thenokistation

[thenokistation]

Guardian Demon (Original BL (Kinda) Story)

They follow him. Cowards, hiding in the shadow of the crowd and the curtain of falling snow. Pursuing a boy with one hand firmly gripping a large stuffed goat and the other holding cotton candy.

They're carnies. The type who wear clown makeup only to creep people out. The type who rig their games. The bad type.

These two have kept an eye on Sera ever since he played their game. It's hard to lose Sera in a crowd. He's so lanky he practically floats above everyone else and his smile is magnetic to the eye. They couldn't look away even if they wanted to.

I've decided to name the one with the big red nose and the knife ‘Bippo’ and the one with the lead pipe and the scar over one eye ‘Boppo’.

The carnies look at each other, silently deciding now is the time to strike as Sera turns down an alleyway.

Won't let that happen.

I hop down from the rooftops I've followed from, onto a fire escape. Sera's already about midway down the alley; halfway to safety. But as they make the turn into the deserted shadows, Bippo and Boppo break into a run.

Not much time to think. They'll be on him in seconds. I could jump down, but then Sera would see me. Can't do that. Need cover of some kind.

There's a steam valve on the other side of the alley, close to the ground. It hums with the energy of constant Winter-time use, like it's begging to burst.

Clutching my metal bat I drop from the fire escape, right between the carnies and Sera. Snow crunches under my boots and I take a second to glance back at Sera, praying to the angels he's as oblivious as he usually is and he hasn't heard me. Luckily, he's too distracted by taking another chunk out of his sugary snack. The cotton sticks to his face in an embarrassingly cute way.

It's almost enough for me to forget about the carnies. Almost.

I don't even bother to turn back to them before I duck. Bippo's blade nearly slices open my neck, but instead it doesn't even snag my hair. He stumbles as he whiffs it and begins to fall into the snow.

Even Sera would hear that and the fight that's about to begin. Gotta act fast.

Before Bippo's bulging belly hits the snow, I grip my bat and swing at the steel pipes and jump out of the way of Boppo's own pipe. Instead of bashing my brains in, he gets a faceful of hot steam.

He screams, but it's covered up by the hiss of the steam as it quickly fills the alleyway. Sera has to have noticed it by now, but all he should see is the low-covering cloud of hot smoke as it spreads from the alley.

I rest my bat on my shoulder as the two get back on their feet and glare at me. I glare back.

“Oh, now who the hell is this kid?” Boppo asks.

“Friend of that little weirdo, I guess.” Bippo answers. “Looks like we've gotta take this bozo out too.”

Odd words coming from two wannabe clowns. Don't wanna waste the time or breath on that, though. Let's keep this as short as possible before the cops get called.

“Leave the kid alone and I'll leave you alone,” I say, voice muffled underneath my bandana.

Boppo pounds his pipe against his palm. “The brat scammed us. We're just getting even.”

“Don't see how it's scamming when your games are unbearable,” I say. Besides, I don't know what Sera did but it wasn't a scam. He did the same thing that he always does to these kinds of losers.

He tried playing by their rules. That stupid ring game that's at every carnival that everyone with a working brain cell knows can't be won. And yet Sera still managed to be surprised when he wasted ten bucks on it to win a stuffed goat. He'd have never caught on if I didn't happen to pass by and tell him it was a scam.

“That's cheating!” He pouted at the two like they were supposed to have any shame. “That's unfair.”

“Life's unfair, kid.” One of them said.

And then Sera frowned and leaned over the booth. He put a hand on both of the carnies’ hands and soothingly said, “Life shouldn't be unfair. It might be a little hard sometimes, but we should be helping each other instead of tricking and cheating them.”

The two's eyes shrunk a little and their words lacked that grumpy energy. Same every time Sera does this trick, it was like they were in a daze and their words were a vague haze of apology that I can't remember clearly. But soon enough Sera had his stupid smile back and was holding his goat.

These carnies must really want that goat back if they're going to these extremes. That, or they just like hurting people who outwit them. They must have a lot of assault charges, then.

Bippo charges to slash at me, but I block with my bat. His knife nearly falls out of his hand but he grips onto it tight, thrusting it at me on the rebound. I step away from it and thrust my own bat back at him and sending him stumbling.

While he thinks I'm distracted, Boppo comes from behind for another swing at me. I drop to the ground and roll away through the snow. Though there's enough air to see each other standing up, I'm invisible beneath all the steam covering the ground.

The real sad thing is that they could have actually been a threat if they were smarter. Have bulky brute Boppo keep me busy with the pipe while Bippo goes for the sneak and stab. But these two have no coordination or thoughts other than wanting my blood and so now they're looking around the alley like a confused toddler who is still surprised by peek-a-boo.

I pop out of the steam beside Bippo, drawing my bat as he rears back in surprise. Need to take him out so he's not a threat. I swing low, away from his stomach like he expects. Right at his kneecaps.

I don't know if I'm hearing things or if they really made that disgusting of a CRUNCH when impact was made. For a second his pained scream rises above the hissing of the steam.

Before I can get my bat back in ready position, Boppo is already charging at me. He throws his weapon forward, out of his hands and right toward my face. I bend backwards just in time to avoid it as he launches at me, grappling my throat and hoisting me into the air. My bat falls to the snow with a plup.

“Think you're so tough, little punk?” Boppo asks, squeezing the air from my lungs.

Oh good, he's a talker. Talkers can be tricked so easily.

“No-- Just smarter.”

“If you're so smart, why're you in the air?” His spit lands in my face as he yells.

“If you were-- so smart-- you'd-- hold me higher.”

Boppo glares harder and his muscles shift as he raises me up and up and up until-- Bingo.

I swing my foot back and kick hard at Boppo's unmentionables. The impact is enough for him to drop me and I land softly on the snow as he stumbles back.

There's no time for him to recover as I grab my bat and swing hard at his head. Once. Twice. Thrice. Enough to send him crashing down to ground and out of commission.

I use his shirt to wipe the blood from his head off my bat and return it to my backpack. The steam begins to die away, leaving the red snow visible to anyone that looks into the alley. But I've slunk into the crowd by the time I hear any sirens.

-----

Sera holds his phone to my face. It's clean and pristine like he only got it yesterday. The headline of Carny Head Cracked in Vicious Assault would be indecipherable behind all the broken glass on mine.

He's utterly heartbroken as he speaks. “This town gets more and more dangerous every day. These were the two carnies who changed their lying ways just yesterday.”

I take a bite out of what the lunch workers qualify as pizza. The breading is more stale than cooked. “At least you're not the one getting hurt.”

“I just wish nobody had to be hurt at all.”

I roll my eyes as he leans onto his hands, all sad that I saved him from an assault. Well, one yesterday. Dozens over the course of the last year. Whenever he pulls that weird trick on people, they always snap out of it a few minutes later and go on the hunt for him. Something about that trick wearing off makes people violent. He doesn't know how lucky he is to have me looking after him.

A jolt runs through my body as he grabs me by the hands. “Benji, please don't get hurt out there.”

Despite the winter cold drifting into the school building, I'm as hot as being stuck in a car in the summer. “Y-- Yeah, Sera. I promise.”

That, at least, gets him to smile a little. But I don't see him much for the rest of the day. We don't have the same classes in the second half of X-days so I'm used to it. I just have to hope he hasn't gotten himself into any trouble while I'm not looking out for him. At least bullying attempts stopped after the first year of middle school when his assaulters would wake up with their arms mysteriously bent backwards.

I catch up with him at the end of the day. It's not like we hang out after school every day, but it's not unusual to run errands together or see a movie. But today…

“I'm sorry,” he says, hastily. “I have to get home early. Like, right now.”

He doesn't even wait for me to say anything back; he just takes off and runs home. Normally he'd be sobbing his eyes out and asking if he did something wrong if I ever did something like that. Whatever is going on must be serious.

What exactly it could be turns over in my mind as I make my way to my locker. A death in the family? Someone in the hospital? Does he need to water his plants? I nearly yank the top shelf of my locker down as the thought he's scared of something that will happen if he doesn't come home and I remember him always avoiding the topic of his parents and for some reason he's never invited me over despite us being friends for so long.

… Maybe I should do a surprise check-in.

After all, it's not like I don't know where he lives even if he hasn't told me. Watching after someone for so long, you just learn things naturally.

And so soon enough I'm at Heavenly Heights, an apartment complex just north of the shopping center. Apartment 503, its door facing toward the open-air stairs.

My heart pounds as I approach it. I've been here so many times before, but never this close. Usually from trees, staking out for the night to make sure people who knew where he lived didn't try and pick a fight after the sun went down. They tend not to notice the red stains on the concrete from those who tried it before.

But here I am. Now. About to knock on the door. Of his house. Not because I'm trying to pry or anything but because I have a concern about him.

And only now do I realize that these things I'm saying to reassure myself that I'm not overstepping my bounds are true for the first time in ever. Right now, I am doing the right thing.

Now if only I could bring my hand to knock on the door. It just sits there, frozen in the air like I'm a statue and completely unable to move.

I can't do this. I can't just knock on Sera's door like this. I'm not strong enough.

But maybe I'm sneaky enough. I just want to check in on him. He doesn't have to know I'm here, does he?

That comforting feeling of doing the wrong thing washes over me as I reach for the doorknob and successfully turn it. Of course Sera wouldn't lock it behind him; he'd never think of what dangerous people could get in if he did. Luckily for him it's just me.

And so I push open the door, slowly so that it doesn't creak, and am blinded by the light as reality falls to pieces in front of me.

It is, impossibly, not an apartment on the other side of the door. Instead it's pure blue sky, so different from the gray of the ongoing snow of the town, and a floor made of fluffy white blankets. It feels not like Winter, but not like Summer or Fall. It's the perfect Spring day.

A voice booms over everything and for a second I think I'm caught. But then I realize it's not directed at me.

“Seraphim 2,507Δ,” the voice says.

“Yes, my Lord.”

It's Sera's voice that snaps me back to my senses. I jump ahead and hide behind a grass-green vine poking through the cloud.

“You are here to report in your mission?”

“Yes, my Lord.” He talks to a ball of pure light that hangs above the cloud, watching over him. “Just yesterday I have overturned the hearts of two scam artists working for a carnival that has come to town. Unfortunately, they too have been struck down by a demon.”

A demon? He's not one to use hyperbole and considering how heaven-ish this place is…

The orb remains silent for a moment, leaving space for Sera…phim… to ramble on.

“It appears that your theories have been correct. This demon is targeting me, seeking to hurt those who I have saved. Trying to undo the work I have done in the mortal world.” His voice hitches as he speaks, as if he's blaming himself for this.

“Then you must know what to do, don't you?” The voice asks.

Sera pauses before answering, searching his mind for any other answer before muttering out the only one there ever was. “Kill them, my Lord.”

“Be reassured that your actions are holy and bring our mission one step forward to victory with each passing day. No matter how awful they may seem in the moment, Goodness will prevail.”

“And if I am unable to do so, my Lord?”

“Then you will be deemed unworthy as an angel and we will be meeting Seraphim 2,507ε soon enough.”

“Y-- Yes, my Lord. Of course, my Lord.”

“Good. Now away with you.”

The orb of light blinks out of the sky, the holy aura of cruel mercy it radiated replaced with birdsong.

My heart pounds hard in my chest as I try and make sense of all that. Reality as I know it is completely false, but that's not important right now. What's important is the same as always: Sera is in danger.

That ‘Lord’ or whatever it's called wants Sera to keep using that power of his, but it's making people hostile when it wears off. And now Sera needs to find out who is behind it… and kill me. But Sera would never do that, they'd die before they do that. Which I can't let happen.

So even if reality just got a lot more complicated, it's the same as usual. Protect Sera.

And if it means beating down God, I'll do it. 

If it means fighting angels to protect him, then I'll be Sera's guardian demon.

[thenokistation]

Something I've been interested in for the past while is Amy's placement in Team Sonic. It feels like only recently she got promoted to being one of the series' primary characters despite her being an important cast member for awhile.

Obviously with a change like this, it seemed like Amy would get tacked onto the trio as an extra, but it does seem like she is treated as a regular member of the team and always has been now.

But what's really interesting is Amy's 'placement' in the team. Like, Tails is the second most important member of the group while Knuckles has been more aloof and been third. But Amy being introduced here has thrown that all out of whack.

For a bit, Amy was basically replacing Knuckles as the third team member. In both IDW and Frontiers, Amy is tagging along where you'd expect Knuckles to.

But now we've been getting media with all four members and it's been getting weirder!

On the title screen for Superstars, Amy and Knuckles are flanking Sonic while Tails is placed in the back! That's not right, he's Sonic's #2!

And now we get this logo where Knuckles is in the back and Amy is #2!

It's obvious with all the focus she's been getting and how she's presented both in media and in marketing, she's an important character again. Her reintroduction to the main cast seems to also be letting SEGA play around with the 'importance' dynamics of the team. What was once an obvious hierarchy seems a lot more equal now.

... Anyway, I made a video essay with a bunch more Amy Thoughts if you're interested at all :p

[thenokistation]

The History of Amy Rose

I've been working on this video essay for about two weeks and I'm so happy I've made it. It's nowhere near perfect, but I put so much time and energy into it that I'm so proud of myself for finishing and releasing it.

Contains:

- The History of Amy's Mainline Incarnation

- Why Amy is an Amazing Character

- Music

- Simpsons References

- Goofs about Archie Sonic

- And More!

[thenokistation]

How the Archie Cast Lives On in IDW Sonic (Mini Essay)

Archie Sonic happened and we all just have to live with it.

While the series ran for nearly 300 mainline issues, this was only because it spun out of Sonic's earliest days. Long before he had a more concrete world and cast.

I go into it more here, but Archie Sonic's cast of Freedom Fighters has had their identities and purposes lost as the canonical cast expanded and the roles of these Freedom Fighters were overlapped by more interesting characters. Despite the reboot giving the chance to reinvent the Archie cast, these problems still largely remained.

However, that isn't to say that there wasn't some good to be gleaned from these characters. And the team behind the IDW Sonic series has recognized this by using these bits and pieces to invent new characters from the ground up and show the true potential of these characters if they were invented in the modern day.

This is how some of the Archie cast lives on and is improved through the IDW cast.

Whisper the Wolf

Whisper has been hurt. She is obviously traumatized and deals with the mental wounds inflicted on her by Eggman everyday. She lost the people closest to her and is terrified of the people she has now grown close to.

This is much in the same way that Bunnie Rabbot was half-roboticized by Eggman. Some of her most memorable stories in the original Archie run have her dealing with her roboticization. Her fear that it will fully take it over, that it will kill her and possibly harm her friends.

Both of these characters use part of the trauma inflicted on them to fight. Bunnie with her mechanical parts while Whisper uses a modified Wispon with aid of her former team's wisps.

However, these characters aren't the same. Whisper is so much her own character that these bits of inspiration easily slip through the cracks.

Bunnie is a joyous character, despite everything. Hell, she survives the reboot with her marriage intact because the joy it brings her is so intrigal to her character. Whisper, though, is still sore. She usually works alone, lashes out when her trauma is triggered, and nearly actually murders Eggman.

As a bonus, Whisper's wisp weaponry seems to be taking a few notes from Eclipse the Darkling. Eclipse raised dark, corrupted wisps and used them to fight much in the same way Whisper now fosters her former team's wisps. This could be the rare time in an action series a character is a light reflection of an established one instead of the other way around.

Surge the Tenrac

This is absolutely the most blatent of the bunch with its inspiration, but the parallels can be a bit harder to nail down.

Sure, S(co)urge is a green-furred rival to Sonic who is dead-set to best him and essentially take his role in the world, but is that really where the similarities end?

Scourge is just Evil Sonic. Same moves, same speed, etc. Before he turned green, he was literally just called Evil Sonic.

Surge is more complicated. She and Kitsunami don't know their past. They feel abandoned by the world. They've been cybernetically enhanced and have the undying desire to best Sonic instilled in them.

But between them, there is still that lust for power. Scourge's motivation may be fairly Joker-esc while Surge literally cannot stop herself, but both still want to essentially end their respective worlds.

Jewel the Beetle and Lanolin the Sheep

It may be a bit odd to put these characters together, but there is a good reason for it. Why? Because we need to talk about Sally Acorn.

Sally has always been a strange character that never really worked. While the Freedom Fighters did need a leader, she usually just became someone keeping Sonic on a leash while also being his love interest despite the two never seeing eye-to-eye.

The problem is, she never really evolved from that. As the franchise grew, a powerless leader-type grew more and more worthless. So she mainly fell into the role of bringing drama to the plot. Will Sally die during the Endgame arc? Can Sally rebel against her own father now that he has returned? Is she a good enough leader? Is it Wednesday and she has to break up with Sonic again?

Even worse is the identity crisis of Sally's character. A question asked and never really answered is if she belongs in the field or leading the free world. An attempt at stirring drama from this is still being raged about by Sally's fans and mocked by just about everyone else. Even the IDW comics made an intrinsic promise to not go anywhere near the character drama Sally lived in.

(For the record, this entire issue is basically a long conversation between Sonic and Amy about the same dilemma that caused The Slap™)

The reboot tries to solve this by having her simply be the commander of the flying airship the Freedom Fighters worked from, but it still led to her being mostly pointless. At best, Sally was inoffensive and boring while at worst she caused drama that is still being debated to this day.

So when it came time for IDW to replace her, many thought Amy would fall into this role. She was head of the Restoration and naturally fit into the role.

However, Amy may love the world, but she's no leader. Like Sonic, she values freedom. Enter Jewel the Beetle.

Jewel ran a jewelry store and then got promoted to basically running the free world. She has no combat abilities but isn't supposed to be in combat situations to begin with. Jewel is an improvement on Sally's confidence issues and her role as a more political leader. She organizes the Restoration and the defense groups much in the way Sally was the political face of the Freedom Fighters when dealing with the Acorn Kingdom.

Lanolin, meanwhile, is a newcomer and very much an improvement on Sally in the field. Instead of being powerless or a basic melee-brawler like in the reboot, Lanolin focuses on defense and more specialized situations thanks to her Magenta (Music Note) Wisp. While she also exhibits some confidence issues, she is given more focus on the flaws that Archie left mostly ignored.

While she's only just been introduced, the IDW team acknowledging these faults is already giving her far more potential than Sally ever reached in nearly 300 comics.

Even better, both of these characters have actual motivations and histories. While Sally's motivation is mostly just a vague 'I was the princess so I guess I'm a leader now', Jewel just genuinely wants to help in a way she can while Lanolin was inspired by Sonic to help others and eventually found herself as a combatant.

Archie Sonic was mired with a long history that only allowed one chance for change: the reboot. However, too much change and the fans would be mad. Too little, it would feel like a wasted opportunity. Unfortunately Archie Sonic took the route of doing too little. However, the IDW team took the removal of the Archie cast as a chance to do more with them and they succeeded.

[thenokistation]

On today's Aubergine & Momoko, the two head to the park and Momoko has a minor panic attack.

[thenokistation]

New Essay! We Need to Reexamine Queer Manga

Adapted from a bookclub presentation, this essay analyzes the different genres of queer manga, asks the question of why Yaoi is so sexualized, and if there's anything that can be done to improve the medium.

[thenokistation]

Auto Shop (Any Given Afternoon #04)

[thenokistation]

Today's research report

I love doing research because sometimes when you're trying to figure out the specific name of a room in a church, you get this instead.

[thenokistation]

I love doing research because sometimes when you're trying to figure out the specific name of a room in a church, you get this instead.

[thenokistation]

Posted this on the wrong account. Oops!

Rally (Any Given Afternoon 03)

Today we introduce the last of the main trio, Anna Liu, as she tries to become more accepting.

[thenokistation]

Percy and Ribbon go on an adventure to find a restroom and maybe figure out what gender means you're a dog.

[thenokistation]

A quick short about friendship and mental health that I wrote a while back but am finally uploading to the site.

[thenokistation]

There is nothing that takes the teeth out of existential dread and despair like experiencing unprompted and unexpected camaraderie with strangers

[thenokistation]

Wess and Aurora skip the bill.

A quick short featuring two old favorite characters of mine.

[thenokistation]

The Mystery Club in... "Digging Up the Past"

This story isn't meant to stand on its own. It's really just to get the idea for the story out of my head until I come back to it later. Enjoy!

------------------------

The box was filled with memories. My first prize ribbon for the Jr. Skate Contest. The fluff newspaper article on us opening the Mystery Club Agency Enterprises Incorporated. The first wood plank that broke when we were building the treehouse. Elle’s watercolors of the area around the treehouse. The voodoo dolls Abby made with that ‘witch’. A bunch of notes from our various cases. Pictures of Abby’s trip to the hospital after she fell out of the treehouse.

Okay; more than half of it had to do with the treehouse, but the treehouse was important and we couldn’t fit that in the time capsule.

That was when it really hit me, actually. When Abby was sealing the thing shut, I realized we weren’t gonna be able to see these memories again until we were adults. Or, unless Abby somehow convinced her parents to move back.

Abby and Elle weren’t phased by it as much as I was; I didn’t let that show, though.

“So where should we bury the dang thing?” Abby asked.

I grabbed the thing out of her hands. “I’m thinking the abandoned house on the hill. Nothing says mystery like a place that’s haunted.”

Elle eeped and cried, “No, no, no! You said that when we were trying to set up an HQ and that’s the same reason we didn’t put it there.” With swiftness only she could manage, she took the box from me and held it away. “How about that nice flower grove we found in the woods? It’ll be a nice place to come back to in a few years.”

I tried to take it back, but Elle’s been surprisingly strong. “The haunted house!” I shouted, straining for it.

“With the flowers!”

We both fought for the box until Abby had enough and put her own hands on it. “Alright, girls. I’d rather not have one of my last memories of us together be you two fighting. I’ll find somewhere to put this while you two kiss and make up.”

I rolled my eyes.

Abby took the box and walked away. I swear she was heading toward the forest, but I could never figure out exactly where she went. Either way, that was the end of that.

Until now.

Six years later and the three of us are back together. Out past midnight, our clothes covered in dirt as we shovel our way down into the earth of the flower grove.

On the one hand, this-- I glance to my companions-- supposed reunion is happening years before I ever thought it would. We’re high school juniors now, not full-fledged adults. On the other is the circumstances of it all and how much we’ve changed.

“Hurry up, Moxie!” Elle shouts at me.

“I am hurrying up!” I argue back. “I just don’t want to get my clothes dirty.”

“How are you worrying about pants right now?”

“I like these pants.”

Elle sighs and turns to the blonde. “Abigail, you’re sure this is the place. Right?”

The third member of our trio nods. “I don’t remember it too well, but it’s not too much deeper. Another foot at most.”

“Another foot at most,” I repeat, mockingly. “Elle, how do we know this isn’t some wild goose chase?”

“Don’t call me that,” Elle says.

“Call you what?”

“Elle! It’s Pastelle.”

“It’s a nickname!”

“We’re not friends. You don’t get to use nicknames.”

The only one of us still digging shouts, “Would you two shut it and get back to work?”

I groan, but do as she says. I’m not happy about any aspect of this, especially since nobody answered my question.

But then, we strike paydirt. Or, rather, I hit wood and my heart stops. I glance toward Elle, whose eyes are wide despite the fact she believed it was here. Maybe some sane part of ehr was still holding out.

The two quickly get to uncovering the box while I seize up in anxious terror.

The box is much larger than our time capsule. It’s wooden and has strange curled lines painted all over it in red and black like disgusting, dripping vines.

We all sit in silence, hesitating to do what we obviously need to do. Even she looks nervous.

Of course, it’s Elle who breaks through the tension.

“Hold your breaths,” she says, grabbing the side of the box and beginning to pull up.

I’ll spare you the details of how exactly Abby looked. I will tell you that I vomited and the only thing that kept me from running away was my legs giving out before I could. Elle just put her hands to her mouth and squeaked out, “Oh my god.” 

The third among us just stared down into the box, at Abigail Tops’s corpse.

“Do you believe me now?” The girl asks. “I woke up in this body today. I don’t know how or why. That’s why I need you guys’s help.”

The relief and terror and anger and urge to cry inside me boils over and I shout, “How does this prove anything?”

“Think about it. Pastelle, you understand, right?”

Elle gulps down bile and nods. “Because only two people could know where a corpse that stayed hidden for six years is. The murderer…”

“Which, if I was, I’d have no reason to show this to you.”

“Or the victim.”

[thenokistation]

Just realized a few things were reblogged here instead of my fun blog (@nokistar). Oops!!!

[thenokistation]

On today's Aubergine & Momoko, Momoko wants Aubergine to get out and about on his day off.