#hedgehog sound test

[kiwipineappleparasol]

Various Sonic Scribbles done on "Aggie" (it got Thrown in the Fiery pits and Turned into Magma but I Never Forget...)

[thebunsquad]

I finally get it now. This game isn't about aliens at all. It's about destroying things with your face! 

[sonicthehammons]

This has been on my mind (of a different kind) ever since the game released and I finally had some time to slap it together real quick. Should I finish this?

[malicious-spectrum]

Beeeeaaaaan test!!!

It’s for no Sonic related reason I prommy. (<- lying)

[rosavulpes]

“ Sis you’re doing great ! “ 

Watching on excitedly as his little sister did her best to flap her ears to fly , he could tell that she had improved since they had last come out to practice . She must’ve been tryin’ real hard on her own when he was away .... 

“ Remember Cream , you’re not trying to fly ... you’re trying to catch the wind beneath you . Relax , breathe , and let it carry you “ 

Folding his arms over his chest , he watched as his younger sibling did her best to follow his instructions , focusing more so on stretching out the full length of her ears to catch the breeze , rather than try to flap them furiously . 

He almost wanted to equate it to chicken flapping but , he loved his little sister far too much to ever tease her ... at least not for this moment . 

He’d figured that she must’ve been trying to copy tail’s technique for flyin’ , but ultimately tail’s tail spin only worked for him , he’d told her before that it’s best to try and find what works for her ... not tryin’ to copy anyone else . 

“ No matter what happens Cream , I’m right here for ya ! Don’t be afraid to let go , I promise that I’ll catch ya no matter what “ 

With his encouragement helping the small rabbit destress , he soon found himself smiling away as Cream hovered in place , her ears stretched at the right angles , the wind blowin’ underneath her , keepin’ her afloat all on her own . 

Her squeals of elation causing him to laugh lightly as she spread her arms and began to move around . 

Keepin’ true to his word , he followed close by underneath her in case she accidentally slipped up , but ... as the time went on by , she barely needed his help . 

As she came down to land by bringing her ears in closer , tucking them in slowly as per his instruction , she’d land with a light plop in his hands . 

Hoisting Cream atop his shoulders , he’d begin to run , faster , and faster but , not too fast for her sake . Wanting her to enjoy the ride back home , rather than have it go by in a flash . 

It was good to be visitin’ home after all that’d gone down . The Metal Virus was gone , and he’d recovered his memories thanks to Blaze .

Though ... he didn’t want to think about how high the chances had been for something to have gone wrong , he’d been lucky to land in the sol dimension , and even more so lucky to have been picked up by Blaze in the first place . Had it not been for her ? Who knows what’d happen to him . 

Tails did try to run the numbers by him when he’d been recountin’ his story to everyone but those were a particular set of numbers he didn’t want to hear . Left im’ feelin’ queasy deep down . 

Speaking of his little brother , he was off working one of his numerous projects . Either upgradin’ the tornado , workin on some bot , or just studying up in general .

Amy was still workin’ with the restoration group to help rebuild the world after all the damage that metal virus had wrought , shadow and rouge were probably somewhere in the mix . As for the rest of his friends ? He figured that they must’ve been chillin ‘ Chaos knows that it was all he wanted to do for now . 

Not have to think about eggman , or zavok , or any other creep . 

That was why he’d decided to spend some time back home instead of nappin’ at his own place , felt therapeutic .  

As they got back closer to the house , he’d spotted a familiar typhoon of flames descending downwards for the skies . A familiar lookin’ violet haired feline princess coming out of it . 

His little sister flying off of his shoulders , Cream eager to greet her . 

“ Yo ! What bring’s you here Blaze ? It’s been a minute since I last saw ya hasn’t it ? “ 

@blazeysfw 

[maximumspider]

Sonic the Hedgehog CD : Sound Test Mode

---

"At the title screen, press Down, Down, Down, Left, Right, A to go to the sound test. By entering the following codes, you can get the corresponding image, debug mode, and/or extra after pressing Start."

Source: The Cutting Room Floor

[bobacupcake]

Can you do one about the Sea of Thieves water?

OK

so . there was a biiig long talk about this at siggraph one year!! you can watch that here if you'd like . in the time between me getting this ask and me fully recreating the water, acerola also released a great video about it . the biiig underlying thing they do and the reason why it looks so good is they are making a Really Detailed Ocean Mesh in realtime using something called an FFT (fast fourier transform) to simulate hundreds of thousands of waves, based on a paper by TESSENDORF

WHAT IS AN FFT - we'll get to that. first we have to talk about the DFT - the discreet fourier transform. let's say you have a SOUND. it is a c chord - a C, an E, and a G, being played at the same time. all sounds are waves!!! so when you play multiple sounds at the same time, those waves combine!!! like here: the top is all 3 notes playing together, so they form the waveform at the bottom!!

now if someone handed you the bottom wave, could you figure out each individual note that was being played? how about if someone handed you a wave of One Hundred Notes. you would think it would be very hard. and well, it would be, if not for the Discreet Fourier Transform.

essentially, there is a way to take a bunch of points on a waveform comprised of a bunch of different waves, add them all together, do some messed up stuff with imaginary numbers, that will spit back out at you what individual waves are present. i made a little test program at the start of all this: the left are the waves i am putting into my Big Waveform, the top right is what that ends up looking like, and all the little rainbow points on it are being sampled to spit out the graph at the bottom right: it shows which frequency bands the DFT is finding (here it is animated)

this has enormous use cases in anything that deals with audio and image processing, and also,

THE OCEAN

tessendorf is basically like, hey, People Who Are Good At The Ocean say that a buuuunch of sine waves do a pretty good job of approximating what it looks like. and by a bunch they mean like, hundreds of thousands to millions. oh no.... if only there was a way we could easily deal with millions of sine waves..........

well GREAT news. not only can you do the DFT in one direction, but you can also do it in REVERSE. if you were to be given the frequency graph of a noise for example, you could use an INVERSE DFT to calculate what the combined wave graph looks like at any given time. so if you were to have say, the frequency graph of an oceaaaan, for example, you could calculate what the Ocean wave looks like at any given time. and lucky for us, it works in two dimensions. and thats the foundation of the simulation !!!!!

BUT WAIT

as incredible as the DFT is, it doesn't scale very well. the more times you have to do it, the slower it gets, exponentially, and we are working with potentially millions of sine waves here

THE FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM here we are . the fast fourier transform is a way of doing the discreet fourier transform, except, well, fast. i am Not going to explain the intricacies of it because its very complex, but if you want to learn more there are a ton of good 30 minute long videos on youtube about it . but essentially, due to the nature of sine waves repeating, you can borrow values as you go, and make the calculation Much faster (from exponential growth to logarithmic growth which is much much slower, and scales very well at higher numbers). it's, complicated, but the important part is it's so much faster and the diagram kind of looks like the shadow the hedgehog story plot

so if we use the inverse FFT on a graph of a rough estimate of what frequency of waves in the ocean (called a spectrum, basically tells us things like how many small waves, how many big waves, how different waves follow the wind direction. sea of thieves uses one called the phillips spectrum but there are better ones out there!!) now we have our waves !!!!!!! we can also use another inverse FFT to get the normals of the waves, and horizontal displacement of the waves (sharpening peaks and broadening valleys) through some derivatives . yayy calculus

OK MATH IS OVER. WE HAVE OUR WAVES!!! they are solid pink and look like pepto bismol. WHAT NOW

i cheated a bit here they look better than not being shaded because i am using the normals to reflect a CUBEMAP to make it look shiny. i think sea of thieves does this too but they didnt mention it in their talk. they did mention a FEW THINGS THEY DID THOUGH

FIRST OFF - SUBSURFACE SCATTERING. this is where the sun pokes through since water is translucent. SSS IS REALLY EXPENSIVE !!!!!! so they just faked it. do you remember the wave sharpening displacement i mentioned earlier? they just take the value where the waves are being sharpened and this will pretty naturally show off the areas that should have subsurface scattering (the sides of waves). they make it shine through any time you are looking towards the sun. they also add a bit of specular ! sss here is that nice blue color, and specular is the shiny bits coming off the sun. the rest of the lighting is the cubemap i mentioned earlier, i dont know if thats what they use but it looks nice !!!!!

then the other big thing that they do is the FOAM !! sorry i lied. there's more math. last one. you remember the wave sharpening displacement i Just mentioned. well they used that to find something called the JACOBIAN and well im not even going to begin to try and explain what it means but functionally what it does, is when the jacobian is NEGATIVE it means waves are clipping into eachother. and that means we should draw some foam!!! we can also blur and fade out the foam texture over time and continuously write to it to give it some movement, and bias this value a bit to make more or less foam. they do both of these!!!

YAYYYYY !! OK !! THAT'S SEA OF THIEVES WATER!!!!! THANKS FOR WAITING ALL THIS TIME. you can see my journey here if you would like to i have tagged it all oceanquest2023

thank you everyone for joining me :) i had fun

[emthimofnight]

Getting To Know You

AO3 Link:

Summary: Sonic knows Shadow as an enemy, a rival, and an ally—but a friend and co-parent? Hardly. With their newfound daughter fast asleep, Sonic takes the opportunity to get to know his other half a bit better.

“Well, Stellar is finally asleep.”

Sonic turned his head to follow the voice of his long time rival, Shadow, as he announced his entrance into the living room. He could read the exhaustion in Shadow's body language immediately, even from where he was currently seated on the couch. The game show Sonic had been watching on the TV faded into the background as his focus was drawn elsewhere.

“Oh, yeah?” He answered. “That's good. She took a while to settle down this time.”

Shadow shuffled over, grunting in half-hearted response as he unceremoniously collapsed into the couch beside Sonic. Sonic watched as Shadow craned his neck backwards, resting his head on the back of the couch and closing his eyes. Now that he was closer, Sonic could clearly see how messy his quills were; something that was out of character for the black hedgehog. 

Feeling brave, he reached out to pluck a loose quill from Shadow's head, flicking it away with a quick snap of his fingers. A few weeks ago, he would have surely been rewarded for such a breach of Shadow's personal space with a growl or a threat, but now all his rival could muster was a quick, non-threatening glare in his direction. Sonic smiled in return.

“Sorry,” he chuckled. “Stray quill.”

“You're lucky I'm tired,” Shadow grumbled, failing to sound intimidating. 

“Oh, wow.” Sonic turned his body to face Shadow's more readily, the space between them thinning by a small margin. “The Ultimate Lifeform? Tired? Who are you?”

Shadow turned his head slightly in Sonic's direction, cracking a half smile. Sonic had noticed he'd been doing that more lately—smiling—and he couldn't shake the happy flutter of his heart at the sight. It was nice to get along with Shadow. As much as he enjoyed their fights, he had always wished the two of them could be friends, even in a minor capacity. Turns out, the push they needed to get along was co-parenting their illegal government experiment baby. Who knew?

“The only reason you are not tired is that I always do all the work,” Shadow replied quickly, sounding a smidgen annoyed with Sonic’s teasing, yes, but amused regardless.

“Hey, that's a low blow!” Sonic grinned. “You and I both know she likes you better. She never settles down for me!”

“That's because you spend more time goofing around with her than actually trying to put her to sleep.”

“I only try to tire her out! The kid has tons of energy!”

“You only succeed in riling her up,” Shadow retorted. 

“Oh, c'mon, Shads. She loves you. I think she must have, like—imprinted on you when you pulled her outta that test tube. It's a miracle she doesn't cry whenever you leave the room anymore.”

Shadow made a soft, “hmm” in response. He seemed somewhat pleased by Sonic's admission. 

“Maybe,” he said quietly. He almost seemed lost in thought for a moment, a pregnant pause hanging in the air. Sonic held his tongue, something that he was learning how to do more frequently as of late. It took him a bit to figure it out, but Shadow seems to speak his mind more often if he can just shut up and try to listen. Rewarding Sonic for a rare display of patience, Shadow continued, “It's so strange to have someone rely on you so completely.” 

Shadow glanced his way, his eyes expectant. It seemed he was waiting for Sonic to interject.

Apparently, Shadow had him figured out, too.

“Yeah,” Sonic bobbed his head in a steady nod. “Honestly, I never really imagined being a dad. Never thought I’d make a good one.”

“Neither did I,” Shadow admitted. “I don’t even know if I can have children through… Conventional means, so to speak. I don’t think it was ever intended for me to be able to reproduce.”

Sonic bit his tongue, resisting the knee-jerk reaction to tease Shadow about “conventional means of reproduction” and what that might entail, knowing that would be a quick way to shut down their conversation if he wasn’t careful. He and Shadow had certainly gotten closer as a result of this parenting partnership, but there were still boundaries that weren’t meant to be crossed.

“Guess it doesn’t matter either way,” Sonic shrugged. “We’re here now, and we’ve gotta make the most of it.”

“Hmm,” Shadow hummed in agreement. “I guess so.”

For a moment, there was silence. Sonic found himself at a loss as to what he should say next, something that was happening to him more regularly in Shadow’s presence. Keeping the peace between the two of them meant he had to make an active effort not to antagonize the other hedgehog, but that also left him a bit confused as to how he should interact with him. This whole situation caused him to realize that he and Shadow rarely had regular, non-world-destroying contact, and now the guy was around all the time! He was so used to punches flying between them that casual conversation had him floundering awkwardly.

“You’ve been quiet lately,” Shadow said suddenly, cutting through the haze of Sonic’s thoughts. It was like he could read his mind, sometimes. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Shadow’s tone was something he couldn’t quite recognize. Shadow rolled his wrist, gesturing in circular motions with his hand, clawing at the air as if trying to conjure his thoughts into something tangible that he could grasp. “It’s… Hard to deal with.”

Sonic blinked incredulously, his surprise apparent on his features. Shadow gave him a glare and a curl of his lip, showing the pointed tip of one of his fangs, frustration creasing his brow. For once, Shadow was filling the silence between them.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Shadow growled.

“Wait—are you saying that you like when I talk?”

Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose, “I didn’t say that. I’m just used to you talking all the time. I don’t—” a sigh, “I’m not good with conversation.” 

Sonic felt his quills prickle with a foreign sense of delight. It wasn’t exactly a compliment, but it was close enough to one that it made him a bit giddy all the same. 

Sonic chuckled. “You know what’s crazy? I’ve been trying to talk less.”

Shadow raised an eyebrow, face contorting in confusion. “What? Why?”

Sonic, slightly sheepish, replied, “Well, uh…  You talk more when I’m not talking, so. Been trying not to steamroll our conversations.”

Confusion still colored Shadow’s facial expression, his ruby eyes focusing on Sonic’s face. Sonic chose to admire a corner of the room instead to avoid the intensity of his stare. 

“You? Trying to listen when I’m talking to you? Are you dying?”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Sonic answered dryly. “Just figured if we are going to be parenting a kid together, I should probably get to know you outside of how hard you can kick me in the head.”

A snort of laughter came from Shadow, a sound that felt like a reward in its own right. He could count on one hand the amount of times he’s managed to get Shadow to laugh. 

“A remarkable display of forethought for someone as impulsive as you,” Shadow teased. 

“Ahh, the art of the backhanded compliment. A Shadow the Hedgehog specialty,” Sonic taunted back. “Seriously, though! Tell me your favorite color or something. For all the bad guy butt we’ve kicked together over the years, I feel like I don’t know you all that well.”

Shadow was smiling in earnest—at least, as earnest as someone like Shadow could muster. “That’s what’s top of your list? My favorite color?”

“It’s a start!” Sonic replied. “Since I know you are dying to know, mine’s red. Blue is a close second, though.”

Shadow rolled his eyes, his amusement betraying his attempt at brushing Sonic off. “Why am I not surprised…”

“C’mon, Shadow! This is what the more extroverted types call an icebreaker. Humor me?”

Shadow’s eyes were on him again, analyzing his motivations for this line of questioning silently. If there was one thing Sonic knew about Shadow, whether he decided to answer would be determined by his ego. Shadow was paused in consideration, so Sonic once again chose to wait for whatever answer Shadow would give him. 

“...Green,” he said quickly, eyes drifting elsewhere as he folded his arms across his chest. 

Sonic felt his pulse quicken with excitement. Shadow was actually entertaining his attempt to know more about him! He never thought he’d find the idea of knowing his rival’s favorite color so appealing.

“So you do have one! I was prepared for you to tell me you didn’t care.”

“I don’t,” Shadow quickly asserted. “But,” he continued, “if I had to pick, green is probably it.” 

“Cool,” Sonic said softly, the knowledge of Shadow’s favorite color finding a happy little spot to nest in his brain. “How about, uh… Weather? Do you have a favorite kind of weather?”

Shadow gave him a put-upon frown. “Are you going to keep asking me dumb questions?”

“You’re allowed to ask me dumb questions too, you know,” Sonic reminded.

“Bold of you to assume I have any.”

Sonic smirked, “I’m sure you do.”

Shadow let out a bark of dry laughter, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

In a moment of honesty, Sonic replied, “Yeah, man. I would.”

Shadow stared back in silent reply, his eyes scanning Sonic’s face for any signs of deception or trickery. He clearly hadn’t expected that answer.

“...Spring weather is nice.”

Sonic perked up. “You don’t mind the rain?”

Shadow seemed almost sheepish, suddenly. One of his ears twitched in agitation, a growl escaping his lips. If Sonic had to guess, Shadow didn’t appreciate Sonic’s prodding for a deeper explanation. Even so, he still made the choice to answer, “I… Like the flowers, I guess. Maria liked flowers.”

Ah. Maria. The main reason for a lot of the things Shadow did. 

“That’s a pretty good reason,” Sonic smiled, his tone of voice gentle. “Perfect weather for a long run.”

Shadow peered at him out of the corner of his eye. “What about you?”

“A nice sunny day with a good breeze is killer,” Sonic answered. “Man, I just love the feeling of the wind in my quills, yanno?”

Shadow nodded, humming in agreement. Despite the tension in his shoulders, he did seem to soften slightly as their conversation went on. It might just be a result of his exhaustion, but he seemed less rigid than usual. 

“I suppose I should ask you a question, then,” Shadow said, his voice almost sounding a bit amused. He shot Sonic a knowing look, clearly recognizing his interest would get a reaction out of him. 

He wasn't wrong, Sonic couldn't manage to stifle the smile that broke out across his face.

“Yeah, feel free!” Sonic encouraged, “I'm an open book.”

Shadow was staring at him again, and for a moment Sonic wondered if he had managed to scare him off from asking his question. Shadow didn't leave him hanging for long, though.

“...Why did you agree to this?”

Sonic blinked incredulously. Leave it to Shadow to ask the hard questions.

“Like… What? This game, or…?”

“Stellar,” Shadow affirmed. “Why did you agree to help me with Stellar?”

Sonic leaned back into the couch, scratching at his chin with a gloved finger. “Hmm. Good question.”

Why did he agree to this? He'd never really wanted kids, and he certainly never imagined having them with his rival. It was a concept that was so far outside the realm of possibility that to say the whole scenario blindsided him would be an understatement.

“…Well, it’s the right thing to do, for one. I could tell that you were kind of at a loss as to what you should do with her. You so rarely ask for help—especially from me—that I had to give it a try. Besides, you and I have overcome all kinds of crazy challenges in the past, how hard could this be?”

“It's by no means easy,” Shadow thought aloud. “But… It is easier than it would be if I were doing this alone, so. I suppose I should thank you for that.”

Sonic felt his heart do something funny in his chest. It reminded him of the sensation he'd get right before a roller coaster hit its first drop. He suddenly felt the urge to go on a run.

“Did you just thank me? You sure you don't have a fever or something?” Sonic teased. Even now, as he finally managed to earn genuine answers from his rival, he couldn’t stop himself from defaulting back to their usual banter. 

To his surprise, Shadow didn’t growl, glare, or move to swat at him with his hand. Instead, he let out a short chuff of laughter, his gaze drifting away and up towards the ceiling. 

“I must,” Shadow sighed, not sounding all that bothered. “Or maybe I’m just more tired than I thought.”

Sonic smiled, his expression softening as he observed the other hedgehog. His posture was uncharacteristically relaxed, his body succumbing to the comforts of the couch. Even the Ultimate Lifeform couldn’t fight the exhaustion that came with caring for a fussy baby day in and day out, it seemed. Granted, most baby hedgehogs weren’t capable of teleporting on a whim. Perhaps their unique circumstances were what truly crumbled Shadow’s typical unyielding resolve.

“Take it easy, then,” Sonic said gently. “Catch some Z’s while you can.”

Shadow turned his cheek slightly, peeking at Sonic suspiciously out of the corner of his eye. He was clearly looking for an ulterior motive etched into Sonic’s features. 

“Hey, don’t look at me like that!” Sonic protested. “I’m serious. I’m not going to mess with you while you sleep, and if Stellar wakes up, I can handle it!”

“I don’t trust you to handle anything,” Shadow muttered, lacking the usual bite in his words. 

“Hey,” Sonic half-laughed, “you could try.” 

“Hmm,” a hum of consideration. “For once, I think I might be too tired to argue with you.”

“That makes it sound like you enjoy it.”

“You’re delusional,” Shadow smirked before turning his face skyward once more, this time allowing his eyes to drift closed. “I’ll just rest my eyes for now. If you try anything, I’ll make you regret it.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Sonic replied, shifting his weight a bit to get more comfortable in his own position. “I’ll just be thinking of more questions to annoy you with while you recharge.” 

When his teasing wasn’t met with a response, Sonic allowed himself to observe the other hedgehog more freely. It was easier to absorb Shadow’s features when he wasn’t sitting on the other end of his intense stare. 

‘He couldn’t have fallen asleep that quickly, could he?’ Sonic pondered, peering at the remarkably relaxed face of his fellow co-parent. His breathing was slow and steady, his chest rising with every breath, making the snowy poof of hair that resided there a distraction for Sonic’s eyes. He was never able to grow any fur on his own chest—at least, not to that length—so he had always found himself a bit fascinated with the singular spot of white on the other hedgehog. Not that he’d ever admit it out loud, of course.

For a brief moment, he considered what it might feel like to touch the silky-looking tufts of fur, before quickly stamping that thought right back down where it came from. Sonic might be an adrenaline junkie, sure, but he certainly didn’t have a death wish. Without thinking, though, he must have drifted a bit closer into Shadow’s space, because he was soon met with that annoyed ruby glare once more.

“What?” Shadow growled, his hostile edge returning to his voice as his suspicion in Sonic was heightened. 

Sonic moved away quickly, letting out a nervous laugh. “Sorry, I thought for a second you’d already fallen asleep,” he admitted sheepishly. “I was just a bit amazed, is all. Made me realize that I haven’t really seen you sleep before.”

Shadow rolled his eyes before closing them once more, shimmying his shoulders a bit to settle deeper into the couch cushions. “I’m not going to sleep at all if you keep staring at me like that. Watch your stupid show.”

Sonic blinked, turning his head back to the TV he had been watching before Shadow had entered the room. Right. He’d actually been paying attention to that before he found himself distracted with Shadow’s presence. He wasn’t actually sure what was going on with it anymore, but it was a welcome escape from his own impulses to pester Shadow. It wasn’t like he actually wanted to bother the guy, it was just hard to adjust his behavior to fit their new normal. He was so used to their relationship being full of banter and petty competitions that he didn’t know how to just exist around the guy. 

He stole a quick glance in Shadow’s direction before refocusing on the television. From Shadow’s aloofness, it seemed he didn’t know how to exist around him, either. 

The silence between them was filled with the sounds of mindless reality TV entertainment, and Sonic felt himself slowly starting to relax. He hadn’t really noticed before, but his own guard was up when Shadow was around, too. It might not be the same kind of hostility that Shadow displayed, but it was still there. He might have asked Shadow to trust him, but that didn’t mean he trusted Shadow. 

He felt a tiny pang of guilt—what for, he wasn’t exactly sure. Yes, he’d always wished he and Shadow could get along, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t enjoy the thrill of fighting with him. Being the fastest thing alive meant he was often leaving others behind, but that wasn’t the case with Shadow. Shadow was one of—if not the only—person that could keep up with him. If they became friends, did that mean Shadow would stop chasing him? Would he stop trying to surpass him? He wasn’t entirely sure he was willing to give that thrill up just yet. 

A soft, unfamiliar noise pulled Sonic from the depths of his thoughts. His ear twitched, finding the sound was coming from the black hedgehog that rested beside him. Did he just—?

A rasping exhalation of breath from Shadow’s nostrils confirmed it. Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform, was snoring. Not the kind of snore that was disruptive or cacophonous, but the sort that was soft, rumbling, and endearing. Sonic almost couldn’t believe his ears. 

A smile wormed its way onto his face as he observed Shadow in his slumber, a newfound fondness settling in his chest at the sight. 

‘Just going to rest your eyes, huh?’ He thought to himself, amused. 

Maybe he and Shadow’s relationship was going to be different from now on, but perhaps that didn’t have to be a bad thing. If the giddy feeling in his chest was any indication, there might be some thrills to find in this new alliance after all. 

[xxgoblin-dumplingxx]

Gentle Giant!Jason feeling the baby kick for the first time? 🥺

"You look like you need that," Charlie said, putting a beer on the bar for Jason and waving his money away.

"Thanks," he said rubbing the back of his neck. It wasn't you. Not really. Compared to some of the horror stories he's heard, you were an angel. A little grumpy, sure. Emotional, sure. But you weren't horrible or anything.

"Want some free advice?" Charlie said, feeling a little sympathetic. You'd had to spend 15 minutes today crying in the back because someone sent you a video of a crow helping a hedgehog across the street.

"Anything," Jason snorted.

"When you go home tonight bring her some curly fries and a soda," he said. "And if you think she'd probably like a snack, just buy two. She'll get a little chubby but you won't have to go get something else at 3am."

"She doesn't ask me to-" "You got a ways to go until she pops," he snorted. "Just keep snacks on hand and bring her flowers every once in a while."

"If that works how come you're divorced?" he asked. It felt kinda mean reducing what you were going through to something he could fix with some chips.

"I'm divorced because I didn't do that," he said rolling his eyes. "And also because my ex wife decided she wasn't cut out for mom life."

Jason snorted, "Thanks."

"Also- if she asks if she's getting fat it's a trap. Just tell her she's beautiful and don't make jokes about getting her work out tapes for Christmas... Our dad did that once and there was a dent in the wall where the frying pan hit it."

"Why would-"

"Listen. Our dad was a weedy little guy that looked like an accountant for a biker gang. Not a brick shit house who could dead lift a volvo."

_____________

Jason let himself into the house, shifting the bag with some curly fries and your drink into one hand so he could hang his jacket up on the hook and smiled a little. Sure. It sounded mean but. Better safe than sorry. And who else was he gonna ask? Damian was a test tube baby and fuck if he was gonna ask Roy. He didn't need detailed diagrams of different ways to fuck.

"Jay?"

"Hey Cutie," he said smiling a little, walking through leaning over the couch to kiss the top of your head.

"Good day?"

"Stopped by to shoot the shit with Charlie for a minute- he thought you might want this." He proffered the snacks and walked around to flop on the sofa, putting your feet in his lap.

"Bless," you tell him. "This was all I could think about for like the last 2 hours of my shift."

"Getting Peanut started on fine dining early, huh?" he said.

"If it's not curly fries it's fucking cereal. Like why? Why can't it be not junk food?"

"Sometimes it's pickles. That's technically a vegetable."

"Ugh."

He took the hand you held out to help you sit up a little and smiled. Idly rubbing one of your ankles and waving away the container you offered to share with him. "That's all you, Cutie. You're eating for two."

"Not really-"

"Hush," he said, leaning over and rubbing your stomach affectionately. "Gotta make sure my girls get-" And he stopped. Blinking for a second. You'd been telling him you could feel the baby starting to move around. Little skitters of motion. But- he hadn't felt anything yet. Until now. "Hey, Peanut," he murmured after a second.

"Jay?"

"I guess she got tired of hiding from me," he said, grinning. "Either that or she really, really likes curly fries."

"Or some combination of the two."

"Or that," he said, readjusting to lean down to kiss the spot where he'd felt the little nudge.

[lace-coffin]

Hi im that person that asked for the stufed toy thing and oh my god i loved it so much i loved everything and onece your requests are open sorry im asking while they are shut i had this sudden idea for a request sorry😭😭 ive also kinda got 2 ideas soooo sorry😅

But like a reader that is obsessed with drawing and loved to draw cute and sweet drawings to give to asa to do with their hyper fixation or every time they are with him they start ranting to him about it or them i dont know but he would be so educated on their hyper fixation unless its bugs then he would already know everything haha

Or idea 2

The reader likes to lick things randomly for no particular reason they just like to do it or they love physical touch and cant get enough of it always cuddling with asa at night as close as they can and just imagine them cuddling and they just lick him then he just gets confused that would be so funny to imagine😭😭

Or the reader for the same type of thing as the plushie one but instead music to calm them down and they would have like a tiny crying fit for their headphones bc i have had alot of meltdowns over not having my headphones its crazy i love your writing so much hope u have a good day❤️

Asa Emory x Autistic!Gn!Reader with a new hyperfixation

Requests are open!

Hi I hope you like this! I totally crammed my last two fixations into this < 3

Call Asa old but he wasn’t exactly up to date on video games. He defiantly was now at least, not that he had much choice. You were always flipping between interests, intensely talking and interacting with one topic for weeks or months at a time and then switching to another that catches your interest. It’s been Sonic The Hedgehog for atleast 3 weeks now.

He didn’t exactly picture his desk to be filled with pictures of anthropomorphic hedgehogs but here he is, he kinda signed up for this when he stuffed you into the trunk, knowingly or not. As long as you’re happy then he’s happy, even if he thinks you’re spending a little too much time on that GameCube you begged him to bring to hotel..

A few weeks pass and it’s now the Saw franchise. Victims being “tested” in disgusting gory traps by a man that fancies himself to be god? This is more up to his speed..pun unintended.

A series of excited knocks sound from the door of your masters workroom. Stretching his taught shoulders and neck he takes inventory of his aching muscles, he supposes he can take a break to spend some time with his puppy. Slumping back in the chair and swinging it to face to door Asa calls you in. “Enter”

Keeping your eyes pinned to the floor until given further permission you enter the room, shuffling over to drop to your knees in front of your owner, waiting for the order. The currently unmasked man drinks in your appearance, oversized jumper falling to sit on your neatly pressed together thighs and the collar he places on you every morning slightly twisted, the tag not where it should be.

“Eyes up pet” he says firmly, snapping his fingers to emphasise the point. Jumping a little at the suddenness you snap your eyes up to meet a fond look on master’s face, you relax a little, letting out a sigh.

Shuffling to prop his chin up with his fist in interest, Asa continues.

“What can I do for you pet?”

Visibly perking up and practically vibrating on the wooden floor you push the paper into Asa’s face, defiantly too close, there’s no way he can actually see it like that. Realising this you settle to put it in his lap and stare back at him hopefully.

“I drew more pictures! I wanted you to see..” you reply a little shy, suddenly realising how loud and excitable you had been, insecurity creeping in. Asa recognises you shrinking in on yourself and tuts. “Can I see, cricket?” He adds softly, prompting you to show him what you’ve been working on, he never wants you to feel ashamed about you’re passions even if you’ve been taught in the past to ‘tone it down’

Asa wants all of you, he accepted that from the moment he hoisted you into the box, to the moments when he firmly settles the collar around your throat every morning.

Soft smile settling onto your face you hand over the paper, not ignoring the way your knuckles brush against your masters during the exchange.

You wait with baited breath as he looks the paper over, you know he would never say anything demeaning about your art but you can’t help feel a little anxiety when letting someone in on something special to you. Todays drawing is a rough sketch of your for a saw trap, it’s grisly and frankly disgusting, you don’t envy anyone that would end up strapped down and desperate on the other end of it. Obviously you have no need for a contraption like that, but it’s only an (admittedly) sick fantasy.

After flicking through the diagrams and reading the notes as best he can (it’s not your fault he can’t read you’re handwriting well 🙄) a strange look crosses his face..it’s almost like you can see the cogs working in his brain. this could either be fantastic or a disaster, Asa isn’t one to do things half assed, it’s always all or nothing.

“Can I use this?” The silence is suddenly broken, his sclera eyes raising to meet your own, not any less eerie than when hidden behind his mask.

A strange feeling begins to pool in your stomach, should you feel exited? Proud that he wants to use your plans? Or disgusted? Sick to your stomach that the plans you never envisioned actually coming to fruition will be used to torture some poor individual? Unsure how to feel or respond you stare back at him, lips slightly parted as if trying to muster something up.

“These are wonderful cricket, they may need a little tinkering to make them functional but regardless this design is…fascinating.” A sickly sweet smile sits on your masters lips as he hands the paper back to you, ruffling your hair and placing a chaste kiss to the crown of your head.

Stunned and with a pit in your stomach you nod dumbly, leaning into the affection and practically purring. The idea that you’ve just essentially sentenced someone to their painful and unethical demise is soul crushing…but also a little thrilling? Has your owner really rubbed off on you this much? It’s not like you don’t know what he does day in and day out but it’s never been this..personal.

Asa slaps his knees (like the old man he is) and rolls back over to the desk, pushing away his current projects and random hardware to make room for your (his) new trap.

“Can you bring me the paper please, doll?. I would like to get started as soon as possible.”

Shaking off the ever building dread you pull yourself up, a little unsteady due to the burning in your thighs from sitting in one position so long. Placing the paper on his desk you stare back at him, waiting for further instruction. you’re not sure when he ended up ingraining that response into your mind but at this point it’s not worth questioning, it’s not hard to see that the pair of you are living in your own little world outside of normal society by now.

“You’re welcome to either sit by me as I work and give input considering it’s you’re design or you may sit on your bed and wait for me to finish”

You glance over at the cushy pet bed across the room from Asa’s desk…a lay down does sound ideal right now, maybe a nap will help clear your head? Or swallow the guilt.

“I’m gonna lay down sir, maybe nap a little, promise I won’t snore and distract you” you tease, giggling and feeling a little better in yourself.

Asa huffs out a chuckle at your joke. “I’ll be sure you don’t little bug.” He says, smiling gently at you. You turn to leave before being stopped in your tracks.

“One more thing, pet”

Cool gloved hands slide around your neck making you shiver at the contact, the small misplaced silver tag is slid back into its original place, proudly stating your name and owner on the front like a brand.

“There we go, much better”

Blushing a little you thank your owner and wonder off to the dog bed, curling up and lazily watching him work from afar.

[sonic-fankid-showdown]

Poll 5, Round 1.

About Sakura: (by @estellardreams) Sakura is a hedgehog unicorn hybrid that was bio-engineered through a lab experiment into existence. She's bright, hyperactive, headstrong, and optimistic.

About Leo: (by @aexonn) He's 16 years old Created by accident by Tails because he tried to wake them up (related to my Au story so it's a bit long to explain sorry TwT) At 5 years old, G.U.N. found out about his existence and decided to kidnap him; and make Sonic, Shadow and Tails (which they are the only one to know her existence) forget about her. 3 years went by, he go trained and he was tested like a laboratory rat and he finally find a way to escape G.U.N. and runs at their house. Since then, he trains himself for martials arts. He developed some trauma bc of the experiment like : he's scared about loud sounds and sudden physical contact without preventing. He's a trans demi boy.

[mirersc]

-imma have alone the title for now till the cover art is ready, oops-

« LoST SiGNaLs » || I ACT

SUMMARY

“Say, Sonic, how about you and I play a game? Think of it though as a tracking skills test! Bring me within a week the three pieces of the chaos pentagon and I will release your two friends. Refuse and they pay the price. Trick me and well, better for me not to indulge in what I will do in that predicament. Either scenario, I sti~ill win.”

~~~

When Tikal summons Sonic to Angel Island the hero would have never been able to imagine what would follow after. It is unbelievable to think that the guardian of the Master Emerald, Knuckles and the ultimate lifeform, Shadow are taken as hostages. As Eggman forces Sonic on a quest to retrieve an old artifact for him, entitled ”Chaos Pentagon”, the blue blur is to set after a journey with the aid of Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega to find the three shards of the object in question.

For them to succeed they will all need to be on the same wavelength. Are they however? And what seems to be the deal with Sonic’s communicator? Secrets are lurking around yet no one bats an eye. Will the trio actually manage to get along in the end to save their friends from the mad scientist?

Set after Sonic Frontiers. Please meet the newly formed team of Lost Signals. Or not so new?

❗link to fic:: here!

Heya, guys! Myler’s here! And guess what? Yep, yep! I have been as well participating in the STH Big Bang 2024 event with all the amazing writers and artists you have seen so far! Today is the last posting day so everyone is hoping that you will still enjoy the third batch’s works.

I participated as a writer on the event and I came up with a work called “Lost Signals” featuring a story around Sonic, Rouge and Omega because I thought it would be an interesting team to search the bonds between them.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to produce all the work since I didn’t work well with my given time, but it had still been a blast to write as far as I got, successful managing to cover ACT 1!

Big thank you to the @sthbigbang for hosting this lovely event! You guys rock and without y’all this event wouldn’t have happened and none if all these works would have been made. We will always remember the fun times we had while contributing in the event and the friendships or acquaintances we made along the way. You better take the credit you are been given for you deserve them!

🥁

And now ladies and gens and creaturas, a big THANK YOU to all the wonderful artists that accompanied me in this journey, @rapidhighway @rohansoutsidemydoor @petitcanard and despite my incompetence and FUULL delay, heh, they saw it through and were as supportive as one could be! Truly I wouldn’t have made it without them.

Be sure to congratulate them and check their astonishing art pieces for they are sure captivating and pretty much describing without words the story for you all to listen to and imagine~

@rapidhighway :: art! → CH 1 “Spirit’s Worry” who doesn’t love a laid-back sonic the hedgehog? I truly adore sooo much this art piece! The calm before the storm *cough cough*. I specifically got drawn by the flowers– like c’mon! They are so pretty! And palm trees. The colours all so vibrant and for real Green Hill couldn’t have looked any better! Dare I say I envy him -only at the beginning :)), shh-

@petitcanard :: art! → CH 4 “Mirror, mirror on the Wall” this art piece finalized the outfits and accessories of the characters which they all rooock!!! You can all see perfectly well from this specific work how the interactions have between Sonic, Rouge and Omega. I love how Omega wants to fry Sonic! “A not-completely-functioning team” she described them, which is indeed right, hehe.

@rohansoutsidemydoor :: art! → CH 8 “Keep away. Don’t come closer. Danger! Stop!” this made me write chapter 8 faster than the speed of sound! The realization, the mystery, the agony. Breathtaking! The expressions of the characters do make me have chills running down my spine and the blazy environment of the art, is top. They did the specific moment justice! << SPOILERS >>

Another part of my gratitude certainly goes to my beta reader @lunesart who despite my inactiveness at some point she was sure to check up on me and helped me lots with her useful tips and guidance. The speech without her would have been very dry and more complicated in comparison to the final result. Sooo special kudos to her too ✨!

Also– before I wrap things up– HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂 SONIC 🌀💨 !

[meetinginsamarra]

mayprompts2024 #16, experiment

Read parts 1-11 on AO3 here

Part 12 only on tumblr so far

++++++

The Perfect Place - Part Thirteen

John put the skull back on its place on the mantelpiece and pointed at the dagger Sherlock had stuck into the wood to keep several letters in place. He frowned and gave Sherlock a disapproving look.

“You shouldn’t keep such a sharp dagger in the wood.” John chided.

Oh dear, here come the admonishments, Sherlock thought.

He braced himself against what John was likely about to say. “It’s dangerous to keep a sharp object here. People could get hurt.” Or “You’re destroying the wood, it’s difficult to repair damage like this.”

John continued. “It’s really bad for the blade, it’ll get dull, you know? Also, the tip might break and get stuck in the mantelpiece. It would be a shame to ruin such a fine dagger.”

“Erm, okay?” Sherlock stuttered, surprised, “Yes, will do.” Not what I expected.

When John peeked under the sofa, he pulled out the Turkish scimitar that Sherlock had already missed.

“Oh, great, you found it! I’ll be needing it tomorrow.” Sherlock called out happily.

“What for?” John brandished the scimitar and made some thrusts into Sherlock’s direction. “You going to waylay guileless travellers?”

“No, of course not.” Sherlock decided to test John’s sense of humour. “I’ll need it to chop the remains from the latest flatmate-candidate. He insulted Billy and therefore he had to die.”

John looked Sherlock straight into the face, utterly deadpan. “Good then that I didn’t. Also, you’d better use this letter-holding dagger for precision cuts through the corpse’s joints.”

They stared at each other for three long seconds before they exploded into raucous laughter.

For the next ten minutes, Sherlock watched John hopping excitedly around the sitting-room, ogling things, pawing bits and fondling bobs.

It was an amazing sight of utter joy.

Sherlock was reminded of a toddler experiencing their first Easter egg hunt in a magical wonderland. He suppressed the urge of handing a basket to John so that he could put the found treasures inside for later perusal.

(Others might have been reminded of a squirrel suffering from dementia, getting excited over and over again about finding the same nuts it had hidden juts several minutes ago, thinking they were new.)

(And yet others would have thought of a cuddly hedgehog searching for windfall like apples and pears to gain weight for the next winter.)

John commented on every mysterious, unusual, weird or quirky object that he picked up, showing it to Sherlock and silently asking for more information, data that Sherlock was more than happy to provide.

“Are you needing a cup of tea as bad as I?” John asked after a lot of talking, “I’m parched.”

(Also, his throat was terribly dry from all the dust he had inhaled while scrutinizing Sherlock’s things.)

“Let’s make some,” Sherlock offered, “and you could have a look at the kitchen.”

Sherlock put the kettle on while John first commented on the lovely choice of green tiles on the kitchen wall and then asked about the array of chemistry equipment on the kitchen table.

“I’m doing a lot of experiments here,” Sherlock explained, “to gather data and evaluate clues in order to solve the crimes that I consult on.”

(This was true, of course. Also, it sounded much better than the whole truth. Namely, that Sherlock followed mostly some whims he had when he was bored and just experimented with whatever was available to him. He had produced mountains of laboratory journals with millions of spreadsheets of data that nobody would ever use. Like one of his latest obsessions when he had tested the durability of mummified Guinea pig embryos after being exposed to various kinds of acids and then thrown against a bed of nails.)

“What is it you’re currently experimenting on?”

“I’m measuring the coagulation of saliva after death.” Sherlock replied and poured the hot water over a teabag.

“Interesting.” John said. “I’ll get us some milk.” He reached for the handle of the fridge.

Sherlock suddenly remembered where the saliva had come from and an electric shock of terror struck him.

“No, don’t open…” he began to shout.

But it was already too late.

“… the fridge.” Sherlock whispered.

John’s shriek reverberated in the deadly silence that followed.

+++++

tagging some people @calaisreno @totallysilvergirl @lisbeth-kk @peanitbear  @raina-at

[readyangel-1]

@sonicfashionweek This is a drawing I really wanted to make of Shadow and Rouge as Y2K and Alt. I had so much fun with this. I had so much fun testing out the aesthetics of the clothing with how they would match the personality of them.

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

im sorry shadow's backstory is What

oh i LOVE explaining this to people so let me clarify: everything i am about to tell you is one hundred percent canon. everything. you can look it up on the wiki or playthroughs of sonic adventure 2 and shadow the hedgehog if you dont believe me.

so

shadow the hedgehog was created in a test tube in space we'll start there

he was created on a space colony by eggman's grandfather, dr gerald robotnik.

gerald was working with the government to make an "ultimate lifeform" in order to achieve immortality. his main motivation is to find a cure for his granddaughter maria, who has a rare chronic illness called "NIDS" which is. AIDS. it's just AIDS. anyway she doesn't have long to live unless he can figure out this ultimate lifeform thing

gerald tries to make this thing but it just makes a really big lizard that wants to kill things so he stashes it in the space-basement and hopes that won't cause problems later

in order to actually make the ultimate life form this time he makes a deal with.... a fucking demon alien hivemind leader from a creepy comet that circles the planet

if you have seen the shadow snapcube fandub, this is the devil from the bible. canon name is black doom

so gerald takes some of black doom's dna and uses it to make shadow the ultimate lifeform

yes this means shadow has two dads

gerald does figure out the demon alien is probably gonna betray him tho so he builds a giant fuck-off canon on the space colony in case they need to kill him

shadow is raised on the ark alongside maria as his sister-figure if not like literal sister. the two of them have never been off the space station and dream about seeing earth

unfortunately the military finds out that there's like suuuper deadly weapons on this ship and they're like "wtf we're the us military nobody can make deadly weapons but us" so they do what any sane person would do

they go on the space colony and massacre everyone

seriously. some people managed to escape through escape pods but like they just kill everyone. one survivor in shth clarifies that his entire family died that day

the military also shoots and kills maria in front of shadow. while she doesn't have a canon age in the games, the anime lists her as twelve

maria manages to send shadow off in an escape pod before dying and asks him to take care of the earth for her and give the people on there a chance to be happy because she's a fucking angel

the military finds shadow's escape pod tho oops

anyway gerald was taken into police custody and when he finds out maria is dead he literally SNAPS and decides that blowing up the planet sounds like a good idea

he figures he wont be able to do anything in his prison so he finds shadow and MANIPULATES HIS MEMORIES to make him think maria made him promise revenge, then tells him to use the cannon he built for the demons and use it to blow up the whole planet

the military then puts shadow in cryo and EXECUTES GERALD BY FIRING SQUAD ONSCREEN

shadow is then woken up by eggman after a 50 year timeskip

schenanigans happen and he ends up deciding not to take revenge and then he dies. but wait he didn't die he just fell to earth and lost all his memories so the demon alien dad manipulates him into revenge again. then shadow gets his memories back and kicks his dad's ass

and now he's just kinda hanging out

and we are going to see ALL OF THIS in a CHILDREN'S MOVIE december 20 2024

[sonicpilled]

Pull You From Your Guilt (Zombic AU)

Chapter Two

Content warnings: mention of suicide, unhealed sh

word count≈ 3500

sonic + shadow (hurt/comfort)

“Sonic was dead. Shadow knew that. He held his bleeding body in his arms, he saw him in his casket as it was closed and lowered into the ground. He was gone. He wasn’t going to come back. Whoever, or whatever, he’s stumbled upon at the cemetery couldn’t have been Sonic.”

!!!ty everyone for the support on the first chapt.. pls enjoy. or hate. luv ya!

A week before that particular cemetery visit, Dr. Ivo Robotnik finally greenlighted his final plan. For the 3 months after Sonic’s death, he had been keeping it in the dark, testing and calculating the outcomes. It was one of many options he had prepared if the hedgehog ever died by something other than the doctor. A mix of chemicals, dangerous acids, and other hazardous products was dumped into the soil of Sonic’s grave. The contamination would affect the body in 5-7 days.

\\

The air was freezing, as autumn nights at 2:00 am usually were.

It was dark, the blue moon was the only light source for regular eyes. It was thanks to his alien half that Shadow could even see the disorder right before him, as he stood there. He narrowed his eyes at the tombstone, and the pile of dirt, and looked around the graveyard. At first, Shadow thought maybe some kind of pest was messing with the grave, but the rustling of the nearby bushes and long blades of grass was telling another story. If Sonic’s grave was defiled, the culprit wouldn’t get away with it. Shadow would make sure of it.

“Whoever's out there,” He started, his voice low as he became cautious of his surroundings. His quills stiffened, as he became on edge at the thought of grave robbers disrupting the hedgehog’s rest. “You’d be a fool to keep hiding.”

Shadow’s ear twitched at the crackling sound of a breaking twig, along with footsteps on the grass. He began to mutter the words that drew chaos energy from the palm of his hand, preparing to demolish whoever was about to show up.

“Chaos..” he stared carefully, as he took one step away from the tombstone and raised his hand.

He stared intently at where the noise came from, his quills and fur now bristled. The soft-sounding footsteps on the grassy hill made him glare in that particular direction. The moment he spotted a figure rise from behind the granite headstone, he raised his hand, about to finish the dangerous phrase.

“Wait!”

Shadow froze. He knew that voice. He drew his hand back, slowly. He shook his head, knowing that this was, again, a terrible dream. The faintly blue figure that was once hiding behind the granite carefully unfolded from its defensive pose. And then Shadow saw those green eyes. They were dulled at the moment, but he knew that shade of green.

It couldn’t be him. It couldn’t have.

Sonic was dead. Shadow knew that. He held his bleeding body in his arms, he saw him in his casket as it was closed and lowered into the ground. He was gone. He wasn’t going to come back. Whoever, or whatever, he’s stumbled upon at the cemetery couldn’t have been Sonic. For a moment, it was completely and utterly silent. No words could come out of either one of them. Shadow just stared, bewildered, into those green eyes. And those same eyes just stared right back.

It stayed that way for a bit, the faint sounds of the cold wind and far-away creaking of the iron gate. About a thousand thoughts were racing through Shadow’s mind, as he took a deep breath. He closed his eyes, quills only a bit raised as he tried to think about the situation. Part of him wanted to believe that this was just another bad dream, yet the other half of him was just hoping that this was some kind of miracle that resulted in Sonic being back.

“..Shadow,” that voice spoke ever so gently, as if they were as confused as Shadow was. That voice that was so undeniably him. It had to be him. It had to be Sonic. He recognized that voice anywhere, and to hear it that soft… it made him really hope this was a dream, just so he could imagine that he was with him again.

“Sonic...” Shadow whispered, as he took a slow step forward. That voice drew him in, his need for this unknown being to be Sonic just growing even more. He needed to see him again, and not in a coffin.

The figure carefully stepped forward, out of the pitch darkness. The moonlight shined on him slowly, revealing his appearance bit by bit. His fur was not a vibrant but muted cobalt blue, though a little matted. The color of his muzzle and arms were both a greenish yellow. His quills were unkept and a bit tangled, let down, and unstyled. He lifted his head wearily, and Shadow’s breath hitched.

It had to be Sonic.

The way this hedgehog looked at him, those green eyes, that face. It had to be him. It quickly became difficult for Shadow to convince himself it wasn’t him. His expression softened, a little bittersweet frown on his face. The cool air breeze rustled the leaves and flowers, as well as the fur of the two hedgehogs. Shadow sighed deeply, taking another step towards the blue hedgehog. If this really is a dream I'm having, he thought to himself as he looked down at him with tired eyes, I want to make the most of it.

So, he leaned down, gently wrapping his arms around the hedgehog, tightly hugging him. His body was cold, and shivering a bit in Shadow’s arms as he leaned into his touch. Shadow held him tightly. He felt too real for this to be a dream.

This.. this was Sonic.

Wasn’t it?

“I got this for you,” Sonic noted softly, toying with the soft, green scarf. He took in a shaky breath, as he pulled away slightly. He looked up at Shadow, then around the gloomy graveyard. “I… I really don't understand what’s going on. Maybe I was given something, dunno.. Everything’s.. out of place.”

“It seems so,” The black hedgehog nodded as he followed Sonic’s gaze, until their eyes met again. He looked exhausted, his irises dulled out. Everything about him looked… sick. Either way, this was much better than the last time he ever held him. “What are you even doing here, Sonic?”

“I guess I dunno. Why… Why am I still here? Did I really screw that up, too?” Sonic joked hesitantly, clearly upset about his mind being all foggy, and only sort of remembering his final moments. Shadow wasn’t all there either, as he stared at the ground again. Of course, he knew exactly what Sonic meant by his words. It definitely wasn’t something he should be joking about. Especially not to his face.

“Sonic… Do you actually think your attempt failed?” Shadow started carefully, a little frown on his face as he stared at the granite tombstone and mess of dirt right behind Sonic. “You died.”

All Sonic could do was stare at him in disbelief, waiting for further elaboration. How could he be dead? Was this just a cruel joke? Was he in a coma? If anything, he just assumed he was dreaming in the hospital. The air was cold, and his body felt gross. Sonic felt like he knew this cemetery, it looked familiar to him in some kind of way.

“I held your dead body in my arms. I went to your funeral. You died, Sonic.” Shadow spoke a bit more urgently now, narrowing his eyes at him. He wasn’t entirely sure anything that was happening at the moment was actually real, but he was still upset and how nonchalant Sonic was being. Did he just… not care?

“Then why am I here? Why am I breathing and speaking to you? See, your story has a ton of plotholes, dude,” Sonic laughed awkwardly, falling silent as he stared at the soil. The truth was that he was thinking the same thing. Sonic thought maybe he survived, but part of him was wishing he didn’t. It was unexplainable, really. Shadow groaned, taking a deep breath. This really was Sonic, wasn’t it?

“..I found you. In the bathroom, that night you left,” He spoke quietly, gently grabbing hold of Sonic’s hand. That night you left me, went unspoken. His gloves were a bit ripped, the ends of the fabric fraying. He glanced down, seeing the shredded skin of Sonic’s wrist. Unhealed, though a bit cleaned up for the open casket. It all came together, making only a tiny bit of sense now. The dullness of his eyes and fur, the dirt all over him. Sonic didn’t take good care of himself to begin with, but he was even more unkempt than usual. 3 months of decomposition must have messed him up.

He was dead. Half-dead, atleast. Shadow sighed, quickly looking away. “Look at yourself.”

Sonic frowned, slightly offended until he looked at his body, seeing what made Shadow look away. He thought he just felt like he was rotting. Maybe this was some kind of nightmare. “Ah.”

He looked up at Shadow, his face a mix of feelings and emotions. What the hell are you supposed to say to someone after they’ve seen you dead?

They stared at each other for a while, until a few stray droplets of water fell on their heads. Sonic blinked, snapping out of his staring as he looked up at the dark sky. His nose scrunched up as more drops of rain fell on the both of them. Shadow’s annoyance died down, as he watched the rain fall along with Sonic’s reaction.

“Hey,” Shadow said gently, a hand reaching up to carefully pet his head to calm him down a little. He knew Sonic was too out of it to even think of complaining about getting wet. “Let's… get you out of the rain, and clean you up. Maybe things will make sense then.”

Sonic glanced at Shadow instead of the sky and quickly nodded. He knew him too well. Shadow held his hand, carefully avoiding his wrist so as to not worsen those wounds, and led him out of the cold and dark cemetery. It was quiet, then, as they walked. The sounds of their soft footsteps along the grass and the slightly louder ones along the concrete walkway could be heard, along with the sprinkled raindrops against the grass.

Shadow took him out of that gloomy place, past the granite tombstones and dead flowers and the creaking and rusting iron gates of the graveyard. He climbed onto his motorcycle and gestured for Sonic to do the same. The blue hedgehog smiled sweetly, his tail slowly wagging as he hopped on. As Shadow shifted the gears of the bike, Sonic wrapped his arms around his waist. He paused, seeing him cuddled up close to him in the corner of his eye. Shadow huffed, a sweet wave of familiarity washing over him. He missed this. He missed him. And It seems he wasn’t the only one.

The two rode through the (at the moment) quiet city of Westopolis, together in the rain. The sun had just started to rise, the traffic nonexistent, the exception being just a few cars passing by. Shadow had been with Sonic at his state of most excited hyperness, his state of overwhelmed anxiousness, and his state of drained and nonverbalness. It wasn’t outlandish to see Sonic this quiet, as he softly purred and held him tightly. In a way, Shadow was proud of himself, he was one of the only people who got to see Sonic this way.

“So… Where are we headed?” Sonic spoke up, watching the mellow blues and teals of the sky as the sun woke up. Shadow was tired, and dazed, but somewhat relieved. It was like normal again. Normal enough, atleast, with these motorcycle rides through the city. Though at the moment it wasn’t loud and exciting, Shadow appreciated this, too. It was nice… being with him again.

“My apartment.” Shadow replied quietly, glancing at Sonic before staring ahead. He nodded in acknowledgement, pulling his gaze away from the beautiful sky and drawing it towards the black hedgehog he was holding onto. He sighed softly, holding on a little tighter.

They got to Shadow’s place, as he locked up his motorcycle to the bike rack just right outside the building. As soon as they got under some protection from the rain, Sonic shook all the water off of his quills and fur. Shadow watched him in amusement, a little chuckle coming out of him as they stepped into the building. He looked around, as they walked up the stairs. He knew this apartment complex well, having been there a bunch of times. They took the elevator, Sonic tapping his foot against the stone flooring, another common stim of his. While Shadow was content with the silence, it only made Sonic nervous.

“You think I’d ever get to go back to my own place, Shadz?” He started, as the elevator doors opened. Shadow hummed in thought, walking down the dimly lit hall as Sonic followed.

“…No. I’m pretty sure someone’s already moved in,” Shadow shrugged, stopping as they got to his door. Sonic frowned a bit, staring at the wooden flooring as Shadow unlocked the door to his apartment.

“Ah… that tracks,” Sonic muttered, as he fidgeted with his hands. It shouldn’t surprise him. He was dead now. It was bound to happen. “Um. Who has all my stuff?”

“I have some of your belongings. Tails and Amy, too. Tails mostly.” Shadow spoke calmly, though he could sense Sonic being upset due to his fidgeting. He unlocked the door, taking his boots off and setting them aside before he walked in. Without those, he was around Sonic’s height now, maybe just a smidge taller. He glanced at Sonic’s dirty and messed up shoes, the soles ripped. He sighed. “Take your shoes off, you’ll bring in the mud.”

Sonic nodded, slipping out of the frayed and ragged shoes before he stepped in. Oh, Tails.. he paused, as he thought about his brother. How is he holding up? How did he handle it? How is anyone handling it? How long has it even been? He hadn’t even thought to ask. He… didn’t think about any of this when he first woke up. Does that make him a bad person? Shit, shit, shit..

As Shadow set his keys down and took off his scarf, Sonic stayed there in front of the doorway. He stared at the ground, his fidgeting only getting worse as he took a deep breath. “How… How long has it been since…”

Shadow was slipping out of the leather jacket as he spoke, hanging it on the chair in the kitchen. “Since..?”

“How long has it been since I killed myself, Shadow?” He snapped at him, his voice shaky. Shadow’s calm expression wavered, as he turned to Sonic. The blue hedgehog rambled to him a bit loudly, waving his hands around as he spoke. His breathing was rapid, his quills raised and his fur bristled. “I-I just- I’m thinking about it now. I’m thinking about all of it now. I know what I did to myself, I know that it was horrible. I hurt a lot of people by doing it. I was so, so, so fucking selfish! I shouldn’t even be here!”

“Hey.. Hey,” Shadow whispered patiently, his fur a bit bristled from Sonic’s yelling, yet knew he was upset. He had every right to be. He knew it was going to all crash down on him soon enough. He carefully came over to him, holding one of his hands. “Sonic, please, try to breathe a bit. You’re only tiring yourself out.”

“Ughh..” he sniffled, the hand-holding effectively grounded him, like Shadow intended it to. His breathing slowed only a bit, as Shadow raised a hand to softly stroke his head. He wiped a tear off his cheek, and guided him to the antique couch in his apartment. He sat Sonic down, as he continued the petting.

“…Three months,” he spoke softly, looking intently at Sonic while he avoided eye contact. He rubbed soothing circles into the fur of his hand. “It’s been three months, Sonic.”

Sonic fell silent, nodding as he tapped his finger on the fabric of the couch. Three months… He sighed, now tracing the floral patterns with his fingertips. “I just.. I left everyone behind, Shadow. I left you behind,” He spoke quietly, a wince on his face at what he was going to say next. “Don’t you hate me?”

Shadow held his hand a little tighter, shaking his head slightly. “Sonic, I could… never hate you,” He spoke reassuringly, a bit hurt that he would even consider that. “I love you. And you did leave people behind, but you were hurting. I know you were. Don’t dismiss your own pain.”

Sonic looked up at him wearily, a few more tears falling from his eyes.

“…I love you too.” He spoke softly, letting himself be pet by Shadow. He calmed him down. He always knew what to say, Sonic was grateful for that. Although he sounded honest, Sonic just couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t true.

“If you’ve calmed down enough, do you want a bath? You’re.. covered in dirt.” Shadow talked quietly, glancing at Sonic’s fur and quills that were messy and had much more than just dirt caked onto him. Now in proper light, he saw how rotted he really looked. He shook it off, even if it irked him a bit. Sonic, mentally exhausted from the moment he woke up in the cemetery, nodded. Shadow smiled, kissed his head, and led him to the bathroom.

He stopped at the bathtub, glancing at Sonic with a bit of a worried expression. Maybe it was too soon. “Are you going to be okay?”

Sonic stared for a moment, until he realized he was supposed to say something. Tired, he gave a thumbs up. “mhm.”

“…Alright.” He shrugged it off, as he turned the water on.

Usually, after battles or quarrels in bad weather, the two were left in bad condition. It was a little ritual they had going, cleaning each other up when the other got messed up. Washing the mud out of ones fur, bandaging the others wounds, it was one of their many weird ways of showing affection. Maybe this was the same. Or maybe it was something completely different.

Gently, Shadow scrubbed the dirt and grime out of Sonic’s fur. That pretty blue wouldn’t be so vibrant again, but Shadow did what he could to clean up his hedgehog. He carefully went around the wounds on Sonic’s body, not wanting to worsen any of them. He knew his scars wouldn’t heal. Those cells and tissues were long gone. As he saw them scattered all over his arms and thighs, he sighed deeply.

“Oh, Sonic..” he whispered softly, as he moved on to shampoo. Sonic frowned a bit, he wasn’t sure if he was embarrassed or ashamed.

Once that was through, he wrapped him in a towel and let him be alone for a bit in the bathroom. His fur dripping wet, Sonic walked over to the mirror. He shook the water off of his body, even if Shadow already had given him a towel. He stared at himself for a bit, taking note of his tired eyes and overall sickly new face. he sighed. Is this what I am now..? he thought to himself, glancing at the bathtub drained of its water and then back to himself in the mirror. He looked down at his wrists, seeing the messy fur and cuts all over. They’d never fade. They’d never go away.

Sonic brushed his teeth, using the toothbrush he kept there at Shadow’s apartment for whenever he’d stay over. Then, he went into the cabinet and grabbed the first aid kid. He wrapped his wrists in bandages, and walked out of there.

Shadow was in his bed, staring at the ceiling. The tv was on, the news was on the screen. But it was all background noise for him. He was completely lost in his thoughts. Was anything that happened that day actually real? He went to visit him after a terrible dream, and then all of this happened. He had no clue. Maybe in the morning, it’ll all go back to normal. He took in a deep breath, sitting up as Sonic walked in. Completely dry, his fur was all fluffy.

“Hey,” Shadow spoke gently, waving him over to come and sit. Sonic tilted his head, a little sleepy smile on his face. Even if it was 6:00 now, they were both exhausted.

“…Hey,” Sonic nodded, climbing into the bed with him. He yawned, glancing at the tv. as he curled up next to Shadow.

“Starting with today and throughout the whole week, it’ll be pouring rain! We couldn’t think of a joke for that, even if weather puns are usually a breeze.” The reporter talked joyfully, the weather forecast showing up on the tv. Quietly, Sonic snickered. And then he laughed, loudly. Shadow smiled softly.

“That was not funny, and you know it.” He joked, a little smirk on his face as he watched Sonic catch his breath.

“Oh, shut up, dude! You’re literally smiling!” Sonic spoke cheerfully, grinning up at him. Shadow was smiling. And It definitely wasn’t because of the stupid pun, but he wasn’t going to tell Sonic that.

Eventually, Sonic fell asleep. Shadow stayed awake a bit longer, petting his head. He was thinking about a lot of things, still, as he hazily watched the news and held Sonic carefully in his arms.

“…On a more serious note, the grave of the beloved hero Sonic the Hedgehog, has reported to be… Police and other investigators are searching to…”

The news reporter was saying something, and Shadow really did want to pay attention, but he was exhausted. Now, with his hedgehog in his arms, he felt content. Now, that he had him back…

He really didn’t want to let him go.

ya

i hope it wasnt obvious it got realy self indulgent Lool… i am not trying the best when it comes to accuracy in character writing. just mayb my own personal interpretation of them