#these are silly cartoon hedgehogs at the end of the day

[orionshounds]

#1 pet peeve as a shadow enjoyer is that "faker" is not shadow's nickname for sonic, it's sonic's nickname for shadow. shadow never calls sonic faker once in sa2, and i don't believe he's done it in any other media either?? sonic only called him faker in the first place because the news thought he was responsible for the crimes shadow was committing.

besides, having an insult-turned-friendly-teasing type nickname doesnt really. fit? shadows personality at all?? but it DOES fit sonic's perfectly

if anything, shadow would go with a dismissive "hedgehog", but he's a straightforward guy and usually just calls people by their names

[lunalycana]

There are times I really worry that Sonic fans forget that their current hyperfixation and interest is in fact a children's series.

Like it's good to hold things in a critical light (healthy even) but there are times where I see takes where people are like "UGH WHY ARE THESE CHARACTER'S MAKING THESE STUPID BABY JOKES" or "WHY IS THE DRAMA SO LIMITED AND BASELESS".

And I just kinda sit here like "idk man. Probably because the target demographic is ten year olds and we're adults that like to see it every now and then." Like it's not really for us, so we probably shouldn't expect the Mona Lisa when we're playing video games about cartoon hedgehogs that punch each other sometimes and also punch an old guy in goggles several times.

Like media should be enjoyable, but we should also acknowledge when the bar should be a little lower and not amazingly mature and serious. The moment you ask for mature and deep is when you should probably start playing other games or watching other shows.

[official-sonic-team]

i think if you take sonic lore in too silly of a direction you’re missing out on really good characters and thematics but also you can’t take the series too seriously because at the end of the day it is a cartoon hedgehog who runs fast and there are gimmicks associated with that. so i think a good like 70/30 approach in a serious/silly ratio is solid.

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

heres my epiphany about being an evil sicko heterophobe who wants to disrupt the status quo and make your kids gay /j

over the past few months ive noticed ive been becoming increasingly more averse to straight/heteronormative ships. ik it isnt the end of the world and like. straight people arent oppressed for anything queer people arent also oppressed for. but its been bugging me because while heterophobia is such a non-problem that i was hesitant to even type out the word, simply reversing the roles doesnt really make it any better unless its for a hypothetical scenario. whatever you have to say about it, an aversion to a perfectly fine relationship just because its straight isn't necessarily the worst evil in the world but at the same time thats still a bad thing

and i mean for a little bit i was able to shut that part of me up! when done right, i honestly love sonamy. its just such a pleasant little ship. and also now ive got the tag blocked and consider myself a sonamy anti. ik it sounds really silly. "oh boo hoo, you don't ship the cartoon hedgehogs, whatever." and it is really silly. but its not just that. literally every other straight ship i like is either because the characters look good together/have interesting aesthetic combos (eg shadamy) OR i actually like the relationship but i cant bring myself to love it like other ships

again, not liking a straight ship isn't the be all and end all of everything, but i think back to this sonamy comic i saw months ago that i HATED. this morning i pictured amy as one of the guys in sonic and it was fine. i pictured sonic as one of the girls and it was fine. like i dont care if its not a serious problem, i dont wanna be like that.

and then i think about other ships im a fan of. i like a lot of straight mario ships, for example, so long as its not rosalina with a guy or waluigi with a woman. but then i remember WHY i like those ships. my favourite straight ship of all time is probably luaisy. theyre a really cute couple and i love them to bits!!! and then i remember i h/c them both as bi and trans, specifically t4t as well. this extends to other ships too. in fact, i love LOADS of straight pairings, so long as theyre actually not romantic and queerplatonic instead. put simply, i feel a need for some hint of queerness in EVERY ship.

and so i wondered why. why do i care? why do i have irrational hatred for a fictional boy and girl kissing if it isnt exactly how i like it? and then i thought back to when i didnt even slightly have that hatred and connected any two characters who i thought might possibly have something appealing out of a relationship. it was probably year 9, a few years ago. so what was the difference?

my friends.

back in year 9, i was surrounded by queer people, offline, online, real and fictional. now, however, a lot of them have realised theyre straight or drifted apart. its not their fault, thats just who they are and im glad theyre happy. as for the friends who drifted apart, theres not much i can do. but the only close queer friends i have who i have actually met in person are 1) my cousin who lives on the other side of the country and 2) the people who i see in summer school. summer school is 1 week a year btw.

obviously i dont lack queer friends. ive got loads online. but people arent kidding when they say your life will be vastly improved by being in physical queer spaces. my town's too small to organise any real pride events, so i cant really find new queer friends NEARBY very easily. i love my online friends, i really do, but even if we video called every day, it can never quite get on the same level as being in the same room as your friend. in other words, i feel slightly isolated when it comes to being queer. i guess thats why im looking forward to sixth form so much: i DESPERATELY want to meet someone more like me. not just in being queer, but being queer is a great place to start

so, if that does happen, maybe ill stop being like this and calm the hell down. i really hope i do because its genuinely annoying when you have an irrational aversion to something completely fine

im really tired but i literally just had an epiphany hold on

[blazehedgehog]

Hey there Hotdog Laserhouse, what do you think of Ken Penders?

Controversial opinion: early Ken Penders is fine. When all he's doing is writing generic, simple SatAM-esque cartoon stories, they're okay. Not the greatest things ever written, but fine. I assume a lot of these stories were written when he was still treating the Archie books as "a job." He has openly bragged about not being familiar with the Sonic franchise, about having a certain detachment from the source material, and that's where these stories fall. When Ken Penders is writing just to cash a paycheck, it's passable.

It's when he starts to care. When he starts to take ownership. When he starts to write bigger, more complex stories, and it kind of gets too big for him to keep track of all at once. That's when we got story arcs that he started but forgot to finish. And when he started getting protective of his narrative and refused to let other writers play in his sandbox. He spent a lot of time undoing other writers work just to preserve the sanctity of his own plans (which would then stall out and become forgotten).

Unfortunately, there's more of that then there are the simple stories. And more of Ken Penders looking selfish and egotistical. More of Ken Penders trying to command a kind of attention he didn't deserve or earn.

In short, I don't like Ken Penders, and I haven't liked Ken Penders for a long, long time. And it isn't just from his lawsuits, either. He dramatically overstayed his welcome at Archie, something he once outright admitted himself. His books were canceled and he got fired for a reason. The fact that he continues to maintain the facade of his Lara-Su Chronicles "expanded universe" or whatever is frankly embarrassing.

The "Mobius: 25 Years Later" stuff that introduced his Lara-Su character was one of the most sluggish, bloated, slow, overwrought things Ken ever did while writing for the Archie Sonic book. It was very clearly an excuse to give him his own self-contained playground totally divorced from what any of the other writers were doing. While everyone else could write their silly little adventures about the present-day versions of the characters, Ken wanted to give himself the satisfaction of holding the keys to these characters futures. To be the one that wrote how Sonic the Hedgehog ends. To always literally be ten steps ahead of everyone else, in a place where nobody would be allowed to change his plans. And it would be something that would always be set in stone even after he left Archie. For as long as the Sonic book ran, he would always have the last word. His ultimate, egotistical legacy.

If you ask me, that's the trick behind his Lara-Su Chronicles book and why he fought so hard for ownership*. He still wants to be the one to say "I hold the ultimate power over the future and ending of this universe and nobody can take that from me." He gets to invent and own all the descendants of all your favorite licensed characters and play in his special quarantined sandbox forever, rather than accept the reality that he was fired for a reason and using that to experience growth as a creator. He's still living like it's going to be 2004 forever.

I think that's also why the book isn't out yet, after years and years and years. If he spends forever tweaking and perfecting it, it will always remain a piece of iconography for him. A symbol of what he once was, not who he currently is. He can always point at it in his own mind and say, "This will be my magnum opus some day." If that day never comes, he never has to reckon with what it might actually be. And so he can say that Lara-Su Chronicles could become a movie franchise, or a video game, or whatever. He can pretend forever and ever to still be relevant. All he has to do is drop some off-the-cuff tidbit on Twitter about Princess Sally's lost virginity and suddenly all the hornets in their nests start buzzing his name again, just like old times.

And as long as he can still do that, it will always be 2004 for him, this will always be his magnum opus, and he will always control the future of that universe.

And that's depressing.

*This might also be why Ian Flynn has become public enemy number one to Ken. When Ian introduced himself as a writer for Archie Sonic, one of the first stories he did was messing with "25 Years Later." He later compounded the problem by introducing his own offshoot, called "30 Years Later." Suddenly, Ken's legacy wasn't his anymore, and Ian had literally scooped him by writing from a slightly-more-futuristic date. No surprise that all of Ken's "Sonic was just a job to me, I know I'm writing on a licensed book and I own nothing, and it was definitely time overdue for me to leave" sentimentality went out the window. In fact, Ken quietly began his war for ownership in January of 2009 -- the same time the first "30 Years Later" story was mostly likely starting production. Ain't that something?

[strangestcase]

Hi hello I would like to know about your silly Jekyll and Hyde adaptation👉👈

OK so it's set in a universe that is literally a musical! the characters all sing and dance and yes it's real music in-universe. it's kind of more like a spoof of jekyll and hyde adaptations so the characters are younger than their book counterparts but it's ok they're more autistic and more gay to make up for that. also set in the modern day.

So this Henry Jekyll is a chemistry teacher slash researcher and he plays the accordion and is a sunshine boy but WATCH OUT he's created a potion that turns you to your """dark side""" and when he tries it on himself he becomes shadow the hedgehog Edward Hyde (number one edgelord of ever). he's trans and bi. he's also spanish because fuck it. Hyde's appearance and behavior become more animalistic the fuller the moon is.

his bestie Gabrielle Utterson is cartoon-boring (really likes paperwork and her favorite food is plain bread) and she's a divorce lawyer but her dream is to be a detective and also maybe to romance a sexy brooding goth monster. she's soooooo angel themed you have no idea, also she thinks she's ugly but she isnt. Henry has a crush on her (it's mutual) (they're both idiots so they don't confess). his best frenemy is Hastie Lanyon who is a Texan cowboy in here because I'm not happy with just one texan cowboy in gothic literature (sorry Quincy Morris) he's also Japanese American and non-binary and walk walk fashion baby.

the story is overall more lighthearted with Hyde being a morally gray antihero at most (who doesnt kill. yet.) and after it ends they all date each other (diversity win this poly trio is t4t4t!) enfield is there also ig. shes a girl too but she dates no one because we need more loser girl rep.

so anyway Henry teaches at a special high school for super talented teenagers and his students are like. Victoria Frankenstein (also a girl tee hee) Herbert West uuuuh Carmilla and stuff. the headmaster is van helsing who has a doctorate in German literature in here and anyway eventually hyde starts killing monster hunters in self defense and after a few shenanigans Jekyll's fucked up experiment and shapeshifting thing are discovered and made public and. hes like. oh fuck. until van helsing reveals to him he's the director of EROS (extraordinary research organization society) which is like the MIB of this universe and their job is to make sure monsters dont hurt people, mostly through non-violent means. and that the school was a front for it. so he offers him a job as the head of scientific research all like "if you work for us we will keep you out of legal trouble for anything you do" and hes like uuuh fine by me lol.

it's very disjointed and I still have to like hone it but yeah that's it mostly.

[lowpolyshadow]

This is for the Sonic opinion ask thingy (but feel free to answer it privately bc I'm on the shy side) PS. I am sorry for its length:

Do you believe that the hate Shadow the Hedgehog 2005 gets to this day is deserved, and did it ruin Shadow's character? I feel like Shadow 05 gets a lot of crap thrown at it bc of its "edgy" advertising more so than the actual content of the game. The game itself is the Team Chaotix mission style levels from Sonic Heroes but with Shadow, and guns, lots of guns. And... the guns are honestly the best part of the game. Next to Shadow, of course.

Before I played it this year, I was under the impression that the game was terrible as so many ppl say it is and that it's the game that ruined Shadow by making him an edgelord. After playing it and having to beat it 10 times to get the true ending, I was so confused as to how the game has the bad reputation that it has. Yeah, the game is edgy, but Shadow isn't close to being an edgelord. He's a little guy, a little goofy guy who just wants to know his past. Idk... Maybe 2005 was too early for Sega to release such a tonally different type of Sonic game and market it as unSonic like as possible to Sonic fans. One can only wish Shadow 05 gets the Sonic Unleashed treatment: hated on release but gets love and praise years years later; but Shadow 05's less than well received legacy has a tight grip on it.

the in depth-ness of this ask is so (rattles it) that i wanna publish it GJASKLDFDF but if u don't like it lmk <3 but here's my equally long response

i think shth the game is like . not a great game. it's clunky, it's weird, it has literally over 300 "routes" for true 100% completion because of how oddly they made it (each individual possible connection between dark/hero/neutral being its own path with its own name in the credits/game itself meaning you need to do every fucking possibility in existence to get a true 100%) like it's just such an odd specimen of a video game that has the same sort of "issue" most sonic games have where there's not enough polish in certain parts of the end result

i think that + a mix of other factors (the edgy marketing, the gun thing, the fact that this is the first sonic character since knuckles chaotix and tails adventure to get a spin off) made it more susceptible to being criticized, especially because shadow isn't a longrunning character and was equally polarizing in certain parts of the fandom for that reason (he should've stayed dead vs he wasn't that good to begin with vs etc., he's like the most popular character besides sonic but that also means he has plenty of detractors)

this is also during like an awkward time period like following sa2 where people were split on whether heroes is good or not (my beloved), a lot of spin offs or smaller side games that aren't really here or there, and then of course 06 for the real plummet in public opinion, so like. shth was already going uphill lmaoooo

so like. factually. it's a fucking Weird game. adding guns and trying to make it cooler and edgier and let shadow + sonic swear (HILARIOUS) means there's too much room for people to say that the silly series about cartoon hedgehogs is trying too hard, and especially around 2005, trying too hard is seen as lame and cringe and not cool? which also means it's more popular to make fun of its writing than try to actually absorb what the game is telling you (which is hard anyways because the game tells it to you in its weird assbackwards multi-route off translation sonic way)

in my own personal opinion, the game isn't perfect and it's actually just fucking funny especially in like the dark routes (i LOVE dark hero ending), but it's not as awful as people make it out to be and i don't really think shadow's character was "ruined" by it or anywhere close. i'm a little bit on the side of "shadow probably should've stayed dead in sa2" because the impact of his story was just phenomenal with how his character goes, but yknow i'm a shadow fan which means im glad i get to see him stick around and be in future games

edit: also forgot to mention but i think shadow IS a little edgelord, it's just that he's been an edgelord since inception. listen to literally any of his lines from sa2 (one of the first things you'll ever hear from him is literally just "I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the world's ultimate life form. There's no time for games, farewell." among like "It all starts with this ... a jewel containing the ultimate power!") he's just so dramatic he's . he's always had edge. shth is just all about him so it's on full display all the time <3

shth was important because following his new heroes amnesia, this is the game that focuses entirely on heroes' team dark subplot with him trying to find out who he is, and all the routes are formed based on how much he actually learns (a lot of dark endings he ends up with little to no information at all, a lot of hero endings he learns some but not the other), with of course the true ending resulting in him coming to terms with all he is and what he was meant to be and what he will be going forward

he's over the top and dramatic but that's like half the fun of a sonic game i think (also, again, lots of the translation are straight up incorrect or just oddly done so it doesn't help with making things make. sense), like. it is a silly little game about cartoon hedgehogs. that SWEAR now! and use guns !!! !! ! but it's also a game where shadow gets to let go of the past and put it behind him, so that he can just. live. for once. lol

not to be used as a weapon for revenge on humanity, not to be used as a desperate cure for a dying girl, not to be . fucking anything besides a little freak of a hedgehog

it's soooo dramatic but him letting go of that picture of maria and gerald and saying goodbye to shadow is like. ?!??! idk. i think it worked for what they needed and 06 shadow showed the fruits of that labor where he's just so much more in control of like, himself and his lot in life i think .... modern shadow gets a lot of flack and yknow i agree but it's almost like a shadow off the shits level of flanderization lmaooo?? i hope they tone it down for a bit more of a balance between his cool collected reserved thing and his like oddly passionate side (like how amy suffered for. a few years now. with being just 'sonic fangirl' but they're finally bringing it back around to 'kind compassionate girl who loves her friends'), but it's not wrong to say he's a guy who doesn't care about what others think and is just doing whatever the fuck he wants

tldr i think shth the game gets more flack than it deserves, which isn't to say it doesn't deserve any it just. like satbk and secret rings, which are just not fantastic games in terms of actual gameplay, the writing is genuinely not bad at all. i really like shadow in lots of sections of shth even tho they're batshit crazy scenes... and i'm a sucker for . for the ridiculous "this is who i am!" ending quotes in the sense that they're so stupid. they're so dumb. half of them i can't take seriously ("i am the ultimate hedgehog" lmao?!?) but then you get the last story's quote and. yeah.

"I am Shadow the Hedgehog. I've left the past behind me. No one can tell me what to do now! I will destroy you, Black Doom!”

[pixelpoppers]

Pointless Viewpoint Characters

So, okay, Sega is apparently developing films based on two of its classic titles: rhythm game Space Channel 5 and beat 'em up Comix Zone. Which--okay, cool, whatever; this early it's impossible to say whether they will be any good. (Though my immediate thought was "Okay, now do Crazy Taxi.")

But here's what caught my attention: the Space Channel 5 film will apparently "tell the story of a hapless fast-food worker who is recruited by a freedom reporter from the future to save the world from aliens using the one thing that unites all people on the planet: our love of silly viral dances." If you aren't familiar with the source material: the game Space Channel 5 stars a future reporter saving the world from aliens through dance. There's no "hapless fast-food worker" in the mix. That's new for the film.

To be clear: I'm not trying to pick on this film in particular. This is a really common pattern. The Sonic the Hedgehog games (and comics, and I think mostly the shows) are about Sonic fighting Eggman, while the films are about James Marsden meeting Sonic and helping him fight Eggman. The Transformers cartoons (and comics, and old movies) are about good and evil transforming robots, while the Michael Bay films are about Shia LaBeouf meeting good transforming robots and helping them fight evil transforming robots. And on and on; you get the idea. As part of an attempt to give an adaptation of a niche property more mainstream appeal, the studio adds in what TVTropes calls a "lead you can relate to". As if the audience can't understand a fantastical setting unlike modern Earth or relate to any of its characters unless there's a wholly non-fantastical person along for the ride to comment on how unlike modern Earth this all is (and probably end up playing a key role in saving the day despite being wholly unqualified compared to the setting's preexisting characters).

(Note that this is unnecessary for the Comix Zone adaptation since that game was already about a normal artist getting sucked into the world of their comic; the movie can just do the same thing there with no problem.)

Now, I have to assume from the sheer number of times this has been done and the unimaginable amount of money involved that the strategy works more than it fails (or at least seems to). But it perplexes me. Of course it feels bizarrely patronizing--the source material didn't need to have an everyman audience surrogate in order for the audience to know how to understand and react to the premise and setting. The audience just had their own actual reaction.

But beyond that, naively it seems like this sort of move should reduce the overall appeal of the adaptation.

For the existing fans, the new viewpoint character is an extra layer of metaphor distancing them from what they came for. They're here to enjoy retro-futurist dancers / brightly-colored forest animals / transforming robot battles, not to watch someone else enjoy them. Any time or focus the film spends on the normal everyday person is worse than useless because it takes away from the time or focus spent on what makes this IP what it is and the reasons the fan enjoys it.

So presumably the idea is that having a "more relatable" lead character will gain you more mainstream appeal than it costs you in niche appeal, but like... having a generic protagonist is not a unique selling point, by definition! All it does is make the movie more interchangeable with other movies, and there are so many movies out there--if you're someone who needs that "relatable" lead, are you even going to choose to watch Space Channel 5 instead of an actually-mainstream film in the first place? Why would you, unless the fantastical setting appealed to you? In which case, do you even need the "relatable" lead?

It doesn't make sense to me. It really seems like this kind of adaptation just waters down what sets the source material apart; taking away some of the reason to watch it in particular, replacing it with weaker generic appeal that makes it stand out less.

I can see where that's a good approach if there aren't many choices available to the audience and you just need to avoid pushing people away and thus remove reasons not to watch your film. But given the options available to modern film audiences, I'd expect you to be better off giving people a clear reason to watch your film by offering something other films do not.

[kappaengineer]

Sappy essay reflecting on 100%'ing a game about a blue cartoon hedgehog after 20 years.

I finally beat Sonic Adventure 2: Battle 100% with all A-Ranks, and all 180 emblems after 20 years and this feels absolutely BIZARRE.

I was only about 5 years old at the time I got introduced to this game. We had a Nintendo 64 and a Gameboy Color at that point, but that's when my dad borrowed a Gamecube and a few games from somebody he knew. I remember it vividly, playing multiplayer with him and my sister, raising chao together (my first was named after Chucky from Rugrats!), watching the now infamous cutscene where Eggman blows up the moon and thinking it was the coolest thing.

It wouldn't be until the next year that we got our own Gamecube, and a bit longer until I had my own copy that I played religiously. I grew up with this game. This silly little hedgehog game is responsible for so much of my essence as a person and the path I'd take in life.

This series introduced me to all sorts of neat little subcommunities, fan artists, animators, fangame developers, modders, hackers, and even got me into the idea of game development through other peoples' fangames. I've made my own fangames, and even made content for other peoples' fangames that I used to play as a kid. I've also met a ton of people wonderful people through this fanbase, many of which that I still talk to on a regular basis after over a decade. I don't know what I'd do without some of them, and I'm still grateful for everything this series has given me over the years.

Things have changed a lot since 2002, to say the least. Those days playing Gamecube with the family are just a distant memory now. In most ways I've done a lot to grow as a person, but in others I still have a lot of work left to do. Live and Learn, I guess.

I have this melancholic empty feeling now, finishing SA2B. As much as I love this game, I don't know if I'm able to go back to it anymore. I've seen everything the game has to offer. I won. I got all the A-Ranks and mastered all the challenges this game threw my way. There's nothing left to do now, and all the loose ends are tied up.

It's time to move on, look forward. Live my life, experience new experiences. And I won't look back, because I don't need to. Time won't wait and I got so much to do.

All I can say now is this: Sayonara, Sonic Adventure 2.

I honestly don't expect anybody to read this, I just had to get it off my chest. Crying about this goofy rodent.

[icedthoma]

friendly competition

--Since you seem to like chapstick so much... maybe have a reader and Bakugou and neither of them know what the chapstick game is so the bakusquad ropes them into playing it before they know what the rules are?

Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

Notes: thiS IS THE LAST CHAPSTICK POST I SWEAR HSSBDKJS DON’T COME AT ME T-T (it’s just writing kisses is rlly fun ight ok ill shut up now)

“This is stupid.” 

“You know, for once I find myself agreeing with you.”

“For once? What are you talking about, idiot? I’m always right.” 

“Yeah? I saw your red kahoot screen the other day, don’t even try to lie.”

Mina slid in between you and Bakugou, who’s hands were beginning to spark at your nonchalant attitude. “Let’s all calm down before someone gets sent to the hospital."

Huffing, you folded your arms and jerked your head away, plopping down to sit cross-legged on the common area’s floor. “Whatever. That doesn’t change the fact that little Rat-suki over here is being a whiny brat, as always.”

“What did you say? I’m going to--”

Kirishima yanked Bakugou back as he attempted to lunge toward you with palms blazing. “Come on, man. We’re all here to have fun!”

“Don’t even know why I came to this stupid thing anyway,” Katsuki hissed as he reluctantly sat down on the couch farthest from you. 

“What’s the game?” you sighed, just wanting to get it over with. You’d go along with their antics to make them happy and leave you alone for the next couple hours, where you could catch some must needed rest. 

Ashido beamed at your question, and flung a plastic grocery bag out from behind her back, holding it high in the air like it was some sort of trophy. “The chapstick game!” 

“What’s that?” you and Bakugou said in unison, then immediately glared at each other from across the room. 

“I asked first, you overrated extra.”

“Actually, we asked at the same time, you stupid blond hedgehog. No wonder you were never in band, you can’t count.”

Kirishima was prepared and once again held Bakugou in his seat before he exploded you to pieces. He resorted to flipping you off from his hunched position on the couch. 

“Gremlin,” you mouthed back, sticking your tongue out at him. 

“As I was saying, we’re playing the chapstick game,” Mina continued. “I will act as judge, of course.”

“Hey, Bakugou! I think you’d be great at this!” Kaminari teased, slinging an arm over his friend’s shoulders. “You’re good at cooking, so you should be able to tell these flavors apart in a heartbeat!”

“Y/n’s a pretty good cook too, you know,” Jirou piped up from Kaminari’s other side. “I think she could give Bakuboy a run for his money.”

You grinned at your friend’s support, staring smugly at where Bakugou was trying to burn holes into your forehead with the power of his glare alone. “Oh yeah? I think so, too.”

“Well, we won’t find out unless we play, huh?” Ashido yelled, finally losing her patience with all the interruptions. “I blew a quarter of my allowance on these, so we’re putting it to use or else.” 

“That’s not very good money management.”

“Shut up, Denki!” 

“Psh, fine. I’ll play along with your dumb game,” Bakugou scoffed, squinting at you while jerking his thumb towards the floor. “But you’re going down, you hear me?”

“I’ll make you eat your words like it’s your inferior cooking.” Walking over to where Mina was holding the bag of chapstick at you, you took a random one and looked at its label. Strawberry. “Wait, so what do I do with this again?”

“Put it on!” Kaminari urged you, and you did so.

“But I already looked at the label, so I know what flavor it is.”

“You’re not the one guessing, silly!” Uraraka piped up, looking pointedly at where Bakugou was still perched atop the common room couch. 

“How is he going to...” you trailed off as the realization hit you. “No.”

“Absolutely no way,” Bakugou growled, coming to the same conclusion as you. “I’m heading out.”

“If you don’t play, you forfeit and Y/n wins by default,” Ashido called after his retreating back. He froze, hands twitching but not sparking yet, clearly torn between his desire to beat you in every competitive way possible and his distaste for games like this.

“It’s fine, Mina,” you laughed, waving your pink friend off. “I think I’ll take this free win. I’m sure Bakugou agrees.”

“Oh, no way in hell,” was all you heard before Katsuki whirled around and stormed back towards you. 

“Wait--hold on--what are you--” you managed to stammer out before he grabbed your face in both hands and kissed you, right in front of all your friends.

You were barely aware of someone saying, “Oh my God he actually did it, someone get the camera right now--” followed by several other shouts of the sort, but it had all been lost in the background to your shock that Bakugou had indeed, done it. Your eyes were wide in surprise as you took in his face scrunched up in concentration, lips brushing against yours with a softness you never would have expected from him. His palms were rough and calloused and warm against your cheeks, and you couldn’t believe that these hands, the ones that were holding your face so gently like you were made of glass, were the same ones that had tried to blow you to smithereens on multiple occasions. 

Once you had gotten over the initial shock and got used to Bakugou being so close to you, you then felt kind of awkward. Where were you supposed to put your hands? On his shoulders? Behind his neck? Was that too intimate for a simple game? 

Just as you started having these frantic thoughts that made you extremely self conscious as to the way the two of you looked to the rest of your friends, Katsuki exhaled sharply and pulled away, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt much to your annoyance. The cool air conditioning was such a contrast to his warm body, that for a second you found yourself wishing he’d come back. 

“Strawberry,” he said, an insufferable smirk plastered on those lips you hated, those lips you wanted to come back to you more than anything. 

“Y-yeah,” Ashido murmured, gaze darting around to the rest of your friends in the room, as to confirm that she wasn’t the only one who saw that, right? “You got it.”

“Tch.”

You frowned down at the strawberry chapstick that had been in your hand the entire time, Bakugou getting slapped on the back by Kaminari in the corner of your vision. The thing was, you could tell from the moment you held the stick to your face that it was strawberry. The smell was potent enough that he should have been able to tell as soon as he got within smooching distance. But he had kissed you anyway. 

You didn’t have the time to dwell upon this enigma, as Bakugou was snatching a new stick from the bag and swiping it across his mouth, shoving it into his pocket once he was done. “Well?” he barked. “Do you need an invitation?”

Rolling your eyes, you went up to him, steeling your nerves with determination. He raised an eyebrow skeptically as you paused in front of him, wondering how you were going to reach him from your lack of height. He certainly wasn’t going to bend down to your level himself. Deciding to throw all caution to the wind, you sighed and grabbed his shoulder with one hand and the back of his head with the other, yanking him down to crash his mouth onto yours. 

Unlike his kiss, yours was anything but soft. You kissed him because you knew he wasn’t made of glass, you kissed him to win, your eyes open and narrowed as you ran your tongue along his bottom lip, noticing how he tensed up when you did so. His crimson eyes stared a challenge into yours, just daring you to lose to him. You coudn’t smell anything relatively fruity, so you ruled a whole bunch of flavors off the list. Your tongue had come away from his mouth cool, a stark contrast from his generally warm skin. Which led the only option to be...

“Mint,” you said, ripping your mouth off of his and placing your hands on your hips defiantly. 

“Spearmint, actually,” Bakugou snarked, tossing the stick up and down in the air.

“I say it counts!” Ashido exclaimed, quieting down at the end to murmur, “And who knew Y/n could kiss like that?”

"Hurry it up,” Kaminari complained, bouncing up and down on the couch impatiently. “I want to play it with Jirou.”

“In your dreams.”

“We’re literally dating, what are you talking about--”

“What are you all doing still up?” Iida yelled, appearing at the front of the room and silencing all of you in an instant. “People are trying to sleep, and you all are making such a racket downstairs. I implore you to stop at once.”

“...that’s our cue to leave,” Mina whispered, grabbing the bag and running upstairs followed by Kirishima and the rest of your friends, leaving you, Bakugou, and Iida alone. Iida sighed and stumbled off towards the kitchen, mumbling something about just wanting to get some water.

It suddenly became so quiet you swore you could hear crickets chirping like they did in cartoons. 

You snuck a glance at Bakugou out of the corner of your eye, only to find him doing the same thing. The two of you jumped in surprise as you caught each other staring, and you quickly averted your gaze to the floor. 

“Listen, about earlier.” 

You looked up to see Katsuki rubbing the back of his neck, his face uncharacteristically tinged with red. 

“Yeah?”

“That didn’t have to mean anything, okay? It was just a stupid game, so don’t think too much about it, or--”

“We never found out who won, you know.”

“I would have won anyway, so it doesn’t matter.” 

“You had an easy one, okay? You could tell by the smell alone, meanwhile I actually had to try.”

“Oh yeah?” 

You knew you really had no reason to be provoking him like this. Literally none. So why were you continuing to do so? 

“Whatever, it’s just some friendly competition,” you said, flicking your finger against his chest and turning away. However, he caught your wrist before you could fully pull away. 

“Are we?”

“Are we what?”

“Friends.”

You searched his face curiously, but there was no malice or anger in his expression. You couldn’t tell what he was feeling right now, and that bothered you. Friends...maybe yesterday, that was what could describe you two. 

But something had changed, and there was a shift between you that you weren’t sure was good or bad. Maybe it started when Bakugou agreed to the game in the first place. Maybe it was when he held his lips against yours longer than necessary. Maybe it was when you yanked him down to your level and kissed him until your lips bruised. 

Not quite friends...but not entirely more...

“Sure,” you forced yourself to say, brushing an invisible lock of hair behind your ear and sliding your hand out of his grasp, which you found odd because he literally could have just let go and save you the experience of brushing your fingers over his for a split second. “Of course. Idiot. Anyway, isn’t it past your bed time?”

“Tch. See you later, loser.” 

Both insults lacked venom, and you both knew it. As you walked up the stairs, Bakugou a few steps in front of you, you fisted the stupid strawberry chapstick tightly in your hand, the only thing you had linking you to that moment. 

The moment everything changed.

[dumbassbitchdisease]

kind of a rant atp but i've held onto this for too long:

i always see things that i used to like in middle school that i genuinely really enjoyed watching/doing that i think about now and have mixed feelings about.

like sure, i stopped watching MLP, stopped drawing my little Sonic OC, pulled back on watching certain shows, but was it because i stopped liking it? or because i felt judged for enjoying the things that i do?

i see updates on shows, fandoms, or other things that i really liked and i get excited, it makes me want to enjoy those things again and really, what's stopping me?

sure i wrote my silly little crossover fanfics that i cringe about now, but it got me into writing! sure, i drew ponies and hedgehogs all the time, and filled up my brain with the show and all these little things about them, but it genuinely helped me improve my art - drawing side profiles and hair for example! making these one-time "i swear they're a new oc im making a story for" characters helped me flesh out the backgrounds and personalities of characters i have now! listening to specific artists, i feel the nostalgia, it's relaxing, even! having the lyrics almost flood into my brain, hearing my favorite part again, knowing when the artist takes a breath, or paying attention to the background, knowing everything about it, the instrumental, the highs and lows in their voice! it makes me think of parts of my life growing up that probably made me the Weird Kid in their Weird Group but did i care? fuck no! i had a good time! i had fun! i had anxiety then and i do now but these things made me happy! the only times i felt embarrassed to like the things i did was when other people would comment on it, my friends liked my art, my parents were relatively supportive/okay with it, but seeing friends outside of school? the ones that didn't really care? other family members? they made me feel childish for liking what i liked, but i was a child, why wasn't it ok? who would it hurt? who did it hurt? the only person that felt hurt was me, it was a blow to the stomach to see people's faces full of judgment for something that didn't even concern them. it made me feel embarrassed to enjoy these things. it made me feel so dumb, lame, pathetic, whatever, it left a sour taste in my mouth where the sugar once was.

i feel like im getting really sidetracked but at the end of everything my question is: why stop liking the things you like because others don't get it? why stop enjoying the things that make you happy because of something somebody else said? will i really continue to hold onto the scraps from updates i hear from someone else because i feel like i'll get judged again? or will i start to enjoy these things again? why am i going to hold back on the things that make *me* happy for the sake of others who don't even give a fuck?

i'm older now, yeah, sure, so i have more of a mental "fuck you too" attitude when people ask me if i still really like "X" with a sneer or with words laced with judgment, looking down on me, like yeah, i like this, it makes me happy, it's my life, fuck you !!! i don't owe you shit! sorry you're a bitter little fucker that wants to tear me down so you can feel better about yourself! let me enjoy my things!

"oh you're 20, you're too old to enjoy your plushies, those are kid's shows, that's just a cartoon, do you still draw your little characters? why would you buy that book? that album? that song?"

BECAUSE IT MAKES ME HAPPY, BECAUSE IT MAKES ME SMILE, BECAUSE I LOOK FORWARD TO ENJOYING MY THINGS EVERY DAY, BECAUSE IT KEEPS ME GOING I DON'T OWE YOU AN EXPLANATION FOR THE THINGS THAT MIGHT BE SMALL BUT KEEP ME ALIVE IT KEEPS ME GOING IT GIVES ME MOTIVATION!!! i don't fucking care !!!! how dumb it sounds !!! you're not me !!!!

fuck what other people think, you keep doing the things you like, you do it for yourself and your happiness, you don't owe anyone shit

[taglegend]

Tag Fact #3 -  I’ve come to realize I’ve always been a fan artist more than I thought. so here is a timeline of influences that shaped my childhood to now. from nostalgic times, to sad changes, to great loss, to strange rises to fame and phases, to stepping stones and finally a laughing place. all the things that make up your favorite fan artist Tag.

1. Rayman (bumped into this in the year of 1999) was actually the first fandom (with crossovers) I bumped into when I was 9. although the internet wasn’t available at the time it was still fun to dwell in home amusements. I remember the storylines and the OC’s I made but they’re kind of embarrassing and it’s probably a good thing there was no internet. I’ve done fanart and comic crossovers of Rayman with Calvin and Hobbs and Nights Into Dreams, spinoffs of Sonic the Hedgehog OC’s, Yoshi with Pikachu, and the Pokemon/Digimon craze with OC’s and other Nintendo comic shorts. but the drawings and comics are long gone and disappeared in the garage in a backpack due to suspecting my sister’s dad accidentally throwing them away. years later towards the year 2018 (now 28), we decided to move to North Carolina and it was my chance to find them again. unfortunately the backpack was gone just like I suspected (my main stuff), but for some reason I found my Pokemon/Digimon fanart, a good batch of Super Mario drawings (vaguely remember doing these), my sister’s drawings and some other neighborhood kids’ drawings in a dirty box. I was partially happy I found something at least but it was the backpack I wanted the most. sometimes I regret not looking for the backpack (’cause I was too busy being a kid) but it’s alright, noone needs to see that shit anyway, ha ha. anyways, I recall being a fan of Rayman from 1999 ‘til 2002.

2. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (bumped into this in the year of 2003) my second fandom I bumped into when I was 12 going on 13. at the time, my sister and I both liked the Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise based on the Battle remake and ended up making our own secret fanart club that consisted of only us two members. she liked Sonic (and that was her boyfriend, ha ha) and I liked Knuckles (and he was my boyfriend, ha ha) and we were crazy in love about Shadow’s backstory. we listened to the game’s soundtracks as we drew fanart and comics after school and man, those were good times. however, as we grew older towards the year of 2005, we ended up having separate rooms and I believe it played a part in disconnecting on the same interest. then one day, I asked her why she wasn’t into Sonic anymore and she replied, “Because I grew up.” I was sad after that and slowly observed that she was influenced by the emo culture and the new friends she’s made. I was the only member of our little club for a little longer...but eventually I moved on too. I still have some surviving fanart we did together but it doesn’t mean shit anymore since she turned out to be an abusive mother from the last I’ve heard of her. 

3. Gorillaz (bumped into this in the year of 2006). as the Sonic years were at its end, I first heard the song “Feel Good Inc” on Music Choice and seeing the first image of them as displayed on this post (except the fan-made background doesn’t count since I can’t find the original artwork). this was my third fandom and later had proper access to the internet to the website I still currently use called DeviantArt. at first I liked 2D but eventually fell for Murdoc and developed a spiritual connection towards the character as obviously seen in my old fanart and rare photos of my devotion shrines on Valentine’s Day and his birthday every year. for the longest time since being a permanent fan from 2006-2017 (11 1/2 years) I had no knowledge that it was a political propaganda band and other realizations I don’t want to talk about. I only followed them because it was a cartoon and not the bullshit behind the musical project. the world I’ve built and support for them for all those 11 1/2 years shattered the fuck out of me and I just wanted to be left alone to find myself again, somehow. activity stopped on all my profiles, the flow of fanart stopped since I now cringe from the fan service and felt I was used for my talent. I didn’t want to be reminded of it all so I took down all my Gorillaz fanart and archived them for old followers’ nostalgia but also in the hopes they’ll be forgotten in my timeline. I ceased to exist in the fandom for huge personal reasons but it’s best to not say why. I know for sure that the fandom wonders what happened but it’s none of their business. THE END.

4. Waluigi (although I knew he’s been around since 2000 during childhood, I took deep interest once I revisited the character again in the year of December 2013). as silly as this sounds, when I revisited him again, the character was so bizarre that I ended up staying up 3 nights and 3 days in a row just looking all over the internet on everything about him and the questionable “hush-hush” absence of a backstory. despite there being no backstory he slowly gained a cult following and in many ways it’s a good thing. however, since the early 2010′s tension has been building up between Nintendo and its fans about him starring in a main game but everyone hasn’t fully gotten it in their heads that it’s not gonna happen. as long as Nintendo is in control of that, the fandom will not win, I’m sorry to say. on the other hand, if it’s going to be this way, then that’s what fanart and comic projects are for. as for me, I am doing my very best to get my comic project “Waluigi Land” going. again, I apologize if it’s taking very long to get Chapter 2 going if you’ve been keeping track but aha moments need to develop before I start permanent drawing (since concepts, character design and storyline needed improvement badly). as of right now I am still a Waluigi fan and I will not quit on him.

5. Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph (although it debuted in 2012, I watched the movie two years later into the year 2014). for some bizarro reason, I had an unhealthy obsession with this character to the point where I dressed up as him for Halloween 2014. only 2 fanarts of him and the Turbo Twins exist on my profiles, mainly because my mind was more focused on just ‘thinking about him’ or ‘being him’ rather than drawing physical drawings. luckily, this supposed alleged fandom didn’t last long a little after Halloween so I chalk it up as a very short phase. to this day I don’t know what has gotten over me about him. the only thing I can think of now is that I think it’s because the character had yellow eyes and teeth but I don’t know. now that I think of it, that little fucker was ugly as hell and I STILL don’t know what had gotten over me. one day, my brother mentioned what that was about, and I said to him, “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

6. Undertale (although it debuted in 2015, I later took interest in it in 2016). It was all about Sans and Papyrus. I couldn’t get enough of the skeleton bros. eventually Toriel and Mettaton EX became my favorites but it took a long time to draw more of all 4 of them because I had other important things to do in my life plus I was still waiting for the next Gorillaz album to revive my imaginative juices (or so I thought). I really want to have this as one of my frequent fandoms but I just don’t have time for it anymore. it’s still in the back of my head to want to draw them but at this point I still have other better interests to be in. and besides, I’m lazy just like Sans.

7. Cuphead (June 28th, 2017 was the official day I called quits on the British-based band Gorillaz due to the bullshit behind it. since that date I was lost, had no inspiration to look forward to and no cartoon guy to make me smile...but lo and behold of the same year, I took an interest in playing the game Cuphead and man...that shit was a frightening exaggerated metaphor for being on that one drug (forgot the name though) and having sex at the same time but man that was the best fun I’ve had in years. I mean, it’s like, enemies are just so happy to murder you and that scared the shit outta me. and the facial exaggeration?....I think I should stop, ha ha. anyways, the Moldenhauers saved my ass from spiraling down, they have no clue. anyways, eventually I became a permanent fan of their work so to ease the hurt and erase my past from the G-fandom I had to re-wire my brain into a different cartoon category that’s a rather more American, so anything Toon related like Roger Rabbit, Felix the Cat or another favorite that’s a western-based cartoon makes me feel better, especially my new man .......King Dice <3 <3<3<3. however, there was something about this new fandom category I still didn’t quite understand until the date March 14th, 2020. I finally understood what it was but I feel I shouldn’t bring it up. anyways, Cuphead and anything western or rubber hose is my last stop in inspiration for the remaining years of my life. many say never say never but I believe I’ve found my laughing place and that’s all that matters.

[olaf-likeswarmhugs]

Love You For A Long Time || Soft

Summary: YES this happened all the way back in June lmao-- Sindri and Olaf sit down and talk about having a queerplatonic relationship, complete with a helpful worksheet and so much communication. :) 

@huldufolk-hjarn

SINDRI:

There was a word. 

Sindri knew he was someone who found comfort in labels, so when he’d begun his search for a word to describe himself, he’d been maybe more than a little stressed out. Add to that all the stress he’d been feeling about Olaf and how he was supposed to define his feelings for his best friend and you had yourself one extra-stressed frost fairy. But there was a word. 

Sindri found his very own word: demisexual, and having that label felt right. It was like all the worrying he’d ever done about how relationships work and how many people he’d had sex with or how many people he’d wanted to have sex with was just finally unimportant. There was a word for him which meant he wasn’t the only person who felt this way. 

He knew that’s how Olaf must feel right now too. It was because of Olaf that Sindri found this amazing Sindri-word and he was very thankful. He was also nervous because he was currently on his way home to talk to Olaf about another word they’d found: Queerplatonic. 

For the longest time, Sindri thought that to have a fulfilling life, he was going to have to find someone and enter into a Promise with them. He would do that and they would have a kid and everything would be perfect and Normal. Now he realized that he’d never really actually thought about if he wanted that or not. He realized that it was something that people just assumed would happen. That wasn’t right. It was stupid. It was so stupid and put all this stupid pressure on him and the more he thought about it the more he absolutely hated it. 

Sindri didn’t want to give up Olaf. 

Sindri didn’t want people thinking that Olaf was “just” his friend. Olaf was his friend. Olaf was his very best friend and anyone he dated shouldn’t be put above Olaf. Why was friendship less important? Why did Olaf have to feel like he was letting Sindri down because he didn’t want to date when their friendship was so special and important? 

Sindri kept walking while all these thoughts swirled around in his head and all he knew was that he wanted to hug Olaf. He wanted to be around Olaf forever. Olaf was his person and he didn’t need to “date” him to prove it. 

Queerplatonic was a very good Olaf-and-Sindri word. 

He opened the door to their apartment and peered inside, his heart skipping around in his chest. “Olaf,” he called. “I’m home.” 

 OLAF: 

Olaf was nervous-- but a good nervous.

For once, when it came to the topic of Olaf and Sindri, Olaf knew what to expect. He’d done the hardest part when he’d explained, to the best of his ability, how his mind and heart worked, and Sindri hadn’t thought he was a heartless monster at all. For a long time, that had been Olaf’s greatest fear-- that everyone would look straight through him and hate him for all that he couldn’t feel, no matter the warmth and bright, bright colours of what he did. Or worse than hate--and this, Olaf knew he’d have to brace for in the future-- they would look at him with a blank expression and not see him at all. They wouldn’t hear him. He’d be confusing, and odd, and no one would ever understand.

It made him feel so lonely… when people didn’t understand. 

But Sindri understood him. Or he wanted to. And together, they’d pick through the rest maybe, or at least that’s what Olaf was hoping as he sat with the worksheets he’d printed out. He smoothed the paper out on his lap, his eyes darting over its details and its questions. Some of those questions made him more nervous than others. And there was a little voice in his head that was wondering if this would be right for them at all. What if Olaf didn’t like this? What happened if a QPR ended? 

Oh, he should Google that. 

Olaf Googled it. And actually, it took a tiny bit of time, but he came across a Tumblr called Queerplatonic and Aromantic Advice and started to pour through it, straying far far from his original question. He was still reading the blog, his eyes glued to the screen of his phone, when the door opened. 

Sindri! 

“Oh, I’m in here!” Olaf called-- then laughed at himself and snorted. “Why did I say that, there are only two rooms in this place!” He put his phone beside him on the couch and then pulled up his legs so he was sitting cross-legged as Sindri approached. His nerves pinpricked--but that was all.

Mostly, he was excited. Yes, that’s what this feeling was. 

“I got out the maltesers and crisps for a salty and sweet combination,” he added as he pointed at the two bowls. 

SINDRI:

Being near Olaf had always been soothing for Sindri as far back as he could remember and that hadn’t changed. Any nervousness Sindri felt dissolved when Olaf’s heart-shaped smile lit up his face. He thought again about the way people were sort of expected to give up their friends in life as soon as they found a romantic partner. He thought about how stupid that was. Why was that the norm? 

Sindri looked at the snacks Olaf had laid out and smiled back at his friend before reaching out for a crisp. As he chewed, he noticed the papers Olaf had stacked neatly on his lap. Was that some sort of cartoon hedgehog or something in the corner? 

Fondness filled his chest and he moved to sit down next to his friend before he did something silly like cry. He didn’t want to cry and he didn’t need to cry. In order to avoid it, he had to not think about how Olaf it was to go and find a cute print out on the internet to help have a weird conversation. 

“So,” he said after another moment. “I was sort of looking into stuff some more and I kept seeing people talk about how important communication is for people in QPR’s...well, for people in any type of relationship really, but I just wanted to make sure that everything is clear for us because I don’t want miscommunication to ruin anything.” 

Sindri swallowed hard, his adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. His nerves were back, but everything would be okay. He knew it would because he trusted Olaf. He sat up straight and met Olaf’s eyes. 

“I just wanted to say to your face, in front of you, that I’m a little bit in love with you probably. I want you to know that because it’s true, but I also want you to know that I don’t want anything you don’t want. I don’t want to date you. I have never felt and will never feel like I’m missing something because I’m not dating you. I just want to hang out with you forever. I want to share my life, if that makes sense.” Sindri’s cheeks were definitely bright red now. 

“I really want to understand how you feel and I promise I’ll never make you feel bad about your feelings. Okay?”

OLAF: 

I’m a little bit in love with you probably. 

Olaf wished he knew what Sindri really meant. His eyes softened and part of him wanted to reach out and squeeze Sindri’s hand. The way that Sindri said it was like a gift. That’s the way love often was for other people. They held onto it, waiting until they found a certain person to whom they could give it away, and it could only be for that person...well, unless something happened and then they had to keep it all to themselves again. Olaf wanted, just once, to feel it so he could really understand the bigness of Sindri’s words and the shape of this gift. Maybe if he felt it just once then Olaf would feel more worthy of it. Or… that wasn’t quite right. Everyone deserves love. He just didn’t know why Sindri had to give this gift to Olaf alone and why sometimes the giving could feel like...taking.

Though his feelings for Sindri were quite Sindri-specific. They’d never changed from when they were kids. He always knew that Sindri was his best friend and that he liked to do certain things with Sindri more than anyone else. For a long time, he thought that must be romantic love, but it really wasn’t. It was trust. It was friendship. It was affection. It was appreciation. And, yes, love, gentle and easy and reliable, like the lights in the northern sky. 

The line though was still very blurry. He hoped he was going to do all this right, even though all the websites assured him there wasn’t one right way to do things at all. And ah, for Olaf, who quite liked knowing things, it was scary. 

“Okay.” Olaf nodded. “I trust you. And I promise I won’t lie to you about anything anymore. And if I’m confused about how I feel about things, I--I’ll tell you that too.” He smiled sheepishly, blushing from one cheek to the other. 

He handed one of the sheets to Sindri. “Okay! Are you ready to do this then? Isn’t the little aardvark cute?” Olaf pointed out the doodle in one corner of the sheet. “I also think that this list of stuff isn’t uhm, complete--there could be other things we want to talk about but we can write them on the back or something. Oh! What colour pen do you want? Blue?” He reached for the blue on instinct since it was such a Sindri-colour. 

SINDRI:

Sindri took the blue pen with a smile and then looked down at the worksheet. It was seriously adorable. The little doodles went a long way toward making what could be a very stressful conversation into something cute and fun. Except that it was still a little stressful. It sort of put Sindri on the spot in a way, asking things that were sort of relative and making him judge the closeness of their current relationship. 

He looked up at Olaf and the worry in his face softened. The worksheet, he knew, was just to help. They could talk about anything they wanted after it was done. 

Sindri filled out the worksheet and thought really hard about the things he wanted. Did he want to celebrate and anniversary? No. That would be silly. They’d been friends forever. He didn’t know what day they’d become friends and starting to count now would be ridiculous. Plus anniversaries were stressful and came with all sorts of expectations. So no. Sindri put a big ‘X’ on that one. 

Some of the other things were more complicated. Sindri didn’t need sex. Sindri didn’t even really want sex most of the time, but he wasn’t opposed to maybe having sex in the future. It felt wrong to cross it out, but when he tried to make himself circle it he felt a little bit sick. It wasn’t...sex wasn’t something that needed to be a part of their relationship. 

Small kisses? Yes, Sindri liked those. Big kisses? Maybe sometimes he scribbled next to that one after he circled it. Holding hands and cuddling were a big yes from him so he circled those too and then sighed. 

It felt nice to be doing this. It was special. Olaf was special and the whole idea of a platonic partnership just felt right to him. Sindri had looked into it more, of course, and someone had said the difference between a friend and a platonic partner was basically what he and Olaf were doing right now. QPRs had communication and an acknowledgement that sticking together in life was something all parties were committed to. 

Sindri was committed to being Olaf’s friend forever. Sindri wanted to hang out with Olaf forever and he didn’t plan on leaving him. Ever. 

Sindri smiled as he wrote friend into the space next to I want to call you my _____. 

“Okay I think I did it,” he said, putting his pen down. 

OLAF: What Olaf liked about this sheet was how it broke everything down into categories. It was like getting a one-sheet when he arrived at a certain talent for the day. Most talents had something like that to help the Helper-talents out, since it’d be difficult for a Helper to just seamlessly know what to do. So talents broke down their jobs into smaller tasks and then broke down those tasks into step-by-step instructions and Olaf learned that way. This worksheet was similar. Olaf looked at all the things on the sheet and thought, The sum of them make up most typical romantic relationships, but quickly followed up that thought with another: but not always. 

The most important thing, as he’d read so far, is how you feel about those things and what they mean to you. 

The other important thing was deciding on things together, with your partner. Or friend. Olaf didn’t know if he wanted to think of Sindri as a partner just yet. He had, um, mixed feelings, heh. Or he was still trying to figure those feelings out. 

He picked up his sheet and moved quickly through most of the categories, because some were quite easy. Holding hands, cuddling, going out together-- though he had to clarify that one, because he didn’t want dates. Maybe he should write hang out? Or was the ‘going’ and ‘out’ part important, as in, leaving their flat to attend an activity together? Thinking about that made Olaf’s brows furrow and he nearly laughed, managing to suppress it. It just seemed rather silly that attending an activity together intentionally could be some kind of Big Thing when friends did it all the time. 

Ah...anyway…

He paused when it came to sex, because that was another thing he didn’t quite know how he felt without talking to Sindri. 

But the last question was very easy. What did he want to call Sindri? What he had always called him. Olaf wrote best friend confidently.

“Okay!” Olaf chirped and he looked up from his worksheet with an excited smile. “Let’s compare--oh frost, I put the checkmark all the way over there,” Olaf said as soon as he saw Sindri’s sheet. In the first category, where it had a gradient for how close you wanted to be, Olaf had checked much farther than Sindri did. “Though I guess I don’t really know what this check really represents. I just figured it meant cuddling.” 

SINDRI:

Sindri’s eartips flushed red. Did he mess it up? If that little line stopped at cuddling, he definitely wanted to be closer to the far right. Urgh, see that was the problem with stupid little lines with no explanation! It was fine. Sindri knew the point of this was just to help them have a conversation and it was doing a really good job with that. 

Each little section of the paper was something they could talk about. It was a nice guide and Sindri really appreciated it. Especially because he was super nervous right now. His fingers shook just a little as he reached out and poked at Olaf’s little check. 

“I didn’t really know what it meant either,” he said, laughing a little nervously. “I sort of...well, I was thinking about how close people could be and I was afraid the far right meant like, suuuuuper close, you know? I didn’t want you to think I wanted us to be inside each other all the time.” 

Another nervous giggle slipped past his lips and he scribbled out his little check, scooting it a lot closer to the far right. “If it means cuddling, I’m all the way over here too. I like cuddling.” 

Sindri’s face lit up in a smile when he noticed something else on  Olaf’s sheet. “We both want to call each other friend! That’s good! I mean, you put best friend, so really you’re overachieving,” he said, beaming. “That’s settled, then, right? We just call each other best friend? Like, ‘this is my best friend Olaf!’ when we introduce each other?” 

Sindri looked back down at his paper and then back up at Olaf. “How are you doing so far? Are you feeling okay?”

 OLAF: 

Hm, a good question. How was Olaf doing so far? 

Sindri meant mood-wise, but Olaf wondered about his performance in the context of aromanticism as a whole. He couldn’t help it. His whole life, Olaf trained himself to ingest and perform specific standards when it came to specific tasks. That assumed a kind of objective truth that Olaf knew didn’t exist here, but his training was very hard to ignore. And he was so new to all this, even to thinking of himself as aromantic, and so there were these brief moments where a question mark popped into Olaf’s head again as he thought to himself-- am I interpreting this all correctly? What if I’m not aro after all? 

Thankfully, these moments of doubt melted away into thin air as quickly as they flurried in. He just had to keep reminding himself: there is no objective aromantic identity! And whatever you feel, let yourself feel it. Don’t be nervous.

Sindri’s smile helped. He was glad that he was here and they were doing this together-- but it could only really be Sindri, couldn’t it? 

“I feel pretty good. Most of this sheet has stuff we have in common, so we don’t really have to talk about them--though I guess we could. Like, holding hands. When do you like doing that? Personally I don’t like how couples do it like-- over the table? You know, at Hatter’s, when they hold hands for no reason? At least I don’t know the reason, it seems you could use your hands for other things, like drinking a beverage. Really, in general-- when you’re sitting down. I don’t like it that much then. But when you’re walking places-- like when we go out to crowded places mostly, you know? That way I can make sure you don’t get lost.” He pat Sindri on the shoulder, his lips pursed playfully. 

They both knew that Olaf was ten times more likely to get lost. 

In fact, he had gotten impressively lost the last time they’d gone to Pottery Barn. His phone had died and Sindri had to call him over the speakers. Very nifty Sindri thought to do that! 

SINDRI:

“Me?” Sindri asked, giggling. “Olaf, you get lost at least once a day.” His smile was bright as he laughed, and he had the urge to pull Olaf into the biggest hug of all time. The love he felt nearly overwhelmed him and he shone from the inside out. This was Olaf. His best friend. They were always going to be best friends. Unless Olaf got lost at a pet store and eaten by the rabbits. “Right, so hand-holding when navigating busy places. Got it,” he said, jotting down notes. 

His eartips flushed when he realized that maybe notes were a little excessive, but he wanted to get this right. He wanted to make sure they were both on the same page. “I don’t really like when people hold hands across the table, either. I think it’s kind of silly. For me, at least. They can do whatever they want.” 

Sindri looked back down at his paper. “For kissing I think we should keep the same rule we already have. If one of us wants to kiss the other person, I think we should ask first. I like that rule.” He looked back up at Olaf and smiled again. He was doing a lot of smiling, but he couldn’t help it. This whole thing just felt right and special and very much like them. 

“What do you think?”

OLAF: 

It was a good rule-- more people should have a rule like that in Olaf’s opinion. Though he did worry, just like last time, that somehow he might disappoint Sindri if he didn’t ask, ever. But Olaf was getting much better at catching these moments of doubt and worry and taking them apart on the spot. Because the worry had several assumptions in it, like that Sindri would care about something like that. And also that kisses were some kind of currency, to be passed back and forth, which they were not. 

So he nodded and did not bring up his insecurity; they’d already talked about it before and Olaf didn’t feel the need to talk about it again. He would just keep working on it on his own, let himself be himself, and let Sindri be Sindri. 

“Though we should talk about, er, big kisses?” Olaf said as he leaned over their sheets and saw that like him, Sindri had written something by big kisses. 

“To be honest-- well, this is another vague one, don’t you think? What’s a big kiss, anyhow? Like kissing for a really long time, I suppose, though what's a really long time? Ten flits, twenty flits? Several minutes?” Olaf was mostly thinking aloud, leaning against one of his hands, his elbow on the back of the sofa. “Hmm. I guess usually we did that kind of stuff before we had sex.” 

He spoke about it plainly, because to Olaf, it was quite matter-of-fact. He was not shy about sex, even though he rarely thought about it. When it came to his relationship with Sindri, sex had not given him as much pause as...the rest. Sex did get tangled up with The Rest in the end though. According to all the forums though, sex and romance really could be separate things for people, especially on the ace spectrum (though not always-- there was this thing called the split attraction model, or SAM, which talked about it)! Olaf was probably one of those people. But was Sindri? 

SINDRI:

Talking about sex with Olaf wasn’t weird, but Sindri’s cheeks still turned a little pink. He was right. The only time they really kissed for a while was when they were going to have sex. But Sindri didn’t really want that to be the identifier for big kisses. Sometimes he had the urge to kiss Olaf when he didn’t want to have sex with him and he didn’t want big kisses to mean sex. 

“I think my favorite kisses are the little cute ones. I think they are big ones when it turns into, like, making out, I guess?” Sindri realized that he was feeling distinctly uncomfortable. He didn’t want to think about putting his tongue in Olaf’s mouth. It wasn’t because it was gross exactly, it just wasn’t something he wanted to think about when he wasn’t in the mood to do it. Sex and kissing was kind of weird that way. If he really thought about it and broke it down into its little parts, he started to wonder why his body ever wanted to do those things in the first place. 

“Big kisses are probably the kind where tongues are involved,” he said quickly, blushing. “I’m sorry. It’s kind of weird to think about kissing you like that when I don’t actively feel like doing it, if that makes sense? It’s like sometimes the idea of sex and kissing is kind of a weird concept to me and it makes me feel weird. I probably sound stupid since sometimes I really want to kiss you like that.” 

OLAF: 

Olaf shook his head. “I don’t think that sounds weird! Sex is the thing that’s weird, most of the time!” And a big grin broke out on his face in hopes of comforting Sindri.

He meant it though! Even if Olaf didn’t think much about sex, he saw the way sex could be for some other people. There were fairies who made sex into a huge deal and others who thought it just another fun thing to do with their friends during parties. Much like romance, sex existed on a spectrum. It was all snowflakes: never the same for one fairy as it was for another. 

The only thing that gave Olaf real pause when completing his queerplatonic worksheet was that sex was so often tangled in romance. That was never the case for him. Sex with Sindri would be fun, just like if he had sex with a different fairy or person. 

Well--then again… was that true? Because Olaf never thought about sex, he’d never really thought about what sex with someone other than Sindri would be like. 

It would certainly be different. Not bad, different. Just. Different.

It didn’t gross him out though. He also didn’t feel the need to go and find out for himself. 

Olaf tapped his pen against his sheet as some of these thoughts flurried rather haphazardly through his consciousness. “But I mean...well, I dunno. I think I didn’t circle sex because I felt like we should talk about it first, but also because I worry again about these things being different for you than they are for me…” His brow crinkled a little and he glanced down at the sheet.

That strange emptiness was clawing at the edges of his chest again, though he didn’t know why… 

“Not that...I mean, I think sex is-- I like having it with you,” he tried, even as his ears got red, fearing that Sindri would think he was heartless. “It isn’t just sex when it’s with you, that’s not what I mean! It’s still special…” 

SINDRI:

“I get it,” Sindri said, smiling at Olaf, and he did. Sex was a weird thing that meant different things for different people. “I know it’s special, and I know how sometimes it gets all twisted up in feelings and stuff so it might be kind of weird.” 

Sindri took a second to think about exactly what he wanted to say. “I was reading about the split attraction model,” he said finally. “I think it makes a lot of sense. I think that sexual and romantic attraction make a lot more sense as different things and honestly it kind of made me feel better about myself.” 

“There are a lot of times I don’t want to have sex,” Sindri said, looking over at Olaf. “I actually...don’t understand a lot of the hype around it or why it seems to be so hard for people to go without it.” He was rambling. “I guess I’m just trying to say that I only sometimes want it and I never want it with people I don’t know, but it isn’t like...totally wrapped up in feelings, if that makes sense. I understand that sex and feelings are different so you don’t have to worry about things meaning something different to me than to you.” 

Sindri was definitely red as an apple. 

“I think if one of us wants to have sex, we can just say it, right? And it’s just a normal thing. And the other person can totally say no and it’s fine.” 

Sindri laughed and pushed his hair off his forehead. “Sorry. I’m just...talking about sex is weird when I don’t want it. Kind of like talking about big kisses. I guess what I’m trying to say is sex can be a thing we sometimes do but neither one of us should feel obligated, right?” 

 OLAF: 

Olaf had also read about the split attraction model. At first he hadn’t thought it applied to him. Because he was aromantic, but he was also asexual, or at least asexual-ish (if he were understanding asexuality as well as himself) which meant his romantic and sexual preferences were sort of in line with each other. Except now that he thought about it, that still wasn’t entirely true. If things existed in different colours, then maybe his romantic and sexual preferences were...green, but different shades of green. His aromanticism felt bright, bold, noticeable, like one of those neon signs that would say something like PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE HAHA WHAT IS A DATE. 

But sex would probably be a super soft, pale green. One of those greens where you were like, is that green? Or is it kinda blue-ish too? 

This was a weird metaphor. 

Anyway! Because he related to his asexuality differently than his aromanticism, the split attraction model made sense to him, even felt nice to think about. He didn’t have to completely dislike sex the way he disliked romance. 

And everything Sindri said was right-- they just needed to keep talking about things like that

“Okay,” said Olaf and he started to write down talk about it-- though he paused because that wasn’t the only facet of the sex question. “Oh, what about-- having sex with other people?” Olaf blinked and glanced up at Sindri. Sindri only liked to have sex with people he knew very well, obviously…

Olaf didn’t know about himself. But still, they should talk about that. “Personally I...think it should be okay,” Olaf said slowly, hesitantly, hoping that wouldn’t make Sindri feel bad. “I um, kind of feel uncomfortable if I’m only allowed to have sex with you.” His cheeks got redder. “Not that I think I’ll have a lot of sex anyway, I just--I dunno. I dunno why I feel that way.” 

SINDRI:

Sindri nodded right away. He didn’t want to stop Olaf from having sex with other people if that was something he wanted to do. Sindri knew that he probably didn’t want to have sex with very many other people, but if Olaf did, that was okay. Like he’d said before, all he wanted was to be Olaf’s best friend forever in a very acknowledged way, if that made sense. He wasn’t sure it did. It was just...Olaf was very important to him which meant Olaf’s happiness was also very important to him. 

“I think it should be okay, too,” he said. Then he blushed again and looked down at his fingers. “I also think the same thing should maybe apply to romantic feelings too? I know you don’t want that for yourself, and I think I might be demi-romantic, too, which is a whole other layer we could talk about, but if I do meet someone maybe, I was thinking that should be something I could do too.” 

“If I did it, it wouldn’t mean our friendship or QPR was over either. I think anyone I might have romantic feelings for in the future would be made aware that you are very important to me and I won’t be spending less time with you because I’m with them.” 

This was something Sindri had definitely thought about. He was nervous because he didn’t know how Olaf would react, but he did know that no matter who he might be with in the future, if he was with anyone, would not take Olaf’s place in his heart. He wanted to make sure Olaf knew that. 

“So, yeah. I think sex with other people should be allowed and romance with other people should be allowed, but I still think that we should talk about those things too. I won’t show up with someone I like one day out of the blue, you know? I tell you everything anyway, but I don’t want you to ever feel like I’m hiding things from you.” 

OLAF: 

Before finding ‘aromanticism’ and starting this conversation, what Sindri said would have made him nervous-- maybe even a little jealous. Because it was Olaf’s biggest, most secret fear: being left all alone.

 He always figured it was going to happen one day. Pixies would pair up; that’s what pixies did. They’d have their promises and then their families and their partners would be the ones they went to the dances with. Olaf thought that was lovely too, he really did! Falling in love could be as beautiful as watching the dance of the northern lights...it was different every night, hard to describe, but stunning. 

He just…

He wanted to be asked to dance too. He still wanted to be important and to feel needed and to have warm conversations late into the night while sipping hot cocoa. He’d like his friends to think of him sometimes when it came to special occasions. 

Those things became extra important when he thought about them with Sindri. They’d always had such fun together. It was hard not to cling to it and wish desperately that it’d never change. 

But of course, that wouldn’t be fair. 

That desperation and fear still lingered, but quieter. Because queerplatonic was like saying: yes, I commit to this friendship and to taking care of it! Why be jealous as long as Olaf knew that Sindri would protect and honor this relationship too? And so he knew Sindri was nervous, but Olaf remained calm, nodding along as Sindri talked.

“Right! I agree. No out-of-the-blue surprises on stuff like that. Hmm, just ‘talking’ should really be on this sheet, don’t you think?” Olaf wrote it in the margin in capital letters and circled it. “There’s other things this sheet doesn’t have, like um, living together. I know we do that now and it really didn’t have anything to do with a queerplatonic partnership but um, I dunno, I like living with you…” Olaf squiggled over the circle he just made. “And cohabitating can be a part of QPRs... Though maybe it’s too soon to talk about that!” He finished, a bit flustered. 

SINDRI:

Sindri brightened as soon as the words were out of Olaf’s mouth. Honestly, Sindri loved living with Olaf. He’d been happier these past months with his living situation than he ever thought he would be living in a human apartment. Something about Olaf was home for him and it made perfect sense to have Olaf around always. 

“I like living with you, too,” he said, nodding. “I actually...I know it’s not good to assume and stuff, but I just kind of assumed we would keep living together, you know? I’m happy when you’re around. I think we make good roommates.” 

Sindri picked at his jeans just a little and took a deep breath. “For me our relationship is kind of like a Promise in a way,” he said, his cheeks turning pink again. “I want to be around you and have you be my partner in all the big things in our lives, you know? We don’t..I’m not saying we should get promised in the future or anything, but I’m not against the idea. I really like how we are now. I like talking to you like this and being open about things.” 

Sindri poked at his sheet of paper with his pen, doodling a little star. “I guess what I’m trying to say is I do want to live with you. I really like living with you and I think I would miss you if we weren’t sharing bunk beds anymore,” Sindri said with a laugh. 

“Have we covered most of the big things?” he asked, looking down at the sheet. “Best friend. Lots of talking. Sometimes kissing. Holding hands so we don’t get lost. More talking.” Sindri giggled. “Good thing I really like talking to you.” 

OLAF: 

Olaf giggled too. 

And you know-- a promise with Sindri seemed right. In the past, it hadn’t felt that way. Their friends used to joke about it, actually. As soon as they started dating--the two of them only apprentices-- their fellow apprentices would laugh and say stuff like How long do you think they’ll wait until they get promised? And well you two are practically promised anyway! 

Those comments made Olaf want to zip to the other side of the room away from Sindri. Which was a horrible, horrible feeling.

But promises did not have to be romantic. It was quite rare that they weren’t. Most platonic promises were actually made between much older fairies, who had not found any romantic partner, but had decided to move in together to save the Hollow space and to have company. They often were old, dear friends; many of them shared the same talent. Olaf figured that would have been him eventually.

But if they picked each other to be best friends forever… 

It made him feel better about that selfish wish of his--for things to never really change. 

“Me too,” agreed Olaf. “I um...think that might be it, yeah! Does that mean we’re officially queerplatonic partners? Bells, I feel like we should do some kind of handshake or something.” Olaf giggled. “This was actually really fun too! Why were we so nervous?” 

SINDRI:

Official queerplatonic partners. 

Sindri felt a glow building in his tummy just thinking about it. It was a soft, warm, happy glow that made him feel bright and loved and safe. “I don’t know,” he said, because now that he was on the other side of it, the nerves didn’t really make any sense. 

When Sindri really thought about it, nothing much had really changed. They were still Olaf and Sindri. They still lived together and slept in bunk beds. Sindri still knew how much Olaf loved thrift stores and Olaf still knew how much Sindri loved his coffee. Same friends. Same life. Maybe a little more secure now?

Sindri didn’t have to worry anymore about Olaf feeling weird about Sindri’s feelings. He didn’t have to wonder if Olaf thought Sindri wanted to date him. He didn’t have to wonder if he was maybe accidentally smothering Olaf from loving him too much. Communication was written right into their relationship at every turn and Sindri loved that. He loved knowing they were on the same page. 

He also loved Olaf. That was the biggest thing in the room. 

When he and Olaf were little, they used to say they would be best friends forever. Sindri sat across from his friend on the couch and smiled at him, thinking about how he’d just made little Sindri’s dream come true. They were still friends and they were committed to staying best friends forever. 

“I feel so breezy,” Sindri said, giggling and doing a little wiggle-dance on the couch. “Wanna seal it with a hug?” 

OLAF: 

“A hug sounds-- oh!” 

Olaf had already had one of his arms opening for the hug when a realization popped into his brain. His arms snapped back to his side. It was honestly just a little thing, but he should mention it anyway, shouldn’t he? After all, while this relationship had...hmm...maybe not changed, but finally fit itself, if that made sense, as if he and Sindri had been breaking in a pair of very hip friendship-shoes for over 20 years... other people wouldn’t have any idea. 

Should they?

“Should we tell people?” Olaf asked. “I mean, it’s--obviously it’s between you and me, but I’m also not trying to keep this a secret, because why would I, but-- well, I don’t know, queerplatonic relationships could be confusing. Maybe people will ask questions…”

Olaf didn’t mind questions. At least, respectful and kind questions. 

But he was a little nervous for those questions too. There were bound to be people who didn’t try to understand. 

SINDRI: 

Sindri wrinkled his nose. An image of someone asking them to explain their relationship, maybe even assuming they were just dating, invaded his brain and he hated it. He knew that would  make Olaf very uncomfortable. He knew it would make him uncomfortable too. When people were faced with things they didn’t understand they could be kind of rude about it. 

“I don’t know if we ever really need to just come out and tell people out of nowhere, do we? Like before we didn’t yell at people that we were best friends or that we lived together and stuff. This is kind of like that too. I think the only people we maybe need to try to explain it to are other possible partners maybe? Also I think Nemo would probably understand it. Pixies in general might be more open?” 

Sindri wasn’t sure about any of this. It was all new territory for him too. He just knew he never wanted Olaf to feel stuck or trapped or anything less than completely cozy. 

“Maybe we can just go by our comfort level? Like if it comes up organically we can talk about it? It’s not technically anyone’s business and I don’t think that means we are keeping it secret.” 

OLAF: 

After he asked the question, Olaf realized he had asked it more for Sindri than himself. Olaf didn’t think he cared in any way. If people asked him if he were dating Sindri, he would simply say no. Otherwise, they would just call each other what they always called each other: best friends. And now, flatmates. These things were enough for Olaf and he hoped would be enough for anyone else. Though...more than likely, when someone heard the term best friends, they wouldn’t think it meant everything it meant to him. 

But that was okay. As long as Sindri didn’t think Olaf was trying to hide something, then he’d let people react however they wanted to react and not worry so much about it. Hopefully, heh. 

He nodded. “I think you’re right. We’ll feel it out if it ever comes up. I just don’t want you to feel like it’s something you don’t have to talk about. I want you to talk about it if the moment and person is right. And I do too.” 

And with all that said--Olaf opened his arms again. “Okay! Now we seal it with a hug.”

[salavante]

I got tagged in a ‘three things about yourself’ thing by @marlutterianae, I don’t really like talking about myself but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to be more open!

1) I dated someone in highschool who was obsessed with Sonic the Hedgehog to the point of claiming its superiority over the games that I liked. This gave me the dual experience of both absolutely loathing The Hog, but simultaneously having played both Sonic Adventure games, Sonic 06, part of Sonic & Knuckles, and one of the Sonic:Rivals games (but idk which), as well as having watched the entirety of SatAM and the 1996 Sonic OVA. When I asked if I should read the comics I was told that they sucked and not to bother with them, and begging for release from The Hog, did not investigate further. My ex sucked, we finally broke up, and hopefully are both better people now than we were when we were teenagers, so I won’t roast them too hard and just put it out there that I hope they are happy wherever they are, many thousands of miles away from me. I went on to live most of the rest of my life happily hedgehog free.

Fastforward to this past fall, when I hurt my arm and had a stupid amount of time where I could not draw, type or play video games, and mostly watched movies/cartoons/anime and read memoirs and comics. I ended up on the blog @/thankskenpenders (striked because idk how many notifications she gets a day and don’t want to bother her), for giggles mostly - Ken Penders was someone I was familiar with because of course I heard about the lawsuit, and also because he’s been at San Diego Comicon for, like, ever. The person who runs the blog is funny, intelligent and classy in a way that a lot of “haha look at this weird thing” blogs are not, and her genuine love for the series mixed with witty criticism made me love it too. When I ran out of pages on the blog, I decided, well why not, and so started reading the Archie Comics from where it left off. The first issue I happened to read solo was the one with Scourge in it and it was so delightfully hammy that I kept reading. I already had a surprisingly good memory of the world from how much Sonic was injected into me like ten plus years ago so I could follow along pretty smoothly. Which is all to say that I like it. I think I actually LIKE Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s silly and melodramatic and fun and in the right hands, the characters are very sweet and I like watching them interact with one another. I’m planning on reading the IDW comics and looking forward to it. Anyway, that’s “How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love the Hog”.

2) My drink of choice when I go out to bars is an Old Fashioned (bitters, sugar, whiskey, orangepeel garnish), though I also like a Whiskey Sour (whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, egg white). If I’m just getting something to eat with like a burger or taco or something though I’ll just order a beer, and like to go beer tasting.

3) My visual work is mostly skewed to period pieces/fantasy at the moment, and has been for awhile, but there was a point in time when I was first graduating HS/entering community college where I mostly read/wrote science fiction. For a long time I was also more focused on writing and being a writer as opposed to being an artist/illustrator. I started seriously drawing as a child because I wanted to be able to see the characters I wrote about. Once I started really committing to drawing as my craft of choice, comics seemed like a good marriage of the two mediums, and is still where I feel I fit the best. 

[itslucifersam]

I was nine when I first learned about the funny blue hedgehog named sonic. I was browsing TV one day when I saw this odd cartoon on with this fast hedgehog eating chili dogs! It was so funny! I knew that day sonic was my idol. Over the next year I watched a sonic episode every day. When I watched all the episodes I would break down into tears for an hour but eventually start to rewatching again. After I watched an episode I would play the sonic games. I had every single sonic game and beat each of them at least 19 times. My mom just thought it was an odd funny quirk of mine. Then one day I thought, maybe this silly hedgehog has a point with his obsession of chili dogs? I stopped staring at all my sonic merchandise and went down to my mom in the kitchen and asked her to make me a chili dog for lunch. She laughed and said .O.K. and she made me one. As soon as it touched my lips I knew it was going to be the best thing I have ever ate. That was the first time I had an orgasm because of sonic. I asked my mom to make me another one for dinner and she complied. Again it was so good. I went up to my room and looked up at my sonic poster. It made me feel something I've never felt before. Something I now know is lust. I zipped down my pants and jerked off for the very first time. That was the second orgasm i had because of sonic. I fell asleep with the biggest grin on my face. When I woke up I asked for chili dogs for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She looked a little worried but complied thinking this was a small phase and it would end soon. Then next day I asked again and she said no. I yelled at her for being a bitch and told her to give me my fucking chili dogs now. I scared my mom and she told me to go to my room now and she would take away all my sonic games, sonic dvds, and anything sonic related for a week. I wailed with despair as I ran to my room. I pulled open my drawer and grabbed my sonic the hedgehog pocket knife and held it up to my throat. Right before I was about to cut it open I heard "Gotta go fast!" I turned around with tears in my eyes, "Sonic?" I asked. "Yes, now hand me that." He waved his hand implying that he wanted my pocket knife. So of course i gave it to him. He turned around and said. "Let's get us some chili dogs." I smiled a gleeful grin as he led me down the stairs. He walked into the kitchen, pocket knife in hand and started stabbing my mother repeatedly yelling "GIVE US CHILI DOGS BITCH!" I laughed with joy seeing sonic kill my bitch of a mother. He then pulled steaming fresh chili dogs out of his ass and we ate them together. "Now son, spread those cheeks for sonic." He demanded. Of course I complied. I pulled down my pants and got down on my hands and knees for sonic. Then with the might of a thousand gods he started filling me with himself. It was painful but I did it for sonic. He roared "GOTTA GO FAST!" as his hedgehog infused semen exploded into me. Then he was done with me. With tears streaming down my face because I knew sonic had to go I said goodbye. "Now now, Sonic will always be back for more." I smiled a gleeful grin as sonic faded into the sky.

[fly-pow-bye]

Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “Mojo The Great”

Written by: Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboarded by: John West, Angela Zhang

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

No, he isn’t!

I was just talking about how I didn't think one character's portrayal in a reboot was as good as the originals, and this one is a far better example of that! I make it no secret that I am not a big fan of the reboot’s interpretation of Mojo Jojo. I mean, I get it; his manner of speaking was probably considered to be too close to broken English, but they could have found something else other than "silly monkey with a silly hat."

Well, aside from him dressing up in women's clothing, of course. Thankfully, this aspect was toned down in Season 2, and doesn't appear to exist in Season 3 outside of one tiny scene in Not So Secret Service. Season 3 is also going to try to improve his character, with a whole episode about him trying to be great.

He gets a good start, as the episode opens with Discount Jojo wrecking a city with his giant robot, calling himself the greatest villain ever. A tour bus drives on by, the tour guide talking about how he's one of the average villains of Townsville.

I can see this episode as a response to people who criticized Jojo's character in the reboot; throughout the entire episode, Discount Jojo is called "not so great", and I do not disagree with that. I mean, he's supposed to be the arch-nemesis.

Angered by this accusation of being average, Discount Jojo grabs the bus and throws it, only for it to be caught by the Powerpuff Girls, with Buttercup even threatening to break two of his legs if he doesn't surrender. Discount Jojo says he doesn't even know the meaning of the word, leading to a running gag about a word-a-day calendar so good, they used it for the title sequence.

After Buttercup crushes him with a torn-off top end of a skyscraper while Bubbles distracts him with cute pictures of hedgehogs, all planned by Blossom, we cut to a Breaking News segment hosted by Bob and Nick, the sportscasters from Derby Dollies who are totally not named after anyone in particular.

This is another episode where each of the Powerpuff Girls' distinct personalities come into play. Blossom’s excellent planning skills, which was mocked in the last episode, Buttercup’s incredible strength, as this show’s "interest" for beefy arms continues, and Bubbles’ undeniable charm, which, okay, I guess. Don't they all have super-strength? Don't tell this episode!

Discount Jojo is completely insecure about being not-so-great, so he decides to enact a plan, using his...

Voice-Change-A-Ma-Jig...♫♬By Mojo♬♫

That's one of the big running gags in this episode: Discount Jojo has his own jingle for his inventions now, which he will only use in this episode. He has three different settings on that thing: Professor, Mayor, and...Mrs. Keane? Okay, I can understand that Discount Jojo probably didn't look up if she's married or not. For the record, this show has her still being single in the episode after the next.

He puts it on Mayor and attempts to call Bubbles. I will be honest: I am surprised they did not just make Discount Jojo use a very unconvincing falsetto that Bubbles believes in to fit in with those "oh, that silly Blonde" jokes they do with her.

Instead, they do something a little bit different: Jojo, in a very unconvincing way of talking that isn't exactly the Mayor, an improvement to Jojo's character, tells Bubbles that his greatest foe is at it again. Bubbles starts naming villains that are not what Discount Jojo is expecting, as apparently there are far worse and/or notable villains than him. Who, exactly?

"Morbucks?" Of course Princess gets the first mention; the crew loves her for some reason! Nonetheless, she doesn't appear in this episode.

"Fuzzy Lumpkins?" Wait, he still exists in this reboot? This episode doesn't prove it.

"The Fashionistas?" Not them, it's not a good episode.

"Pack Rat?" Oh, that one villain that only appeared twice in Season 1 and never again, even though his last appearance has a still unresolved cliffhanger? Not him.

"Manboy?" No, not him. Three appearances is enough, really, and only one of them was anywhere close to good.

"The Gangreen Gang?" No, their leader is too busy with the best thing to happen to the Powerpuff Girls since McCracken left Cartoon Network.

"The Amoeba Boys?" Yes, the Amoeba Boys are considered bigger threats in this reboot than Discount Jojo. Sadly, we will probably never find out who they think is a good replacement for the late Chuck McCann. And if you think that's bad...

"Him?" Yes, it took this long for her to say Him. One would think the series' equivalent to the devil should be #1, but he's put below the Amoeba Boys somehow.

"Silico?" I wish; that cliffhanger with the virus robots really needs an actual conclusion that doesn't make him a complete joke.

"Allegro?" Oh, don't remind me.

Discount Jojo decides not to let this gag continue forever, because it sure feels like it, but Bubbles has only a slightly higher opinion of him than everyone else in this episode: he's good, but not great. Using the Mayor voice, Discount Jojo leads the Powerpuff Girls to a dark alley and zaps them with a ray gun.

Buttercup wakes up in a glass chamber, only to find that her sisters have become grossly out of their character, and far more than usual this time! Blossom is now a stupid girl that only talks about her love for corn dogs. Bubbles introduces herself by burping and talking in a stereotypical Italian mobster accent.

Discount Jojo shows up outside of the glass, and Buttercup can't wait to break through it and give him those two broken legs she's been talking about.

Unfortunately, Buttercup can’t get through the glass; she can't even lift a stool to break it! See, this is to show the one thing that makes Buttercup Buttercup is her super-strength, which nobody else in the show has! If anyone else in that glass had super-strength, this plot would have been over far too soon!

He reveals that he managed to steal all of the things that made the Powerpuff Girls great with his Trait-A-Ma-Jig ♫♬By Mojo♬♫, all one of them each. Discount Jojo can do plans now, even though he was able to do those just fine before. He has Buttercup's incredible strength, which, again, features gratuitous muscles. And, he has Bubbles' cute charm, which he barely uses outside of a montage.

With a montage, of course. He sings a song about how great he is, while using his traits of super-strength to break an armored car, enough charm to steal candy from a baby without anyone hating him for it, and ability to play chess very well. If this was going to lead to a message where the only way for him to be great is to be himself, I would appreciate this a lot more, but they never get there. That might be because there isn't a lot of "himself" in this reboot.

Despite all of this strutting, Buttercup calls him great...in a sarcastic way. He decides the next step is to destroy Townsville, because that would make him a great villain. It's definitely more Mojo than wanting diamond tiaras and stealing lipstick.

Rain-A-Ma-Jig...♫♬By Mojo♬♫

One of three times this jingle joke pops up. I wouldn't say there's any real payoff to this joke, it's just there. This Rain-A-Ma-Jig fires a laser at the clouds, causing it to rain hard enough to cause Townsville to flood. He is so obssessed with wanting to be great, he doesn't even think of a way to save himself, but he never figures that one out even with Blossom's planning.

It even interrupts what looks like the usual newscaster, who was trying to sing "Singin’ In The Rain". He gets interrupted by the flood as soon as the crew realized they would have to pay royalties to MGM if he sang one more syllable.

Buttercup has to find a way out to stop this rain from happening, and she has the bright idea. Oh, so they do know the other girls have super-strength; it's just that being stupid and having no charm makes you forget that! She convinces Bubbles that Blossom said that she couldn't break through the wall, and this leads to a long scene where Blossom repeatedly gets bashed into a glass wall, saying that she's okay. See, it's funny because Blossom is getting hurt.

While that's happening, Discount Jojo’s plot turns into a Noah's Ark plot, where Jojo tries to save two of each animal and puts them on a boat. No, the context doesn't make this any less out of place. There's only one joke here: he cruelly disallows another rabbit from entering his boat because he already has two of them.

The Powerpuff Girls show up and immediately get hit by the anchor. At least here, it's not just stand still for ten seconds, even if that would fit Blossom's character at that point. Buttercup then tells him that he's not great because he can only beat them because of the power-stealing, and Jojo responds by giving back their traits. Even with Blossom's ability to make plans/brains, Jojo was able to make a critical error. At least that's consistent!

To be fair, that's actually a good way to tie into the episode's themes: Buttercup ends up using Jojo's desperate need to be great as a way to get him to give back their traits. I try to find the positive in everything, and this ending kind of counts. It only took them until the end of the episode.

The newscasters give the show a break from actually animating anything by slideshowing everything else that happened. They drained the water with a comically large drain, and destroyed the Rain-A-Ma-Jig.

In the end, Jojo looks at that all-important calendar to see that the word of the day is "doofus". Huh, Doofus Jojo. It has a nice ring to it; it certainly fits someone who doesn't even know how to use a word-a-day calendar. The episode ends with nothing changing, nothing satisfying, and nothing that makes me want to call him Mojo. I am not surprised.

Does the title fit?

He never proves himself to be great, even with the one trait he steals from each Powerpuff Girl.

How does it stack up?

This episode can only work based on a severe misunderstanding of the characters, and while that's normal for the reboot, this episode loves to remind me of that. Mojo the Great, more like Episode the Terrible.

Next, Princess raps, and the Puffs sing. No beatbox solo this time.

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