“You could’ve just said ‘fall into my arms.’ You could’ve just said that.” Swooning, wanting.

“I thought I was saying that all along. Not aloud, but I thought I was.”

“I couldn’t hear it.”

“What do you hear now?”

What did she hear now? Myka listened, waited. “Two people breathing at each other,” she finally said. And because there was no reason not to, she added, “And the HVAC system.” Helena laughed, a little trail-off peal, and Myka said, to that, “Now I hear a beautiful sound.”

“If you were anyone else,” Helena said, “I would try to persuade you to come back to the party. With me. With me.”

A dash through an airport; a party. Myka said, “If you were anyone else, I wouldn’t be persuaded.”

****

You, who had wanted to be special or nothing, find yourself doubly special: first, you are the only one in the tony downtown ballroom not dressed for a party, but second—and vastly more important—your arm is around her gowned body the entire time, and “I persuaded her to come,” she keeps saying, with evident pride. “I went and found her and persuaded her.” Many, many people, upon seeing your arm around her, claim to have seen this coming. To them, she says, “She resisted me. Can you imagine?” and no one can imagine that, least of all you, and you murmur “I didn’t though” into her ear.

The looking-spell has settled on you again; you stare at her profile, her cheekbone, her neck.

Your hand touches the heart-coin, warm in your pocket.

She turns and meets your eyes.

Infinitely special.

END

[nomorebluehearts]

List-O-Muses

So, I have a lot, a few I cannot remember, a few I’ve never put on Tumblr... So I shall put up a list of them all... by category! Only certain muses will get an explanation and not all have blogs, the ones I remember that do will have them!

Also some blogs might have autoplay, I will label the ones I remember. Some of these blogs have not been touched in years, I apologize

Muse I’ve Had since Before Tumblr

Lexara (OC)- Originally a special agent of some kind, I made her around about 2005, when I first started to read Manga and started drawing characters. She had short hair- Like me at the time, and she was tough and rugged... because my protected catholic ass hadn’t learned the word ass or any swear word ever.

Muses I’ve had on Tumblr

Category 1- KH and FF

Leon/Squall (Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy VIII)- This blog still exists for the nostalgia. I don’t rp on it, but this was my gateway to RP in 2011 on this sight. I made it to be on an AU KH RP community, but it never happened, but I found some of my oldest and closest friends there, so yaaaay!! URL- http://transient-awoken.tumblr.com/ AUTOPLAY WARNING

Zidane Tribal (Final Fantasy IX)

Data Sora (Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded)

Reeve/Cait Sith (Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus)

Vincent Valentine (Final Fantasy VII and Dirge of Cerberus)

Zack Fair (Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Final Fantasy Crisis Core)- Url- https://gongagan-soldier.tumblr.com/

Axel/Lea (Kingdom Hearts)- URL- http://flamesxofxeternity.tumblr.com/

Vanitas- URL- https://menfilik.tumblr.com/

Category 2- TOME Canon Characters (because I have OCs too)

Nylocke- WAAAAAAY Back in 2011, I made him a blog, no one else was around, I cried, i deleted, but back them was when I started thinking of Omega... so that’s a plus

Zetto/Kirbopher- My second attempt at a TOME blog that I loved! the icon is from Muffin, I remember seeing the older one going omg it’s perfect, then I got to know her and she is very nice from what I remember (it’s been a while) URL- http://thexcyborgximp.tumblr.com/

Alpha/Kajet- URL- http://godsheritage.tumblr.com/ idk if it is auto play, but there is the possibility of music so AUTOPLAY WARNING

Sofdti/GC- http://lifelinkoftome.tumblr.com/

Category 3- TOME OCs (I’m putting them all here, even though some might fit in other categories)

Omega- He is one of my all time favorite muses I’ve ever made, I love using him, and I even named my car after him, same orange he has on his outfit. URL-http://remorseformistakes.tumblr.com/

King- Based off of an AU with a character named Lady Tigerlilly where the Virus takes over Zetto’s life. URL- http://incurableshadows.tumblr.com/

Squire- Same AU as above, but the other half of King’s code. Same URL.

Velvet- The Prototype to the Antivirus and ‘Older Sister’ of Cake’s oc Amber. I have done a lot more with her in private RP, so she’s grown more than the blog shows. URL- http://purpuravitae.tumblr.com/

Mocha Latte- The Barista of the Netkings named Jane Doe.

Category 4- Canon Misc (the muses on Tumblr that I used that aren’t big enough to class on their own like 1-3 were)

Yang (RWBY)- URL- http://blazing-beauty.tumblr.com/ AUTOPLAY WARNING

Sombra (Overwatch)- URL- https://boop-the-planet.tumblr.com/ Possible AUTOPLAY WARNING

Ryuko Matoi (Kill La Kill)- URL- http://alliancexofxlifexfibers.tumblr.com/ AUTOPLAY WARNING

Yami Yugi/Atem (YGO from Season 0 to 5 and the movies)- URL- https://forgotten-monarch.tumblr.com/

Raiden (Metal Gear Solid 2, 4, and Revengeance)

Pikachu (Pokemon)

N (Pokemon)

Male Pokemon Trainer (Pokemon Black and White)

Endrance (.hack series)

Haseo (.hack series)

Jade Curtiss (Tales of the Abyss)

Amaterasu (Okami Series)- I think I managed to get the blog url ‘Mother of All’, but that was ages ago

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic Series)

Levi Ackerman (Attack on Titan)

Nagito Komaeda (Danganronpa)

Rin Matsuoka (FREE!)

Link (Legend of Zelda)- I remember deciding to RP him as a mute, so I got really good at describing actions with him

Dark Link (Legend of Zelda)

Hsien-Ko (Darkstalkers)

B.B. Hood (Darkstalkers)

Sesshomaru (Inuyasha)

Category 5- OC Misc (same as above, but OCs)

Xurik (Kingdom Hearts)- Based off of a story I wrote for FANFICTION.NET (so ages ago) And never put up... I also have to heavily edit it, my vocabulary had found out about words such as ‘damn’, ‘shit’, and ‘fuck’ and I thought it was cool to use it a lot. I’ll take a pic of that notebook one day. it is a MESS. URL- http://ashenxheart.tumblr.com/

Kirara (Naruto)- A ninja with a demon that had an amazing voice, used songs to buff and debuff her allies and enemies.

Ezekiel (Final Fantasy IX)- the soul that became Zidane, he is the part of Zidane that craves the blood of Gaia’s Citizens. Can use a scythe made from blood and has Blood Wings......... I was just out of high school and very depressed XD

Riboruba (Final Fantasy VIII and Kingdom Hearts)- She is the personification of Squall’s/Leon’s Gunblade! Fun Fact: Riboruba is the Japanese pronunciation of Revolver, to which that is the style of Gunblade Squall has.

Category 6- Main Characters that are heavily AU-d

AU Abridged Yami Bakura (YGOTAS and Kingdom Hearts)- Yes... a parody character, which is it’s on AU in a way, in an AU where he is a keyblade wielder................................ tada! I made this with my good friend millennium-hearts at a con, and because of this blog we are practically family. URL- http://thiefxkeybladerxbakura.tumblr.com/ Possible AUTOPLAY WARNING

AU Cloud Strife (Final Fantasy VII)- He is basically Sephiroth, but winning, the world is pretty much dying/almost dead, so like.... Worst Case Scenario/Apocalypse AU

AU Nylocke (TOME) I’m putting this here because this is the Nylocke that is apart of the Omega Timeline. Where Nylocke had a twin brother (Nye is Colin-based on tta Nai’s name, and Martin- because Martin Billaney), who died. He is also the world’s best hacker, even better than the main villain of the blog, which was revealed once, but never by name. URL with Omega.

Hao Asakura- This was semi-based on the manga and the anime mixing. the story the blog was based off of is actually still on Fanfiction.Net i named Angel of the Devil (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6203556/1/Angel-of-the-Devil) Feel free to read it! There are 9 chapters!

Glitchy Red (Pokemon Creepy Pasta)- He was based off of many different piecemeal creepy pastas (Lost Silver, Pokemon Black, Strangled Red, Glitchy Red, small stories about the candle instead of flash, but used in a house it would burn it down, and the rope inside would make you hang yourself). This blog got me into KORN.

Category 7- Muses on Blogs that belong there, but are not the main reason people went to said blog

Xirra (TTA)- She is a re-purposed character with a whole new look to fit into TOME, and I used her on Remorse for Mistakes

Darkeyes (TTA)- Much Like Xirra, but never got onto the blog much.

Demon Eyes Kyo (Demon Eyes Kyo)- I read this manga in the 6th grade... it is fucking bloody and gory, so don’t look it up if you are weak stomached. I used him as the Guardian Spirit of Hao on his blog instead of the Fire Spirit.

Beelzemon (Digimon)- I had him on a blog I have yet to mention, but you’ll see why I haven’t yet, that blog is in a category all of its own~

Keldeo (Pokemon) He made a brief appearance on Kirb/Zetto blog... Chris named him Vic........ because voiced by Vic......

Muses I’d love to make, but I finally have self control so I won’t make them

Infinite (Sonic Forces)- Because he is my super floof boy and I must PROTECC

Qrow Branwen (RWBY)- I must protecc the birb boi too

THE LUKA-POCALYPSE I have had a lot of Luka’s in my time RPing, and I loved the name so much, I use it as my online pseudonym now... now you will learn where I get it from!

Luka Crosszeria (Uraboku)- This was the man I fell for, he is extremely loyal and protective of the one he loves through every reincarnation they have, and will do anything, even betray his own kind for love. So in a way, I can relate. I want to do the same with my friends and family and girlfriend. This is the blog Beelzemon is on.  URL- http://crosszeriaxbetrayer-blog.tumblr.com/ AUTOPLAY WARNING

Luka Crosszeria (Final Fantasy XIV)- She is my character from my favorite and most played MMO. And while she no longer has a blog, she does have an instagram! URL- https://www.instagram.com/luka_of_eorzea/

Luka Cross (OC- No other affiliation)- She is a girl with the power to summon elementals. From fire and ice spirits, to even the goddess of the moon. Her goal is to gain the power of Elder Summoning. Aldo Omega is in this AU as the guardian of the Library of Summoners, and he is an Elder Summon.

Luka (TOME)- She is the little sister of Xirra. A different kind of virus, hers is a contact epidemic virus that spreads through touch. She has her hands covered at all times, and is very shy, but is almost second to none in hand to hand combat, being at least 30 time stronger than her just 4 foot stature would lead you to believe. she is also a lolita that wears extremely tall boots, and yet she is still very short... like just under 5 foot short. She also dates a giant dragon... and she sounds like Hinata from Naruto... she is an actual baby that is months old

[kyulkyungs]

SEVENTEEN: Superpower!AU

I randomly started to think about this after talking about me wanting to sonic scream every second of my life.

Long! Under the cut/keep reading.

S.Coups - Barriers/Shields

I didn’t want to give him something clunky or cliche like super speed or strength??? (sorry if i offended anyone D: )

But hear me out

Not only can he block attacks with his barriers, he can use them for offensive purposes too?

He can create multiple at a time with not a lot of effort due to practice, so the added force of hitting each barrier with another barrier works like those collision balls in physics?

My idea of physics is not generally sound though, but if this can work then yeah??? (I mean, I ended up with a C in my honors freshman physics class and refused to go into regular classes b/c my ego but)

He can also make those barriers sturdy enough to put things on

Need a trip to the fourth floor from the outside? Done. Want to catch something from falling from the tenth floor? Done. Gotta walk over some puddle and don’t wanna go around? Sure, Jeonghan. Done. 

Okay but listen to this

The barrier’s color or opacity depends on whatever Seungcheol decides

If he wants privacy he can make them dark colored and opaque

If he want to prank someone and have them run into a barrier he makes them totally clear

If he wants to be a weirdo and color a random wall puke colored? Okay that works too

Can make different shapes of barriers as well

The most common ones made are circular or rounded ones and flat ones

As a surprise for the other members, he asked DK to help him make as many tiny little light balls as he could and then trapped those balls in little barriers

They looked like stars and it made all the members really happy

It was super tiring for both of them but Seungcheol felt like it was worth it to see all those smiles and some teary eyes (it was totally not him that teared up, nope)

Once was able to trap some members that were fighting in a small barrier until they made up

S.Coups is also very protective of the other members and people he’s very close to, so this would work out nicely I think

He’s the force that protects the others, but he’s also the pillar of support that allows everyone else to be able to function

Jeonghan - Mind Control/Manipulation

I felt like this was some sort of given?

With whoever Jeonghan makes eye contact with he has complete control over

He can be pretty lazy so this works out pretty well

And being one of the oldest, a lot of times it’s hard for the others to not look him in the eye respectfully (at least that’s one of the signs of respect for me)

Even though it really takes locking eyes with him, Jeonghan has to put quite a bit of focus into his power to make sure they stay under his control

But he can maintain it for a hefty amount of time

The longest someone’s been under is ~36 hours and it was Hoshi because he accidentally sat on Jeonghan’s stomach while he was taking a nap somewhere

It hurt a lot lol

He can also control multiple people at a time, but that’s more straining that one person, so he can’t do it for too long

The more time he spends controlling someone the more fatigued he gets, but if he puts a lot of his focus and effort into it the results last longer

You can’t tell, probably because you’re under his control by then, but whenever Jeonghan uses his power his eye color gets slightly lighter???

The lighter it is the more under the influence you are, so it’s like a glow stick

That’s a bad comparison lmao

But you can tell it’s wearing out when his eye color returns to normal or gets darker

If he wanted to he could probably control an army of people for however long he wanted to but

“Nah, too much work, maybe next time”

Not a lot of people can fight against his mind control, usually they’re able to if they’re inflicted a wound or feel immense pain

Mingyu is usually the one to get out the quickest because he has enough control over himself to throw himself into a wall and break the connection completely

Jeonghan doesn’t even try anymore at this point

Sometimes he makes eye contact with Mingyu just to see him throw himself into the wall and then walk away like nothing happened

Sometimes he does take control of Mingyu and makes him throw himself into the wall because he used his clones to wake him up from a nap by crowding in a circle and screaming

Joshua - Lucid Dreaming/Dream Control

Being able to control his own dreams isn’t really a power, lucid dreaming I know is possible, but he can control other people’s dreams as well

He can also put them “under a spell”

Basically he can knock them out and control their dreams too if they’re not already asleep, like, he can make them fall asleep by his own will

The only thing is that he has to be touching the person one way or another to travel into their dream and control it, and his body on the outside reality world is asleep too and almost frozen in time?

The way to break the connection is to disturb Joshua while he’s in the dream world

A bump, shove, anything will do as long as you manage to move him some

Think of it like Ino Yamanaka from Naruto, how she can do that mind control jutsu thing? Yeah. Her body drops whenever she does that, except Joshua is able to remain standing a little bit

This is effective for stopping someone or buying time for the others because the person being affected can’t overpower Joshua’s dream control unless they can lucid dream too

Even if they can, it’s really hard because this is Joshua’s thing, you feel me?

His favorite thing to do in his own dreams is to create entirely new worlds and just play around with that

Sometimes he creates his own animals

He scared himself awake because combining an ostrich with a weasel and a dolphin was not exactly the best combination for him

He likes the magical type of feelings for his dreams, so he often asks Vernon about plants to make it seem a lot better

He also likes to set the stages of his favorite animes and sometimes creates the characters too! It’s a little harder to create 3D versions of 2D animated people though

If Joshua’s feeling adventurous, he’ll travel into the other’s dreams and play around with them

Jeonghan was not amused when his dreamland got turned into some huge raccoon telling him about the pros and cons about frog mating

Joshua keeps telling Jeonghan that that was actually a dream and he had no part of that

Controlling dreams also means that Joshua can create nightmares, which sometimes scares himself because he doesn’t want to have to do that to anybody

He’s had his own accidents happen in his own dreams by creating nightmares for him. The ostrich-weasel-dolphin... dolseltrich? Well, that was tame enough for him at least, but there has been some pretty dark stuff where he doesn’t like to talk about it if you try to bring it up

He talks to the other 95 liners about them sometimes about that

Junhui - Teleportation/Portal Manipulation

I wasn’t sure what to give him, but for some reason I saw that this really fit???

Think of it as Goblin (The Great and Lonely God), the KDRAMA, where he can teleport to another place using a door

For example, he’s in one area. Opens a door, walks through, whole different area.

Except he can do this with any frame like structure?

A window, car door, subway door, picture frame, empty door frame even. As long as it’s some sort of frame structure, he can do it

He prefers using doors with the actual door because it causes the least suspicion and he feels a lot cooler for some reason

Jun can travel to anywhere he wishes as long as he’s been there, there’s a frame where he is, and there’s a frame on the other side

It doesn’t take a lot of effort because he’s done it so many times to just escape from one place and go relax in another

He frequents going to his neighborhood in his hometown and just walking around

It’s possible for him to bring someone else along, but they have to be touching him somewhere and him focusing on them coming along

It feels super weird for the other person though

For Jun it feels like he’s just continuing to walk through a door like normal, but for the other person it feels like they just went through a heavy amount of air pressure no matter where they get teleported to

It’s bearable enough, but once Minghao threw up because of it

The first time Jun discovered he could teleport was when he was going to be late for school and ran out the front door, only to crash into one of his classmates at school

After that he abused his power like crazy lol

Always agreed to go whenever his mom asked him to go to the store because it gave him a chance to use his power

For some reason he just loves it and wants to use it every chance he gets?

Like he walked under a ladder once and instead of coming out the other side like a normal person who’s about to experience some bad luck, he waltzes into his friend’s bathroom where his friend is pooping

Then he just walks out with a cheeky smile and he’s home while the last thing he heard was his friend hurriedly flushing and angrily yelling

“Lol, what? I was never there while you were pooping???”

Has gotten into so much trouble by his mom for so many things

“Junhui, did you walk into the teacher’s conference room again?”

“LmAO goTTa blAST”

Likes to sneak into the other member’s rooms and lock it right when they come by and try to open it

Hoshi - Blood Manipulation

The first thing I thought of when trying to decide on something for Hoshi. That and I was looking through my old picture files and saw Mirai Kuriyama from Beyond the Boundary/Kyoukai no Kanata

But can you imagine Hoshi holding this really gnarly sword made of blood???

Can also control the blood of others but it’s slightly harder if it’s not his own

Really handy in situations where he has to stop heavy blood flow coming out of a nasty wound. He’s saved Mingyu and Vernon from Dino before and had to reassure the youngest that the damage wasn’t that great, even though it kind of was :(

He loves to wield dual swords because he thinks it makes him look super cool and like one of those protagonists in those animes

It kind of does and Joshua likes to play around with him in the anime dreamlands from time to time

He used to be terrified of blood before finally being able to have at least some control over his powers because there was an accident involving his teacher at a school

The teacher slipped and banged their head, causing blood to start pouring out and he felt so useless just standing there so he tried to do something

He panicked and jumped when someone tried to pull him back because his hands were just getting bloody, then he managed to turn the teacher’s blood into a weapon and nearly impaled the child

He cried

Eventually was able to come to terms with his power and just practice in order to tell himself that everything was okay and that he could totally control it

He would refuse to make a weapon out of the other member’s blood if they offered in a time of battle because he just can’t do that after using the teacher’s blood that one time

It’s often very taxing on himself and his body too since he’s using his own blood, and a great amount of it too, to make not one but two lengthy swords

He names all of his “moves” and thinks they’re the coolest ever???

“Check this out! I call this ‘Blood Rain’“

“Cool, man. That’s literally you turning your swords into multiple little pellets and making them rain”

“I know, man. It can be really scary though because I can control where they end up”

“Oh my gosh, man. You’re right”

“I know, man”

“Man...”

Wonwoo - Ability to freeze time

I felt like invisibility was a little too cliche (again, sorry if I offended you!!!! :( )

Wonwoo can only stop time for a little while, maybe up to ~3 hours if he really felt like it

He can’t go forward or back in time, just stop it

Too much makes him super fatigued and nauseous

It really only affects him though, so it’s hard to make time stop with others too

When he does get tired though and randomly cuts out of his frozen time frame, it may look like he teleported, which his power if often easily mistaken for

Uses this to get away with a lot of things

“Wonwoo did you wash the dishes yet?”

“Yeah”

“I just looked and-”

“Lol look again”

is2g this kid lol

Also takes advantage of messing with the other members

One second there’s Woozi reading or something, the next second he has both fingers in his nose and the book it on top of his head at some weird position. Wonwoo always has the camera ready and then runs out in the frozen time frame before he can get caught

The colors slightly dull whenever Wonwoo goes into a time frame, which he doesn’t really like so he tries not to stay in the time frame for too long

At random times when he’s bored will Wonwoo just randomly freeze time and look at his surroundings and maybe laugh at someone’s face if they’re making a weird expression

Has tons of photos of those weird expressions of the members and shenanigans

Whenever someone says something like “Watch out!” Wonwoo will immediately go into a time frame by reflex and look around for whatever

He’s saved quite a number of kids in his school days from getting hit in the head with a ball

Like Jun, he likes to take advantage of his power and lock doors before the others can open it, but he does this to Jun as well or slips in just before Jun can lock it

Likes to talk with Vernon about plants and sometimes spends his time in the garden area because even in the dulled out world the bright greens and colorful flowers always seem so vibrant?

That’s why he loves the garden so much too

Asks Vernon to grow him some flowers every now and then and Vernon is always like “yes, more babies, thanks”

Woozi - Wings/Flight

Not exactly a power, I’d say, but wings are really cool!!!!

He can control what wings come from his back, for example he wants the wings of an albatross? Yeah!! Bat wings? Sure thing! Hummingbird? Boom, also gets the proper back muscles to support such quick movements

It’s a very complex process though, so it’s almost like shapeshifting but not fully

Woozi has to be able to know the muscle and bone structure of the wings he wants to use, which require a lot of memory, biology, and logic usage

He’s the team’s aerial support so he feels like if something happens with the team that he could’ve stopped, he’d be to blame since he has a great advantage and the best view out of all of the members

His favorite wings are owl wings because he finds them the easiest to form

Because he’s so used to flying around, Woozi walks a little funky and sometimes can’t sit still when he has nothing to do

He’s constantly busy though, so that’s not too much of a problem

Has a habit of making really small wings appear whenever he’s working because he feels like if he doesn’t practice at least a little bit everyday he’ll be at a disadvantage and bring the team down

Also has a habit of wrapping his wings around a member when they’re both sleepy. It works like a big fluffy blanket

He sheds feathers lol

“Woozi, are you trying to stuff our pillows?”

“Shut up, give me that”

Stores all of the feathers in some huge box for some reason, says its a reminder that his powers are real and not just some dream

In reality he just wants to make this really big blanket stuffed with feathers for all the members to use at the same time to keep warm

He was some really developed back muscles (bREATHES HEAVilY), and slightly alternated ones because of using those wings so much

Overall pretty developed because using those wings requires a LOT of strength and willpower to get off of the ground

He’s learned how to use the wings as weapons as well, even taking advantage of some loose feathers and swinging his wings at an angle so that they fly off and directly into something

It’s really scary how accurate he’s become, like, bulls eyes for days, 360 no scope

His wings are generally very large to help with lifting off of the ground so it’s hard to get into compact places with him, which puts him at a disadvantage when against someone

But if you are in a compact area that leads into an open space in some way or another, be careful or you might find yourself stuck in that tiny place with a bunch of feathers impaled to the walls

Honestly really admires birds and has at least several books just dedicated to birds stowed away somewhere

Likes to freely fly whenever he has the time, yet he claims he’s practicing

Took Chan flying once and then it became a weekly thing since he kept asking and Woozi actually really enjoyed the company of someone up there with him

Also likes to fly in dreams with Joshua

DK - Light/Brightness Manipulation

I felt like this was also kind of a given

I wanted to give him Seungkwan’s power, sonic screaming, but was torn between this and that

I ended up giving him “something that was a bright as his personality and smile”

Let’s be real though

His smile is bright enough as it is, like, he can blind you???

Often times will DK mess around and put his hands up near his cheeks and smile so that it’s so bright you can’t tell that it’s actually his hands that are causing the brightness

He can really only control the brightness levels in his hands and for some reason his eyes

Like, no other part can light up except those???

It’s kind of scary when his eyes light up in the dark because they’re one solid, bright light

If he tries hard enough a ball of light can physically come off of DK

Honestly after he got the hang of that, the members had to wear sunglasses in the house because of how bright and how many balls of light there were

He’s tried to eat one of those balls of light and ended up lighting up his tongue for a whole week

It also felt like his stomach was on fire for the first couple of hours after he ate it

Using too much of his power gives DK a headache though, almost like looking at a bright light for too long and your eyes hurting really badly

It’s like that

One time he got super excited and screeched and then his entire body lit up

It was amazing

Like he was doing a full on Pokemon evolution, man

Eventually he dimmed and the only thing that was different was that his expression was completely shocked

He’s not allowed to screech in the house anymore because he was too bright and too loud

“You nearly blind us on numerous occasions, but pls... no deaf”

Likes to pretend that he can fart or poop out those balls of light since they can come out of places where skin is showing since it’s exposed to light the most

He feels great in direct sunshine and often makes jokes that he’s performing photosynthesis

Regrets making those jokes because he usually isn’t able to share a snack with some of the members since they say he can make food from the sun

Mingyu - Cloning

Okay, so he can make at most 20 clones of himself without too much strain

He “reabsorbs” them later and basically earns whatever they did

For example, one clone learned how to do some really complicated dance move in the course of 5 hours

Mingyu not only gets that muscle memory and knowledge of the dance move, but he also gets the fatigue and strain from it as well

It’s not always beneficial because of this, but it helps a lot with multitasking for simple things such as chores and papers and stuff

Sure, the stress and strain add up, but I guess so does the endurance?

Mingyu is always saying things like: “I lost in rock, paper, scissors? Lmao that wasn’t me, that was my clone so it doesn’t count”

There was one time where he chose not to listen to the warning advice from the others and decided to make as many clones as he could and do a whole lot of work

The minute he reabsorbed them he collapsed and passed out because of how much exhaustion and stress he received

He got put into the “time out cage” by Seungcheol

When he first met the others he fooled most of them by pretending he had multiple twins or triplets, like 15 of them.

“Yeah, we’re all identical”

“How is that even possible?”

“Our mom liked to eat a lot so she had a lot of room in her bottomless stomach??? I’m pretty sure there’s more of us??? They’re just??? Waiting??????”

At those skills that his clones learned and he learned at the same time add up somewhat and that’s how he’s nicknamed “the boy who can do anything/everything”

Doesn’t hold information as well as skill sets though

So some person might recognize him and thank him for helping out with groceries and he won’t even remember doing that?

The members sometimes use that to their advantages and make him do the chores

“Thanks for saying you’ll cover my turn for doing the dishes, bro”

“????k then?”

Once he sneezed and like 50 clones came out of him and it was the most horrifying and hilarious thing ever

They all stacked on top of each other in a compact room and the original Mingyu couldn’t even reabsorb them all because he was squashed under so many of himself

There are never those random fights over who’s the original Mingyu because only the original can do the reabsorbing, and they all do something to agree on because they’re all the same person?

Even with the overwhelming numbers of clones, Mingyu is a strong man and very intelligent one too?

Fighting against Mingyu can be intimidating, but against numerous clones of him? N o p e

The8 - Elasticity

Have you seen this kid move around and dance on stage?

You can not tell me that he doesn’t have the power to stretch and bend however he wants, nope, it’s settled for me, yup yup yup

This helps with his b-boying because he can do those really complex moves without having to worry about the way his body moves or about his joints too much

Likes to take things from the other member’s pockets from across the room

He’s sitting literally across the room and you might feel something in your pocket and realize that it’s Minghao’s nimble fingers snatching away a snack probably

Often times likes to trip members as they walk

Very, very flexible, and very much so when it comes to learning new things to do with his powers

Is often asked by Woozi to get things from a higher shelf because he doesn’t want to ask and get teased by Mingyu

Is always the one to unlock the doors after Wonwoo and Jun lock them because he’s the only one who can flatten his arm and get it under the door frame and to the door handle

Sometimes Jun gets cheeky and makes it so that Minghao’s hand ends up in some restroom and ends up touching something he probably never wants to try and imagine in his head

The farthest The8 can stretch would probably be an entire football field

Creeped the whole crew out when he revealed that it was possible for him to rotate his head and neck around like an owl

Helps out Seungcheol with some fighting members by putting them in the “time out box” with ease

He does a lot of the dirty work for the others voluntarily because he tries to lift that burden off of the others as much as he can?

He doesn’t like to talk about it though, but he may ask Jun to take him somewhere more secluded so he can spill whatever’s been troubling him

Morning stretches often include The8 wrapping his limbs numerous times around each other and then releasing a series of cracks and pops in his joints

There are so many it’s really scary

Claims that if he rotates and wraps his arms around enough and lets it unravel quickly, he can fly like a helicopter. No one has yet to see it

His limbs go numb when outstretched for too long, so it ends up looking like a huge noodle that’s slowly retracting

It’s happened at least 30 times already

When he knows a member is feeling down, he’ll sneakily leave little cheerful notes or snacks nearby them without him getting up so they won’t know it’s him

They actually do since he’s not that quick at retracting his limbs...

Seungkwan - Sonic Scream

Basically what I wanted to have myself as said before the cut, but like

I was debating on giving this power to DK

I felt like it kind of fit Seungkwan more and then pictured him screaming in that haunted house on One Fine Day season 1 and then said: “Yep, it fits somehow”

I mean he can really hit those high notes too and I feel like they’re just really powerful notes as well

It also really helps for when a member bugs or annoys him he’ll be able to make them stop really quickly

“Stop or I’ll scream”

It was especially bad when he was a baby and cried lmao

His mom had such a hard time with him, but Seungkwan was a good kid most of the time

He’s really worried that he won’t be able to control his volume and accidentally hurt the other members

He’s only done it once by accident because one of the members accidentally scared him and then got blasted into the other wall with ringing ears

He’s doing his best to be able to control it and he’s progressed so far from the days where it was super hard to control!

As a child, Seungkwan used to not talk a lot because he was always afraid of accidentally being too loud

Now he talks and talks and talks!

The other members may seem like they’re annoyed sometimes, but they’re actually really happy because they understand how hard it was for him!!!!

Likes to talk with Vernon’s plants and uses a really soft voice, it’s adorable really

He loves to sing high notes too! Just to reassure himself that he’s the one in control and not his power

In school he was a part of the debate team because he liked to debate just a little, and also to listen to all the gossip that his seniors had

His voice was always very powerful during his debates, so he came across as very intimidating and it was really effective

Seungkwan once found it really amusing when he sucked in some helium and used his power with the squeaky voice

It was terrible lol

Like Alvin and the Chipmunks on full volume in the dead of the night

The loudest he can scream can probably make someone go deaf, but this poor baby would hate for that to happen

His laughs tend to be really loud though and that’s honestly when he feels the most free because often times he has little control over himself when he laughs

So when he laughs really loudly you know you’re doing a great job at being funny :)

Vernon - Plant Manipulation

For some reason I can see an image of Vernon surrounded by a bunch of green, healthy plants and he looks so happy i’M SCREAMING

Vernon can control the growth of plants and stuff? Just your general earth magic kind of thing

I can see him really liking some flowers and cacti though?

CACTUS VERNON?

He has three different potted cacti in his room that he talks to every morning after he wakes up and every night before bed?

There’s his Notocactus Sopa cactus named Nacho, a Mammillaria Spinossisima and Maria, and Rose Echeveria named Sofia!!!!

He likes to talk with Wonwoo and Joshua about the plants and it’s just so endearing?!?!?!

Vernon’s very comfortable with at least one plant around, so there’s a couple of plants in every room in the dorm

You can bet that he talks to those every day too, but not as often as his cacti

He especially loves it when the other members talk to the plants too because he can feel the love that the plants feel

And Seungkwan talking in an extremely soft voice to the plants because he doesn’t want to be too loud makes Vernon super, super, super, super happy!!!

You can bet all of your lunch money that Vernon supplies the edible greens for the food

As well as herbs and medicines??

There’s a whole garden area dedicated to Vernon because he just loves his plant friends so much

But he’s often super conflicted because he wants to grow a lot of things but has troubles finding room or suitable spots for light or shade or places where competition for nutrients and water isn’t as bad

Always knows the strongest plants to use whenever the members are in a tough spot

Whenever he’s nervous, Vernon accidentally makes those stinky purple flowers. We had some at one of my previous houses, I think they were Society Garlic (EDIT: they are! P.U! i literally just googled ‘stinky purple flower’)

It’s almost like an equivalent to someone farting when they’re nervous

He’s afraid of Venus Flytraps for some reason?

He made one and then decided nOPE and then made it shrivel up and crumble and grow some cactus in it’s place

But like a huge cactus so he wouldn’t have to feel guilty about seeing that dead plant

Somehow there are some Venus Flytraps here and there in the garden and he’s honestly so confused? It’s the guilt seeping in and he isn’t aware of it

Dino - Berserk

You thought the youngest would get something fluffy??? lmao no.

The power is exactly what it says. The user goes berserk.

I wanted to give Dino something like shapeshifting but I was thinking of Overwatch and thought of Winston and then went “lol why not”, then it just stuck and now I can’t part with this headcanon???

He has a hard time controlling himself while he’s in the state since he doesn’t have a lot of experience

There’s a significant growth in muscle and a very tense aura around him when he does go “Full On” (reference to iZombie)

You might not see it, but if you’re able to look close enough without being pummeled to a little pulp, there’s some sort of sparks nearby his eyes along with looking kind of bloodshot

Whenever he’s able to regain control and go back to normal, Dino is normally found panting and on the verge of unconsciousness

Sometimes he can’t control when he’ll go berserk, usually of times of immense stress or panic, and he beats himself up over it even though the others reassure him countless times that he’s not to blame

But he couldn’t help himself when he found out he broke Seungcheol’s ribs, knocked Vernon into a coma for three days, and effortlessly flung Mingyu’s clones practically into the next dimension so that when he reabsorbed he’d go through torture

The members all love him though and would go through that countless times over just to make sure he’s safe and sound at the end of it

They’ve also learned from that experience and found more effective uses of their powers and how to help Chan calm down? Jeonghan has the advantage in this situation though because even in his frenzy, Chan can’t help but maintain eye contact and he listens a lot to Jeonghan anyways

Physical strength and speed and not only enhanced in this state, Dino also makes more calculated decisions surprisingly as seen when he did damage to all of Mingyu’s clones

He gets nightmares frequently because he hates how little control he has, so he often talks to Joshua and asks for some help in his dreams

Eventually learns to control his dreams somewhat or is able to force himself to wake up from a nightmare

He has a lot of control over his emotions because he’s so wary of himself, but that doesn’t mean he’s on emotional lock down!

He has only little control of his power, but even if it’s just a little bit that he can do, he gets really excited and proud of himself!

“Hyung! Hyung! Did you see that? Did you really?!”

“Yes, Dino”

“Are you sure?! I can do it again! Watch”

He proceeds to show how his arm muscles developed into the state and sometimes you have to look away because wow that’ s m a n l y

Was once able to control himself in berserk mode because he panicked when an accident happened and he wanted to protect all of the members

He gets constantly reminded of how loved he is and how proud all of the members are of him