#this post is about vector this post is about sonic as well

[rapidhighway]

When they make a 20-something yo into a father figure. When th- when they also make a teenager into a father figure

[sonknuxadow]

im always thinking about how vector calls espio and charmy his boys and how in sonic heroes he can carry them in his mouth which is how real crocodiles carry their young. they are so family forever

[silverthehedgehoganalysis]

Here is a list of traits Silver has shown in the games, Sonic Channel and other Sonic Team made content:

Righteous, has a strong sense of justice and is driven to make things right

Kind-hearted, puts other people’s happiness before his own and will drop his mission to help others, is motivated by his desire to protect smiles, wants to use his powers not for himself, but to help others.

Extremely Determined

Optimistic and Hopeful, believes there’s always a chance as long as you don’t give up, inspires hope in the people he works with in Forces, the final story of Sonic 06 and when he helps Elise through her performance anxiety

Pure, has a “sincere, unpretentious and kind” demeanor and wears his heart on his sleeve, this genuineness and purity gives him an “enduring charm” that is one of the biggest things his friends, particularly Blaze, enjoy about him and makes others want to support him

Forthright, is very direct and frank with people and has a straight to the point mentality, is straightforward in his actions and thinking

Earnest and blunt to the point of naivety, expects people to believe and cooperate with him when he says he’s from the future, hides very little and is so honest that he announces himself when attacking Sonic

Not trusting post 06, doesn’t give Sonic a Chaos Emerald until he proves he’s real in Sonic Generations and is the most suspicious of Dodon Pa

Snide and Sarcastic, sneers at Eggman’s theme park in Sonic Colors and has a snotty attitude towards anyone he can one up, remarks “What am I doing?” when going with Amy

Brash, has rude/informal mannerisms and can be abrasive, particularly to people who are not his allies

Juvenile, described as young and immature by his creator Shun Nakamura, this immaturity ties into many aspects of his character as well as his purity but is also the source of his snotty attitude and rude behavior, supposedly he doesn’t like green peppers which is the Japanese equivalent of children not liking broccoli 

Focused, proactive and practical mindset, seen particularly throughout Sonic Forces

Focused on his goals, Does not care what the plan is called in Forces, only that it works and when asked about his favorite race item he says that he likes Jade Ghost because “It lets him disappear and focus on the race”

Inquisitive and proactive, questioned others about how the world was destroyed in the Iblis future his whole life, fought Iblis to try and clear the sky himself, spent most of Team Sonic Racing cracking down on Dodon Pa and Eggman, reads into “Ancient Wisdom” in the good future

Sharp and intuitive, Figures out how to revive Sonic in 06, sees through Eggman Nega's disguises by noticing small details, does successful detective work in Sonic 06 and Team Sonic Racing, intuits Blaze trying to control great powers when seeing them for the first time, has solved various puzzles and mysteries by himself, “knows a lot” according to Sonic in Silver’s Sonic Channel introduction story

Skilled and Crafty, skillfully accomplishes various tasks during his Town Missions in Sonic 06, turns his fight with Sonic into a race to collect Chao in Sonic Rivals 2, Vector refers to him and Blaze as professionals in the Team Vector Nintendo Dream interview, has had jobs as a delivery boy, a figure skater, a “genius” skating coach and a butler

Trains off-screen and makes steady efforts to improve his abilities, seems to be self-taught in his skills 

Sometimes takes everything on himself

Warrior with a warrior mentality, described as a warrior, enjoys fighting and will fight his friends for fun, fought and struggled for half his life in the Iblis future, values bravery and facing things head on, dislikes cowardice and indirect tactics, can endure “pain beyond description” and is undeterred by injuries (Shadow’s infamous kick to the head only made him mad)

Competitive and proud/confident in his abilities, has a smug attitude about his abilities and can get competitive over something as simple as handling Orbot and Cubot, clashes with Blaze the first time(s) they meet because of this

Headstrong and Confrontational, confronts Infinite alone because of this, gets offended when Blaze she calls him “weak” and treats him like an amateur 

Very Emotional, tends to rush in and deal with things too head-on because of the strength of his feelings and start confrontations because he gets heated, his passion drives him forward but this same passion can cause him to be rash as his actions are dominated by his feelings

Hot Tempered and impatient, can be easily angered and gets frustrated or indignant when things don’t go his way, can get annoyed at things that get in the way or impatient with things that aren’t to the point, his sense of justice causes righteous indignation at great injustices, his temper can be quite similar to Blaze’s

Has Aggressive energy in both his demeanor and body language, generally has confident or determined expressions, often makes fists, punches things when he's frustrated and gets up by punching the ground

Can be Ruthless, has resorted to playing possum, sneaking past Soleanna guards, robbing people and killing to accomplish his goals

Courageous to the point of being Reckless, puts other’s safety before his own, instantly reacts to protect those around him when attacked in Sonic Comic, Instantly battle ready when surprised in Generations, fought against Iblis and its monsters from a very young age growing up in an extremely hazardous devastated future, both values bravery and dislikes cowardice, recklessly went off to face Infinite on his own and is noted to not back down even in the face of his mighty power, will sacrifice himself without a second thought if necessary

His way of life inspires others and makes them want to cheer him on, this even extends to real life as the illustration at the top this post inspired everyone in the office to give him a high five that day

Cannot lie but can change the subject

Doesn’t know how to explain/express himself at times

Scratches his head with his index finger when processing his thoughts

Feels joy and anger loudly but is quiet in sadness and contemplation

Gets rowdy, riled up and puts his all into things he’s feeling but is very low and quiet when something is on his mind or he’s feeling down(He’s totally autistic, this is autistic volume)

Has a mischievous side

Like apples, ate apple flavored rations in the Iblis future

Deeply appreciates peace, prosperity and people‘s smiles, beautiful vistas and people living peacefully leave him breathless

His desire for peace is seemingly driven by strong empathy for both the people and environment around him, blue skies make him feel at peace, natural beauty and people living prosperously takes his breath away, desolate or destroyed areas sadden and upset him, he can’t help but smile when he makes others smile and can’t stand to see the suffering in his destroyed futures

Has a very quiet, introspective and empathetic side (he deeply and quietly reflects on the morality of his mission throughout 06 and quietly takes in everything about Elise’s past)

AB blood type meaning that he's dual natured and adaptable based on the situation

Is a Taurus

[sparkles-rule-4eva]

Happy birthday, Tails!

"Fevers Can't Ruin Birthdays"

based on this post by @niyana-the-ambiguous-mobian :)

AO3 version

Sonic didn’t have to be a genius to know that Tails had never had someone celebrate his birthday before they’d met. The kid had been the littlest outcast there ever was, for the dumbest of reasons. He’d been shunned and abused for what Sonic in all seriousness considered to be one of the coolest things about him— his extra tail that let him fly. On top of that, Tails was an absolute genius.

Too bad Sonic had to be the first one in the entire world to notice all this. Or maybe not so bad, because that meant he got to keep him. Which was quite possibly the best thing that had ever happened to him.

They’d been with each other for years now. Things were familiar between them. Familial terms flew from both their mouths in reference to each other all the time without hesitation. Tails had grown so much and now had a level of sass that rivaled Sonic’s. And now the kit was approaching his tenth birthday.

Sure, Sonic had made plenty of efforts in past years to celebrate his little brother. He’d thrown parties, bought out hardware shops in the hopes that whatever he brought would be useful to Tails, and even once made a horrendous attempt at making a birthday cake. (He hadn’t tried again since that first time, although Tails had at least appreciated the thought.)

But this year? This year was extra special somehow. Not only was Tails finally entering double-digits, it was going to be his first birthday after coming back from his extended time of solo adventuring. His “going it alone,” as he’d told Sonic he’d wanted to do back on Starfall Islands.

Sonic had missed him to no end during that time, although they’d still texted most days. Now, Tails had been back for a few weeks. He hadn’t said a word about his upcoming day, but there was no way Sonic would ever forget it.

He’d made plans, alright. Conspired with Knuckles and Amy, Vanilla and Cream, the Chaotix, even Silver and Blaze (though that had been a bit of a challenge). He’d convinced Tails to head out to one of his live-in labs that was closest to all of their friends, to make it easier for them all to come together. He’d spent an entire week shopping (with help from Amy), looking for anything that Tails would even potentially like. Mechanical stuff, computer stuff, bags of mints, lego sets the size of a dining table, video games, a collection of tiny metal airplanes he found at a thrift store, etc.

He had the entire day planned out (which was something that he usually never did). He’d hidden the giant assortment of gifts in a bunch of random secret places and connected them all with strings (although the arts and crafts store had been pretty ticked that he’d bought out their entire supply of yarn). Amy was going to make a giant, absolutely gorgeous cake. Knuckles was helping Cream decorate banners and blow up balloons. Vanilla and Vector were helping him organize everything. Sonic was going to take him to all their favorite places and they’d have races and go sightseeing and maybe dive off a cliff or two. It was going to be perfect. Sonic was absolutely determined to make sure that fox knew exactly how much he was loved.

… So if he woke up on the morning of the long-awaited day feeling a little more lethargic than usual, if he had some kind of tension in his head and felt a little congested and a little rough in the throat, well, he would keep that to himself.

Correction: he would try.

—

“Hey, Taaaaiiilllsss.” The voice was teasing and familiar, but surprisingly gentle for being an apparent wake-up call. Tails barely stirred from his dream, making the slightest of humming noises in acknowledgement.

A hand gently shook his shoulder. “Happy birthday…” the voice went on to sing, albeit quietly.

Still mostly asleep, Tails barely rolled over and automatically finished with a sleepy, “To yoouuu.”

The voice— Sonic, no doubt— snickered. “Nuh uh, lil dude. It’s your birthday!”

Tails smiled as he finally started waking up for real. “To meee,” he corrected, opening his eyes halfway as he began pushing himself to sit up.

“There ya go!” Sonic laughed, reaching out to ruffle Tails’s already-messy bangs. “Welcome to double digits! Just wait till you…”

Tails paused in his climbing down from bed as his brother trailed off in his sentence, instead ending with a sneeze.

“Bless you.” Tails hopped off the bed and grinned.

“Eh. Thanks.” Sonic shook his head and smiled back. “Sorry. What was I saying?”

“Just wait till…” Tails prompted.

“Aw, yeah— just wait till ya see everything I’ve got planned!” Sonic dragged him in for a tight hug, then a noogie, and Tails squealed with fake protest.

Sonic let him go, grabbed the end of the yarn lying on the floor near the bed, and shoved it in Tails’s hand. “Just follow the string!”

Tails laughed, but obliged. “Wait, what? What is this, birthday edition of the Wizard of Oz?”

Sonic shrugged. “I woulda built a yellow brick road, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate me messing up your floors like that. Didn’t think the public would be much of a fan, either.” He turned his face away and sneezed again.

“Whaddaya mean the public? Bless you.” Tails frowned a little when Sonic didn’t immediately turn back towards him, instead reaching up to rub his nose, then his eyes. “You good?”

At the concerned inquiry, Sonic quickly snapped back towards him. “Yeah, I’m good! Now come on, your day awaits!”

Tails kept an eye on him even as he smiled and started walking alongside the string, which he now noticed was stretched out across the floor and tucked in random places out of sight. “Are you getting sick?” he asked Sonic, who scoffed.

“‘Course not. You know colds are too slow to catch up with me.” Sonic gave him an exaggerated wink. Tails rolled his eyes.

“Lame joke, but you sound all stuffy.”

Sonic rolled his eyes right back and put his hands on his hips. “Maybe your ears need cleaning out again.”

“Just like your immune system needs cleaning out?”

“Stop sassing me, or there won’t be any cake.”

“Fine.”

Tails knew Sonic was joking about the cake bit. He still wasn’t sure if Sonic was actually sick or not, but if he was, there was no way he was going to just admit it and go to bed. He was one of the most stubborn people Tails knew, and he hated to be vulnerable in front of other people.

So, deciding to hope that Sonic wasn’t lying and maybe was just sneezing excessively for no reason that morning, he went along with the plans Sonic had created, which admittedly were all pretty fantastic.

“Yooo, is this the newest game from AGES?” he squeaked as he flew up into a tree after the string and found the tenth gift tucked in the branches.

“You bet!” Sonic called from the ground, although his voice sounded extra raspy when he raised it. “Pre-ordered it ‘n everything! I dunno if you watched the trailers for it, but it looks sick. Hoped you’d like it!”

Tails hovered back to the ground, picking up the previous gifts alongside the video game case that he’d left at the base of the tree. Sonic turned his head and coughed a couple times.

“Speaking of ‘sick,’” Tails mumbled, eyeing his brother worriedly.

Sonic waved him off. “I’m fine, I said. Besides, there’s still so much left to do!”

Tails sighed. He was beginning to think that his initial intuition was right, but was Sonic going to care? Nope.

They headed into town next, and Tails finally understood what Sonic had meant earlier about the public. If they hadn’t been world-renowned, Sonic probably would’ve gotten in trouble with the local government for leaving string and random computer parts in cardboard boxes all over the parks and roofs.

The sun was high in the sky at this point. They met with a few of their friends in the streets, too many to be a coincidence, but Tails didn’t mind one bit. While all the effort was definitely heartwarming, it would’ve been easier to enjoy it all if he weren’t so worried about Sonic, who was looking more tired by the hour. Every now and then he’d catch him rubbing his head when he thought no one was looking, as if trying to ward off a headache, and every couple minutes Tails heard him sniffling.

They had lunch with the Chaotix, and Tails of course chose chilidogs. It may have initially been Sonic’s favorite, but his love for them had rubbed off on Tails over the years. The taste of them always brought warm, pleasant memories, and almost for the sake of those memories alone, they were one of his favorite meals.

And he would’ve had an easy time enjoying them now, but it was hard when Sonic was barely picking at his, in the seat next to him. He’d taken a small bite or two, but was now doing nothing more than staring at them with slightly glazed eyes.

Trying not to make a scene, Tails nudged him a little. “Not hungry?”

Sonic blinked and looked back at him, his eyes clearing. “Um. I dunno.” He picked up his chilidog, immediately set it down again, then twisted aside to cough again, as quietly as he could.

Tails caught Vector eyeing the hedgehog from across the table and winced. “You good there, Sonic?” their older friend questioned.

Sonic looked back at the crocodile, almost uncomprehending for a moment. Tails looked between them. Sonic waved a hand. “Not you, too. I’m fine,” he sighed, even though his voice cracked when he spoke.

Espio looked towards them, away from his whispered argument with Charmy that no, Tails was not obligated to share his three new lego sets with him. “You don’t sound well,” he pointed out.

Sonic glanced back at him, squirming under the sudden scrutiny of everyone else at the table. “Hey, quit staring,” he complained, then smiled way too big and nudged Tails. “This is Tails’s day. Give him all the attention!”

Tails gave him a look, deciding that it might be better to be upfront about this than to spare Sonic’s dignity. “I’m not the one who needs medical attention,” he said with a tiny shrug, smiling apologetically when his brother shot him a pleading look.

Vector sat up straight. “Wait, are you sick?”

“No,” Sonic protested, his ears flattening slightly.

Espio leaned down and started fumbling through one of their bags under the table. “I think we still have flu medicine leftover from when three of us had it a few weeks ago. You can take it if you need it.”

“Noooo, thanks.” His big brother looked like he wanted to disappear, although at this point Tails couldn’t tell if the redness on his face was from embarrassment or an oncoming fever. He looked meaningfully back at Espio and nodded, and the chameleon quietly slipped him the bottle under the table.

They managed to go the rest of the meal without bringing up the sickly elephant in the room, but Tails couldn’t brush off his worry. More and more he wanted so badly to just take his brother home, tuck him into bed, and take care of him until he was healthy again, but with the way Sonic was, such a thing would be immensely difficult.

“Ready for a hike with the gang?” Sonic asked him, with about as much energy as he could summon at the moment.

“A hike?” Tails echoed, brows rising. “Why don’t we just fly in the Tornado? Where are we hiking?”

Sonic laughed, then immediately started coughing again. It was sounding rougher every time it happened, and Tails automatically reached to put a hand on his brother’s back. “M’fine,” Sonic reassured him, trying and failing to clear his throat. “There’s this one spot out in the mountains nearby with an awesome view at the top. The hike is an hour or so, and yeah I know we could just fly, but I thought it would be nice to catch some scenery in the woods along the way. Knux and Amy are coming along, is that okay?”

“That’s— it’s fine that they’re coming.” Tails paused, trying to sort through his immediate concerns. “Um… I just think…” With a quick breath, he went on, “Sonic, this has all been awesome and the hike does sound exciting, but… I really think you need to go home and rest.”

Sonic sighed, glaring at the ground for a moment, before dragging his gaze up to meet Tails’s with a frustratingly relaxed gleam. “How many times do I gotta say it today, I’m fine! Nothing can keep me down for long. I’ve been waiting to do all this with you for months; please just let me have this?”

His brother wasn’t as good with the puppy dog eyes as Tails was himself, but it somehow worked— for now. Tails groaned, conflicted still but not knowing how to convince the stubborn hedgehog that walking around all day and hiking entire mountains and spending all energy for the sake of birthday fun was not going to let him feel better. Especially if he refused to take any medicine.

“Okay, but—”

“Awesome!” Sonic didn’t let him finish. “I told the others to meet us at the parking lot in twenty minutes or so— whaddaya say we beat them to it?” He swallowed with a grimace as he finished speaking, then sniffled.

Tails stared at him regretfully. “Okay.”

They made it to the parking lot in under five minutes. Tails decided not to say anything about how much easier than usual it was to keep up with the speedy hedgehog, who didn’t seem to be purposefully moving as slowly as he was. As they reached the sparsely populated lot, Sonic stumbled over his feet and all but fell against someone’s car, struggling to catch his breath as he started coughing again, even harder than before.

“Sonic?” His worry ramping up a decent amount, Tails hurriedly dropped down beside him. “You alright?”

Sonic gave him a tired grin, even as his chest heaved for air. “Just catching my breath,” he wheezed.

Tails stiffened, looking at his brother with blank eyes as a haunting memory surfaced in his mind.

“Just catching my breath,” Sonic tried to assure him, even though he was near entirely covered in flickering, red and black cyber energy, had just been coughing, was clearly in pain. Tails stared at his own transparent, glitching hands, realizing he had no corporeal form and could do nothing to help his brother feel better.

And then he’d spent the next few days watching Sonic get sicker and sicker, watching him limp tiredly around instead of run with his trademark smile, watching him hold his arm and his hip and his head until he could barely walk. Tails had come back to his real, solid form, only to find Sonic paralyzed, unresponsive, all but dead, because he’d cared more for their lives and their comfort than for his own health.

This wasn’t the same, he reminded himself in the present; at least, it wasn’t as dire. This was just a bug. Just the flu. And it was just a birthday.

But Sonic was still rejecting his health in favor of making sure that someone he loved was having a good time.

Tails wasn’t sure how to articulate his feelings on that to him right now. So he chose to step closer and throw his arms around Sonic instead, holding him tightly.

Sonic paused for a moment, evidently taken aback, then silently hugged him back. Pressed up against him, Tails could hear and feel the raggedness in the hedgehog’s breathing, and feel the unnatural heat radiating off of him.

“Whoa, are we interrupting something?” a deeper voice called, and immediately Sonic pulled back as if nothing had happened.

“Brother stuff, Knux,” he told the echidna, as Tails fought his internal annoyance at missing his chance of actually convincing Sonic to go home and go to bed. “You wouldn’t get it.”

Knuckles eyed the hedgehog ruefully. “I think I would, somehow.”

Beside him, Amy laughed. “You guys ready for this?”

“The view won’t compare to Angel Island. But I suppose it’ll be nice in its own way.”

“The scenery on the way is supposed to be really cool, too,” Tails put in, remembering what Sonic had said earlier.

“It is!” Sonic agreed, then pointed to a sign by the woods nearby. “That’s the start of the trail. Let’s do this thing!” Without waiting for a response, he half-ran, half-stumbled off towards the aforementioned sign.

Tails just sighed, shook his head, and ambled after him. As he did, Amy headed closer to walk beside him.

“Is Sonic… sick? Or something?” she whispered, looking concerned after their friend ahead of them. “He seems off, somehow. And he sounds all raspy.”

“…Yeah,” Tails mumbled guiltily. “He’s been coming down with something all day. I’ve tried to talk him into going home and resting, but he won’t listen.”

“Sounds about right.” Amy groaned. “I’ll help you keep an eye on him while we walk. If he still won’t go home to sleep by the time we’re done the hike, I’ll just drag him there myself.”

Tails couldn’t help a laugh at the mental image. “Thanks, Amy.”

“Of course!” The pink hedgehog beamed at him. “Now then— how’s your birthday been going, mister ten-years-old already?”

“It’s been good otherwise!” He grinned. “For the first half of the day he just dragged me around town following a string to all sorts of gifts. I had to drop them all off at the lab, or else we wouldn’t have been able to do the hike.”

“Ooh! What’d you get so far?”

“Mm, a lot of computer parts, three new lego sets, a couple new video games, a skateboard, a weighted blanket, a box of mint tea—”

“Wow,” Amy cut in with a giggle. “I helped him do some of the shopping, but he really went all out, it sounds like.” Tails nodded with a soft smile. “I’ll never get over how much he just adores you. How much you both love each other,” she added, watching the fox kit’s eyes shift to check on the hedgehog ahead of them.

Sonic had paused beside a tree, leaning heavily against it, panting with eyes glazed over again. “Sonic?” Tails called, hurrying ahead to catch up with him.

“What?” Sonic jolted upright again, eyes brightening but not clearing as they passed over Tails. “I’m fiiine,” he drawled, and staggered back onto the trail. Knuckles grabbed him by the arm to keep him from tripping down the hill on the other side of the path.

Tails glanced back to exchange a look with Amy, then sighed and tried to stick closer to his brother. Knuckles glanced back and gestured questioningly at Sonic behind the hedgehog’s back at Tails, who mimed coughing into his fist in response. Knuckles rolled his eyes, then silently exhaled and nodded.

All of them were unfortunately familiar with the way their friend would put up a front for them. As Tails had earlier recalled, it hadn’t been too long since they’d seen this kind of thing with him.

It fooled none of them.

The farther they hiked, the more it became abundantly clear that Sonic was getting worse, and the more Tails and the others worried. The hedgehog couldn’t walk in a straight line to save his life, instead stumbling in a sort of zig zag pattern back and forth across the trail, giggling here and there. He’d gone from being pretty quiet and tired out in the first half to jabbering nonstop in the second half, except it was almost pure nonsense coming out of his mouth.

“Looook, Tails,” he snickered, pointing shakily at a flicky in a tree nearby. “Toldja dragons’r real.”

“Sonic, that’s a flicky. And we’re literally friends with dragons. Remember Trip?”

“Ah, yyyyeahh!” Sonic laughed way harder than he should’ve, breaking into yet another coughing fit. “Y’know, I could probably breathe fire too, with how on fire my lungs feel right now.”

He staggered on ahead and proceeded to trip over a tree root.

Tails shot an anxious glance at Amy, then leaned closer and whispered to her, “Would you mind heading back and bringing the Tornado out here? I’d do it myself but I don’t want to leave him. Once you get it here, I’ll bring him home.” He bit his lip. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay!” Amy whispered back. “You got it. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Amy wasn’t quite as skilled as he was with flying the Tornado, but he’d given her enough lessons that he felt confident at least trusting her to fly it out a short distance. It would be worth it, to be able to take Sonic back home with ease and make him get the care he so desperately needed, whether he wanted it or not.

“Where’d Amy gooo?” Sonic whined a few minutes after she’d hurried off.

“She’s just getting something for me,” Tails told him, patting his shoulder reassuringly, although he jumped at how hot to the touch his brother was.

“Izzit a surprise for youuu?” The hedgehog smiled deliriously. “Tha’s cool. Happy birthdaaayy!”

“Thank you, Sonic.”

“Yerrr welcome! Hey… did you dye your fur or somethin’? Ya look way more orange than usual.” He peered at Knuckles and his eyes blew open wide. “Whoaaa, you too!”

Tails facepalmed. “Dear Chaos, he’s even worse than I thought…”

Knuckles looked back and forth between them, having clearly never dealt with a person as sick as Sonic currently was. For Tails, it had been a while, but he’d definitely experienced things like this before. He’d known Sonic for most of his life, had seen him at his highs and his lows. He picked up his pace to match Sonic’s, and Knuckles dropped behind slightly.

“Sonic, you really need to rest,” he told him firmly.

Sonic giggled. “Yes, I’m a pest! Egghead agrees with that!”

Tails facepalmed. “That’s not even close to what I said.”

Abruptly, Sonic jumped and pointed excitedly at a patch of sunlight ahead in their path. Probably the end of the path, Tails figured, but instead of saying that, his brother exclaimed, “Look! A giant duckling!”

“…What?”

“Izzo cute.” Sonic all but dragged himself up to the patch of sunshine and fell over into the grass. “Can I keep ittt?”

“Uh.”

“Please? Hey Knucklehead, can I keep th’duckling?”

“There’s no duckling,” Knuckles said bluntly.

Looking genuinely disappointed, Sonic shoved himself back to his feet and staggered up to the boulder with the view, the end of the trail indeed. “Taaaiiilllss, canna buy a duckling?”

“Sonic—”

“Whoaaaa, lookit th’vieeww!”

He’d been right, the view here was spectacular. There was no shield from the wind up here; they’d passed above all the trees. They could see hawks soaring below them, and in the distance, they could see the town they’d been in earlier as nothing more than a silent, tiny setup of buildings with microscopic moving specks that they knew were people and cars. For a moment, Tails paused as he surveyed the view. It was fascinating to see something like this and not be flying somehow.

Sonic was grinning in absolute delirium as he whirled sideways to see them, eyes half-closed. “See, wasn’t it worth it…” He frowned suddenly, stumbled, then started swaying. “Whoa.”

“Sonic?!” Fueled by panic and adrenaline, Tails realized what was happening, and lunged to grab the hedgehog by the wrist right before he keeled over— nearly off the edge of the cliff. Panting in suppressed fear, he pulled Sonic back up onto the boulder and sank to his knees, all but cradling his brother as he lay there, barely conscious.

“No more excuses. You’re burning up,” he said, hugging him close to calm his racing heart. “I sent Amy to bring the Tornado. I’m taking you home as soon as she gets here.”

Sonic blinked blearily up at him, then groaned and mumbled, “…Okay.”

Tails blew out a breath. “Good.”

“Jus’ one thing…”

“What’s that?”

“Can I still get a duckling.”

“…I’ll buy you one when it’s your birthday. Now stop talking and rest.”

Sonic grinned wearily, closing his eyes and resting his head down against Tails’s chest fluff. “Okay.”

—

Amy arrived shortly afterwards, and Tails carried his feverish brother up to the Tornado as it circled around them. He set him down in the seat behind the cockpit, then he and Amy switched out as Amy leapt back down to the boulder.

“We’ll head back on our own,” Knuckles called, waving to them. “Go on ahead.”

Tails waved back in acknowledgment, then set the course for the quick flight back to the workshop, barely a minute’s trip.

He thought he heard Sonic mumbling something behind him, but it was difficult to hear him over the wind. He hit a button to bring the overhead windshield over the seats (a feature he usually reserved for rainy days), and said, “What was that?”

“I’m sorry.” Sonic was slumped sideways in his seat, staring sullenly out the window.

Tails frowned as he returned his gaze to the path ahead. “Why are you sorry? You didn’t—”

“I wanted to give you a perfect birthday. After everything.” It was probably due to the sickness, but Sonic sounded downright miserable. “And I ruined it.”

Tails sighed. “You didn’t ruin anything. No one can control when they get sick. It was still a great birthday, Sonic.” He twisted around again and smiled, making sure Sonic saw him before he turned back towards the front. “Thank you.”

Sonic hummed a little in response, but said nothing.

—

They set down at the workshop, and Tails opted to leave the Tornado in the runway for a while so he could take Sonic straight inside and set to doing what he’d wanted to do all day: just taking care of him.

He settled him comfortably on the couch, brought him a couple blankets, made some soup, and brought him some orange juice and a couple slices of bread. After he’d eaten, Tails gave him some of the medicine he’d gotten from Espio earlier. Sonic still seemed kind of depressed, but he was looking a little better, at least, now that he was finally getting to rest.

As he nibbled on the bread, Tails sat down with him and handed him the orange juice glass. “You know,” he said slowly, beginning to smile, “I think I prefer this gift over the others.”

Sonic blinked at him as he accepted the glass carefully and took a tentative sip. “What… which… I haven’t gotten you anything since we got back.”

“Just…” Tails shook his head and smiled, then reached out and rubbed his head between his ears, like Sonic always did to him. “Just this. Being together. You letting me take care of you. I always like that.” Sonic stared back at him in surprise as he spoke. “You have no clue how much this means to me. How much I’ve wanted to do this, basically all day.”

The hedgehog sighed, but smiled back. “Sorry it took all this for us to properly hang out.” He shifted. “Although, as nice as this is… I’m not sure if you really wanna be this close. I might get you sick.”

In response, Tails scooted closer and hugged him tight. “I’ll take my chances.”

Sonic was still tense. “It’s on you if you do get sick,” he warned, although his tone was hardly serious and didn’t match with his affectionate grin.

“I know. Just shush it and let me hug you.”

“…Alright. You win this round, bud.”

💛-----------------the end-----------------💙

tagging, as requested, @star-stages and @yogacatdeskknit

[max-nico]

Y'all I got more of my random Sonic headcanons 🗣️

Silver loves to doodle, Tails can always tell if he's stopped by his workshop because he doodles in the corner of his blue prints

Shadow can't stand sleeping on his back because he was in stasis for so long, plus it gives him sleep paralysis

Charmy is a thumb sucker💔

Vector's been trying to break the habit but nothing seems to be working

One time Silver gave Amy a recipe from the future, when he got back all of his cookbooks with similar recipes changed in some way. Could've been the cover, title, or the recipe itself

For some reason, the new recipe was even better than the old one

Shadow, as the ultimate lifeform, has 30/20 vision somehow

Blaze is at least part wildcat. Whether that's a panther, lion, puma, or something completely different I know it is within her

Everyone listens to Vanilla. Everyone. Even the other adults

Espio is constantly putting himself in needlessly dangerous situations to 'see if his body can take it'. Nobody likes that he does this

Tails hates being referred to as Sonic's baby/kid brother. If anything, he's a sidekick or a little brother and that's only because Sonic is taller than him, not because he's a kid

Surge and Wave get really competitive on hoverboards, but it's all in good fun (mostly)

Tails is incredibly smart and incredibly gullible, like I know he's fallen for "updog" at least once, and has fallen for the "someone wrote gullible on the ceiling" joke multiple times

You will hurt his feelings if you point this out

No one in team dark can cook, they tried to get lessons from Amy and Vanilla (both together and separately) they are banned from both kitchens now

Dw !! Vanilla is still willing to give them lessons, just only at one of their houses from now on :) (her kitchen will never recover)

If Sonic is passing through town and sees some particularly cool merch of his friends he'll stop to grab it, if he has time

If Sonic doesn't know where Tails is sometimes they have a little bit of a scavenger hunt, or maybe hide n go seek is the better term

Tails will periodically send pictures of where he is, dropping hints if he thinks they're necessary, and Sonic has to find them (Sonic doesn't know Tails invented this game so Sonic keeps his tracking skills sharp during down time)

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other duos or trios adopted this game as well. I imagine specifically team dark would get carried away with this

One time some stranger held a phone up to Shadows face out of nowhere and asked him about his political views. Shadow smiled and said "whichever ones you don't agree with" and then teleported away

And that's all I have for now I think... It's been a while since I posted one of these, but it's still just as fun to write lol

Feel free to give me more headcanons in the reblogs or whatever, and my askbox is always open (⁠◕⁠ᴗ⁠◕⁠✿⁠)

[noeggets]

making a post about Tails and Belle because i honestly thought she was gonna be his new love interest, someone once told me they dont think Tails could have another one but i feel like it isn't far fetched considering they allowed Cosmo and she is kinda canon and they allowed Boom!Tails to have one as well. Tails isn't the protagonist he's a supporting role so if Rouge can have a crush on Knuckles it isn't too far out there that Belle could like Tails or Tails could have a crush on her, she is tech afterall and that peaks his interest alot about her.

Here are a lot of moments between them i thought were cute

Tails often goes to hold her hands alot and she's very :) about it

she's a little distance about them at first, and Sonic is very protective about Tails here i love it

Again, but this time she had just pushed him out of the way a second time saving him from getting trapped they are adorable look at them

Sonic is not about this life, he doesn't want anything to do with her lol not with my lil bro your not

smug

Sonic thought she was gonna leave but he's come around to the idea of her staying, Tails is praising her

Tails outright asking her to stay with him as his assistant, this isn't about her being a help she's just so glad somebody wants her around for once

Belle values what he's done for her, he's given her a place to stay and a job to do, thats a big thing for a robot

he's not gonna be pushy about this, he knows this is hard for her to talk about

Excited to introduce his new friend :)

being the only one saying bye to her

saying "We" instead of "I" including her in helping fix things after fixing her hand for her

Taking a interest in her ideas and dreams of making badniks good

CONCERN

Tails wasn't afraid she would hit him, he didn't even care but Sonic cared, Sonic still seems to be slightly worried about that fact she's technically a badnik, IDK why Sonic's always there to 3rd wheel lol

Belle's life is a really thought one, between getting stolen by Starline and pouring her heart out to somebody who's not even listening nor cares too much about her struggles, being disowned by Eggman, slapped by Metal sonic HER BROTHER Belle's life is really tough and i think she deserves Tails as someone in her life who will be there for her, she's got friends like Tangle,Whisper Amy others but nobody is doing it like Tails and also Vector

that's her father, she's part of the Chaotix now bc this scene

[kiwipineappleparasol]

Even More Sonic AU Design scribbles ... (more like the characters all standing the exact same way) Notes Below:

Meropis is in the Sol Dimension in this AU -- considering how Prevalent the Ocean and Pirates and Royalty is there and all . Feels Fitting -- plus means there's More Characters in Blaze's World

Gave them all Shoes and Gloves as I think Sonic Characters look Odd without them . Changed Coral and Pearly's dresses for my Rules as well -- I ended up liking them Quite a bit . Not sure about Razor however . All three have Gils on different parts of their body -- mostly where it wouldn't look Cluttered and would be Clear .

Only Notable Change about Striker is that he's Shrimp Size . Meanwhile Echo got an Entire Overhaul to fit my No Full Outfit rules . Made her more Pink as well as Supposedly pink dolphins are a Thing.

I like the Open Jacket of Pre-reboot Sally's, but combined it with the Gloves and Shoes of Reboot Sally . Nicole went through the Millionth Design Tweak .

Combined elements of Vector's Boom and Riders design ... a bit Inspired by my Friend's Post as well

Cheese I made into a Hero Chao -- although perhaps he shouldn't be Evolved . I just feel a Hero Chao is much more befitting of Cream than a Neutral One.

Vanilla's cape thing -- which, By the Way, was a Pain to figure out, not sure if it looks Good even now -- has a Hood . In general I imagine her with more Mysterious Energy with some interest in ... the occult? For lack of a better term .

[bumblekastclips]

KYLE CROUSE: Alright, here's a question from Milesprowerdavis. "Recently I lost a close family member. What fatherly advice or motherly advice would the main cast give? Team Dark and Light can add more of the characters. You can be funny with it. Interested what Dr Eggman would say."

IAN FLYNN: Well, first of all, deepest condolences. KYLE: Yes. IAN: Um, I would normally not want to answer in the way of a character, but this is your personal request, so I guess that takes the 'taboo' off it. KYLE: [chuckles] IAN: Uh, Sonic I don't think would give any kind of fatherly advice; he would let you figure out your own answer and be there for you as you figure it out on your own. He's gonna let you take that journey, but he's going to be there as you do it. Um, Amy would likewise- I don't know if she would give advice, but she would be there to console, to offer words of support, to be someone to listen, or to just talk so you don't have to think for a bit. She would do whatever you needed her to do at the time. Eggman... KYLE: [chuckles] IAN: We're gonna- we're gonna go the wholesome route this time, even if it is slightly out of character. [Eggman] would go on some long spiel about the entropy of the universe, and how everything is finite, and 'dust to dust' and yadda yadda. But you are still here, and that's what's important. You continue on the chain reactions that are life, so while that experiment is ended, you are the results that are continuing to create results! So, keep at it. And then kind of an awkward shoulder pat and wanders off. KYLE: [Eggman voice] "And soon, you will be part of the Eggman Empire anyways, so it does not matter!" IAN: [chuckles] Knuckles would kind of nod solemnly and say, "That's rough, buddy." KYLE: Yeah! [laughs] That is rough, buddy. It is very rough, buddy. IAN: But he means it! So it means something! KYLE: I mean, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Tails? IAN: I don't know if Tails would know what to say. He would want to be- KYLE: I think Tails would be kind of lost, but he would try. IAN: He'd want to be encouraging, yeah. He'd want to be encouraging and supportive, but I think he'd feel a little overwhelmed with the responsibility. KYLE: Yeah... IAN: Um, Vector would start to mumble something that might sound... interesting, maybe? He kind of starts and stops his sentences every few seconds, then says, uh, [Vector voice] "Espio, tag in!" KYLE: [laughs] IAN: Then Espio starts getting kinda philosophical, and kinda loses his own train of thought, and goes quiet for a second. [Espio voice] "Charmy, tag in!" And then Charmy offers you ice cream. KYLE: [chuckles] I mean, I would appreciate all three of them, so yeah. That's wholesome. [after a pause] Hm... would Silver be, like...? IAN: I think Silver would be devastated. I think he values life on a personal level even more so than anyone else. KYLE: Okay, okay. IAN: Um, 'cause he- I think he has a better understanding of loss than any of the cast, to be perfectly honest. Sure, Knuckles is on his own, but he doesn't have any memory of what came before. That's kind of just his status quo. It's more of an existential thing. Silver... Silver has seen devastation. He has seen tragic loss and, y'know, impossible odds. So I think he would hold everything a little- every life a little more sacred. So I don't know if he would be able to impart any words of wisdom, but he would definitely be the most openly and, uh, earnestly sympathetic. KYLE: Mhm. Alright, I think that's enough, though... There's definitely many other characters we could ask, but that's enough for now.

--- TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Please remember that nothing that is said on BumbleKast is canon! It's just some guys and their opinions occasionally spitballing ideas. If you don't like an answer, you don't have to take it as Word of God or anything like that. It's all just for fun! ----- Do you want a specific question transcribed and posted? Send the question and the episode date to my ask box! Or if you just want questions about a certain character, send me their name and I will see what I can do!

[fireyartccoon]

I HAVE RETURNED (I literally forgot to post)

as an apology, have more MRD AU designs

Rouge, Basically made her arms the wings, she looked weird without the suit so ima just say she found it and kept it, she’s an escape artist but always returns back to the cages since she can’t open doors, besides, if she were to get out of there she’d want the others to also go with her

Cream and cheese, surprise surprise, she’s taller than sonic

since Chao aren’t actual animals, had to settle for making Cheese a beetle, they just randomly flew in the lab one day and stayed with Cream, the others probably have mixed opinions about cheese

Now for the guests of honor:

The Chaotix

Espio’s got some yarn spools to try and mimic the ninja bracelets or whatever they are, I think they might be the only character in this AU with an actual weapon

This kid. All I need to say drawing him was a nightmare, who knew a little bee was going to be so hard to design, he’s a little ball of sunshine tho, gotta give him that

And of course, we couldn’t forget about Vector, since I doubt anyone in their right mind would put headphones on a crocodile, he’s got a tracking collar instead, the neighborhood is oddly chill having this guy walking about, couldn’t get rid of the chain necklace, fit him too well

Have a nice day y’all, lovely posting with you

[partyratt]

How Val met the restoration members (:

Like I said in my last post, I'll be explaining how Valenteen joined the restoration, so lengthier post.

-Eggman's conically a gamer in the main Sonic universe. We don't see that get brought up a whole lot, but he's apparently such a big gamer that he builds entire WiFi towers separate from the Eggnet only for gaming at his bases. ( mentioned in the IDW Imposter Syndrome mini series) So I thought it'd be fun to give him a primarily online rival full of petty beefs!

-Val was up late one night playing ranked matches (not sure what I want the game to be called yet) when she randomly matched with Eggman. She went on to win several matches against him, which got Eggman pretty fired up. Valenteen started insulting him and just generally talking shit, which eventually led him to threaten to send his badniks after her. She didn't believe him, Eggman disconnected, ect ect. Well, around half an hour later Val opens her door to 17 motobugs, which then beat her ass and wheel away with her Xbox. ( Might change the Xbox to something non-branded ) After this, Val walked around for a while and was eventually found by the Chaotix and taken to the restoration HQ to trend to her wounds where she told everyone there, ( Vector, Amy & Espio) what just happened. Everyone took it pretty seriously, except Vector, who thought it was absolutely hilarious that Eggman would do something so petty.

That's all I'll yap about today, I'll drop some more lore in future posts :3

[crim50n-r8er]

Hmm…I guess with myself talking about Sonic from my Fursona. I think I should let you all know about an AU I made for it while I was gone.

The AU is called “Blockbuster,” and no, it has nothing to deal with the Sonic movie, given that term is normally used for such things. No, Blockbuster is a roleswap AU. I’ll write down the premise of it in a new paragraph.

Blockbuster is a roleswap for all the Echidnas being swapped with the Hedgehogs (Sonic and Knuckles, Amy and Tikal, Silver with Shade, and Shadow with Imperator Ix) along with other swaps and some symbolism and inspiration over cults, religions, and mythologies

If you wish to know what I swapped with what. I shall post them under the cut.

Sonic 🔁 Knuckles

Everything’s the same for Knuckles, but he doesn’t have the aspects of his personality that were due to being reclusive all his life, that being a bit shy and socially awkward…at least I think that’s something that would be caused by being a recluse.

Sonic is the same, but due to being the ME Guardian, he can’t leave the island for adventure. So he explores every nook and cranny on Angel island until Towers arrives, meaning anything from the future games such as the Ancients with their cyberspace portals, he has knowledge of that from the get-go.

Eggman role = G.U.N. Commander Towers

G.U.N. Commander Towers Role = Maria Robotnik

Maria Robotnik Role: Dr. Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik

Commsnder Abraham Towers goes by Commander Noah and wants to be dictator of the world as he sees it as too corrupt and sinful.

Maria in this AU no longer has NIDS and is able to live to the age of 62 (yes, going by Sonic X ages, sue me). Maria is very caring for her troops, even with a militaristic discipline, and she would be smart enough not to blame Knuckles in the events of my SA2 adaption.

You see that correctly. Eggman is now the one with NIDS and is the one to hang aboard the ARK with his grandfather to find a cure through “The Chaos Cure Project” (I would acronym this, but I don’t think that would be wise as it could get confused with a…party of sorts.) He would also meet the same fate as Maria in canon, that being shot down by G.U.N. Agents while saving Ix, all at the age of 9 years old.

Tails 🔁 Ray

Ray: Ray is the sidekick to Knuckles, but he’s not a mechanic, so the two would meet by Ray finding Knuckles gliding across West-side Island and admiring his gliding skills.

Tails: Due to Ray going silent after SegaSonic and Knuckles Chaotix, I had to improvise with Tails, so I decided on him being a nurtured and/or brainwashed personal scientist and researcher for Commander Noah, giving him all his mechs, robots, and studies into ancient history.

Vector 🔁 Vanilla

I only swapped the two to have Vanilla simp for Vector like how the latter does to the former in Sonic X lol

Vanilla is a member of the “Chaotix Adventure Group” (the CAG for short) along with her daughter, Cream, and their leader, Mighty.

Vector is just a calm, cottagecore man living out in the wilderness with his found family younger daughter, Marine the Raccoon.

Espio 🔁 Mighty

Mighty: Due to not being trained in stealth like Espio, The Chaotix would now be the an exploration group instead of a detective agency. He would behave like normal as he adopts Knuckles’s hat from the OVA and uses a reusable warp ring that can duplicate itself for great blitzing in his ball form.

Espio: He will just be a normal dude on the sidelines until the events of Heroes where he gets killed by Neo Mecha Knuckles for his camouflage bio-data.

Amy Rose 🔁 Tikal

Tikal: A more mellow fan of Knuckles and his accomplishments as a hero, but still finds her way to Little Planet to be kidnapped by Mecha Knuckles. She has a crush on him as well but is a bit more mellow about it. She also wields a giant Kendama instead of Amy’s Piko-Piko Hammer

Amy is now the daughter of Pachacamac (yes he still exists. I just changed him from an echidna to a hedgehog) and is the one who guides Knuckles and friends through the events of my SA1 adaptation. She still keeps her personality, so things might get a bit hectic between her and her father, probably a fight, even.

Metal Sonic 🔁 Mecha Knuckles

I don’t think I need to explain this 😅

.

I’m not sure if I want to put ALLL of my swaps into one post, so I’ll split it into parts to make it more…digestible, I guess. So I’ll be back in a bit with a few more. I won’t say that it’ll be the rest of them, but it will be a significant portion.

Anyway. Have a good morning everyone!

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]

[shadamyheadcanons]

SPOILERS FOR THE MURDER OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 🛑 https://twitter.com/krack932/status/1641923206486294530?s=46&t=tC2LddLuwO9pUUd3TlNgIg

Guess it’s time I tackled this, huh? I’m late to the party!

Short answer: I love the game AND the Shadow/Amy interactions! They’re wonderful! I’ll be putting spoilers under the cut. If you haven’t played it yet, I’d definitely recommend it. Great art, great story, fun gameplay. It’s free on Steam and it’ll probably only take you a few hours, so there’s nothing to lose!

I never would have thought to make a Sonic murder mystery game, but it fits super well. The characters are really well-written. It’s been a long time since I played a Sonic game and felt everyone was portrayed well. I wasn’t even fully satisfied with Frontiers in that regard tbh, but this game nailed all of them. It helps that with Sonic being, uh...preoccupied, we get to see side characters interacting with each other for once. Blaze conspiring with Rouge? Yes, please! Knuckles throwing a fit when he loses to Vector in a video game? Wonderful!

But Shadamy is the standout. I couldn’t be happier with how these two were handled! This is exactly the kind of Shadow/Amy interaction I’ve waited years for, and I know I’m not alone in that. Some people have started shipping them because of this game!

I think what I like most about it is that this is the exact pattern I often use when I write them falling in love. He does something really sweet and dedicated for her...

...makes bad excuses to try and downplay it...

(PFFT WHAT SOCIAL STATUS??? Even Tails is laughing)

He remembers something about Amy and goes to the trouble of doing something nice for her even if he has to embarrass himself in the process, something he wouldn’t be caught dead doing for anyone else...

She sees right through his excuses because she knows how sweet he is. She literally stutters and blushes. Just look how smitten she is!

...and then she asks him out because she wants to spend more time with him.

Sure, she’s probably thinking of it platonically, but it’s worth noting that this is the exact approach she’s taken to try to get dates in the past.

Wallpaper posted on Sonic Channel 2/22/21. Art by Yuji Uekawa

If she wants to spend time with a love interest someone, she’ll make it happen, regardless of their hesitation.

And he agrees. He hesitates either because it’s a boy band or maybe because concerts aren’t his thing, but he says yes because it’s her. The proof is right there: he goes through all this for her specifically. He dresses up in a glorified Starbucks outfit--let’s be real, we were all thinking it--joins in for a silly game, something that’s been out of character for him since the beginning...

and agrees to go to a party despite repeatedly rejecting invitations to such things in the past. Rouge makes it clear that’s the norm:

And even when he shows up to Sonic’s birthday, he’s late and ignores everyone, including Sonic himself:

But he goes to Amy’s birthday, makes sure to get her a thoughtful gift, and even socializes with the others. He’s in a pretty good mood, even showing an unusual amount of patience while she’s accusing him.

He doesn’t snap back at her or anything the way he normally would with others. How many people could get away with interrupting Shadow the hedgehog without getting an earful? He really is more patient with her than he is with anyone else.

Shadow’s a blunt, stubborn guy, and he won’t agree to something if he doesn’t want to. But he’ll go to a crowded boy band concert because Amy’s just worth it to him. Different rules for Amy. And if he keeps it up, she’s bound to notice.

That’s how I write them, at least, and now it’s in a semi-official Sonic game, too. I couldn’t be happier. <3 Hopefully Sega will see the positive response and put these two together more often; people really loved this, regardless of who they ship. Platonic or otherwise, I’d love to see more.

Either way, rest assured that this interaction will be finding its way into headcanons here and there from now on. And I may or may not have a proper story in the works for it 👀

Oh, and the kicker?

Tails totally ships it. He didn’t have to wink like that, but he sees what’s up. He’s a clever kid. That’s another point for the “Tails is on Team Amy” trend, and more fuel for the Everyone Ships Shadamy tag.

[sonknuxadow]

always thinking about how real life crocodiles carry their babies in their mouth and vector did that with espio and charmy in sonic heroes

sorry for the terrible screenshot but i had to provide evidence somehow and this was all i could get

[toaarcan]

Weirdly in some ways I think the Archie reboot kinda saved the book's direction in a sense. Not in the obvious "Well Ken Penders just ate half the cast and the other former writers could do the same" sense, but in the "Saving Flynn from having to actually write post-Mecha Sally stories" sense.

Eggman in Archie always kinda had the benefit of a sizeable double standard from the protagonists. He always received significantly more leniency than the heroes gave other villains. The most obvious case of this is probably Issue 177, where you get to see the juxtaposition between how they treat Eggman and how they treat Mogul, Naugus, and the not-yet Hooligans.

They all get sent to jail with a wave of Nicole's hand. Eggman, though?

Eggman is at their mercy at he gets told to go home.

Now, you might argue "Well the other villains are inside the city and Eggman's outside it," but counterpoint:

A) He's still lying beaten at their feet and all of the FF and Chaotix on the current roster are there. Even if you give Eggman the most generous interpretation of him being a "Power type" character in Riders, he's not going to overpower all of them. They can drag him inside. Bunnie, Knuckles, Vector and Mighty could probably all do it with one hand.

B) Nicole can do this.

At this point in the story, there are no Legionisation victims that Eggman can threaten to blow up to use as a bargaining chip, the Egg Fleet can't break through the shield and Nicole is fast enough to morph the city wall itself to defend anybody outside it. He's never been more beaten than he is right now. And they let him go.

And it should be noted, this is before the contract between Archie and SEGA was renegotiated in 2010, Flynn was writing under the same lax mandates that allowed Penders to write Issue 150 at the time. And while he's obviously not going to be allowed to take Eggman off the board permanently, we're not too far from Sonic X doing its own story where Eggman got sent to jail for a bit and broke out. Heck, a couple of years later, Flynn has Eggman spend an entire year of comics as a gibbering loon stuck in a cell in his own city. So I don't doubt that he could've had Eggman get captured here, and then during Enerjak Reborn, they could be forced to release him so they could try and turn the Egg Fleet on Enerjak, to little success.

Flynn likes to write Eggman earnestly believing that he can kill Sonic and co. whenever he wants, he just chooses not to win because he'd be bored. I think this is a gross misreading of the general character of Eggman (who deliberately tries to kill Sonic in SA2, and while he is calm and respectful on the outside, is an incredibly sore winner if you exit out of the game and then get his recap once you load in again), I can let it slide in Archie because the character is very different.

I bring this up because, consciously or not, Flynn has the FF do it too. In both 177 and 200, the FF have Eggman beaten and are free to capture him, and they just don't. And bad things happen because of it. Everything Eggman does from 177-onwards is on the heads of the heroes for not doing their level best to stop him.

And the best part is that Sonic comments on it later.

Man I miss this Sonic. IDW Sonic would be giving a two-page monologue about freedom here.

Which brings me around to my point. If things had gone back to normal after the Mecha Sally saga, Flynn would've been in a terrible position. Let's assume that this is a perfect world and Penders never showed up to ruin everyone's day, and thus only the intentional crimes are in play, not the millions of people he killed with the Genesis Wave when it flipped the entire multiverse on its head. Flynn would nonetheless have had to try and return to the normal status quo after 250.

Eggman is either directly or indirectly the cause of literally all the trauma the characters go through in that stretch of the comic. Indirectly, it's his legion that Geoffrey and Hershey were fighting when Hershey was either killed, assimilated, or faked her death, thus causing Geoff to lose his shit and revive Naugus. That caused Bunnie to lose her powers and Nicole to get ostracised and then exiled, along with the loss of the throne to Naugus, severely weakening their position as Naugus is more than okay with cutting deals with Eggman, which he does in 234 to try and get Elias assassinated en route out of the city.

Directly, he blows up Antoine, putting him in a coma and breaking Bunnie, causing her to leave, and then there's the obvious point of Mecha Sally itself, and Sally spending however long that was in-universe suffering inside a prison made of her own body.

And this was post-2010. The mandates were there. Even if he was allowed to keep Sonic and co. angry and traumatised for a while, he would've had to snap back to status quo pretty quickly, and it would've destroyed any semblance of internal consistency within the book.

This is my fundamental issue with Flynn's Eggman. He wants Eggman to be the biggest villain Sonic will ever face, a tyrannical conqueror who commits atrocities for fun and pulls the "Geneva convention more like Geneva Suggestion" schtick, but he's writing a licensed comic based on a videogame character for seven year olds, where the protagonist is obligated by the license-holder to treat the villain as a goofy loser and has been known to call him "Baldy McNosehair." Flynn wants Eggman to be a serious villain, and the series itself doesn't.

With Mecha Sally, Flynn came perilously close to breaking the internal logic of the comic for good. And in that regard, a giant retcon wave that made it so that none of that bad stuff had ever happened probably saved his bacon.

[brucenorris007]

All right, it seems that a. . . not insignificant number of people take issue, or at least are upset by, the reaction of Sonic and friends to Metal Sonic in the final story of Heroes.

Yes I did just reblog that specific post, scroll down a just a little for reference.

I think the anguish and angst of Metal's perspective of the situation definitely warrants exploration; and HELL YEAH if we got to see that in any official media. I do caution against vilifying Sonic and his friends for how they reacted to Metal Overlord, though; nuance, everyone, nuance. (Not saying that was the intended purpose of that other post, I've just seen takes like that get twisted in fandom a lot before and would prefer it nipped before anything starts. Far be for me to want to even try to preach, of course.)

Would Metal interpret all the smack talk thrown at it as genuine hatred, as ignoring what might be a very dramatic and destructive cry for help? Yes, it's certainly possible. But A) Sonic and friends don't hate Metal whatsoever, since even Omega, who based his entire personality around destroying Eggman robots, gently gathers Metal into his arms after everyone else leaves and B) that angst isn't really theirs to address.

Keep in mind, the titular Heroes of the game are all teenagers and kids who just heard Neo declare "All living things, kneel before your master!" before turning itself into a lightning rod to trigger a transformation into Metal Overlord. Mitigating that alarming statement and the aggression packaged with it is their first priority; and if that involves a smack down, that's kind of Sonic's style anyway.

As for the fact that they lob smack talk in the first place, well, group think is a thing; and Shadow, amnesiac or otherwise, and Omega are both quite proud creature who don't kowtow to anybody, to say nothing of Omega's animosity for anything Eggman made. And honestly, I think Sonic might have been less likely to throw around and encourage smack talk if Tails and the other kids hadn't been present.

But Cream, Charmy and Tails were present, and being the youngest, likely scared of Overlord who, let's be honest, looks fairly monstrous. The adventure up to the point of the Final Story took all of three days when they were all on the move; worn out and frightened, people like Vector and Sonic would've carried themselves a certain way.

"Hey little buddy, this is just business as usual; nothing to worry about, yeah?" etc.

As for the line everyone knows from the Super Sonic fight of this game "You thought you could defeat me by transforming into a monster" yeah, yes, absolutely that isn't going to help Metal's turmoil whatsoever.

BUT. Consider the events of Sonic's most recent adventures: Chaos' rage, simmering for thousands of years, threatened to destroy civilization when it was released. The Biolizard, fused with the ARK, was minutes away from destroying the planet.

By comparison: "Oh, this guy doesn't care about destroying things, they just want a piece of me; I can handle that eight days a week!" would probably feel like something of a relief and a step down in tension and stakes.

Sonic's not out to hurt Metal's feelings, he's just leaning into what he sees as a fight with a rival. That Metal's personal stakes on the fight are much, much higher than that isn't a fact he's really privy to.

And the ultimate question at the end of it all, when Neo reverts back to Metal and, using the last seconds of a voice box it has left to ask "Why can't I defeat you?"

That question isn't really for Sonic to answer. It's not for anyone to answer except maybe Metal's shitty dad. Because there isn't a single thing Sonic could say in that moment that wouldn't worsen Metal's angst. I think the nearest to helpful that Sonic might have been able to give Metal that doesn't break character would have been:

"Because you keep trying to be me; and you're not."

Say what you will about whether or not Sonic and friends listened to Metal during final story, but Metal was never going to be able to listen to any answer Sonic had for it, no matter how helpful.

Literally.

Metal's programmed to see Sonic as The Enemy of All; to the point of paranoia. Despite the fact that Sonic's open invitation for a rematch is his way of saying he's down to hang out, Metal cannot interpret anything Sonic says as anything less than mockery, an insult or a threat.

In fact, that actually why the whole plot of Heroes kicks off; Metal's obsession with Sonic, with conquering the 'threat' briefly superseded its loyalty to Eggman. That's how deeply ingrained its fear of Sonic, and the pre-packaged identity crisis that comes with it, is.

Because that's the way Eggman made Metal.

[noeggets]

i also have this graph thing i made of keeping a track of everyones age if they did age through out Sonic's adventures to give a since of time really is passing cause i wanted all of sonic's adventures to be at least 5 years worth of things happening and this is how Sonic and friends aged from 5 years cause i always assumed Sonic had to be at least 20 in forces so to keep Sonic 20 in forces i had to do it like this

i believe Sonic was said to be 15 so he's 15 in adventure 1

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- Sonic the Hedgehog 1 - Sonic: 11 years old, Tails: Not present but 2 or 3 he's a baby

- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Sonic: 12 years old, Tails: 4 years old

- Sonic CD - Sonic: 12 years old, Tails: Not present

- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Sonic: 13 years old, Tails: 5 years old

- Sonic & Knuckles - Sonic: 13 years old, Tails: 5 years old (immediately following Sonic 3)

- Sonic Adventure - Sonic: 15 years old, Tails: ~7/8 years old

- Sonic Adventure 2 - Sonic: 16 years old, Tails: ~8/9 years old

- Sonic Heroes - Sonic: 17 years old, Tails: ~10/11 years old

- Shadow the Hedgehog - Sonic: 17 years old, Tails presumed to still be around ~10/11 given the timeframe of Heroes if he's not 11 here and was 10 in Heroes?

- Sonic the Hedgehog 06 adaption - Sonic: 18 years old, Tails: ~12/13 year-old

- Sonic Unleashed - Sonic: 19 years old, Tails remains around ~13/14 since not much time has passed narratively

- Sonic Colors - Sonic: still about 19 years old but closing on to 20, Tails presumably continues to age about ~15/16

- Sonic Generations - Around the period when he turns or is about to turn 20, with Tails being roughly ~16 presuming that he is eight during Sonic adventure

- Sonic Lost World - Still about or around 20 time doesn't necessarily advance his age yet it follows relatively soon after Generations. this makes Tails still approximately ~16 or just past it

- Sonic Forces - Sonic: Officially turns 20, Tails: Would be somewhere around 17 i think

Sonic has had 5 years of adventures from Sonic Adventure to Sonic Forces.

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i also did Sonic's other friends as well, im saying at the start of the modern era which is sonic advance and adventure 1 this is everybody's age when Sonic is 15

Vector - 20

Storm (Albatross), - 19

Rouge,Wave 18

Knuckles,Shade,Mighty,Espio,Sticks - 16

Sonic,Honey,Shadow(50+ from sleeping but his personal age is 15),Perci- 15

Blaze,Silver,Manic,Tikal(physically),Jet - 14

Amy - 12

Tails - 8

Marine - 7

Cream,Charmy - 6

Knuckles at adventure 1 was "16 so: starting at Heroes (+3): "19 -> At Forces (+5 from adventure 1 ): "21

Rouge was "18 at adventure 1 so: starting at Heroes (+3): "21 -> At Forces (+5 from adventure 1): "23

Blaze at "Sonic Rush (assumed presence around the time close to adventure 1) starting at Rush (or near that timeline point which we'll equate with Heroes): "14 + 3 = "17 -> At Forces (+5 from adventure 1): "19

Espio same as Knuckles: At Heroes (+3): "19 -> At Forces (+5 from adventure 1): "21

Vector, already present during the time of Knuckles Chaotix as an adult so let's say he was around 18 then just for reference (game did come before Heroes): Pre-Heroes (-3 from adventure 1 age): ~"17 -> Around Heroes time (adventure 1 +3) : ~"20 -> At Forces (adventure 1+5): ~"25

Charmy: At Heroes (+3 from six years old at adventure 1 point): ~"9 -> At Forces (adventure 1+5 years he would be still about ~"11? im unsure about his age progress of the exact timespan)

Cream starts around the time of her mom being saved in 'Sonic Advance' which could have happened concurrently around or shortly after the events of 'Sonic Adventure': Starting 'Sonic Advance' assumed post-adventure 1 she'd be about '6 then -> At Forces ("15", Heroes timeline as reference starting point -> Plus extra "5 years) she'd be somewhere around '11 like Charmy?

i don't know what i was on when i wrote this and why i wrote it this way, i was saying DX for adventure 1 but i thought it would make more since you guys so i took all the DX out and replaced it with adventure 1