#like Shadow's a sympathy retcher

[terra-ediacara]

Collection of silly (and less silly) Shadow headcanons I simply cannot live without that live in my head rent-free forever-

Fangs! Fangs, fangs, fangs- And big bone-crushing carnassials. I don't have a lot to say about this one but just, Shadow with big stupid teeth, ya'll- (plus my lesser headcanon that he snarls and growls all the time because the scientists aboard the ARK couldn't decide whether to treat him like a sophont or like a feral animal, so they chose both and also neither, leaving his instincts confused and leading to him switching wildly between proper gentleman and Resident Semi-feral Alley Cat)

This motherfucker has a sweet-tooth. Especially chocolate. Maria snuck him his first piece after a particularly rough day of procedures and he's been hooked ever since, but literally anything sweet and sugary he's so down.

He's a really good cook! Like a really good cook. He can make something tasty out of almost anything, and is the de-facto chef for Team Dark. He saw Sonic microwaving some shitty dollar-store chili exactly one (1) time, said never again, and now he makes him chili and freezes bags of it for him to use on his chili-dogs. Amy likes to rope him into helping her cook for her parties, which he grumbles about but actually enjoys himself cooking while Amy bakes.

In game/comic-verses, he's either a vegetarian or tends toward vegetarianism. This comes from the Black Arms invasion, the things he saw and did under Doom's control, he can't get the sights and sounds and tastes out of his head. There are days its so bad he can only eat the blandest foods, I'm talking saltines and vegetable broth here, because the horrors hiding in his memories are too strong to overcome, some days. He will still cook meats for his friends, though, as long as he's not having one of his Bad Days (and someone else cuts it up for him). In all other verses where the Black Arms invasion didn't happen/hasn't happened yet, he is Uncomfortably Carnivorous and also Probably Eats Bones (hypercarnivore Shadow with bone-crushing carnassials and giant canines my beloved-)

In terms of environmental temperature, warm over cold, always. Cat rules apply, here. He hates, hates, being cold, probably comes from spending his formative years in the pod which I imagine was kept pretty warm, and despite his trauma with that, being surrounded by warmth is familiar and comforting. Also, procedure tables and surgical suites are cold, very cold (idk how many of you have had the pleasure of being in one awake and aware, but as a veterinary student, holy shit I freeze my ass off in there-) so being cold reminds of these too much.

He has old procedure scars under his fur and a pretty significant amount of medical trauma that makes hospitals his literal nightmare; also chronic neurogenic pain due to inappropriate/lack of intra-op analgesia. The ARK was hell, despite the fonder memories he may have of the Professor and of Maria. The Professor had strict rules on what procedures could be done and under what circumstances, but the other scientists and project heads are stubborn and don't have his attachment level to Shadow. Surgical procedures were some of the worst, especially exploratories and anesthetic-procedure-testing, which often went hand-in-hand and had very little pain control (this was the 50s after all, or 70s for movieverse, and lab-animal protections/veterinary analgesia protocols were Not It, the go-to was pretty much knock 'em down and who cares about silly things like wind-up pain-). As a result, he has surgical scars on midline/flank incision scars, as well as associated chronic neurogenic pain in these and other areas (joints were another favorite of the scientists-) due to the constant nerve stimulation. I could go on for days about wind-up pain and chronic neurogenic pain due to lack of appropriate analgesia ('going under' is more than just knocking out consciousness, my friends). Also the adhesions in his abdomen must be hell, so probably has some digestive issues that make his Bad Days about certain foods even worse.

He's bilingual English and Spanish, as well as fluent in whatever correlates to ASL in universe. The Spanish came from both her and the Professor. Maria in my headcanon is biracial, with her mother being Hispanic, so the Professor wanted her to be able to communicate to someone in her mother's birth language to help her feel more at home on the ARK. Maria taught him the ASL so they could talk when they weren't supposed to. The ASL plays well with one of my Sonic headcanons that the speedster sometimes gets too overstimulated/overwhelmed (ADHD is more than just squirrel! and i-can't-find-anything-im-so-silly moments, my friends-) and will sort of return to his selectively mute days. Shadow took notice during one of these episodes, repeated whatever he said before in sign so Sonic knew he could understand him, and the carried on whatever back-and-forth psuedo-argument they would have had anyways.

He is NOT a morning person, and tends to sleep in if he has the time- also, night-terrors. He's not one to laze around; once he's up, he's up, but he has trouble falling asleep (and staying asleep, honestly) so he's a slow-riser in the morning. This goes into him having nightmares and full one night-terrors, which is why he finds it even harder to sleep if he's sleeping next to someone; he hates showing weakness, and anyone seeing him in the throws of a night-terror, to him, is a humiliating prospect. In any verse with Sonadow or Shadamy (I love being a multi-shipper I eat so good on this site lol-) it takes him a long while before he's comfortable sleeping (literally sleeping, in this sense lol) next to them with any regularity.

Do NOT talk to him before he's had at least two cups of coffee, and the coffee better be blacker than his soul. Maybe a tiny splash of some basic ass creamer if he's feeling okay-er than usual. This goes along with the last point and kinda against the first point, but in the morning, he's out there fighting for this life lol. He just wants to be awake and get his wits about him, probably has a headache from not getting an actual rest, Do Not Interact (this goes double for Sonic's morning-person, chatty-Cathy, unmedicated-ADHD ass). He has sweeter type coffee drinks during the day sometimes as a treat, usually because Rouge or Sonic got them for him.

He listens to old crooners on a real, brass-horn gramophone. His favorite artist is Nat King Cole, but he listens to all sorts- Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, you name it. Swap this for 70's music on a tape deck for movie-verse. If he's alone, he'll sing along with them and actually has a very nice singing voice.

He's an avid reader. He used to sit and read all the time with Maria, especially on those days were her treatments and the procedures the scientists carried on him were too much for either of them to have energy leftover. He likes mystery novels and romances as his bread-and-butter comfort genres, but when he's feeling adventurous he'll read old myths or historical fiction (fantasy/medieval period-pieces are his favorites, King Arthur anyone?)

He watches telenovelas with Rouge, usually while drinking red wine. Or Stone for movie-verse, minus the wine cause child (probably gives him like bubbly grape juice). This is sort of coming from the bilingual thing, but also he's a ✨Dramatic✨ little creature, let's be real here- I mean he says things like "I'm the coolest" and calls himself the Ultimate Lifeform unironically. He plays it off as just watching with Rouge to help translate things for her since she's fluent but not as immersed in the context of the language as Shadow is, but it's usually him reminding her of new episodes coming out they need to watch.

He's a really, really good friend. He plays it off like he's not, like he's still a lone wolf out there on his own, but touch his friends and he will not hold back. He likes to hang out with Rouge and go shopping with her (again, claims it's just to keep an eye on her and keep the creeps away, but she always takes him to his favorite music shops and thrift stores, too). He spars with Omega or sometimes sits with him and just people-watches, since they're both sort of out here trying to learn (or in Shadow's case, re-learn) just how to be a person in modern society. As he gets closer with Sonic and Co., he finds he really loves Amy's company, too, and her perspectives on a lot of things are interesting to hear. Sparring with Knuckles is fun, too, almost as fun as sparring with Omega. He treasures his races with Sonic (pry this information from his cold dead body- or get him drunk and he might spill), and when they have quiet moments to sit under the stars, he might actually discover he has more in common with the speedster than he originally thought.

Just- Shadow, ya'll. Fuck I love this little gremlin so much-