#Sonic - Neverending Forces

[lovelywingsart]

I present

The lil babes uwu

Metalworks (Karl and Emelia), Everyone But You (Cam and Saren), and Neverending Forces (Rook and Infinite)!

I am VERY tempted to print these out as stickers with the sticker paper I have that I used for a cosplay prop.... I think that was the unintentional reason behind the colors in the back (which do have significance of why I picked them, no surprise there)-

Anyway I guess inspired by 'Dear Maria, Count Me In' by All Time Low?? But like. A specific version of it from them.

All my beans uwu

AKA the 3 evil men I saw Morally Grey potential in and threw OCs/Inserts at them while reviving them somehow in at least one of their primary storylines oop

//I also realized I forgot the markings on Rooks mask but its a lil too late for that and I was too tired to fix it (I needed sleep)

I still love them though uwu//

[aroace-hedgehogs]

▵ pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite line [source]

In order of when they were posted (so far):

April to our deathbed / We're always on the upswing, baby

But Shadow's tongue was bitter as he pulled Sonic closer, trapping him against the white of his chest as if he knew of the fear of inevitable distance. He pried Sonic's mouth open, dipping Sonic's head as if he were downing every bit of metaphorical blood that poured from the blue blur's fretting heart.

Hunger of the Very Special Kind

But it's starving and wants nothing more than to consume Shadow the Hedgehog piece by piece like a full-course meal. To take and take and take until there is nothing but them as one. One being, one creature, one as dawn breaks and the earth splits into two. When time washes away, all that is left is their singularity, their hunger, and their neverending want. One in life as they are one in death.

Bleeding Heart

He wished he could tear open his chest and hear the cracking of his ribs as they split through skin and fur at the force of his nimble, precise fingers rocketing through. Feel the blood bubble up his throat and pour out of him in damnation, painting his fur as red as his quills, his eyes. The aged, crusted, dried blood under his nails won't remove themselves, no matter how hard he scrubs away the memory. To feel the way he slides his fingers inside to rest on his heart, the thing that feeds into the sickness that has never stopped ailing him since his creation.

Dancing Beneath The Vultures

"You live in a way I never knew anyone could or love in ways I never thought possible." Amy cups Sonic's face, rubbing the peach fur to reveal his hidden scars and tilting his chin to meet her firm, honest gaze. "I'm here because I never want you to lose yourself into becoming just a hero. Sonic The Hedgehog is more than a hero; he isn't perfect and sure isn't supposed to please everyone, no matter how hard he wants to, just so he can save the world over and over again. Because his heart is so much bigger than he'll ever admit, bigger than the world he loves like he's been one with it since he was born."

Who Do You Lay With At Night?

Shadow was created from the same stardust as Sonic. They are magnetized to one another and drawn closer and closer by the atoms that have known each other from times that neither could ever hope to remember.

I'm still written in his arm / Six years between the thing he wants

A tentative hand gently presses at the gnarly wound, lingering when Shadow tenses, muzzle wrinkling up to bare his fangs at the pang. Sonic's other hand comes up, sliding against the back of Shadow's hand, still gripping his face and gently tugging it. Shadow obeys and lets go. Allowing Sonic to lean forward to take the shredded cloth into his mouth and pull, undressing him until his hand is bare between them.

+

"Why?" Shadow whispers. Sonic leans back, pressing his bare hand to Shadow's chest, on his white, fluffy fur, right over his heart. "You."

There's Blood Between My Knees

It's so bloody, it's ruthless and disgusting, and Shadow wants more of it, wants to be torn apart with all the determination Sonic gives when he peels away muscle, breaks veins, and faces Shadow's ribs head-on. The ebony hedgehog is sure that if he were capable of dying, he wouldn't mind dying like this, with the night's chilled air brushing into his insides, Sonic's hot breath ghosting over parts that no one else is supossed to see, to hold. But Sonic does; he bows his beautiful head, and kisses bloodied ribs. Every single one. Like they're precious, something irreplaceable, something to be worshipped, regarded and admired.

You Tell Me I'm A Star, But Look At You

Sonic can only watch as his bare hand is held in another's, and Shadow's tenderness and attention squeeze at his heart and pull at his lungs. It's so kind, caring, bordering sweet when so much of their relationship is messy and harsh. But, in truth, Sonic doesn't mind when he sees his other become lost in the details of his hand as if they were galaxies, uncharted maps. 

Would You Take My Heart

Would Shadow slip his heart from his chest like Sonic has? With the beating organ in his sharp, deadly mouth and swallow it down whole? Would their hearts lay together in the same body, forever near and never apart, or would they bow their heads into each other's chest cavity and curl inside it. Melding together into something incomprehensible.

Understand, I Cannot Be Like You

"I can't! I don't feel anything!" Sonic hits his chest between his twin scars, trembling as years of repressed anguish explode out of the ache of his heart. "I get it! It's wrong! It's not normal! But I'm not normal, Amy, and I thought you'd get that! I thought that you'd trust me!"

+

It was tradition, purpose, pride, and perfect judgment. Romance was not a choice; it was duty.

Show Me Those Pretty White Jaws

Stars glitter in his quills as he grins, his laughter weakening Shadow's knees as the moon leans close. A hand cradles Shadow's cheek, loving and warm, before resting upon his chin. Worn yet soft fingers tilt his head up, taking up the limited space between them, between Shadow and this effortless being that demands his very essence, pulling him towards that ever-burning yearning.

But you come back with gravity / And when I call, you come home

The star answered back with a broken scream that rang solely in Sonic's ears and had the hero leaping into the forest and running towards it before its crash into the island rattled the ground. Leaving Sonic fighting to keep his footing, eyes refusing to drift away from where he'd last seen the star.  And he felt it, felt the way his body screamed in time with the smoke that filled the sky, the way he could only feel the anguish, the heartbreak, the air on his back, the searing of the sun, the never-ending pain that threatened to tear him apart over and over and over—

Sticks Sense

Sonic grasps Tails' cheek, pressing their foreheads together again, closing his eyes as he lets Tails hold their hand to his fluffy chest. The moment feels oddly familiar, and Sonic can't help but feel the same honest determination he had with Shadow many days ago. When he had held his body close and confined in him over the death of a person that Sonic still didn't know beyond a name and that so much of Sonic's actions reflected her own, hurting the ebony hedgehog to be on the receiving end of. And just like Sonic understood Shadow's pain then, he understood Tails'.

I turned around, there was nothing there / Yeah, I guess the end is here

"Listen to me, okay?" She brushes a hand through quills that instinctively relax under her hand to keep her safe. There are tears, and Shadow feels blinded by all the red when he only wants to memorize the blue of her dress. "You were made to protect the world, to help people. You were made to be something. But that doesn't mean that is all you'll ever be. No matter what anyone tells you, Shadow the Hedgehog, you are your own person. You live how you want, be who you want. You are great because you exist and mean something to me. And you'll mean something to the people you'll meet after me."

[egg-emperor]

Like how these tweets are like trying to suggest Metal permanently leaving Eggman and becoming his own character separate from him but are instead emphasizing the reasons why I love that he isn't lol

Yeah Sonic is all about freedom and positivity. He's a light in dark times, a free spirit that has no master except for the wind that blows free, loves seeing the world and adventure. Meanwhile Metal is trapped under a master and fueled by hate and the desire to kill Sonic. Programmed by Eggman and makes for a bleak existence of constantly trying to prove himself as the worthy superior version Eggman created him to be.

Eggman wants Metal to be like Sonic to rival him but he will never make him exactly the same because he's missing the most important parts that make Sonic, Sonic. All Metal has got is hate and the desire to kill and prove himself. He's a cold killing machine with no freedom, programmed and controlled by Eggman. Unlike Sonic, he has a master that owns him and decides on his entire existence and freedom.

He lacks Sonic's soul, his positive passion and his freedom and he'll never have it, Eggman won't let him. He has tried to break free from that to do his own thing beyond his lines of code a couple of times to do his thing his way, which actually makes him closer to Sonic in an albeit twisted violent way- but was punished by Eggman and went under more restrictions to restore, force, loyalty and obedience.

And bringing Eggman having a clear new favorite into this can set a perfect example of what happens to even his most boasted prized creations when he's either finished or replaces them with another he finds better/most useful in that moment. Metal feeling hatred and jealousy towards other creations but still being unable to break free from Eggman is more interesting than being treated as an equal or betraying him.

He doesn't have a choice. He can be as pissed and jealous as he wants for not being praised and valued the way he was before but he still has to live under Eggman and serve him. Which can turn into working extra hard to try to please him too and Eggman would love and encourage it but never give him the reward of his full approval and praise, so it's neverending game. It's another way to get more good use out of him.

Eggman is exactly the kind of bastard to highly praise his newest favorite toy and specifically emphasize it in front of him and act like he's forgotten about him in comparison to get that reaction and drive out of him. It sets an example of how Eggman's praising of his creations always comes from a place of ego and self praise as their creator and has the interesting concept of him weaponizing praise.

In TMoStH he talks of programming creations with life like personalities and a bounty so they compete for his approval and a reward. This would be very useful with one of his most prized creations like Metal. But then he'd never grant it to keep him endlessly seeking it, another objective that keeps him under his control. He can't break free so he tries to please him to at least be treated better but can't even get that.

I'd love for them to explore it but without having him permanently betray and break free. Because Metal isn't as lucky as the ones that got away, they very rarely do get lucky enough like Omega. Hell, Gamma had to kill his own brothers and die to be free. If you keep letting his creations get away it'd water it down. If you let Metal stay under him with these feelings then fuck man the drama the tragedy, it's so compelling.

[a0iakuma]

Just thinking of a scenario in the Death Egg. Five months in. Sonic not exactly talking. The fake Zavrok dragging another prisoner to execute. Sonic has his cheek pressed to the cold glass, smushed against it, green eyes drooping until just another dose in injection to keep him awake. To watch the horrors of his planet that he loves so much get turned over by Eggman and his forces while simply whispering: “ It'll be okay... They got this... I know they do... I can wait... I believe in them. ” Reassuring himself even if the end may be inevitable. His faith in his friends neverending. ( But he's hurting on the inside. ) Plus imagine the other methods that Eggman uses to keep him awake that isn't just drugging him.

[sonic-4-episode-ii]

in our au our sonic ends up w a programmed alter who has a part made specifically to reciprocate & shut down negative thoughts during romantic encounters

and our shadow, who's completely aromantic, is trying to force themself to be in romantic love with sonic due to a percieved 'need' for such relationship & not being able to parse how they actually love him without forcing themself to view it as romantic

so essentially, if those two 'got together', it'd be a neverending cycle of forced love

i think thatd be really fun

[satoshi-mochida]

Some games on the PSN New Year Sale. Ends February 1st.

13 Sentinels

Actraiser: Renaissance

Afterimage

AI: The Somnuim Files

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

Anima: Gate of Memories

ANONYMOUS;CODE

Arcade Spirits

Ary and the Secret of Seasons

A Space for the Unbound

Assault Suit Lynos

Bayonetta and Vanquish

Buried Stars

Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Chaos;Child

Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk 2

Control

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Cris Tales

Cross Code

Cult of the Lamb

Cyber Citizen Shockman

Cyberdimension Neptunia

Danganronpa 1-2 Reload

Danganronpa V3

Darkwood

Death end reQuest

Death end reQuest 2

Devil May Cry HD Collection

Digimon Survive

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

DJ Max Respect

Double Dragon Gaiden

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Dragon Ball Xenoverse/Xenoverse 2 Bundle

Dusk Diver

Earth Defense Force 5

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

Exoprimal

Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire

Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition

Final Fantasy XV: Comrades

Freedom Planet

Ghost n Goblins Resurection

Ghost Trick

Giga Wrecker Alt.

Ginga Force

Goat Simulator

Goat Simulator 3

God Eater Resurection

God Eater 3

Gravity Rush Remastered

Grim Fandango Remastered

Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I Am Setsuna

In Nightmare

Jak and Daxter

Jak II

Jak 3

Jak x: Combat Racing

Kaze and the Wild Masks

Kerbal Space Program

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix

Kingdom Hearts 2.8

Labyrinth of Zangetsu

Laika: Aged Through Blood

Legend of Mana

Light Fairytale Episode 1

Light Fairytale Episode 2

Like a Dragon: Ishin

Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares 2

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of TIme

Lock's Quest

Lost in Random

Lost Judgment

Made in Abyss; Binary Star Falling Into Darkness

Maglam Lord

Mary Skelter Finale

MediEvil

Metal Gear Solid 5

Metal Max Zeno Reborn

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Monster Hunter Rise

Mr. Driller DrillLand

My Aunt is a Witch

My Hero: One's Justice

Several Naruto games

Neverending Nightmares

Ni no Kuni 2

Obliteracers

Omega Quintet

Several One Piece games

Oninaki

Our World is Ended.

Owlboy

Persona 4 Ultimax

Persona 5 Royal

Potion Permit

Praey for the Gods

Pumpkin Jack

Raging Loop

Relayer

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne

Several Resident Evil games

River City: Rival Showdown

Romancing SaGa 2

Romancing SaGa 3

Root Film

Root Letter

SaGa Fronter Remastered

SaGa Scarlet Grace

Sakura Wars(PS4)

Samurai Shodown

Scribblenauts Mega Pack

Secret of Mana

Sega Gensis Classics

Simulacra

Skul: The Hero Slayer

Slender: The Arrival

Song of Memories

Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Superstars

Steins; Gate

Steins; Gate 0

Steins; Gate: My Darling's Embrace

Super Bobmerman R

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD

Super Night Riders

Sword of the Vagrant

Taiko no Tetsujin: Drum Session

Tales of Zestiria

Tembo the Badass Elephant

The Evil Within

Several King of Fighters games

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2

Various Daylife

Warborn

When the Past was Around

Yakuza 3 Remastered

Yakuza 4 Remastered

Yakuza 5 Remastered

Zanki Zero

[samcybercat]

2024 Finished Reading List

(I wasn't sure where else to post this except here. Whatever the next social media jump is, I hope we all go back to something a bit more LiveJournal) Anyway! In September 2023 I relocated and my place of work turned out to have the most rotten wifi ever. So instead of getting angry at only ads loading during my breaks, I thought I'd start reading again. I follow the usual pipeline of "kid who used to read a lot of books discovered the Internet and then progressively stopped reading" and have spent the last... decade or so guiltily avoiding an ever-growing to-read pile I told myself to start a list and then post it at the start of 2025. Even if there was only one book on it, that's still one more book than I would've read otherwise. My list is a little longer than one book, thankfully. I also included manga, graphic novels and comics. Because who's going to stop me? The fun police? And sure, I know there are people out there who read more than this in a single month probably, but for me, I'm proud of what I've achieved I won't be keeping a list next year (though I will still be reading), because I worry that if I turn this into a thing it'll kill my desire to read again. But for this year, here's the list of stuff wot I read:

Blink of a Screen by Terry Pratchett Ariadne by Jennifer Saint Seaglass by Gemma Louise Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad Dr. Stone vol 14-16 The Fowl Twins by Eoin Colfer The Fowl Twins Deny All Charges by Eoin Colfer Circe by Madeline Miller Guardian of Fukushima by Ewen Blain & Fabien Grolleau The Fowl Twins Get What They Deserve by Eoin Colfer The Sharpest Thorn by Victoria Audley The Promised Neverland vol 1 Atalanta by Jennifer Saint Elektra by Jennifer Saint The Neverending Story by Michael Ende The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter Usborne Illustrated Stories from the Greek Myths by Various Writers & Artists Devilman by Go Nagai The Long War by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter The Long Mars by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter The Long Utopia by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter The Long Cosmos by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter The Dragon Prince: Puzzle House by Peter Wartman and Felia Hanakata Sue & Tai-chan vol 1 by Konami Kanata The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time Anthology by Various Writers & Artists Taka by Ryan Jampole Sonic the Comic issue 1-81 (and all specials published between those issues) …And all IDW Sonic comics published between September 2023 and December 2024 I'm currently reading Hera by Jennifer Saint, but didn't finish in time to add it to the list and didn't want to force it. Happy New Year!

[crusherthedoctor]

So according to Flynn... being a damsel in distress is a bad thing and something to be ashamed about.

In all seriousness, I hate that line from Amy in Frontiers.

Wildly Inconsistent is still 1st place in giving me the biggest headache, but that one's up there for sure. It's yet another example of the game acting like it's breaking new ground with the cast when it really isn't.

As you can probably tell, there's a lot of lines in this supposed tour de force of Sonic writing that I don't have anything resembling positive feelings for. Aside from the small moment where Eggman takes joy in Sonic's apparent demise, I can't think of a single moment I honestly like or feel anything more than "meh" at best. And this isn't some obviously non-canon adaptation that can easily be ignored. It's a game. It's canon. I'm forced to live with this, and I'm forced to live with whatever ways it may influence future installments. Hence my neverending bitterness for it. ("You're just like the Pontaff haters you complain about!" Nope: I've still never threatened to stick anyone's head on a pike. I also still acknowledge '06 and Chronicles as worse games on an objective level, despite being more personally frustrated with Frontiers.)

Somehow, the spinoff with GTA gameplay and a library of 326 Rammstein albums feels less pretentious than this game.

[greenyvertekins]

It seems Eggman has a neverending curse with overseas writers using OCs to outdo him in threat level. (Not even in a temporary backseat, just pure "replace without actual replacement") Funny how Pontaff is the most notable to avoid such.

I was fucking livid when I read the synopsis for #51;

After fighting for their lives in issue #50, both the heroes and bad guys need some time to heal and regroup... except Dr. Eggman, of course, who is always ready to destroy that darn hedgehog. Can Sonic, Tails, and Belle escape the city, or will Eggman finally bumble his way to victory? Mmmyes. Because the doctor totally bumbled his way into building a generator under Metropolis in Forces, seeing through Tails' fake emerald plan in SA2, getting out of...wherever he was at the end of Colours and Generations, getting the Death Egg off the ground after stealing the Master Emerald in S3&K and finding those ancient pictograms during the construction of his underground base telling him about Chaos and consistently stealing emeralds from Sonic and co in Adventure to feed it with amirite?

[regrettablewritings]

How They Spend the Quarantine (Tadashi Hamada, Lucifer Morningstar, Dewey Finn, Wade Wilson, Harley Quinn, & Benoit Blanc)

Just a fun (?? is that even responsible to say?) little thing I’ve been thinking about while slogging through this neverending hellscape of an extended lockdown.

Tadashi Hamada

When San Fransokyo was ordered to go into a lockdown, there were mixed feelings.

At first, Tadashi had a hint of optimism that this would mean more time to work on his prospective projects . . . But then he quickly realized that his projects mostly required tools and space offered by the campus. He could technically make do at home, but it wouldn’t quite be the same considering the garage was considered Hiro’s space.

Somberly had to clean out his lab and take whatever he could home.

Cue the rest of the group (sans Fred and Hiro) griping that at least his style of science could travel well enough to be somewhat continued off of university grounds.

Helps do delivery for The Lucky Cat. It helps him get out the house, and it’s simply helpful altogether.

Uses Baymax frequently to make sure everyone down to Mochi is sanitized, and nobody’s running a fever.

Nearly as frequent a sanitizer as Aunt Cass.

He starts most days prepared to be productive, only to stop and poke fun at Hiro, who’s almost always got his eyes trained on a video game.

Tadashi realizes three hours later that he, too, has been playing the game as Player 2.

Learned how to make facial masks with Aunt Cass. He already knew how to sew a little but frankly, making the masks made him realize he could have a new hobby on his hands. He’s currently trying to figure out how to make Mochi a little vest . . .

Lucifer Morningstar

B o r e d. A s. F u c k.

At first, he thinks everyone being forced to go home would work in his favor -- surely some rule-breakers would sneak out and try to bunk up with the Devil, right?

Well . . . Kinda? Once Chloe found out and scolded him about it, the idea died real fast. Plus, he realized he wasn’t quite fond of the possibility of being around someone who could pop up with a disgusting human sickness at any point during their time with him. Smearing their snot all over, coughing into his Egyptian cotton sheets . . . Nope, never mind, he is perfectly content having the penthouse to himself, thank you very much!

Except he’s not.

The poor bastard is going crazy by himself -- he’s just not used to being without some kind of company!

“At least in Hell, you could tell there were people around you based on the screaming!” he’d whine at his phone during his hourly video chat with Chloe.

Oh yes: The video chats. He tries to make them hourly with anyone he can get a hold of (namely, his long-suffering detective) but this clearly never plays out as he would like for it to: If he had it his way, everyone would respond in an instant and let him bounce mainly one-sided conversations off of them -- basically, what he did before all this went down.

What usually winds up happening is he gets hung up on or nobody answers him at all out of sheer annoyance over his clinginess.

Ironically, he’s not exactly crazy about when Amenadiel initiates those “family calls”. He insists it’s healthy and normal for them to do this and even calls Luci out on the hypocrisy, but let’s face it: Lucifer finds it obnoxiously gushy and weird.

He works his way into Linda’s video appointment books to help him cope with his boredom and admitted need for interactions. She doesn’t mind offering him counsel, but once Lucifer starts attempting to butt in during others’ appointment calls, it becomes an issue.

Has, at some point, gotten buzzed down in Lux and streamed himself attempting to pole dance. It drew quite a bit of attention.

He’s managed to gain a bit of a following and some companionship by streaming himself playing piano and singing. It’s not the same thing as having an actual audience, in his opinion, but it will have to do for now.

He’s never been one to binge with regards to TV shows or movies, but after the first week, he decided to binge watch every work action star Wesley Cabot was ever in.

Makes sure his staff still gets paid well. After all, he’s pretty well-off; there’s no need to make an innocent bartender’s life a living hell just because some other rich bastard fucked up, yeah?

Going off this, should he need to order to-go or anything, we already know he tends to tip as handsomely as he looks.

Dewey Finn

Kids were being sent to Horace Green on tuitions worth more than what some people saw in half a year -- of course the school was going to continue classes online!

While technically an afterschool instructor, the program is popular enough for parents to expect it to continue, and for Dewey to be kept on payroll.

Initially, he was pretty smug: He’s one if, if not, the youngest teacher-figure at Horace Green, so surely that means he’s more tech savvy than his older, stiffer coworkers, right? For once, he’s ahead of the curve!

Wrong: Figuring out Zoom was a headache, and then there was the realization of just how dependent his classes were on actual physical presence.

Plus, let’s be real: Dewey’s Internet connection was decent on its own, but craptastic when compared to those of his wealthier students. The lag is strong with this one.

Has definitely accidentally messed up the background on his screen. Somehow wound up with the Beetlejuice background and got so frustrated, he wound up keeping it there for two whole sessions.

In spite of the slight issues regarding lag, they pull through and try to resume lessons as best they can.

Tries to keep optimism by pointing out how this is a new form of entertainment they could be pioneers in.

Some days, it’s just going so wack or everyone’s so bleh that Dewey just assigns for them to watch a music documentary or something.

“Okay, kids, Mr. Finn’s hungover and clearly Summer is the only one who went to bed before 3am. So what I’m gonna have you do is watch . . . Prrrbbbb . . . Amadeus.” “How is Amadeus rock-related?” “It had a rock single, shut up. Anyway, we meet back next class and talk about what we saw, m’kay? M’kay. Over and out.”

Next class, he’s filled with dread as Summer produces an in-depth analysis of the relationship or lack thereof between character and the presence of talent as evidenced by Mozart’s abilities juxtaposed with his immature presentation and -- Dewey just can’t keep up. Sure, Summer, why not?

When he’s not busy teaching, however, he’s using the lockdown to work on some new material. Or just screwing around.

Otherwise, let’s be real, Big Boy’s living the high life in a place of his own: Playing video games (Animal Crossing, recently got back into Team Fortress 2, is trying to finally finish Ocarina of Time); eating a not very great diet; staying up late, napping at weird times; all in the name of quarantine.

If he orders delivery or to-go, he tips the best he can.

Wade Wilson

On one hand, murking never goes on lockdown. But on the other . . . He’s already technically not well, why risk that even with his mutation?

Oh, fuck I just remembered he lives at the X Mansion, never mind turn back turn back oh god give us free --

The situation is tense to say the least. There’s Wade, who’s sensible enough to know why the quarantine is in place . . . and then there’s everyone else, who knows Wade’s full of shit.

And by everyone, I “coincidentally” mean Colossus, Nega Sonic, Yukio, Domino, Cable, and Russ because the already small world of the sequel just got smaller by the fact that everyone is bound to a large but nonetheless single estate whose size has probably decreased from that of the First Class timeline.

You know those videos of the usual Quarantine Characters? Wade is somehow yet still unsurprisingly all of them, save for the frequent sanitizer. He raids the pantry frequently, sleeps at all hours, considers scooting a swivel chair down the halls exercise for the thighs, blasts video games, and so on.

Going back to the sanitizer thing, it’s not that he’s just not exactly known for being tidy. Colossus occasionally does drag him out of bed at a decidedly decent time (read: any time before 11am) to try and get him excited about cleaning up around the mansion, but it rarely ends well. At this point, the safest option is to just remind Wade to wash his hands for 20 seconds as necessary.

Has acquired a Switch and visits everyone’s island, often to bonk them on the head with a net or gift them with weird crap they don’t necessarily want. For the “friends” from Sister Margaret’s, he has somehow acquired their Dodo Codes. Nobody knows how he did this. 

Facetimes Dopinder frequently.

“Precious, you’re the beacon of light in this cold, cruel world.” “I miss you, too, DP --” “Sshshsh! I’m having a moment . . .” *weeps*

On the many occasions he orders delivery, he tips by giving the delivery person something expensive from the mansion that they can sell. Prof. X is loaded, after all. Plus, he more or less isn’t even present in this universe, it’s not like he’s gonna miss anything he can’t see/probably doesn’t even know exists in his house. The problem is, Colossus does exist and does notice and does care when things go missing. Leading to many a delivery person getting caught up in shenanigans at that weird school in the boonies that they either don’t get paid enough to deal with or couldn’t pay to make up.

“Oh, pawn shops are closed?” asks the man who looks like a skinned avocado if avocados had human skin. “Don’t worry, lemme hook you up -- I know some guys --” “DEADPOOOOOLLL!!” roars a Russian accent from inside the house. “WHERE IS THE BRONZE BUST OF THE PROFESSOR!?” The poor delivery person’s eyes widen as they realize that the odd cargo they’ve been presented with apparently holds some value of some kind. But before they can flee, the avocado man blurts, “Shit! Leave the pizza in the bushes, look me up on my Youtube page, byyyeeee!!”

In his defense, Wade does hold up his end of the deal. Much like the Dodo Codes, nobody knows what strings he pulled. They just accept it and move on.

Harley Quinn

Surprisingly compliant.

She’s crazy, not stupid: Staying at home may suck, but what sucks more is making things harder on people who may not fair so well. Besides, she’s spent time in a maximum security prison -- she can handle staying cooped up in her own home. At least home has TV, books, and snacks.

When she hears people are still going out without masks or plotting to have a protest, she strongly considers firing up the old Fun Gun and popping the next sign-carrying Karen she sees with a tit full of cadmium yellow powder.

Seriously, stay the fuck home and fuck up your own hair; this is the perfect time to make mistakes with your looks, it ain’t like you got anywhere to be or anyone to impress.

“STAY THE FUCK HOME, BITCH!” P O W!!! “JUST GO GREY ALREADY, WE ALL KNOW YOUR HAIR AIN’T THAT COLOR ANYMORE, YOU’RE THREE YEARS FROM BEING IN THE GODDAMN AGE-BRACKET!!!” P O W!!!!

Only leaves her new apartment to grab groceries and to take Bruce on a walk. She actually refuses to steal or cause a scene during this shitshow because she may be a bad guy, but she sure ain’t evil.

So far, there haven’t been complaints about the fact that she’s walking a hyena down a public street. Maybe it’s because there’s hardly anyone out? Maybe it’s because Gothamites just can’t be bothered to be fazed by it . . . Or maybe it’s because she made him a little mask for his snout.

“In this house, we wash our hands for at least 20 seconds, kid.”

Lets the forest reclaim the earth, so to speak. She was never really shaving anything for anyone but herself before, but now it just seems especially pointless.

Spends almost every day in a kigurumi. To give her a semblance of routine, she has a pink bear one she calls her “Sunday Suit.” She doesn’t know it’s not Sunday because the days just blur but Cass just doesn’t have the heart to tell her; she seemed so proud of herself . . .

Like everyone else, she’s gotten Animal Crossing. She’s trying to create an all-preppy island with a few exceptions (Astrid = Aesthetic, m’kay?)

Tips nicely when ordering delivery.

Benoit Blanc

As young and spry in nature as the gentleman sleuth would like to think of himself, he would really rather not test the dangers of the situation and go about all foolhardy -- he’s staying home!

In theory, it’s only logical and therefore perfectly fine. But in practice . . . God, he wishes he’d invested more in things to occupy himself with when home.

It wasn’t that Benoit was never home, he just never felt too much of a need to invest in a fancy entertainment center -- the fanciest he ever got was an iHome.

The beginning of the quarantine served as the perfect time for him to read over case files, catch up on paperwork, even catch up on some reading he’d been putting on hold since God knows when due to cases popping up left and right. But that dried up quicker than he’d assumed, and that’s when he was faced with what a man of his mind dreads the most: Boredom.

Finally caved and decided to hook up Amazon Fire.

Expected to use the one-month free trial on Netflix and be just fine but once the lockdown in his area got extended and he realized he wasn’t going to be able to catch up with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend at this rate, he caves even further and buys a subscription.

Fully delights at the influx of platforms uploading Broadway recordings; when The Show Must Go On put on Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, followed by The Phantom of The Opera, it was a treat, I tell you!

Sanitizes often, despite hardly ever leaving his house besides to have a smoke or to go grab groceries. Honestly, it’s less about cleaning at this point so much as it is finding something to occupy his focus when he feels there’s nothing else to so.

Takes zinc after every meal to help lessen the intensity of any ailment that might hit him.

Definitely owns a facemask. There’s a good chance it’s from Marta or one of his relatives, and there’s another good chance the pattern is as flamboyant as his clothing. He’s delighted.

Benoit tries not to rely too much on delivery,  as he’d much rather just cook. On the rare occasion where tipping comes up, however, he gives as generously as he can.

Bonus: There’s a slight chance he might have acquired a companion to foster early on in the quarantine. Benoit hadn’t had a pet since childhood, a crime of which he was admittedly melancholic of his own involvement. However, his surprisingly busy lifestyle just wouldn’t suit a four-legged friend, now could it?

Well, now there’s time to. Besides, it would certainly ease the potential feeling of loneliness to have someone or something with whom he could interact with.

Admittedly, when shelters began encouraging people to invest time in taking home a companion, he’d been looking more for a comrade on the canine side of the spectrum -- but darn, if Duke wasn’t a handsome cat.

A lovely grey-and-white cat with eyes that matched his own, Duke has become the one Benoit monologues to (because in all honesty, the man is a performer at heart, in need of an audience to speak his mind to and portray a thought before). Plus, he doesn’t appear to mind it when Benoit finds himself belting out in tone-deaf notes to showtunes while washing the dishes: The mark of a true companion.

At this rate, he’s probably not going to keep fostering Duke when things calm down -- he’s probably going to just straight up adopt him.

Stay safe & healthy!

[lovelywingsart]

The husband took me to see the new Sonic movie on Tuesday for a mini date and it made me want to draw my boy again-

And wonderfully enough, my friend @pxiedustnblades has her newly redesigned bab with Shadow, which gave this beautiful opportunity uwu <3

Rook and Halo admiring how adorable their boys are in their new shirt, even if they're about 3 seconds from murdering eachother~

(I tried with Shadow- QuQ Hedgehogs are… not the easiest. The last one I drew was Mephiles and he's... funky, to say the least... Please don't ask me to draw Knuckles LAKDJDDSKALS- Next thing you know they hear a yelp because Infinite got stabbed in the ass from one of Shadows quills

As always, thank you to Faye for letting me snag her bab for doodling~)

[sondepoch]

The Touch (Saeran x Reader)

In a world where everyone has tattoos that move and change when you come in contact with your soulmate, Saeran is one of the few born without any marks on his body. He's led his whole life believing that he has no soulmate, but meeting you might prove otherwise.

~Oneshot

MASTERLIST 

Saeran could always tell which couples were and weren't soulmates.

Take Saeyoung and MC, for example. A single glance at the pair was enough to know. Because no matter what, no matter when, no matter where: they would be touching.

But then that girl and guy over there, having coffee? There was no question that they were dating—the twinkle in the girl's laugh and the blush and the boy's face was too prominent for their relationship to be anything less. But their blatant refusal to allow even the slightest physical contact was a blaring, neon sign that though they were together, fate hadn't planned for it to be that way. Lovers they might be, but soulmates they were not.

Saeran let his eyes further wander around the cafe, flitting from couple to couple until he found another prime example: a girl and a boy.

The girl couldn't have been aged past thirteen, the boy scarcely older than her, but their fingers were intertwined tightly together in a quiet display of pride.

Lucky, Saeran thought as he watched the normally black ink on their arms shine a soft baby pink as the designs moved up and down in a neverending motion that passed back and forth from arm to arm. The movement was truly mesmerizing, starting the at exposed skin peeking out of the girl's T-shirt and climbing its way down to the boy's muscular arm, where both sets of tattoos seemed to dance on the skin.

It was rare to see soulmates find each other at such a young age, but endearing too. People said that the way your soulmate tattoos move would change as you age, and Saeran couldn't bring himself to look away as he watched the marks waltz back and forth, slow but steady, from girl to boy.

It was different from how Saeyoung and MC's tattoos moved.

More innocent.

Saeran preferred it.

Though that was just his jealousy speaking, he knew. Still, the knowledge of his envy didn't make dealing with it any easier. He'd seen more than enough of his brother and his girlfriend. Those two never stopped touching each other, obsessed with how their tattoos would pulsate in rhythm with their hearts, triggered only by the revered touch of the soulmate.

Saeran sighed.

A touch he would never feel.

"Ray?" A voice called, forcing the boy's eyes away from the young lovers. He stood up to retrieve the coffee he'd ordered, mumbling a quiet 'thank-you' to the server.

In truth, he'd left the bunker mainly to get away from Saeyoung and MC.

It wasn't their fault, he knew. Fate had spelled out their romance for them when it inked their soulmate tattoos onto them in the womb, that was just how they were meant to be.

So why did looking at them always deepen the void Saeran felt inside of him?

The redhead sighed as he took a sip of his coffee, pulling down the sleeves of his jacket as if someone would notice the lack of any markings on his left hand. As if someone would notice that he was one of the few born without a destined soulmate.

I should be thankful, he thought bitterly. If I had a soulmate, she would be miserable with me.

That much was true, at the very least. Saeran was damaged, he knew. Years of following the Savior's orders and taking Elixirs had ravaged his mental state, and he still woke from nightmares daily.

It wasn't just that Saeran didn't deserve anyone.

No one was bad enough to deserve him.

He sat himself down on a bench outside, opting to watch the world go by. Doing that always helped him whenever his brain felt like it was tied into knots. There was so much to see: couples kids running after each other, parents chasing close behind, stray couples wandering up and down the streets of Seoul. It was therapeutic.

It made Saeran forget about the fact that he was destined to live a life of pain.

That he was to live a loveless life.

That his was the life of someone born without a soulmate tattoo.

"Ho-Syun, get back here!" A teenage girl called, chasing gleefully after a boy who was running away from her and laughing. Despite himself, Saeran felt a light smile form on his face as he watched them in their merriment.

"Chua! Mr. Chua! It's me! How could you forget?" Saeran followed his eyes to a new set of people, a young boy crossing his arms in front of a confused looking elder man. A part of Saeran wanted to pay closer attention but he found himself distracted by yet another call.

"Applications out! Applications are out! BC-Sonic is hiring! Get your application today!" The boy relaxed in the sea of voices, the neverending conversations, the seemingly infinite activities that people all had going on at once.

"Sir! Sir!" The boy took another long sip of his beverage. The voices around him made it easy to ignore even the incessant whispers inside his head, the noisy street giving him a temporary refuge from his mind as he just existed. "SIR!"

At the sudden increase in volume, Saeran opened his eyes. One can imagine his shock when his mint-green eyes caught sight of you, dashing after a cat that was escaping you with every fiber of its being.

Wait, was the cat really running away from you? Or was it specifically running toward him?

Saeran tried to stand up and eject himself from the cat's trajectory, but before he could even move, the little black creature had pounced into his lap.

The boy could only blink.

"I am so sorry about that," He heard you say, as you tried to coo the cat out of Saeran's lap. You wouldn't meet his eyes in your embarrassment, he noted with mild amusement, as you brought a hand to pet the creature before it hissed at you.

"Is this your cat?" He inquired, wondering why the little devil seemed to be so averse to you.

"No, ah—" You scratched the back of your head sheepishly. "My best friend asked me to take care of it. It's hers. The damn fuzzbutt hates me though, so..."

Saeran had to suppress a smile at that, placing his coffee down on the ground. He pried the cat off his lap, awkwardly holding it in midair so that you could take it from its hands. "Here," He murmured softly. The cat was cute, without a doubt, but he didn't want to keep it from the person responsible for taking care of it any longer.

The cat, on the other hand, seemed very much opposed to leaving Saeran.

The second your hands approached it, the thing wriggled furiously in Saeran's grasp. When it found itself unable to squirm out of the boy's strong hands, it settled for biting your approaching fingers with all its strength.

Ouch.

Saeran tried not to wince as the cat bit down, immediately causing you to recoil backward.

"Are you...okay?" He asked when he saw blood begin to drip from your hand. It wasn't much at all, practically nothing compared to what he'd seen at his time in the Mint Eye, but the pained look in your eyes brought an unfamiliar sense of worry to the boy.

"Y-yeah, here, I'll take her from the bottom so she can't bite me this time."

You moved your hands forward to take the cat from Saeran, but he only chuckled, lowing the animal into his lap. "Let's see the bite, first," He muttered softly taking your smaller hand into his own. He was about to tilt the injured finger toward him to get a better look at it when he felt a searing pain in his right arm.

"Ow!"

He flinched when he heard your voice, suddenly realizing that in his pain he'd tightened his grip around your finger.

"M-my arm—" He sputtered out, doubling over in pain while trying not to make a noise. He grabbed the rim of the bench he was sitting on and the world around him was suddenly forgotten, even the innocent meow of the cat on his lap.

He vaguely heard you curse before you jumped to your feet, tearing the leather jacket he was wearing off his body to check for injuries. But the increased contact only worsened the agony in his arm.

Saeran forced an eye open to see what was going on. Had he been shot? Was his arm on fire? What was that light?

Both Saeran and your eyes widened in shock when you both saw the dull glow emanating around Saeran's tattoos. My tattoos from the Mint Eye, Saeran thought numbly through the pain, wondering why they were acting up. Had they been tattooed in poisonous ink? Why did it feel like the tattoo was on fire, being branded even deeper into his skin?

It was only when the tension in his arm had faded that Saeran saw that you were in the same pain next to him, clutching your arm.

"Are you alright?" He managed to stutter out, pulling you to your feet.

The sudden contact caused another strange sensation to flood down Saeran's arm, though this time it brought no agony. His arm tingled lightly, with the same soft yellow glow as before. Eyes wide open in bewilderment, he looked at you to realize that the same thing was happening on your arm.

Shocked, you both pulled back, and the warm feeling Saeran had been experiencing vanished as soon as your hand left his. Then, hesitantly, this time, Saeran reached a delicate finger forward to graze yours and the feeling bloomed inside him once more.

You leaned into him ever-so-slightly, reciprocating his gesture and his touch, and the moment you did the tattoos on your bodies lit up and began to move toward each other, linking and dancing together with no signs of stopping.

The cat on his lap meowed in delight.

"The touch of a soulmate," He whispered, baffled by the fact that he was feeling it. He was born without any markings, cursed to lead a life devoid of love...so how?

"I didn't think I had someone," He heard you whisper, watching the designs intertwine with each other. "My tattoo was fake."

"Mine too," He responded, his face fresh with a smile that—for the first time—wasn't forced in any way. "My name is Saeran," He finally introduced himself after he'd recovered from the initial shock of seeing his tattoo, the fake tattoo he'd acquired after birth, respond to someone.

"I'm (Y/N)," You responded, before taking a step toward him, intertwining your fingers with his. The simple movement brought so much warmth, the sort that spread from within him—and at that moment, Saeran understood.

He understood why MC and Saeyoung were always joined at the hip, why that girl and boy in the cafe had held each other's hands so tightly, why the touch of a soulmate seemed to intoxicate everyone who felt it.

Whether he'd realized it or not, his entire life had been building up to this moment: to meeting you. The tight squeeze he gave your palm felt like a blessing from heaven itself, as if meeting you was the work of an angel who had finally decided to give Saeran the happiness he'd spent his whole life searching for.

His touch was a delicate reminder of everything to come: from the first kisses to the inside jokes to the eventual future he realized he would get to share with you.

The touch was a promise, from one soulmate to the other, to eternally bask in each other's warmth, to love each other and become one as the tattoos already had.

The touch was everything.

MASTERLIST

Word count: 2.0k

Notes: Saeran is PRECIOUS~ he deserves so much happiness

Comment & Like

I do not own the rights to Mystic Messenger or any of the characters within it.

[egg-emperor]

I think one of the ways Eggman copes losing so much especially after Forces is remembering that he ruled the world for 6 months. That’s a pretty hefty victory that no other villain in the series was able to do, heck that a lot of other villains in other series were able to do. It shows Eggman his dream is possible and Sonic can be defeated.

I do imagine that's one way that he manages to deal with it. Even before Forces, I see him thinking back to all his other moments of success/times where he got close to his goal. Before Forces, a couple of the biggest was thinking about Eggmanland and the Interstellar Amusement Park. Now having 99.9% of the world for six months is the most hugely significant, for it being the time he got his hands on the world he's always wanted to rule. That was big fucking deal and the game should've bothered to emphasize that.

But I also imagine that the hardships have more of an impact than he wants to acknowledge and admit. There's been signs of it finally coming to surface in games, like when he was at one of his lowest points in Adventure and resorted to the deadly and self destructive act of blowing up Station Square and himself with it. Or when he reached a breaking point in Unleashed after spending the game with clearly increasing stress, thanks to his Dark Gaia plans not going as he anticipated and being pushed further by SA-55 and Sonic.

I also feel it definitely increases the amount of stress he constantly feels and why he's easily irritated and has trouble with his temper- besides Sonic being a constant nuisance. It impacts his mental health, even if he doesn't realize as it's a long time thing that he's used to. And one of the reasons why he's generally rude and cruel when he pushes people around is because he desires some kind of control. He's aiming for the whole world but has endured so many failures, so he wants to feel like he has control over anything at all.

(And just to be clear, I'm not trying to excuse his actions. He's responsible for everything he's done and I headcanon that he's always been this way, before he ever tried to take over the world. I just find it interesting to think about how his failures could further affect his already existing behavior and be a bad influence on it.)

It's devastating when he loses, even more so the bigger the accomplishment is. It's probably easy to feel like his dreams are crushed and like efforts are wasted when he's knocked down and has to try all over again. But he has ways to distract himself from it and push on and he's still proud of his accomplishments when he looks back on the good parts. When he remembers his moments of glory with all the brilliant things he's accomplished, it's bittersweet but it keeps him going. It can only make his determination stronger.

Even if he didn't get his permanent win, he sees it as good practice and progress. He'll only get better with more experience. When he gets so damn close to achieving his goals, it helps proves his belief of it being possible. He knows he has what it takes and believes that if he keeps at it, he'll achieve his greatest victory yet, with the world permanently under his rule. He can look past all the times that he fails to focus on that instead and uses it as a way to keep his hope for getting his permanent success in the future.

He also has his neverending confidence in succeeding due to his ego, so no matter what happens, he won't back down. While I acknowledge that it can get really rough for him in a way that he really doesn't want to admit at times, I'm not like those that believes his life as a villain is nothing but stress, pain, and misery. I've seen that as a reason why people write him giving up in the end but he's already proven that he can be at his worst and lowest points and still get up and try again thousands of times more.

His moments of victory have been some of the happiest of his life, when he's giddy with glee and feels so powerful. He's hooked and his greed for power will never die. He gets a total thrill out of what he does and it'll be further heightened if he gets what he wants. It's not a matter of 'if' to him, it's 'when' because he truly believes he'll have it all one day. His bloated ego intensifies his confidence to the point where he's deeply arrogant and can overlook things but he's not wrong. If it wasn't for Sonic, the world would belong to him.

And it makes sense that after pulling themself up and trying again thousands of times, he wouldn't want to suddenly throw all that progress away. To him, that would truly be the biggest failure of all. He won't let anyone think he's down for good, he'll always come back to prove them wrong. He has many reasons to keep going but the main is that he does it all for himself and what he wants. He wants to rule the world, build his glorious empire and prove his brilliance. And there isn't anybody or anything than can change his mind in any way!

[rhydium]

Info dumbo about the StarFinite story?

aright u asked for it anon GET READY [cracks knuckles] this is gonna be long so obligatory cut in 3, 2........

...1!

so the uh, the au! the story!! w/e yall wanna call it! full disclaimer, i only began working on this whole thing a while ago, but it's totally taken over my fukn brain. like, we're talking big hyperfixation hrs. am i cringe for being this invested in my own content? yes? cool i do not Care >:3€

i should also throw it out there real quick that i am kin w/ infinite, n this is actually one of my two canons (both of which are my own aus lmfao wow). i didn't go into it expecting it to be but sfsfsgdfs here we are ig!! for that reason it's got extra importance to me n this definitely contributes to the euphoria i get from it!! it's a lil odd writing ur own canon,,? but i kinda just go w/ the flow!

the au n, the story that i will start Eventually, revolves around infinite n starline (obvi) n it's honestly just ... the tl;dr is big healing momence n, what's this? uh oh sisters !!! they are falling in love 😳😳😳

uhhhh so infinite is an android, made by eggman. that's like, the most notable canon divergence here! super important context to have. i've got a whole big theory on the possibility of sega originally intending infinite to be an artificial being (which i explored in the works for my Other canon too), stemming from not only the scene in forces wherein infinite comments on sonic's "data", but a line of dialogue from tails in one of the last stages of the game where he Literally Says "so this is where eggman built infinite". that ... i mean. that contrasts w/ episode shadow pretty hard don't it?? would explain why that dlc was so rushed, n the comic too. ANYWAY adsfsfs um that's a seperate ramblepost. yeah!!!

they are also agender n use they/them (primarily) as well as he/him!! so i'll be refering to them w/ those pronouns!

after the war, infinite is taken in by the resistance n, instead of being dismantled, they're basically given a chance to rehabilitate themselves. it's agreed that they won't be reprogrammed, as despite the potential risks, it feels wrong to do so; like a violation of their free will, individuality n thinking. if infinite is to be a good person, it's not gonna be bc other ppl recreated their entire personality, it's gonna be bc it's what they themselves truly want. robot ethics idk man!! u can't tell me that sonic n co wouldn't offer this to infinite if they offered it to metal in IDW,,,, i am Standing By This!!!

it's, yknow, a bit rocky, at first. infinite has to really fight the urge to return to eggman (something they already tried once, before the resistance found them; they were cast out). it's a struggle against what they were built to do, against giving into unhealthy familiarity over facing a, while healthier, unfamiliarity. new faces, a new life, turning their back on their mission n creator, it's like, a lot.

they work for/with the sonic crew, rebuilding the world they tore down as deemed fitting justice, being closely monitored for a bit as a natural precaution. as it becomes apparent infinite truly no longer has any ambition to harm others (they don't have much ambition for anything, really), they're then granted more freedom, n start taking on more important missions!! it at least gives them something to do, keeps them occupied. they have issues with dissociation, unreality, whether they're truly a real person bc, well, android. feeling purposeless, n a lack of worth, especially. a need to prove themselves. heavy stuff. i'll kinda go into that a bit more in a sec. their work grounds them, if only temporarily.

n soooooo... IDW comic stuff happens. metal virus time. starline gets kicked out of the empire.

now, as the comics are ongoing, n as this is already an au, there's gonna be divergence, n i must admit i haven't planned out all that yet. there's a lot i have to consider!! infinite being w the resistance/restoration is a big game changer ... tho i Do believe that they were absent, likely on a far out mission during most of the chaos. eggman doesn't know abt them, nor does starline or anyone else other than the sonic crew; n some civilians that recognise them.

i'm not 100% sure of Exactly when it happens, but i think it's just after bad guys, that infinite is sent to locate n bring in starline. it doesn't prove too difficult. there's a whole, starline realising "oh fuck it's you???", some bickering n, the two don't hit it off right away. they're both kinda like. not mentally stable ddgddgdds,,,

so uh. starline ends up essentially going thru the same sorta shit as infinite. careful watch, rebuilding, all that jazz, making sure he can be trusted. he's like... very very lost, quite like infinite is. the world has kinda calmed down, in the meanwhile.

it's at this point i'm gonna go ahead n drop a bit of a ramble i subjected my friends to a while ago, to articulate the way i see the two, n their dynamic together!! i was considering making this it's own post a while ago!

analysing their characters a bit... let's look at starline. Like. so we have this, in bad guys, which SENT ME tbfh;

i feel like it's the moment that triggers starline onto the path he is rn canonically,,, he's clearly like. rly mad n bitter. the core of this?? he wants his work n his efforts to be acknowledged.

he's big angry. still kind of in denial at this stage. he has himself obsessed w/ the idea of making eggman see him as Worthy, that if he just tries hard enough, that'll happen. he's dependent on eggman's validation, n i mean, it's no surprise; he's followed him a Long Time by the sounds of it.

then in the recent issue, hold the fuck up, bc we got, This;

god. my god it's all comin together now homies. this???? this right here??? it is the CLASSIC "i have to do this to prove i'm strong n powerful n smart n worthy n should be respected please Give Me Acknowledgement" ..... n who else is Like That? can u see where im going w/ this?

i think most ppl are aware of infinite's character being extremely indicative of self worth/esteem issues n the need to prove themself, right?? the extreme adversity, repulsion, perhaps even fear toward the idea of being weak. the compulsion to prove otherwise, to show their strength, to become powerful, to conquer to make a point. their theme exudes this same energy as their behaviour in-game; an aggressive attitude, trying to assert themself, while if u rly listen...? the lyrics are actually really sad in places. it reeks of cover up, although composition wise, a v interesting thing to note is a lot of the more telling lyrics are prominent while some of the affirming ones are in the background. indicative of a desire to have their true feelings be heard but caught in a vicious loop?

okay okay that's yet Another different analysis. AHEM.

not to get deep on main (oh who the hell am i kidding that's the point of this entire thing) but i think starline has issues w/ his worth in a similar way to infinite. they both seem to have this need to Prove something, whether it's to others or themselves, n get caught in a toxic spiral of doing worse n worse things for Some kind of validation or acknowledgement. they'll go to really big lengths chasing that, n both of them ultimately sought validation in the wrong place n wrong way.

this is a big part of my starfinite dynamic,, n so, what happens, as they get closer n open up??? we have them BOTH realising together that they don't have to do fuck all to prove anything to anyone. they don't need to do all this to show they're strong n smart n worth something, not to anyone else OR themselves. they're enough as they are. they bond over that shared feeling that they have to do xyz, to prove themselves, n that desire to just finally be acknowledged n appreciated n help each other thru it. to help each other understand that other ppls approval, or lack thereof, doesn't define them, their strength, intelligence, and worthiness.

i feel like they have an interesting parallel between them in like... the above could be taken as a general analysis, but to go more in depth on this au specifically?? ...

starline followed eggman for presumably a long time n it no doubt left him feeling a heavy and deep regret for all that time wasted n spent on an unhealthy path. infinite kinda teaches him that what matters is what he's doing Now n also reminds him that if none of it happened, starline wouldn't have learnt a lot of the serious skills he has. n while starline still feels bad, he also realises himself that, he likely never would have crossed infinite's path if none of it happened. for that reason, he wouldn't take it back.

infinite has only been recently made, on the other hand. they haven't really existed long, yet, but so far their experiences haven't been very positive n it can be .... discouraging. starline sorta, shows infinite their limited experiences w/ the world are a very tiny fraction of what's out there, n things can absolutely change, yes, including for the better; that's the essence of life, a neverending, constant flow of change.

it's a big tale of moving on n letting go, honestly; made easier as they're doing it together. n as they heal n grow, well... these bitches gay. sfshshdgds like, ig that's putting it p bluntly but!! they start to trust each other, understand each other more. as they get to truly know who the other is, they both start developing The Feelings. they're both pretty oblivious n the reveal is totally unknown so far!! yeah, i know, bummer. i suck. boo. adafsfsds however i can say there will be lots of content in the making!! if that soothes the soul! i've got of ideas i hope to bring to life.

ofc there's still a lot of more specific things i haven't covered here so! if y'all want more juice hmu w/ more focused questions but !! this is the overview n i hope it was a decent read now that gave some uhhh! Cool Insight! yea!!! ✌

[toaarcan]

I don't think "it was supposed to end at 250/we got to 247" even MATTERS considering all the crazy shit that was apparently going on behind the scenes. Like the Krudzu was never supposed to be involved, a recent Bumblekast mentioned how there was only a solo Knuckles story because Julie-Su and Safron were literally deleted out of every shot, etc.. Don't be one of those guys who acts like bad things happening to characters is only done out of spite.

The point I raised with the Knuckles arc is that the entirety of 243-246 didn’t need to be there in the first place, and I must question why Ian decided to write a story that heavily tied to the echidnas when he’d already been forced to change the identity of the character following Sonic and co. from Hershey to Lyco and Leeta. Julie-Su and Saffron wouldn’t have needed to be deleted if Endangered Species hadn’t happened in the first place, and it didn’t need to happen because it has no bearing on the Mecha Sally plot as a whole, and arguably makes the whole thing worse because it means that Eggman arbitrarily decided to fly his damaged, barely-functioning Death Egg all the way across the ocean to Albion before flying it all the way back across to head to Artika/Holoska/whatever. While simultaneously making Knuckles and co. look like dicks that decided to not help with Mecha Sally for reasons, but drop everything the moment the echidnas are in danger.

I don’t assume that bad things happened to these characters out of spite. I instead assume that the final arc of the preboot was poorly-planned and too overly long for its own good, and therefore certain plot elements from varying parts of the story stepped on each others’ toes. It’s also rife with filler, with Ian stretching a story that could’ve at most lasted a year over two years for no apparent reason.

Various factors went into making Mecha Sally the bloated, seemingly-neverending mess that it ended up being, but a story where Sally is turned into a robot should focus heavily on her closest friends, and this one doesn’t. So rather than having something like Bunnie being forced to fight her closest friend on even terms, or Nicole desperately trying to return the favour for Sally freeing her back in Issue 209, we get a trite and unearned friendship speech from Amy and that’s really about it.

[mlawleviprice]

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out | Para

Tagging: Levi Price with mentions of Mitch Rutledge & Gage Jimenez, as well as Levi’s family Location: Non-disclosed location in Afghanistan, as well as hospitals in Kabul, Afghanistan & Manhattan, NY Time Frame: Nearly 4 years ago (early April 2014) General Notes: Mlaw Task 11, a flashback to the incident that essentially ended Levi’s military career. Warning for violent, descriptive occurrences & injuries, and mentions of needles.

The mission was straightforward: Extract Morocco’s kidnapped Prime Minister. Intelligence along with extensive and meticulous planning and preparation went into this, like every assignment the Team was tasked with. All of it, thankfully, paid off. The team had recovered the kidnapped government official and gathered what information they needed, and thanks largely in part to Levi’s expert marksmanship, excluding the SEAL team itself and the Prime Minister, there were no survivors.From there, the team prepared for their exit from the extraction site, gathering photographs and surveying the area, getting all of their collected data transferred over to the proper channels on their way back to their base. To cover their tracks in case of being followed, their planning had included red herrings and the team briefly splitting up into thirds. One faction secured the Prime Minister’s safe transport to the American Embassy in Kabul, prior to a safe and discreet return to a safe house in Tangier.

Levi’s friend, Gage, had been a part of the faction who transported the Prime Minister while Levi and their friend, Mitch, were in the red herring factions, departing on foot at first, and then eventually swapping rides in a couple of vehicles, before ending up on foot again. They had several miles of walking to do before they would get to their base camp. The terrain was dry mostly flat, and with them trekking late at night, it was colder than the day, but spending long stretches traveling in different vehicles, and a bulk of the mission in stealthy but uncomfortable positions, Levi valued the opportunity to walk with his friends. Mitch brought up having a rematch on a card game they had two nights ago and while Levi said he wouldn’t mind, Gage protested.

“I’m not playing another card game with you, Rutledge. Your ass cheats.”

Mitch ‘s face screwed up in confusion, “It was blackjack. How did I cheat?”

“Rigged the deck,” Gage retorted.

Levi and Mitch both pointed out, “You shuffled and dealt most of the games!”

While Gage still insisted that Mitch somehow cheated and some of their brothers in the humvee rolled heir windows down to chim in, Levi laughed a bit at the harmless argument that ensued. They continued on, everyone a level of relief and elation for a job well done that night. From outside the humvee, Gage asked how close they were to base and one of the guys checked with their GPS system before telling him they were roughly a mile out.

Taking the information, Gage announced to their team that he was going to run a ways ahead. “Gotta take a leak,” to which he received an array of innocuous jeering that soon died away as he began jogging far ahead of everyone.

“If you miss and get it on yourself you’re sleeping outside,” one person joked.

Another teased, “Watch for other snakes. Yours doesn’t bite back!”

As the jokes died down, Mitch and Levi picked up their own conversation, talking of plans for once they returned home to New York; Mitch was giving Levi a hard time about celebrating - or not celebrating - his birthday the previous week, but Levi hadn’t been swayed to celebrate. The most he was willing to do was go get a beer.

“Don’t need a cake ‘n I really don’t want any ‘a you tryna sing to me,” he said, drawing a laugh from his buddy.

And then it happened.

On its own, the triggering of the land mine wouldn’t have been as detrimental to the group as a whole. The fact that the humvee was what set it off, however, created a greater reaction than a lone misstep would have caused. One sonic boom, immediately followed another - the IED igniting the gas tank and causing the humvee to violently dismantle and set off even more, smaller explosions of their equipment and weapons blowing apart.

For a moment, it felt like everything then happened in slow motion. Heat and shockwaves knocked Levi and Mitch off their feet as glass, metal and shrapnel flew in every direction. Their close proximity rattled Levi’s eardrums badly enough that the only thing he could hear in the moment was a neverending, high-pitch ringing - the kind of sound they say only dogs can hear. He rolled to get on his feet, but fiery, needle-like spasms shot through his abdomen, anchoring him to the dirt again. Whether it was just as bad or worse than that, he wasn’t sure but as he started to double in on himself in agony, he saw it. How he hadn’t felt it when it happened, he wasn’t sure of that either but a long, wide and flat piece of metal shot through his calf, piercing muscle and bone.

The realization made the pain register in his brain but as much as he tried to cry out, the sound seemed to get stuck in his dirt-coated throat. His breaths were quick and shallow as he turned his head in the direction of the humvee. The bulk of it had still been intact to where you could tell what it once was, but much of it was engulfed in smoke and flames. Two of the tires were blown out, causing it to rest lop-sided, radiating gaseous fumes. It didn’t take anyone needing to say out loud that none of his brothers inside were still alive. Still fighting through the agony, Levi’s head lolled in the other direction, his vision going blurry but still able to make out the silhouette of Mitch’s body in a heap, a few yards away from him. Levi tried to make his voice work again, to call out to his friend, and hope for some sort of response back to know that he was alive, and okay. But what came from him was coughing and a burning feeling, like being forced to down too much scotch at once. He tried to fight against everything going with his body, the searing throughout his core, the literal stab in his left calf and his throat full of dirt; the relentless ringing in his ears and smaller cuts from the glass and being knocked off of his feet were nothing compared to the rest but he couldn’t get up and was barely hanging onto consciousness himself.

He looked up at the night sky, trying everything in his power - which wasn’t very much - to numb himself from everything his body was feeling. His eyes were focusing on the stars. It was something he didn’t see much of, living in New York City. The drop in population hadn’t changed how illuminated the boroughs were with all their billboards, buildings, headlights and neon. Out here, however, there wasn’t any of that. The only light was from the sky above, stars dotting the sky and a half moon. But the night sky was growing darker at a rapid pace. Even Gage’s face suddenly hovering over him was tough to make out.

And in a matter of seconds, the stars were gone. The moon was gone. The lights were all out.

They came back in full force, to the point where they were practically blinding for Levi, forcing his eyes shut again. That was usually the case when you regained consciousness inside a hospital. People were speaking around him but it was like listening from deep underwater. Hands were strapping masks and cords to him, shoving needles under his skin and attempting to draw responses from him but to no avail before the darkness overcame him again.

It went on like this for Levi for exactly how long, he didn’t know. When he finally came to for more than a few seconds or a few minutes, his hearing had improved but wasn’t completely restored. The only clue he had that he was back in New York was the fact that his sisters and Mee-Maw were spread about the room. Naomi was asleep with her head in Esther’s lap, or what of it that wasn’t occupied by Esther’s pregnancy bump. Mee-Maw was sitting directly beside Levi’s bed with her hand in his, and Jemma occupied another chair on the other side of his bed, hands folded and her head bowed in a prayer position. A recollection of what exactly happened back in Afghanistan wasn’t coming to him, but when he stirred and reflexively gripped Mee-Maw’s hand, it seemed to awaken everyone else in the room.

Mee-Maw breathed a sigh of relief while Naomi sprang up from Esther’s lap to come to his bedside, her eyes already filled with fresh tears. Jemma was offering her hand as comforting a gesture as she could without disturbing his bandages or the IV needle. Esther stayed where she was, refusing to look in his direction. Although Naomi’s voice cracked his name, Mee-Maw was the first to actually speak up, “How’re you feelin’, Leviticus?”

His voice hadn’t quite come at first, just a rasping, light wheeze that wouldn’t go away, even after several attempts to clear his throat. His face tensed from the failed attempts but Jemma brought a hand up to his shoulder, “The doctors said it might be a little while. You inhaled a lotta dust and dirt, and they had a tube in your throat durin’ the surgeries.”

Levi’s forehead creased. “Surgeries?” he mouthed, instantly bringing an anxious expression to Jemma’s face; her gaze darted from Levi’s eyes to Mee-Maw and Naomi on his left. But as he slowly turned his head to look at them and hope someone would give him answers, he got it, or at least one of it. While his right leg lay fully intact beneath the thin hospital blankets, the blankets and sheets lay flat where half of his left leg should have been. Despite trying to keep an outer calm, his heart monitor was giving away his internal panic. The more he tried to maintain his resolve outwardly, the higher Jemma, Naomi and Mee-Maw’s worries seemed to spike.

Mee-Maw did her best to explain, “They didn’t tell us much ‘a what happened to you. Said somethin’ they didn’t account for happened and… you got hurt real bad out there. They couldn’t… there was nothin’ they could do to save it… too much had been done. They had to operate on your insides too…”

Although he knew Mee-Maw was doing her best to be strong as she explained this, and Levi was doing his best to take it in and accept everything right then and there, he was struggling. If Mee-Maw’s voice wasn’t already difficult enough to hear just beside him, it was sounding even more distant, the more she explained his situation to him. The wet sniffs and quiet sobs from Naomi and Jemma gave millisecond distractions each time the noise made it to his ears, but the shock of having lost his leg, having been operated on, having to be back in New York already all overrode his family’s personal reactions and attempts to console him. Flashes of memories of what happened were vague, yet not vague enough to keep him from wondering what had happened to Mitch? And Gage? Were they alive? Were they back in New York as well?

His head was throbbing, and the rest of his body ached through the painkillers. He didn’t know if trying to piece together his memories was making his head hurt worse or not but a culmination of everything since he had woken up was quickly getting to him. He shook his head while pulling his hands away from his family. With the way he was positioned in the bed, lowering his head felt too much like doing a crunch, and consequently gave an unsettling pull to the stitched incision across his abdomen. Jaw clenched, he brought his large hands up to his face, covering it almost entirely. He couldn’t settle his mind on any one thought. What was to happen to him? His ability to walk again? His insides? His life and his military status? What happened to his brothers?

What.happened?

He wasn’t attentive as Mee-Maw quietly urged his sisters to give him some time alone. The shuffling of feet and chairs only barely registered to him when they started to excuse themselves. It wasn’t until he thought he was alone that he lowered his hands away, palms soaked with the warm tears he’d hid, that he realized not all of them had yet gone.

Esther was standing over him, shoulders squared, lips pressed in a firm line and her fingers curled into tight fists. As much as Levi wanted to take his eyes off of her, something wouldn’t let him. The two stared each other down, even when there was a crack in Esther’s steely composure.

“I really wanna hate you right now. Or at least punch you in your face, you know that?” she admitted through gnashed teeth. As soon as she stopped speaking she tried to press her mouth shut again but her lips were trembling and tears were welling in her eyes.

Levi didn’t say anything back to her, even as a few fresh tears rolled down his own face and stuck in the stubble along his jaw. Instead, he turned his left hand over, palm side up and lifted it to cuff one of Esther’s wrists. She lifted her hand and fitted it into his while the two remained silent until Esther felt composed enough to let him alone. In her leave, she carefully wiped her eyes several times, and then joined her family out to the nearby waiting room.

Still overwhelmed by everything, and heavily medicated from the painkillers, Levi grappled with his emotions, his questions, and his consciousness until the lattermost beat out the other two, pulling him back into more rest for the time being.