#they way sonic and his friends move!!! IT’S SO GOOD!!!! IT’S SO LIVELY AND FUN AND CUTE!!!!!!

[sonicfrontiers]

has anyone giffed the scene where sonic runs past amy and then stops and does a little jump kick before heading over to her bc i have been thinking about it nonstop since it happened. please for the love of god i need it giffed

[0vergrowngraveyard]

Sonic wasn’t a stranger to off days. In fact, he had them a lot more often than most people realized, he was just really good at hiding them.

Maybe a little too good.

This day, however, was particularly bad.

He wasn’t sure why. He pretty much just woke up in a grassy field feeling like, well, shit and it felt a little more challenging to simply push down like he usually did. Even after a quick call with Tails — something that usually cheered him up almost immediately — he still felt like he wanted to disappear off the face of Mobius, never to fight in another battle or have the pressure of saving the world ever again.

He’d never admit it because he genuinely loves doing what he does, but it gets to him sometimes. He’s only fifteen years old, when did it become his responsibility for all this crap.

Sometimes he did wish he had a more simple life. Just him, his little brother, and his close friends living out their teenage (and little kid) years like normal Mobians.

However, the adrenaline junkie in him quickly kicks that idea in the ass. He didn’t think he could ever live without all the death defying stunts and risks that came with his current lifestyle. It just wouldn’t be as fun. Plus, doing what he does is the reason he has most of his friends in the first place.

He wouldn’t trade this current life for anything in the world, but it can still drag him down sometimes.

He closed his eyes and felt a gentle breeze surround him and dance among the blades of grass. The leaves of nearby trees rustling and flickies chirping were like distant symphonies as the sun’s warmth engulfed him.

He stayed like that for around thirty minutes, just basking in all that nature had to offer him this morning. Quiet moments like these were part of what kept him fighting. As long as Eggman was dead set on destroying areas like these, Sonic would be there to stop him.

After what felt like an eternity to the hedgehog, he got up and stretched. He looked around him, picked a random location, and took off running, hoping to leave his thoughts behind.

He ran for hours, occasionally stopping to check out a view or quickly help someone. But it didn’t matter how fast or how far he went, the thoughts always caught up to him.

Past failures, little comments made by the media that affected him a little more than they probably should, guilt he had stored up from past life choices, etc.

But nothing haunted him more than those dreaded six months.

Months of isolation. Not knowing if his friends were ok, if his baby brother was ok, The torture, the anxiety, the shackles. The illusions of his loved ones dying before his eyes over and over again and being mocked or yelled at by them.

The depression and nightmares that followed were almost too much for him to bear and he probably would’ve lost it if his overwhelming sense of guilt didn’t push him to stick around and help.

His friends weren’t mad at him for not helping them for most of the war. In fact, it almost felt like they were babying him in a way. Constantly asking he was okay and making sure he was comfortable whenever they had downtime. Even Tails was seemingly walking on eggshells around him which definitely made him feel some kind of way.

When the war finally ended, he disappeared for about two months. It was all too overwhelming.

He knew it was a selfish move, but Chaos forbid he makes one decision that solely benefits himself after that whole mess. He just needed to be alone and run off those six months.

No one was mad at him when he finally reappeared, the closest thing would be how worried Tails was.

He always did worry too much.

Everything slowly went back to normal. The war slowly became a thing of the past, just another victory over Dr Eggman.

So why was Sonic still so hung up over it?

A noise from his stomach stopped his thoughts dead in their tracks. He slowed to a stop somewhere on the shoreline and checked his communicator for the time. How was it already lunch time? Did he really spend that much time thinking about all that crap?

He sped off in the direction of the Mystic Ruins. Being around his brother always managed to make him feel at least a little better. Maybe it would be more effective than just simply calling him.

He stopped at the front door of the house and punched in the code.

It was quiet. There were no noises coming from the workshop downstairs. Was the kit even home? It would suck if he wasn’t, what would be the point of Sonic showing up if his little brother wasn’t even here. Where did he go?

A certain smell overrode all his thoughts as he walked into the kitchen. Sitting on the counter was a plate of chili dogs that were still warm (he could just tell).

He smiled. Tails was definitely home.

Right on cue, he heard the workshop door open and a certain two-tailed fox walked into the kitchen. The weight on Sonic’s chest became lighter as the two talked about whatever came to mind with Tails even suggesting a movie night later on.

Fondness grasped at his heart, giving it a tight squeeze. Somehow, Tails once again knew he was having a bad day just from a brief interaction hours earlier. He never once asked what was wrong or made the hedgehog to talk about his feelings, he just did little things like make him food and offer to spend time together doing pointless things and goofing around. He even said he was just working on blueprints today which Sonic knew was just in case he didn’t feel like talking or just wanted to be alone.

Sonic didn’t know what he’d do without this kid. He really did have the best little brother a hedgehog could ask for.

[lunarfied]

07. WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP ME ? ; left on read

scaramouche x gn! reader smau

y/n pov;

you put your phone down with a frustrated sigh, feeling hot tears well up behind your closed eyelids. nothing made sense anymore. why was ajax and venti sitting with kuni? you didn’t even let any of them explain because seeing him there just set something off inside of you. so many past memories with him, good and bad, flooded your mind as soon as you saw him and you just had to get out of there.

a hand found it’s way onto your shoulder, pulling you away from the internal hate directed towards kuni. “i know you said you didn’t want to talk about it, but are you sure you’re okay, y/n?” tighnari asked quietly.

as soon as you left the restaurant, you sought out someone who you knew wouldn’t ask questions and let you in their space without a second thought. and that friend was tighnari. underneath his sarcastic exterior, he cared dearly for all his loved ones, so it was no surprise that he immediately welcomed you in with open arms seeing your solemn frustration. cyno, tighnari’s boyfriend, and collei, tighnari’s younger sister, were there as well. cyno because he lived with tighnari in their apartment off campus and collei because she liked visiting her brother as often as her schedule allowed her to.

allowing yourself a bit of comfort, you leaned your head onto tighnari’s shoulder to which he wrapped his arms around you and started rubbing circles into your back, soon followed by cyno and collei huddling around you to join in the embrace (which was surprising because cyno hated physical contact with people he wasn’t close with). the soothing touches and words from your friends was enough to make a couple tears fall down your cheeks.

“fuck, i didn’t want to start crying about this.” you said with a slight laugh at your own predicament.

tighnari looked down on you with eyes full of concern despite the warm smile plastered on his face. “it’s okay to let your emotions out, you know.”

collei had moved from the group hug to type something on her phone while cyno lingered near the two of you. “yeah, but still.” you sighed, wiping your tears with the back of your sleeve.

”i’m sorry, i’m just upset because i saw my ex.” you admitted, though when saying it out loud, you felt a little embarrassed.

”you don’t have to apologize-“ tighnari started before cyno cut him off.

”i’d be upset if i saw my ex too.”

”you don’t have an ex?” tighnari raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend’s attempt to cheer you up. cyno rolled his eyes with a slight smirk, nudging his foot into tighnari’s side. 

“i ordered us some food!” collei chimes in, draping her arms across your shoulders as she leaned on your back. “so let’s forget about your ex! we can watch some movies or play some games and eat.” she suggested, smile never fading. it warmed your heart that they were caring for you this much, you didn’t think you deserved it since you just barged in on their hangout.

”okay, that sounds like fun.” you nodded in agreement despite the internal debate as tighnari and cyno got up to set up the tv while collei opened a nearby closet and pulled out blankets and pillows.

”we should play sonic adventure two.” cyno said to tighnari which got him a snort in response.

”why? so you can explain the sonic lore to all of us?” tighnari joked.

”yes.” cyno stated, you could tell he was beaming at the idea of showcasing all his knowledge on the series by the way he was inching closer into tighnari’s personal bubble. cyno was never good at expressing himself but you’ve sat through countless amounts of tighnari explaining cyno’s body language to you. you were just that good of a friend.

as tighnari and cyno set up the gamecube and talked amongst themselves, collei snuggled up on your left side and offered you a small plush for comfort. “why did you see your ex? like you visited them or?” she asked innocently, collei always reminded you of a younger sibling even despite the two of you not being related at all.

”well,” you started, unsure of whether or not you wanted to admit your outburst at the mere sight of seeing him. “i was supposed to meet up with my two friends to meet our new roommate, since the three of us dorm together and we needed a fourth since the old one moved out. but then he was sitting there with them — and — i don’t know — i kinda flipped out?” you sighed, leaning the side of your head on top of her own while squeezing the plush closely to your chest.

”ah, i see,” collei started, linking your arms together with a sigh, “that sucks. i can’t imagine how you’re feeling.”

”like shit. ugh, i have to text them back.” you looked over at your phone casted off to the side. “fuck! he even texted me, you know?”

collei looked up with a raised eyebrow, “wow, that’s kinda shitty? after ruining your evening he even texts you…” she scoffs and cyno rejoins you two on the couch while tighnari heads downstairs to get the food.

”he sounds like a bitch. bet i can take him in a fight.” cyno sat by the armrest so tighnari can settle between the two of you. you laughed at his joke (although he meant it) and shook your head.

”id love to see that actually.” you bit the inside of your cheek, “but as much as i hate him for breaking my heart… i was kinda relieved to see him?”

“y/n, you lummox.” you heard tighnari start to scold you from behind as he came back with the food. you daren’t turn and look him in the eyes because you could already tell he was standing with the food in one hand and the other placed on his hip. “don’t you dare tell me you’re missing him after he, might i remind you my dear, broke up with you a week before your birthday?” you heard cyno and collei gasp, forgetting they didn’t know that about kuni.

”oh my gods???” collei’s hand was over her mouth.

”yeah, so, about me fighting him…” cyno mutters under his breath, crossing his arms over his chest.

“guys…” you whined, covering your face with your hands. “i don’t want to talk about this anymore, ugh, cyno why don’t you talk about your sonic fursona?” you decided to change the subject away from you as soon as possible so that you could collect your thoughts.

cyno’s eyes lit up and he sat up almost like a puppy dog seeing treats for the first time.

“i thought you guys would never ask me to.”

masterlist | prev - next

playlist !

A/N: btw sonic adventure 2 best sonic game out there don’t even argue with me i’m right 🤞 sorry this chapter is late (it's not i dont have a scedule for this) uhm im currently dying (not actually but ive been in bed all day) anyways since i couldn't sleep last night at all i started thinking about making another smau for scara what do u guys think.....

TAGLIST [CLOSED]: @machiroll @raideneiari @mariusvonhangme @inlustris-is-slowly-dying @sakiimeo @ferumie @plinkuro @scaraapologist @baelloraa @bubblesmei @lovelyiez @isa-solasun @lazy-sanns @thenightsflower @divinechicha @rxd-iant @elysiasgf @cerisearan @alwaysmentallyill @kaoyamamegami @richxelle @monochromaticelliot @kunikuzushiit @thedumboneforsomereason @lordbugs @osamusswife @useless-potatho @tsuyumbrella @orionicchaos @lxry-chxn @twistedrxses @akagism2 @kxr0mi @angryhope @ivylibrary-00 @makilovescofi @mechanicalbeat1 @erosdevil @ghostsaysno @anotherdayanotherobsession @garlicforthewin

[nights-nonsensical-ramblings]

Hi :) got any knuckles headcanons? (or sonic hc in general)

Alright, buckle up cuz I’m about to live up to the third part of my name

Knuckles may have a short temper but He’s super chill and calm most of the time, Sonic is just exceptionally good at pressing his buttons.

He may act all rough and tough but he’s a huge softie and once you get to know him you’ll see his kind and gentle side.

he’s so good with small creatures and knows how to restrain his strength so he doesn’t hurt them.

Chao really, really like him. He grew up around them and know how to look after them.

It is not rare for Knux to end up in a pile chao. Especially on colder nights.

Since he can sense chaos he’s able to recognize all of his friends chaos signatures and he can tell exactly who’s on Angel Island. (It is possible for him to miss someone in the same way you can miss someone calling your name if you’re really focused on something)

It also means he gets an early warning for any chaos based moves and attacks.

His strong connection to chaos also leads to him being a target for things like ghosts.

He’s able to sense them, but they’re able to sense him. Malevolent ghosts will attack him first most of the time and ones without any true goal will follow around after him.

Knuckles’ Guardianship starts to apply to the people he cares about and anyone who hurts them will have an angry Guardian to deal with. (But he’s still willing to beat his friends up for fun because that’s a way sonic characters bond.)

He plays the aloof card, but he gets super worried when a friend is injured. Being a protector is a huge part of him and he doesn’t like to see what he protects in danger.

Less of a headcannon and more of an idea I like. (Although, with the Master Emerald this is possible.) But Knuckles with healing powers speaks to me, him being a skilled warrior who most people only see when he’s riled up for a fight, but also a gentle and kind healer that very few people ever get a chance to see.

and the idea of him being a grumpy healer who will yell at you for getting yourself into danger has plenty of entertainment value.

I love it when Knuckles get to have echidna traits. They’re such a cool animal an I think that should be acknowledged. Knuckles has big long claws like a real echidna does perfect for digging.

digging is a relaxing activity for him and he’s accidentally scared his friends many times by popping out of the ground with zero warning.

Also Since he’s an echidna he’s electroreceptive

the first time he was in a modern house he was so confused. He could sense electricity everywhere but no one else had any clue what he was talking about.

thats also another reason why he hates wearing communicators. He’s constantly able to feel electricity moving through it and it feels uncomfortable. (Tails is working on one with a lower electrical output for him)

It also means he’s the go to for finding faulty wiring. Tails just points out a room and asks him if the electricity feels weird.

The Master Emerald raised him and used its power to guide and teach him.

His ability to glide has a level of m.e influence to it. I’m not set on how much, but his gliding working the way it does can’t be 100% natural.

knuckles’ connection with the Master Emerald means that if he chose to fully tap into the Master Emerald’s power he’d have the potential to be one of the most powerful and dangerous creatures on the planet. The Master Emerald has been able to mess with time and space like it was nothing. It breaks the rules of gravity on a daily basis. It can make the chaos emeralds useless.

But Knuckles doesn’t believe the power is his to use and believes he is only there to guard it.

a situation would have to be truly, truly dire for him to choose to wield it.

Okay I still have a lot more than this, but I’m gonna cut it off here before I go on forever.

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Prime!

The first eight episodes of Sonic Prime are out! I've been busy for obvious reasons this past week (I kinda released a video game), but I've now seen all eight episodes, and as such can give more structured thoughts on them.

Overall: pretty good! I like it! ...But it's not 100% there yet for me. In the spirit of Festivus, I'm here to air my grievances.

Let's start with one of the highest points. First and foremost, this show looks great. We FINALLY have a Sonic cartoon that actually looks like the games with no asterisks attached, even across multiple wildly different AUs. And everything from small acting choices to big, bombastic fight scenes is a joy to watch in motion thanks to the fluid, expressive, fast-paced movement, with characters pleasantly squashing and stretching in fun ways. It's so fun literally to just watch Sonic's face move in dialogue scenes. God, I wish the cutscenes in Frontiers had animation this good. I get why they don't, but still.

And those action sequences! Man, some of these are the most fun fight scenes in any Sonic cartoon ever, period. Lots of great shot choices, a good mix of recognizable moves from the games combined with new ones and improvisations, I could go on and on. The shot of Sonic leaping backwards down that long stairwell, only for the camera to pan around beneath him and show his friends following suit? There's a reason why they put that in the trailer. It rules. This isn't the greatest action series ever - it still has your typical kids' action cartoon problem where the stakes rarely feel adequately high and you can turn your brain off during fight scenes - but it's fun to look at in a way that previous Sonic cartoons haven't always been.

Really, with how strong the presentation is, it's the writing that tends to let the show down in this first batch of episodes. The writing isn't even bad - there's some really cool stuff to latch onto, and I'm optimistic about them leaning more into what's interesting as the plot continues to develop. It's just... well, it's a Man of Action cartoon.

I'm going to nitpick a lot here, so I want it to be perfectly clear that I like Sonic Prime. I think it's a solid cartoon, and firmly on the high end of the Sonic cartoon spectrum. There's a lot that I'm into, and if someone told me it was their new favorite Sonic cartoon, I could absolutely see why. It mainly just has three things working against it:

It can't decide whether or not it actually wants to be wholeheartedly faithful to the games.

It was very clearly written to be a weekly TV show and not a Netflix show dumped in large batches.

The bar has been VERY high for Sonic content this year across every other medium.

Faithfulness to the games

As has been touted in interviews, Sonic Prime is actually canon to the games, and in many ways it's slavishly faithful to them. Which only makes it weirder when it isn't.

The thing that'll immediately stand out is the new voice cast they had to get because Canadian production laws blah blah blah. Now, they're all good here, particularly Deven Mack as Sonic. His take definitely sounds similar to previous takes on Sonic, but I think he manages to find a nice middle point between the youthful enthusiasm of movie Sonic and the more experienced heroics of game/IDW Sonic. He's great. And not to knock Cindy's performances, but I think Shannon Chan-Kent's voice might actually fit Amy just a liiiiittle better here. But the problem is it gets harder to view this as the regular game cast and alternate timeline versions of them when everyone always sounds a little off. Knuckles in particular is really weird because his AU counterparts have a completely different voice actor, and neither particularly sounds like his current voice in the games. I have no idea why.

For another example, Green Hill is used as a setting in a cartoon for the first time ever, and it looks exactly how you remember it. Cool! But it's also framed as the place where Sonic and all of his friends live 24/7, which has never, ever been true in the games. Even Knuckles is here with no explanation for why he isn't guarding the Master Emerald. (One might think that not drawing attention to Knuckles' job allows the writers to just pretend it doesn't exist, similar to what Sega does in many games, but then we get a literal 16-bit flashback to him guarding the Master Emerald in Hidden Palace.)

This would be a totally fine concession if this show was just doing its own thing like every other Sonic cartoon. The different universes are all different bad timelines for Green Hill, with Sonic spotting the unique iconography of the level buried beneath whatever's taken over South Island this time - a smog-filled Eggman city, an overgrown jungle, an abnormally high sea level - to drive home how wrong the AUs are. It also explains why Sonic can always find the AU versions of his friends in Green Hill, and it probably cut down on the number of sets they had to model. But because it is canon to the games, things like this distract me as a hopeless Sonic nerd. It also leads to some repetitive dialogue in the first few episodes as characters constantly comment on the presence or lack thereof of palm trees, because their only reference for what the world is supposed to look like is Green Hill.

Rings are also treated as a minor plot point early on to incorporate another thing from the games, as Sonic is late for the big battle against Eggman because he was off collecting extra rings. But despite how often it's brought up in that context, they aren't actually a factor in the fight at all, and then rings are never seen again in the AUs.

Also Orbot and Cubot are in this in the regular universe and then we never see them again? Are they going to come back??

This extends beyond these pedantic nitpicks, though. To me, the worst offender of the show selectively choosing when to care about the source material is the dichotomy of the character writing in the alternate universes.

Every AU will have one or two takes on one of Sonic's friends (Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, and Big) who are The Interesting Ones, the spotlighted characters for each subplot. These are the ones that get actual character arcs, and they feel like they're written in conversation with their original game counterparts in interesting ways.

In the dystopian world, Tails is known as Nine, a cynical loner inventor who was never saved from his bullies and inspired to be a hero by Sonic - but who, when pushed, is still a good kid deep down. In the jungle world, Amy is the extremist Thorn Rose who rides around on a giant Flicky like it's a chocobo and prevents foragers from "stealing" from the forest, possibly riffing on her bond with the Flickies in SA1. She's still looking out for the little guy, she's just doing so at the expense of everyone else. And in the pirate world, Knuckles is the captain Dread Knuckles, who instead of diligently guarding a magic rock was a pirate obsessed with obtaining a magic rock, and who swore off of that quest (and fighting in general) after it cost him the trust of his original crew.

These characters and their interactions with Sonic are all fun - Nine in particular provided a lot of my favorite emotional moments so far - and it feels like it gets at why you would do a multiverse story like this in the first place. You get to examine the characters from other angles! It's just that then there's... the rest. Characters who aren't the focus will just kind of get inserted into roles as Man of Action rests on broad cartoon tropes instead of actually doing anything with the Sonic source material. The dystopia of New Yolk City feels like a good fit given the history of the franchise, but then the other two worlds we've seen so far rely largely on stock "tribal" tropes and pirates going yaarrrrr.

I'm biased, but the worst off here seems to be Rouge, who has yet to get her spotlight universe (assuming she gets one next). This really stings because she's spot on in the regular universe. She hasn't been retconned to be part of Team Sonic, she's invited herself over because she's got her eye on the Paradox Prism (even dropping in unannounced at Tails' workshop). She's got a bit of that playfulness that makes her so fun, and the animation is able to lean into it. But then you go to the other universes and it's all gone.

Pirate Rouge is pretty fun, I'll admit, but I'm shocked they don't play up her love of gems there. Rebel Rouge (yes that is her literal name, the other rebels call her Rebel) gets to be a spy with a fun dynamic with Knuckles at first, but it quickly devolves into her just being the serious, responsible girlboss leading the rebellion who acts as a straight man to Sonic's snark. In other words, she's a lot like... Sally? I hate making that comparison because SatAM/Archie fans have been derisively comparing literally every new female character in the franchise to Sally since the '90s, but it's really hard to shake. (Similarly, it's hard to shake comparisons to Bunnie and Mecha Sally with Rusty Rose, the evil cyborg version of Amy with extendable limbs.) And Rouge's jungle universe counterpart ("Prim Rouge") is also just kind of there as the no-nonsense leader of the tribe, similar to Rebel.

And it's in scenes revolving around the blander of the AU characters when I'm like... man, I kinda wish they'd just made a show about the regular game universe without having to watch Man of Action bust out the pirate joke book and write the dollar store version of Princess Mononoke. I want to spend more time with the actual characters. Because they nailed the tiny glimpses of the game world that we got. This isn't a constant thought I have - again, I like the show, and the major AU characters are cool, and I like seeing new things be done with Sonic. But I'd be lying if I said I never wished the show had gone a different way. My perfect Sonic cartoon continues to elude me...

Story construction

Let's back up a bit and describe the basic premise. On the regular version of Sonic's Earth, things are business as usual, although Sonic seems to be getting a little too cocky and taking his friends for granted. During a fight with Eggman, Sonic accidentally shatters our new macguffin, the Paradox Prism, creating a series of new bad timelines in which he never existed. In that way, I might almost compare it to a multiverse-hopping adventure version of It's A Wonderful Life. A pretty solid emotional throughline to give the show a little more heft. In each of these worlds, Sonic helps set things right with the alternate versions of his friends and finds another shard of the Paradox Prism in an attempt to restore his world. He also usually faces off with the Chaos Council, a team of five alternate Eggmen who are all different ages.

Beyond the fact that there are like five versions of most characters, it's not THAT complicated, especially in a time when damn near everything in pop culture is doing multiverse shenanigans. Which is why it's frustrating that the script seems to think it's fucking House of Leaves.

For the first few episodes, Sonic has a VERY hard time grasping the fact that he's in an alternate universe. This is to be expected to some extent - Sonic is our point of view character through all of this, and it's a kids' show, so he's got to go through a process of figuring things out so that it can be explained to the kids at home. The problem is that it takes him damn near the entire first mini-arc in New Yolk City to figure it out, which starts to come off as insulting and leads to EXTREMELY repetitive dialogue where Sonic wonders why his friends don't remember him and where all the palm trees went. You'd think that by the time Nine explains that his personal history is completely different from how Sonic remembers his time with Tails he'd get a clue, but no, not really. He continues to meet alternate versions of his friends, stubbornly refer to them with their original names, and wonder why no one remembers their previous adventures together. This then somehow even continues into the second universe, the jungle one, where he somehow thinks he's still in New Yolk City and wonders why the cyberpunk rebel versions of his friends are all covered in leaves and wielding spears now. Thankfully, by the time he reaches the pirate world Sonic finally gets a clue, so this isn't a pattern that's going to continue. But it does make the first few episodes a drag.

This, the many recaps, and the out-of-order presentation of scenes back in Green Hill so that they can have a flashback to the regular universe in every episode for context really make it clear that this series was written for TV, not for Netflix. It's assuming that every single episode is going to be some 7-year-old's first episode and that they need to have everything explained again. I'd probably be a bit more sympathetic towards this repetitive, patronizing writing if it actually was airing on Cartoon Network, rather than being a Netflix show where they're dropping eight episodes at a time.

Stiff competition

This is the least fair of my complaints, but I gotta say it. As solid as Sonic Prime is for the most part, it looks worse at the tail end of a year when we've been FEASTING as Sonic fans.

We got a movie sequel that pivoted HARD into game elements, giving us both really great takes on the characters and interesting remixes of old ideas. The IDW comics are still going as strong as ever, with the continually compelling arc of new villains Surge and Kit and now the wildly inventive and downright beautiful to look at Scrapnik Island. And, of course, we got Frontiers, a return to form for the series that adapts it to a semi-open world with the best and most interesting story we've had in god knows how many years.

And then we've got Sonic Prime, a pretty good cartoon that between fun action scenes and interesting story ideas frequently relies on genre pastiches that were tired 30 years ago and jokes that aren't particularly funny.

I think reading Scrapnik Island #3 really put this into perspective for me. Which, again, isn't fair. The comics target older kids and are ALWAYS heavily tied to established continuity, and a comic miniseries can afford to go way more niche than a Netflix show. But Scrapnik is just doing such amazing and original things, bringing back long-forgotten elements of the games and recontextualizing them in fascinating ways. That mix of both the heartwarming sight of the Scrapniks finding happiness in their new lives and the EXTREMELY atmospheric horror aboard the ruins of the Death Egg. It rules! It takes elements hardcore fans wanted to see again and tells a totally new story with them that's unlike anything we've seen before in the franchise. It's really, really hard for "what if Knuckles was a pirate" to compete with that.

But we're still early in Prime. Things are getting more interesting over time, with Sonic acclimating to the dimension hopping and more crossover between the different universes. Nine discovering a completely dead, empty world and wanting to start from scratch there was also really interesting, and I'm curious if that goes anywhere. Again, I've been nitpicking a lot, but the show is pretty good and I've enjoyed my time with it overall. I just don't quite think it's 100% there yet. But I definitely think it could get there within the next 16 episodes.

Misc thoughts

Rouge sleeping like an actual bat is cute.

I like that the environmental themes of the series are such a big focus here! They fall to the wayside too often

I like that the AU characters have different names for the sake of telling them apart, but some of them are pretty bad (the aforementioned Rebel Rouge) while others I just don't get. Why is the old man Eggman named Dr. Done It? Why is the teenage one Dr. Don't?

I thought the scene where Sonic was trying to talk to the New Yolk City crew after a battle and they had to keep ducking under a laser that was still slowly circling the room was funny

The new shoes and gloves are ugly and I think it's really contrived that they magically transform into the perfect tools for every new universe

Between this and Frontiers it's becoming a pattern that Tails and Knuckles can get explicit flashbacks to previous games to highlight their histories with Sonic, while Amy can't. I don't know what to make of this

Thorn is pretty good overall but I do think the flashback depicting her as just randomly snapping one day when her friends pick one too many berries is so hokey that it wraps around to being kinda funny

I've neglected to mention Shadow, but I like him okay in this. It's definitely modern Shadow, but I think "hardass, no-nonsense rival who thinks Sonic is an idiot who acts without thinking and thus wants to kick his ass" is a decent place for Shadow to be in, compared to just The Vegeta, even if it's not my favorite version of the character. I'm curious to see what his role is in the rest of the show, especially given the cliffhanger, and hope he's able to work together with Sonic instead of just being a pissed off antagonist the whole time.

I hate baby Eggman

[techn0cel]

The Life of Seung-Hui Cho (1984-2003)

Seung-Hui Cho (who will be referred to as “Cho” from now on) was born in Onyang-dong, (A city in Asan) in Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea.  Cho was the second child of Sung-Tae Cho and Hyang Im Cho and the little brother of Sun-Kyung Cho who was 3 years older than him.

When Cho was 9 months old, Cho developed whooping cough and pneumonia, Cho was later hospitalized and doctors told the Cho family that their son had a hole in his heart. Two years later, doctors conducted cardiac tests to better examine the inside of his heart and from that point on, Cho did not like to be touched. According to Mrs.Cho, he cried a lot and was constantly sick. In Korea, Cho had a couple of friends that he would have playdates with. Cho’s family was very concerned about his extremely introverted personality.

In 1992, The Cho family moved to the United States to pursue educational opportunities for Cho and Sun, They were encouraged by Mr.Cho’s sister who came to the US before them.

Many problems occurred when Mrs.Cho began working outside their home for the first time. -Nobody in the family knew English

-Cho and Sun felt very isolated

-Mr and Mrs Cho began a long period of time of hard labour and extended work hours at dry cleaning businesses

Sun said that Cho seemed more isolated and withdrawn than he was back in Korea and at times they would both be “made fun of”, but she ignored it because she thought “It was just a given”.

In 2 years time, Cho and Sun began to understand, read and write English at school and Korean was still spoken at home, but Cho did not write or read Korean. For the first 6 months in the United States, the Chos lived with family members in Mary-Land and lived in a townhouse for 1 year before moving to Virginia where they lived in an apartment.

Cho was 9 years old and the only known friend he had was a boy who lived next door with whom he went swimming with. Sun and her parents thought Cho seemed to be doing better than he was a few months ago.

Cho was enrolled in a Tae Kwon Do program for awhile, watched TV and played games like “Sonic the Hedgehog” (None of the video games were war games or had any violent themes in them). Cho liked Basketball and had a collection of figurines and remote controlled cars.

When Cho attended Poplar Tree Elementary School, He was enrolled in the ESL (English second language) program as soon as he arrived in the middle of 3rd grade. The Cho family was living in a small apartment. School Teachers indicated Cho would not interact, communicate or participate in group activities but Cho did play with one student during recess.

When Cho was in the 6th grade, Mr and Mrs Cho bought a townhouse next to the school, hoping he could easily commute to his classmates. After the school requested a parent-teacher interview due to Cho not answering any questions in class, Mrs. Cho tried to find friends for Cho and encouraged both Cho and Sun to join the church she attended. Both agreed but there were few children so they lost interest and stopped going to church.

Mrs.Cho’s friends told her to look for another church that had a minister who “helped people with issues like Cho’s.” She visited the church sometimes for 6 months but decided to not follow through with the plan. (Some articles that were written after the shooting claimed the pastor from that same church worked with Cho but Mrs.Cho denied all of those reports) While it is true that Mrs.Cho registered Cho for a 1-week summer basketball camp sponsored by that church, she never sought its help on personal matters.

Cho’s mother had numerous attempts to get Cho to participate in activities and socialize more but eventually, Cho’s parents decided to let Cho “be the way he is” and stopped forcing him to interact with others. Cho never mentioned anything of imaginary friends or any fantasy world. Cho was described as a “very gentle, very tender,” and “good person.”

MIDDLE SCHOOL YEARS

In July 1997, Cho’s parents took Cho to the Center for Multi-Cultural Human Services (A mental health services facility that offers treatment and psychological evaluations). They told the specialists of their concern about Cho’s social isolation and lack of willing to talk about his feelings.

Cho’s parents had to take turns leaving work early to drive him to the centre. They started with a Korean counselor but began working with another specialist who had special training in art therapy (which was perfect for Cho because his communication skills were poor). At every session, The specialist offered clay modeling, painting, drawing and a sand table for Cho to choose which one he wanted to do. When Cho chose the clay, He would model houses that had no windows or doors.

When the therapist explained the meaning of Cho’s artwork to him, his eyes would sometimes be filled with tears.

Cho had a psychiatrist who participated in the first meeting with Cho and his parents. Over the next few years, He was diagnosed with SAD (Severe Social Anxiety Disorder). Records sent to Cho’s school (following a release signed by his parents) and the tests administered by mental health professionals evaluated Cho to be a younger person than he was. Cho’s tested IQ was above average.

Cho was still isolating himself in middle school and there was no reported behavioural problems and he was not a violent student at all.

In March 1999 (Cho is now in 8th grade)

His art therapist noticed a change in his behaviour and started becoming more expressive with his artwork. Cho depicted tunnels and caves in his drawings. Cho showed symptoms of depression and his therapist felt the tunnels and caves were concerning and asked him if he had any suicidal or homicidal thoughts. Cho denied having either of those thoughts but his therapist drew up a contract with him spelling out he would never do any harm to himself or to others.

The next month, The Columbine High School shooting occurred and Cho wrote a disturbing paper in English class that said Cho “wanted to repeat Columbine”, which drew quick reaction from his teacher. (Nobody was named in the paper.) The school contacted Cho’s sister b/c she spoke English and told her about what Cho wrote and urged to have Cho evaluated. Sun explained what happened to her parents and Sun joined Cho on his next therapy appointment.

Cho was evaluated in June 1999 by a psychiatrist at the Center for Multicultural Human Services. A doctor diagnosed Cho with “Selective Mutism” and “Major Depression: single episode”. Cho was prescribed “Paroxetine 20 mg” (an antidepressant) that Cho took from June 1999 to July 2000 and it seemed to work since Cho was in a good mood, looked brighter and smiled more. He was off the medication when he improved.

Note: Mr and Mrs Cho were shocked to learn that Cho wrote about violence toward others. They said there were hints at ideas of suicide but nothing about homicide.

CHO AT WESTFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

(Cho began Highschool at Centreville but the following year, Westfield opened and Cho was assigned there for his remaining 3 years)

1 month after classes began at Westfield, one of the teachers that had Cho in their class told the guidance office “Cho’s speech was barely audible and he didn’t respond in complete sentences”. The teacher said he was shy and shut down, there was no communication with teachers or classmates. Cho had high grades, was always on time and submitted well-done homework assignments. His only problem was failure to speak.

The guidance counselors asked him if he ever received mental health or special education beforehand in middle school or in his freshman year, Cho indicated (untruthfully) that he didn’t.

On October 25 2000, Cho’s situation was brought to Westfield’s screening committee for evaluation to determine if he required special education accommodations. Cho was evaluated for the following:

Psychological

Sociological

Educational

Speech/Language

Hearing Screening

Medical

Vision

Cho was encouraged to join a club and stay after school for help from his teachers. He was permitted to eat lunch alone and to provide verbal responses in private sessions rather than infront of the whole class where his accent might be mocked or draw derision from his classmates.

With this change, Cho’s grades improved and had advanced placement and honors classes. Cho’s voice was inaudible in class and would only mumble if pushed. When Cho wrote responses, his thinking seemed confused and his sentence structure wasn’t fluent.

After the shooting, there were some reports that Cho was bullied at Westfield High School. A very specific incident that was reported being Cho’s classmates mocking his accent and telling him “go back to china” which lead Cho to run to the bathroom crying. However Cho’s family said Cho never mentioned bullying (You could argue he never discussed his day to his parents but his guidance counselor had no records of bullying complaints from Cho. It’s very likely he just kept it to himself if the bullying claims are true.)

It’s not unreasonable to believe Cho was subjected to bullying for being different than his classmates but it’s not fully confirmed. The closest things to that is Cho and Sun experiencing harassment to a certain level when they first arrived to the US.

In 11th grade, Cho’s weekly sessions at the mental health center ended because there was a gradual slight improvement as the years went by and he refused to continue and said “There is nothing wrong with me. Why do I have to go?”. Mr and Mrs Cho weren’t happy that he refused to continue treatment, but he was turning 18 the following month and could make his own decisions.

At one point, Cho was asked to write about his hobbies and interests. He wrote:

“I like to listen to talk shows and alternative stations, and I like action movies…My favorite movie is X-Men, favorite actor is Nicolas Cage, favorite book is Night Over Water, favorite band is U2, favorite Team is Portland Trailblazers, favorite food is pizza, and favorite color is green.”

Cho took upper level science and math courses and spent 3-4 hours a day on his homework, Cho received high grades and finished Highschool with a grade point average of 3.52 in an honors program. That GPA with his SAT scores (540 for verbal and 620 for math) were the basis for his acceptance at Virginia Tech university.

Virginia Tech university failed to see the special accommodations that propped up Cho and his excellent grades. The scores showed Cho’s knowledge and intelligence but they didn’t reflect on another component of grades such as class participation.

Cho’s guidance counselor encouraged Cho to attend a small school close to his home where he would have an easier time transitioning to college life. She thought Virginia Tech would be too much for Cho to handle b/c it was too large. Cho was confident in the school he chose and didn’t listen to his counselor so he applied and was accepted.

[spinoskingdom875]

Everyone gathered at Empire City Park for the Solar Eclipse. They sat down with picnic baskets and drinks waiting for the Eclipse to begin. Tails: Here you go. He handed everyone a pair of glasses. He gave one to Marine. Marine: Woo! This is gonna be a ripper! Sonic: Thanks, pal. These are some cool shades. Tails: And they're perfect for protecting our eyes when looking up at the Eclipse. Trikey: What will happen if we look at the eclipse without these? Tails: Well, the brightness would damage your vision, and you would go blind. Trikey: Oh dear. Then I'm glad you made these, so we can look at the Eclipse without hurting our eyes. Tails: And I have a pair for your new friend. He grabs a pair of solar glasses and hands them to Bumpy. Tails: So, you're Bumpy, correct? Bumpy: Uh-huh. Amy: When did you two first meet? Trikey: We first met in the forest, and we started playing hide-n-seek. And we also run around and pounce on each other. Bumpy: It was really fun, and now, I made a new friend, and hopefully more here. Amy: Aww, that's so sweet. We'll be glad to be your new friends. Bumpy: Aww, thanks!

Several minutes went by, and the sky began to dim. Eggman and Sage came by, and Cream introduced Trikey and Bumpy to Sage. Trikey was surprised to see the young girl. Trikey: Mr. Eggman, you never told us that you're a daddy. Is she your daughter? Eggman: Heh-heh, you could say that. She's not actually human, but she does have the feelings and emotions of one. She's Artificial Intelligence. The baby dinos were confused. Bumpy: Artif... Trikey: Artifishy... Bumpy: Uh, what does that mean? Eggman: Well, she's a type of fancy computer, and has the ability to perform tasks like thinking and learning, that would require the intelligence of living beings, such as you. Trikey and Bumpy: Whoa. Eggman: It's complicated, I know. That's why I love being an evil genius. Bumpy: Wait. He's a bad guy? Trikey: Yes. He builds lots of robots and uses them to fight against Sonic and his friends. Bumpy Gasped. Trikey: But he seems like a good papa to all of them, even Sage. Bumpy: Well, it's so nice to meet you, Sage. Sage: It's nice to meet you too, Bumpy, and Trikey.

They walked up to Tails who was on his Miles Electric. Trikey: Um, Tails? What is the eclipse about again? Tails: It's when the Moon passes between the Sun and our planet. It prevents the sun's light from reaching the Earth. He shows them a demonstration of an Eclipse on his Miles Electric. Tails: So, when the Moon is in front of the Sun, its shadow would cause the sky and our environment to get darker. Trikey: So, it will get dark down here? Tails nodded. Bumpy: Ooh. It sounds scary. Trikey: Yeah. Sonic: I wouldn't worry about it. Sure, it does get dark, but think about it like its nighttime. Knuckles: Then when it's over, the Moon will move out of the way, and the sky will light up again. Bumpy: Really? Sonic: Yeah, it'll be great moment. Trikey and Bumpy felt better.

Everyone continues eating lunch. Trikey introduced Bumpy to everyone, including Tikal who was also at the park sitting on a bench. They all chat as the sky becomes dimmer and dimmer. Vanilla: Oh. It's almost here. Be sure to put your glasses on, okay dear? Cream: Yes, Mama. We will. Marine: Hmm. Marine looks around the park. Marine: There are too many trees here. Should we find a better spot, or is this good enough? Charmy: Let me see, he puts on his glasses and flew across the park. He calls out to them by the park's steps. Charmy: How about here? Tails walks up with his device. Tails: This is perfect, and there are no trees above us. So, we got a good view. Tikal: Look, up there! The moon moves in front of the sun as the sky gets darker. Sonic: Glasses on, guys! Everyone puts on their glasses and heads for the stairs. Sonic: Hey, doc. You sure you don't need a pair? Eggman: Nah, I'm good. I modified my frames to withstand the eclipse's intensity. Sonic: Okay, then. Let's head over there and enjoy the show. They gaze up at the moon covering the sun, the light still leaking through. They all looked up in awe. Trikey and Bumpy hugged each other, still a little nervous. Tails held on to his Miles Electric, looking at the Solar Eclipse in the sky. The sky is now pitch black, the whole park is in total darkness, as lights flicker on throughout the city.

Marine: Crikey. That's a bright one, that is. Sonic whistles. Sonic: Isn't this quite a sight? Knuckles: Yeah. Tikal: This is incredible. I've never seen anything like it. Trikey: Me neither. Bumpy looks down. Bumpy: Trikey, look! They both looked to see fireflies flying around the park. Trikey: Why are they out all of a sudden? Bumpy: I guess they're confused because the eclipse makes everything look like it's nighttime. Marine: Don't forget about the crickets and cicadas. Them buggers can be pretty noisy at night. Sonic: They're thinking it's the evening since the sky is dark. Tails continues to make calculations on his device. The Solar Eclipse continued for several minutes. The sky remains dark. Afterward, the moon would move, and the sun's light would appear once again. The shadow departed over the park and the city. The whole area lit up.

Tails: Okay. You can now take off your glasses. They began to remove their solar glasses. Amy: Wow. That was amazing! Tikal: It was interesting. I'm glad I came to the park. Sonic: Yeah, what a show it was. Cream took hers off. Cream: It's over you two. You can take those off now. Trikey and Bumpy removed their goggles. Knuckles: What do you think? Trikey: That was... Awesome! Bumpy: Yeah! It actually does feel like it's nighttime! When will it happen again? Tails: Well, for this country, it would take about 20 years. Trikey and Bumpy: 20 years!? Cream: Wow, that's really a long time. I would be like Mama by then. Trikey Yeah, I would be like my mommy too. That really is a long time. Tikal: Well, let's be thankful that we were here to witness it. Eggman: Indeed. It is a once in a lifetime experience. Be glad that it happened, because it will be a long time until another Solar Eclipse will occur. Tails: Well. I feel like this will be a moment we'll never forget. Everyone agreed. Sonic nodded. Sonic: I hope the others got a good view though. Bumpy: There are more friends? Cream: Yes. And we'll be glad to introduce you to them. The baby Ankylosaur smiled warmly.

NOTE: Don't re-upload my pictures anywhere without my permission, please. Thank you.)

[sylpheedz]

In Memory of Jeysen Perez Lyons (1996-2022) & Akira Toriyama (1955-2024)

    This is actually quite late, but I'd like to take a minute to pour one out for a very good friend of mine who took his own life two years ago now, and a man who's creativity touched countless young lives all over the world.

Eulogy below, puttin' it under a Read More. Warning, it does talk about s**c*de and if you're not going to be okay after reading about it, probably don't read it then.

I'd like to start with Toriyama-sensei (right). 

    Akira Toriyama captured hearts of millions every with stories of friendship, growth, and gloriously, ridiculously intense anime action since 1984. He was the man behind art of the Dragon Quest games, and most notably, Goku, the character that would inspire countless to always surpass their limits and giving their very best...or something like that. 

    I'll admit, I was never really a DBZ fan myself. Never did get with the hype. I'd catch it a few times on old Toonami, but it just never really captured my attention the way it did for so many others. Never even really made the discrepancy that it was anime, it was just another cartoon to me as a kid. 

    But the funny thing is, you don't even really have to be a DBZ fan to still be affected by it. While I never really watched the show itself, I was exposed to it by the animations by fans it inspired, specifically Super Mario Bros. Z, a fanfiction sprite animation series by one Alvin Earthworm where Sonic and Shadow team up with the Mario Bros. to fight Mecha Sonic for the chaos emeralds and prevent him from destroying any more worlds. There was that and Nazo Unleashed, which was a flash animation that used frames of the show for its fight scenes, which was the rawest shit ever to me as an adolescent. These animationss' fight scenes, which were very heavily inspired by Dragon Ball Z, are what inspired me to practice my art and work my way up towards animating.

    So while there may have been a few middle men involved, but even my creative mind's been influenced by Toriyama. And for what it's worth? I'm thankful for the madness he's given me. All the AMVs and fight scenes I concoct in my head while either laying in bed unable to sleep or taking a shower. Who knows. Maybe I actually will watch the show just for some ideas on animation techniques.

    While I may not have personally been as enamored with DBZ as everyone else, I knew someone very closely who was an absolute madlad for it.

    His name was Jeysen Lyons (middle), and he's probably one of the best friends I've ever had in my entire life. Hell, maybe even the best. I met Jeysen back in my very first year of middle school, along with Masatoshi and Chris, my first real friends after having spent my elementary days ostracized among the other kids to the point of suicidal thoughts. 

    He was a really funny kid, dirty jokes galore and could quote entire YouTube Poop videos from memory (and we had some much raunchier shit back then lmao, it really was a different time from today). It was always more fun when Jeysen was around.

    After graduating middle school, I found it harder to keep in touch. I'd always get so engrossed with my own life that I could never really keep up with old friends like I'd want to. Never was good at keeping up. But there were still some summers where we could get together at his mom's apartment for his birthday, July 10. Eventually, his mom found work in another state, and they had to move to Mississippi. After that, I hadn't heard from him for a while. I don't remember how, but at some point I managed to get ahold of Jeysen's Steam account and could talk to him from there, and we friended each other on Discord. It was always so much chatting with him online, though sometimes he would some concerning memes, which wouldn't be surprising considering he lurked 4chan.

    On that note, it seemed like he absorbed the sentiments regarding us queers as probably a lot of 'channers would normally have, ranging from "don't be publicly visible" to "just need to be shot". Once my egg cracked, it became one of those things that were more...complicated. And thanks to that, I wasn't sure how to tell him about...well, me.

    I wasn't sure how he'd react. Would he accept me while thinking me stranger tan he thought? Would he have still considered me a friend but disrespected my identity openly? Would he have completely and totally hated me, moving forward? I wanted to tell him, but I always got too nervous whenever I tried, so we'd just end up chatting, which was always still fun, but I so badly wanted to break the ice with him at some point.

    Other than that, we'd even talk about each other's personal projects, like my Revolutionary Vanguard Minerva, and his Perfect Universe, which is about a high school boy that gets caught in an alien war of good and evil and attains god-like power in the midst of it, and has to try to keep it from driving him mad. I always thought it was an interesting premise. I wish I asked him more questions about it.

    At some point two years ago, Jeysen contacted me sounding...exasperated. Panicked. I told him that whatever was happening, he could talk to me, and that I'd be there for him whenever he'd need me. But after I said that, he just said he'd be fine, and then left.

    Fast-forward to days later, in the middle of calling my representatives about another horrendous internet bill that came back, I tried talking to Jeysen again, as I was a bit worried. I got a response, asking me if I was "M". I asked them to clarify, and they asked if I was [deadname]. I said yeah.

And they told me they were his mom, and that Jeysen had died.

    I thought it was a really strange prank at first. I even got angry, told them to knock it the fuck off. But then I looked up his name, and sure enough, there he was, in an obituary.

I couldn't believe it. Jeysen really did do it. I lost my best friend. 

I lost my brother.

    From what his mom said, he was frantic about something involving "docksing". I'm thinking she meant doxxing. It sounded like at some point Jeysen caught the attention of somebody who knew how to get people's info, and that sent him into a panic attack while they were already trying to transfer him to different medication for bipolarism. 

    His demons got the best of him in a moment of emotional instability, and he was finally pushed too far, and now he's gone.

    It...still doesn't feel real. It still feels like I could just reach out to him, right now, on this chat client like usual and start talking to him again. Maybe it'll never feel "real" to me. But it is. My boy is gone.

    His mom assured me it's not my fault, and I know it isn't. But I keep replaying scenarios in my head, where maybe if I'd just...been the one to approach more, maybe he wouldn't have done it. If I'd taken more time to ask him about his day, ask him about Perfect Universe, to watch DBZ or other anime with him...

    If I'd just gone out of my way to spend more time with him... Maybe I could've made him stay. Maybe I could've saved him. Maybe, maybe... I could go over all the "maybes" in the world, but it wouldn't change the reality that he is not here anymore. Not a day has gone by where I haven't thought of him at least once.

    And this is actually why Toriyama's death hit me harder than other deaths. I actually started crying when I found out. It felt like I was losing a part of my bro, in a way. Which is probably silly, that's a whole-ass other person, another individual. It's not like DBZ is going to stop being a thing because he died. I have no doubt is probably as immortalized in Japanese and probably even worldwide culture as Astro Boy. Actually, more than Astro Boy. Atom's admittedly a little more niche...

    But the worst part? I never got to tell him. I never gave him the chance to reject me, but I also never gave him the chance to accept me either. Now I'll never know. I'll never know whether our friendship was flimsy and fleeting or made of iron. I'd like to hope it was, personally, but... 

    Either way, I'll always miss him. Life's much duller without my brother with me. I have so much that I want to talk to him about. So many new ideas, so many new things I wanna do with my life, now that I'm finally going through my transition journey. But I guess that'll all have to wait till I'm up there with him.

He'd better be up there. 😠

Lemme tell ya, folks. 

If I go up there and find out the Big Boss in the sky put him in the incinerator for "being a quitter" when he was already in inconceivable pain that caused him to take his own life? 

He is catching these fucking hands of mine. I don't care if I'm gonna lose, it's on sight for doing mah boi like that. 👿🔪

I will dive down to hell and fucking claw my brother out of the lake of fire myself if I have to.

But in all seriousness, if I could go back in time, even if it meant I had to start my life completely over, I wouldn't even blink if it meant I could see my brother again. I can only hope he's in a better place right now.

...Or ol' man God and I are gonna have to have some words. 😡

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

I'm still midnight-the-ultima, i just changed my blog name

OKAY SO THERE IS SO MUCH I WANNA DISCUSS ABOUT THESE LAST FEW PAGES. Since I know how to reblog (And I will be reblogging a ton of ur stuff) properly now, I was planning on talking about it via that, but you may not see it so I chose to do an ask instead.

---

First up: The contrast!

There is a clear distinction between the themes of what's currently going on with Shadow and Sonic compared to Amy and Rouge. While the boys are sitting down and drinking some soup with a lovely village full of wonderful people, the girls are stuck wondering what's going on with their friend. They have to deal with a group of agents trying to take their buddy away from them, something they obviously don't want! Meanwhile, the guys are just having the time of their lives with each other! (Well not really, but this is probably the best night Sonic's had in a while!)

The way these stories are being told, back to-back within the same issue, is just such a great writing technique! The contrast is stunningly good!

It- I don't really know what else to say about it. So... MOVING ON I GUESS!

Next: People being mean to Omega

I really like Omega just because he's fun and shares my sense of humor, so seeing him get confiscated like this hurts me. (But in a good way)

uhm

uh

thats it

Numero Tres: wtf is even going on with this robot like huh?????

Aight I honestly have no clue, but I'll try and piece it together as I go. Bare with me.

So, the first sign of Omega seemingly getting "Hacked" was all the way back in issue 6, when the girls went with Omega to scout for any dangerous Dark Gaia monsters. This was when Amy discovered they could be peaceful creatures if given the chance to be. Omega charged in though, and from then on it just gets even more interesting!

As shown in the third panel of page 16, Omega's bullets and bombs don't do anything to harm the monsters. Poor guy is absolutely useless against them. This is because someone needs Dark Gaia energy within them to do any damage to them and thus absorb their energy. This is, similar to this issue, a stark contrast to Sonic earlier on in that same issue. Sonic was able to kill a group of giant monsters with ease, and even started eating their corpses when he was done absorbing their energy. (Maybe I'll get to that in a reblog who knows) But this bit is about Omega so we'll mostly forget about Sonic for now-

The point when Omega gets hacked may take place in the first panel of the very next page, or in the fourth panel of page 16. Either way, I think I know how exactly he got hacked.

The Gaia Monsters could sense that Omega was a robot, and chose to absorb themselves into him by force. Since these creatures work best with organic beings, which I'm pretty sure they know, this action screwed up Omega's internal workings and made him self-destruct. His body, while up in flames, was still somehow intact, so the Gaia monsters were still okay within his body. Meaning that once Rouge and Amy fix him up, he's still messed up.

Also, something I noticed about Omega when he imploded, was within the explosion itself. We see the eyes of the Dark Gaia monsters surrounding Omega while they're all grabbing him as he explodes. If this isn't possession foreshadowing or a sign that he isn't himself anymore, then idk what is.

This scenario perfectly ties into his character, though! As an Eggman robot with free will, Omega has a mind of his own. He refuses to let anyone control him, not even his own friends, which is a very good mentality for a war machine! When he goes along with Rouge and Amy, his first thought when seeing the creatures is to kill them all and show no mercy! (He loves violence, making him one of my fave characters instantly) Of course, when he begins losing his autonomy to the very same creatures he wishes to destroy, Omega would rather sacrifice everything about himself, even his own body, just to be rid of them. He may not have a brain, but Omega still wants all these monsters out of his head! And if destroying himself will do the trick, (Even if it doesn't) then he will gladly take that risk, as long as he still has his free will intact.

What could this mean for Omega moving forward? Uhm... idk, he loses his personality? He goes apeshit?? Is he gonna remain peaceful, like how the Gaia monsters were with Amy before Omega attacked?? I really don't know, as the author-

Also I wanna mention that I forgot about Omega's obvious hatred and negativity that the Gaia Monsters were able to feed off of, like what Amy mentioned. Whoops! I guess that explains how they managed to get inside his head.

So about him getting confiscated and being called an 'It," really depends on his behavior after this. If he's still on their side, I don't see a point to it. If he's not, then get him tf outta here ig

i may agree with Amy about calling Omega a person, because as stated before he does have his own free will and autonomy, but I do love the added touch of the agents arguing that he's literally just a malfunctioning war machine and nothing else. Really shows how on the fence we are about G.U.N. being a force of good or not.

OKAY I KNOW THIS IS REALLY SUPER LONG BUT THERE IS ONE MORE THING I WANNA MENTION BECAUSE IT HAS TO DO WITH BOTH SONIC AND OMEGA HERE-

RIGHT! So since my theory is that Omega has basically a buncha dead Gaia monsters swimming around inside his head, I literally just realized that it has to do with the whole theme of this book. Some people may not notice it because I sure didn't for a very long time, but I recognize the theme as "Having and keeping your autonomy, and accepting yourself as a person." We see this in every time Sonic doubts his own worth and autonomy, we see it whenever someone steps up to him and goes "No u wrong," and we see it in Omega as a character.

Compared to Sonic, Omega is completely confident in himself and he's well past his character development arc in terms of his autonomy. Omega has been reminded time and time again that he isn't just a robot, but a friend and an adversary. While he may be fine with being just a tool of destruction since that's basically all he wants in life, he is very much aware that he also has a soul somewhere inside of himself, and that he isn't a heartless monster. He has friends, whether he likes it or not, and is very confident in who he is.

Sonic is the exact opposite right now, unsure of himself and questioning how far he'd go during a fight. He wants to keep himself intact, wants to be this selfless, brave hero that everyone knows him to be. However, in this dream to keep being the person everyone thinks he is, Sonic is losing his sense of self and autonomy. He has been slowly going through more and more character development as time goes on and is carefully putting himself back together, bit by bit, but he still has yet to fully accept himself for the hero he truly is. Sonic still sees himself as a monster, something to be ashamed and afraid of, and can't yet tell which half of him is real and which one is fake. He hides all his insecurities away, tucking them into a tiny box and not letting them see the light of day.

The poor little guy is afraid, while Omega is confident. It's a complete contrast, like I mentioned before, and it's great storytelling!

okokokokokok that's finally it kaythxbye-

I AM LOOKING

im so excited for you to see where this is going

i also want to thank you so much for those essays i appreciate them sooo much it makes me sooo happy to read through them

[crows-home]

Nobody asked but here are my thoughts about Infinite and the president’s sonadow fanclub because i haven’t stopped thinking about it for WEEKS and if I don’t get it out there I will implode.

More of a lighthearted, crack treated seriously type of thing.

So if we’re sticking with the main Sonic Forces timeline, i think that the jackal squad didn’t die or anything. They just got real beat up by Shadow and fired by Eggman as a result. the loss stings everyone’s pride, but none more than infinite.

He sees his team sulking for days and thinks “how can i embarrass Shadow the same way?” and Sonic is doing the whole Twitter Takeover with Eggman and Shadow and he’s like. Oh yeah. I’m gonna embarrass you all in front of so many people.

So the whole “a file called Sonadow.” thing plays out and it’s funny!! Infinite spent a few days searching for sonadow fanart and fanfiction around the web and compiled a folder and sends it to Eggman live. (and it’s surprisingly hard to find any sonadow content. apparantly its a rare thing.) He and his crew get a laugh out of it.

And then:

It’s like one of those things where you start doing something ironically. saying a phrase or doing a mannerism in the day as a joke. He’ll see a pepsi can and a coca cola can together and laugh and point and say “haha. sonadow.” and his crew will laugh too. He’ll find fanart and tag Shadow in it to annoy him.

Then I think this leads down a pipeline to him actually reading fanfiction and theories. “For fun,” he says.

“Look at this,” he says to Vanish, gesturing to his tablet screen. They’ve just collected a bounty in a snowy mountain and are taking a rest in their tent.

Vanish squints and reads over his shoulder. “What...”

“There’s a small community of people that genuinely believe Sonic and Shadow have a secret relationship and go out on cheesy dates.”

Vanish laughs in disbelief. “That’s crazy.”

Infinite nods, absently rubbing his knee because the cold makes his joint ache. “I know. I mean, if they were actually in a relationship they wouldn’t meet at a restaurant for a date. Obviously. These people don’t know anything.”

Vanish stares at him for a moment, but Infinite has continued scrolling.

“Whatever you say, boss...”

Anyway. Time passes and it’s. Not a joke anymore.

the more he reads, the deeper he gets, until one day he’s fully onboard like. “Woah, hang on. This actually makes a lot of sense. Are they really together? They have to be!”

I like to think he saw fics and art and scoffed like. “The characterization is so off.” and “He would never say that.” and “I bet I could do better.” so he starts creating his own stuff and putting it online. maybe he started with crack fics and his team just smiled awkwardly when anything was brought up because. well, Infinite is still a damn good leader and his hobbies aren’t really hurting anyone.

but infinite is really miffed because no one will take him seriously!! like, his crew is not as invested in this as he is and whenever he gets a good conversation going with someone online, they either move on from “sonadow” really quickly or they have a different view on their relationship than he does.

until he’s browsing forums and notices a single user that has been posting continuously since like. almost 2001???

so he hits up the user “Sonadowfan1″ and they talk EXTENSIVELY and holy shit. It’s like he and this person are on the same wavelength. this person GETS IT.

Sonadowfan1: I’ve believed in their relationship almost since day 1

User69420: Wow, you were there since the beginning?

Sonadwofan1: I was. And let me tell you, the way they worked together, the way their chemistry works, I have never met another pair of beings so closely intertwined. But they love to dance around each other.

User69420: Exactly! Did you see the clips of their time at the Olympics?

Sonadowfan1: I was there in the audience! It was quite something to see in person.

So Infinite has a new internet friend that he can share his ideas with. Sonadowfan1 recommends fanfiction and sends their favorite clips and they have some damn good taste since they’ve been around for a while.

Meanwhile Infinite’s crew is just happy he’s not coming to them every time he needs to vent his frustrations. They hear his phone ding and see him grinning a minute later, typing away like a kid.

Months pass and he and Sonadowfan1 decide to meet up. It’s the middle of the night, and Infinite is hesitant. But Sonadowfan1 insists that it’s the only time that he’s able to step away from his job. But he makes Infinite agree to come alone.

User69420: Why? What are you playing at?

Sonadowfan1: I have a very recognizable face. I trust that you won’t reveal my identity, but only you.

Infinite frowns. It’s a dumb statement, really. Infinite thinks he would sell this guy’s information for a price in a heartbeat. But, whatever gets him the meeting with the only other person that believes in this as much as he does- maybe even more.

“Should we...?”

Eclipse points to Infinite, who is getting ready to head out and meet with his online friend.

Rumble blinks. “You want me to stop him? He can handle himself. Let him get this out of his system or enjoy himself. At least it’s not affecting his work.”

And just. Long story short that’s how Infinite comes face to face with the fucking President of the United States. They agree to have monthly meetings. The pres shows Infinite his own Sonadow files and the picture he keeps on his desk. They go over their interactions and break them down, frame by frame.

[spoiledskullz]

hi i started watching boom and so i'm reacting to boom!welkin's toyhou.se now!

[Her shyness also goes as far as refusing to hang out with Knuckles and his friends, claiming she "doesn't want to intrude".] i'm having a lot of fun imagining scenarios where they all keep trying to but she keeps running off lol.

[(Welkin has a) pet Raven named Platinum] is there art of platinum? OwO

[(Knuckles and Welkin) doing silly things like building sand castles and going out for lunch] and the thing i love about them in this au is that i feel like knuckles wouldn't mind being more on the quiet side for a relationship since he's not the best with words, and they could just enjoy each other in a peaceful existence kind of way ^-^

[Amy became Welkin's only friend on the island and they often would hang out to discuss History and Ghosts as well as make crafts] do you think amy and welkin would host ghost therapy sessions together lmao

[(Dune and Dusk) (neither moved to the island with her)] woof. it's a good thing the sonic cast is so sociable lol.

sorry for quoting this one directly, it was easier to live react U__U

ahhhhh thank you so much for reading her other profile 😭😭😭

I imagine it being more of Knuckles tries to get her to hang out with him and his friends but she avoids it and makes excuses! She's not really close with anyone but Amy and I think Sticks would overwhelm her!

I have drawn her raven a couple times but there's nothing really special about the design lol!

I actually see boom Knuckles as way more outgoing and goofy so while i think they don't mind just chilling together, regular Knuckles and Welkin are more quiet and peaceful together

Boom is just a little more outgoing and tries to get her to get out of her shell more

I actually think Amy wouldn't believe in ghosts LOL I think if Welkin were to exist in boom there'd be an episode about her being a ghost hunter and pretty much everyone says it's silly

And I think she doesn't mind her friends not being on the island because she's a lot more reclusive in Boom! She still talks to them, just over a distance!

Thank you so much again for reading her profiles it seriously means a lot aH 😭💕

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-08-21

If we're being honest, the first show I go to in Europe being a South African band is probably the only way I was going to get the ball rolling.

Listening: Ruff Majik is doing their Europe tour so I dragged a friend along. If I had a nickel for every psychedelic surf rock fantasy themed band from Pretoria I'd have two nickels. The two accompanying acts were Rocky and his Bootlegs, and Olaf Olafsonn and the Big Bad Trip.

Rocky was apparently doing their first show, solid performance although they did make the decision to spend five minutes in the middle of a song doing sonic landscape bullshit on their pedalboards and then come back in with a dubious closer. That's what we go to live shows for though so I can't complain. Literally cannot find hide nor hair of these guys online, which is a shame because I liked some of their stuff.

Olaf Olafsonn and the Big Bad Trip is a metalish themed psychedelic rock band who performed in some really good masks. Do you like really stupid loud guitar and a synth in there for some reason? This is for you. I do not yet speak Czech so I did not catch the names of any of these songs. Here's something I picked at random.

And Ruff Majik, I'm finally going to link their song "She's Still A Goth" which they are so so proud of. It is incredibly self indulgent. It is not by any means their best song.

Reading: Finished up The Will to Battle, moving on to Perhaps The Stars. The Will to Battle went in broad strokes as I expected, it's the build up, but it is of course still weird as hell. I enjoy the closer look at the despair that surrounds the Utopians, and the reveal that Mycroft has been hallucinating a cast of corpses at all times really makes me wonder what was fictitiously cut from the earlier books by 9A.

I'm sure that Palmer has at least a good chunk of the pre-edit version of those histories written out somewhere. I am much less clear in my vision of what Perhaps the Stars might be like.

Watching: I will link this video of a guy building a nightmare capacitor bank and popping a 500A fuse.

Dudes Rock

Making: 3D printing on hold until I get a sealed bag to store the filament I bought, because my house is so extremely humid all the time and I don't want to ruin a kilogram of filament. I'll invest in a dryer at some point but for now just having sealed dry storage is a must. I've been sketching a lot of designs out though, direct air coolers for my laptop, mounts for taps, filter holders and other camera stuff, etc.

I also started writing a program to help me generate components for building frames out of rod stock and 3D printed mounts. I found a hobby shop within easy reach that stocks steel, aluminium, carbon fibre and brass rod and tube stock which is so extremely handy.

Playing: Breath of the Wild- Yuzu handles emulation admirably. I suspect that being less good at the controls is helping me enjoy the cooking system more. If I was good at this I could probably Dark Souls a lot of these fights, the parry mechanic is pretty robust. Instead, I floundered at the face of the Moderate Test of Strength and, instead of Dark Soulsing it, I went away and decided it'd be more fun to hone my skills elsewhere and come back with better gear, more control, and some extra hearts.

I set up gpu-screen-recorder to do replays which has so far yielded these two.

Tools and Equipment: Ikea Bags are pretty handy. They're the biggest bags that fold flat that you can probably easily get. I use one now to handle shuttling laundry from my washing machine to the line, which is way more convenient than the old collapsible bucket I used to use, while also being smaller.

I also used an Ikea bag to haul my 3D printer home from the post office when the courier couldn't find my address for some reason. It's less than a kilometer but it would have been miserable to heft 10kg of box with no handles.

[mama-qwerty]

Sonic’s First Birthday

From @spacemulder

Sonic's first birthday with the family? They go to see Cars 3 I insist

(Changed it to the first Cars because I haven’t seen #3 in a while.)

Sonic bounced on the couch, unable to contain his excitement. Sure they’ve had movie nights before, plenty of them, but this one was different. This one wasn’t just a movie night.

It was a birthday movie night.

His birthday movie night.

It was going to be the perfect ending to a perfect day.

He’d never had a birthday before. Oh, he knew what they were, of course. The park was a popular place to hold parties during the summer, so he’d seen a ton of them when he lived on his own. And one of the first things Tom and Maddie asked when he moved in with them was when his birthday was.

He just didn’t actually know the date of his birth. He’d only been around three-ish when he ran through that ring to this world, after all. And the days and months weren’t the same here as they were there, let alone the length of the year. He’d also never seen snow until he’d come here. So there was absolutely no way to know what his actual birthday was.

So he’d simply picked a day that seemed good. June 23rd. He wasn’t sure why he picked that particular day. Seemed nice enough—it was still warm and nice outside, it stayed light until after 9pm, and Tom and Maddie usually took some time off around then to travel. Perfect weather and a chance to spend more time with his two best friends? Seemed a good choice.

And now that day was today. They’d let him sleep as late as he wanted—a rare treat, as they usually try to get him up at stupid o’clock in the morning when they woke. Then they’d taken the day off and the three of them went out for a nice picnic around lunch. After that was a fun game of Laser Tag at Dale’s Funderland. For supper he chose chili-dogs (of course), and afterward, Maddie brought out a big birthday cake with lots of frosting and candy flowers. They’d sung to him, and he had to turn away to hide the tears.

In all his years on this planet, and all the birthday parties he’d secretly watched, he never thought he’d hear his name in that song. Never have it sung to him, while candles flickered on a cake made especially for him.

He could hardly believe how different his life had become in just a few months.

Then had come presents. A phone so they could keep in touch with him while at work, a new pair of running shoes—ones that lit up when he ran, how cool was that?!--and more markers and paper for his budding artist skills. He’d thanked them and shared hugs and high fives, before moving into the living room for his special movie night.

“Ugh, where is he??” Sonic cried, bouncing ever higher in his sugar-fueled excitement. “Speed is right over there, what’s he looking for?”

“Maybe you’d like to try something a little different tonight?” Maddie asked, gently placing a hand on his head to stop the frantic bouncing. “There’s a movie you haven’t seen yet that we think you’ll like.”

Sonic crossed his arms with an exaggerated pout. “It’s my birthday,” he muttered. “Shouldn’t I get to pick?”

“Sure, sweetie,” she said, scratching behind his ear. A shudder ran through him and he dropped his arms, leaning into her. “But can you please just entertain the idea of watching something that isn’t Speed?”

“Hmm?” he hummed, eyes half-lidded. Her nails hit just the right spot behind his ear and he practically tumbled into her lap.

“Found it!” Tom said as he walked into the living room, holding a DVD before him like the Holy Grail. “We have a lot of movies downstairs. How’d we get so many?”

Maddie laughed. “I think they multiply when we’re not looking.”

Tom nodded, a smile curling his lips as he watched Sonic melt under his wife’s fingers. “Wow. Careful he doesn’t wet himself.”

At that, Sonic sat up straight, brushing down the mussed fur behind his ear. He cast Maddie a shy smile, before turning back to Tom.

“You’re just jealous she likes me more,” he said, hopping down and zipping to grab the movie out of Tom’s hand. “Now what movie do you foolishly think I’ll want to watch instead of the perfection that is Speed?” He arched an eyebrow. “Cars?”

“Yep,” Tom said, that crooked smile on his lips. “It’s just like Speed except there’s no Keanu, no bus, no bomb, and all the cars are alive.” He paused. “Oh, and the main character is a race car who likes to go fast.”

Sonic stared at him. “You’re making that up.”

“No, actually,” Tom said, taking the DVD back. “We think you’ll really like it.”

“Ugh, fine,” the hedgehog said, moving back to the couch. “We’ll watch your weird living cars movie. But! When I don’t like it, I get to pick tomorrow’s movie. Which will be Speed. Just so you’re aware.”

“Duly noted.” Tom slid the DVD into the tray, and grabbed the remote on his way to the couch.

Sonic huffed. There was no way this movie was anywhere near as good as Speed.

~X~X~X~

Almost two hours later, and the credits were nearly done. Sonic had made a few jokes at the start of the movie, but grew quiet the more into the story he became. By the end, when Lightning pushed a damaged King across the finish line, the boy’s eyes were wide and shiny.

“Well?” Tom asked, clicking off the DVD player. “Whaddaya think? Pretty awesome, right?”

Sonic sat quiet, his brow slightly furrowed.

“Bud?”

The hedgehog blinked, and turned to him. “He was like me.”

“Yep, but honestly you could probably beat him in a race.”

Sonic shook his head. “No, I mean . . .” His brow furrowed deeper. “He was . . . alone.”

The smile slipped off Tom’s face, and he felt Maddie stiffen beside him. Sonic was still sensitive about his time alone, and the fact that Lightning didn’t have any friends or people who cared about him didn’t even occur to them.

“Oh, honey,” Maddie said, reaching over to rub a knuckle down his muzzle.

“He was alone, but convinced himself he wasn’t,” the boy said, but he leaned into Maddie’s touch. “That . . . I did that. For a long time.”

Maddie moved her hand to take his, and gave it a squeeze. Tom reached over to place a firm hand on the boy’s shoulder.

“He even got scared and caused damage before making friends, like me.”

“And now he has a family who love him,” Maddie said, stroking his quills. “Like you.”

Sonic turned his large green eyes to the two people next to him, and they turned watery as the first tears trickled down his muzzle.

“Happy birthday, Sonic,” Tom said, wiping the tears from the boy’s cheeks.

“We’re so glad you’re here,” Maddie whispered, planting a kiss on his forehead.

Chest hitching, Sonic threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around these people who helped him when he was in danger, took him in when he was alone, and loved him when he needed.

Best. Birthday. Ever.

~~~

Like this? Check out my other snippets. Reblogs are appreciated!

[beevean]

No worries about tangent-ing! I think you raise good points; I didn't think much of it when issue 8 came out, but with other people on Tumblr pointing out the oddness of a canon character from the 'main' medium (the games) extensively gushing about a newly-introduced one in a new medium (the comics), I've increasingly found myself also considering it a ploy to hype up Whisper more than anything else. At the very least, it paints quite the negative picture of Silver, or at least greatly undoes how powerful he is supposed to be. But then again, he seems like the type of person who would absolutely destroy himself to help others (like at the end of 06 where he tries to seal Iblis into his soul), so with some suspension of disbelief I could imagine that in the Forces!war he got in over his head and got into life-threatening scrapes and had to get helped out there. (On the other hand, iirc Sonic plus the Avatar easily broke one of those massive grey Death Egg robots or whatever they're called with a spindash through the face, sooooo... But then again, in that game little got done without Sonic for six whole months anyway. I personally enjoy Forces, but that aspect of the Resistance imo definitely is odd.) Still, I think it is strange that Silver's fanboying is getting dragged up again after it should have gotten resolved at the end of the MV saga. He had his fight with Whisper at his side, they succeeded (twice, if you count the Metal Sonic stuff early on and MV afterwards), he's gotten to know her as a person who is just as fallible and flawed as anyone else, so why does the comic insist that he still has this amazingly high view of her after it has not gotten brought up since like... issue 8 and a VERY minor mention in issue 26? It doesn't come out of nowhere, but to me it feels displaced.

Furthermore, now that I think about it, Sonic's snarky reply about Whisper being Whisper's name when Silver actually whispers during her true introduction ("No, genius. Whisper is her name.") absolutely is him being a dick! That has always bothered me. As well as that whole "Couldn't even play along, had to bring the mood down." part. Maybe some concern about the world you are living getting imminently ruined, Sonic? Hmm...

I guess sorry for my long tangents in your askbox too, but I actually find it quite interesting to think about it all and analyse it in such a way!

Yeah, it gives an odd impression. I know that calling comic-exclusive characters "OCs" is controversial :P but it really feels like that. It's a lot of telling and hyping up a character that belongs to a "lesser" canon by using a character that belongs to the "main" canon.

(also, friendly reminder that Flynn back in the day explained his decision to create Tangle by putting down all canonical female Sonic characters. That's also not a good move.)

It feels like they don't know what to do with Silver and they've also ran out of characters to use, so they're bringing back one trait they had established about him to create Conflict. To be cynical, they may be not putting in much effort to be more creative since the comic is in severe danger of being cancelled :P

Boy, I re-read those few pages of #8 to put them in the post, and geez Sonic is just so unlikeable. "My over-eager friend here is Silver" dude, c'mon! Imagine if your "friend" introduced you like this to someone you admired! This is not like Sonic calling Knuckles a knucklehead after being tricked and losing them two Emeralds, it's just making fun of a guy for being awkward, I refuse to believe that Sonic would be so insensitive! Man, if I think of all the things we let slide from early IDW because of the hype... :\

(Team Sonic Racing, which came out a year after #8, had a similar chemistry between Sonic and Silver, but it came off as more endearing, and also more befitting the context because it was during a race so Sonic was expecting some trash talk lol)

[bongo-spindash]

“Sonic? Like, The Hedgehog?”

The thing about being a global hero whose entire schtick is running faster than the eye can see is that, well, people don’t actually see an awful lot of him. They know his name, they know what he’s done, and they recognise the iconic blue blur he leaves in his wake—but, just walking down the street, you don’t expect every single blue Mobian you see to be the one that routinely fights off giant mechs and ancient deities.  Really, how were they supposed to know who the guy actually was? (Or: Five times Sonic invoked the Tony Hawk phenomenon, and one time someone recognised him.)

You can read it on Ao3 here, but I'm posting the full chapter here too!! I got the idea for the fic after reading this post, but the chapter it inspired is later on!! Hope you enjoy either way!! :D

Chapter 1: Chilli Dogs

(Fic under the cut!!)

-

Ever since Dr. Eggman was driven away from the vicinity of the village, Gary’s life—along with the lives of the rest of the population—has been about ten times easier. Getting over to the florist’s for work is much more straightforward when there’s no robots blocking the path and tearing up the trees, and much less dangerous at that. He can actually stop in the street to catch up with his neighbours again instead of having to rush home from getting groceries. 

There’s a lot of rumours about the little guy that saved them all. Sonic The Hedgehog, apparently; speed demon extraordinaire. He’s extremely grateful for the work the boy does, of course, but he honestly kind of wonders where the kid’s parents are in all this, if he really is a kid like the lady at the market told him. No one responsible is letting their son run around all day slamming into evil robots like a buzzsaw, that’s for sure. 

It’s this that Gary’s thinking about as he’s heading back home from work, and it’s this particular train of thought that’s interrupted by a quiet tug on his glove. 

The gazelle slows to a stop, looking down at the perpetrator. They’re a tiny little thing—eight years old at most—with bright blue fur and big green eyes. Judging by the quills styled in messily-arranged spikes, they’re a hedgehog; judging by the state of their gloves and shoes, they’ve either been having a lot of fun playing outside, or they haven’t had anyone buy them new clothes in a long time. They smile sheepishly at him when they make eye-contact. 

“Hey, little guy,” He greets gently, crouching down so their gazes are level with each other. “What’s up?”

The hedgehog waves at him before performing a short series of gestures that he’s sure means something, judging by the look on the kid’s face, but he’s not sure what. “Sorry, buddy, I don’t understand.”

They look frustrated for a moment, huffing quietly. This time, they mouth something along with the gestures, pointing at themself then bringing their fists together and splaying them apart while Gary eyes the exaggerated movement of their lips. 

“I’m lost.” The kid mouths, and Gary nods in acknowledgement, feeling his own lips pull into a concerned frown. 

“Oh, that’s no good. Where are you headed?”

Pleased at the understanding, they smile at him, curling up all their fingers except for the index and thumb, hand being raised to their mouth thumb-side up before flipping. “Café!”

“You’re trying to find the café?” He asks, just to confirm. The hedgehog nods quickly. “Well, you’re in luck—I happen to know the way!”

The kid beams at the reply, giving him a thumbs up, and when he gestures for them to follow him in the right direction, they bounce alongside. It’s not hard to find the establishment as a local—but for people visiting the village, it’s not obvious from the outside that it’s a café at all—he’s not surprised that the kid couldn’t find it on their own. 

Given how close everything in the village is, it’s not long before they arrive. The place is small, but comfortably well-worn, and he’s good friends with the owner. He moves over to the counter with a familiar grin as Martha calls out a greeting. “Gary! Man, I haven’t seen you since that last Eggman attack! How’ve you been? What’re you doing here on a weekday?”

The gazelle laughs at the rapid-fire questioning, hands out in a placating gesture. “Just glad that Sonic kid sent him packing! And I wouldn’t usually stop by straight after work, but this little guy couldn’t find the place, and I offered to show ‘em.”

The little blue hedgehog waves excitedly as Martha looks over the counter, and she smiles right back at them. “Hey there! Sorry you couldn’t find me; I’ve been meaning to redo the outside for forever. I’ll get round to it one of these days, I swear! Anyway, what can I do for you?”

They crane their neck to look at the menu on the other wall, finger tapping against their chin contemplatively, before their eyes light up and they skip over to it, jumping a little to point at what they want. When Martha squints to try and read it, Gary decides to take mercy on her. “A chilli dog?” He reads out, and the kid gives them a big double thumbs up. 

For a second, Gary and Martha just look at each other. The hedgehog is clearly roughed up, and though he’d been assuming the little guy had someone waiting for them at the café, there’s no parents in sight. He’s not fully sure the kid has any money to pay for it. Clearly, Martha isn’t sure either. 

Neither of them say a word about it as Martha turns around and goes to make the chilli dog anyway. They’re a bouncy, excitable kid—not seeming all that worried about anything—but, still, if there’s no one out there looking after them, the least they can do is this one good thing. 

The gazelle’s chest warms at the sight of the kid’s smile when Martha leans down to hand the food to them, looking for all the world like they’ve been given something far more valuable. “You’ve got good taste, kid; I make the best chilli dogs this side of the island.” She brags—and when they put a hand into their quills, seemingly searching for something, she waves a hand with a casual wink. “Don’t worry, it’s on the house. A friend of Gary’s is a friend of mine!”

The kid looks just a touch embarrassed, muzzle darkening with flush, but nevertheless a bright grin paints itself across their face—and with a palm touching against their chin and moving away in an arc, they mouth “Thank you!”—taking an impressively large bite for someone so small. With a delighted expression, they give Martha one last thumbs up, and run right out of the shop.

Although, when Gary says run, what he means is more along the lines of disappears in a smear of blue and leaves the curtains fluttering behind them.

Martha blinks, looking about as bewildered as he feels. “Wow, quick little guy, weren’t they?” She says, just as Gary has a mind-shattering realisation. 

“Wait,” He wheezes. “That was the Sonic kid?!”

[superemeralds]

🌷How will they deal with saying goodbye?

👯‍♀️How often do they see the others? Their other friends, too?

🖤Free space! Ask what you like, or request a random headcanon

<- hit us with your weirdest shot?

🌷shadow and omega b oth have very complicated relationships w the concept of good bye. they don't really age or die? omega specifically has the advantage of having very limited emotion and a highly logic mind, so he would not waste energy mourning and accept when things end. Shadow is def still trying to figure it all out. as of rn in universe ofc he doesn't have to think abt it much yet, he's doing his best to prevent his friends from harm right now, and he'd rather just face the problems as they happen. especially in shth he learned that theres no use thinking about the what ifs, because there's a right now that needs to be dealt with. the more he thinks about what differenciates him from others the less he can concentrate on what matters: the things he's got in common. like the ground beneath their feet, the star they orbit around, the wind that blows in their faces... He knows about the inevitability of death enough through maria, and he will try his best to not make the same mistake twice. he's determined to move on. ofc its easier said than done, especially in the conceptual event that rouge would fall in combat or even worse.. because of a mistake that he made.. but there are so many possibilities that i could analyze we'd be here for ever.........

rouge herself i think hasdealt with loss before, and she might have had some history with people that she has cut out of her lives. it might seem cold but i think she as a person has mastered the art of severing. whether its healthy is not the question rn... she def has a very soft spot for shadow and omega, tho as stated above these two are really hard to kill so there's not much to worry about in that regard, if anything it's a worry that might not plague her right now, but eventually she's going to think about what it means to be the one that's being severed by forces beyond anyone's control

anyways i dont wanna get existential this morning so this is where i stop

👯‍♀️I headcanon rouge has some friends she regularly meets in her bar (i'll let it be open if it actually belongs to her or if she's just a regular) and she would def visit knuckles every now and then. not saying she'd like. actually talk to him tho. might just lurk in a bush and stare at the master emerald

omega is a tough one to think about tbh. i admittedly don't have too many thoughts on him outside of being part of the team... this is telling me i need to dig more into his individual character tbh. what would he do for fun? when not with the otehr two?? Maybe he actually is like a gamer playing shooters and made friends in voice chat. no one believes him when he introduced himself as killermachine, they think its just a nickname

shadow likes solitude, but i really like that one bit in the recent twitter take over where he and knuckles stood in the forest for hours watching the plants and animals and hwo the light changes throughout the day while going through the leaves etc etc... theyre both very connected to nature in their own ways and i think they could bond over that. also about how they both prefer solitude. they can be alone together! they dont need any words, they can just exist next to eachother for a few hours and feel good about it. he also most surely hangs out with sonic every now and then. hangingout being racing and having a good fight together. though im sure sonic can eventually convince him to spend proper time together. for example making a race into a trekking tour where they go random places sonic knows or doesnt know yet, and they learn about the culture and obviously the food. shadow does seem like someone who'd like to learn about the planet, and sonic's the type of guy who's super eager to have someone to show around and explore with that can keep up!

🖤oh man idk weirdness is super subjective. uh. i wrote a fanfic once about how team dark and team sonic have a bowling competition