#like yeah they all know I saved Antoine during a fight

[seagull-scribbles]

I like to think Antoine and Bunnie have big Gomez and Morticia vibes. Permanently in the honeymoon stage, regularly telling anecdotes about when they met/dated/got married. They deserve that. 🥰

Every dance is their first dance xx

I think a lot of their friends are just surprised by how well they work together? They don’t have a whole lot of stuff in common. But is is their differences they bond over for sure x shared trauma from the war aside, it's just like:

Pausing a movie to have a passionate debate over where they think a story is going, to share each others cultures and traditions, letting the other convince them to try activities they would never consider- it is in that appreciation and discovery of the world and the life within that they find themselves truly connecting 💕

[stevesnightmares]

Ranking 46 of the agents of SHIELD deaths

In honour of the deaths that we'll get in the series 7 finale I decided to rank some of the agents of shield deaths. It's not super accurate cause I didn't rewatch anything, but more or less it's how I feel.

I tried putting the read more but it doesn't work

46.

Antoine Triplett

You'd think I would put this really high but you'd be wrong. Was it really sad? Absolutely. But was it also unnecessary and pointless? Yes. He died for nothing. Absolutely NOTHING. I could talk about how pointless his death was for hours.

45.

Agent Davis (s06e10)

This was so shocking and I was so mad. I started to LOVE Davis SO MUCH, he was great and they just,,,, killed him??? Like that??? And again, as for Tripp, it was unnecessary. I understand killing characters but this one just felt like they killed him just to kill him, not because there was a reason.

44.

Daniel Whitehall (s02e10)

While I was so happy that he died I was also extremely mad, disappointed and underwhelmed. Because Coulson shooting him in the back wasn't only underwhelming but it also upset me because I wanted Cal to get his revenge, it wasn't fair.

43. 

Phil Coulson (s07e06)

I'm sorry but I just couldn't care less. I felt absolutely nothing at all. I knew they were just going to build him a new body. Sure, the speech in the background was really really good but the death itself left me completely unfazed.

42.

Wilfred Malick (s07e05)

Again, didn't really care about him. He was okay in episodes 1 and 2 but soon after I just stopped giving a shit about him. A bit higher than Coulson cause he's a Nazi and it's always nice to see them get what they reserve.

41.

Holden Radcliffe (s04e15)

This is one of his three deaths and it's actually the one I care the least about. All I could think about when AIDA killed him was how much of an idiot he was for telling her that on how obvious it was what she was going to do.

40. 

Izel (s06e13)

She's probably my least favorite villain that we ever got in aos and I just didn't care about her or her motives at all. Her singing was nice tho. When she died I was happy because it meant I didn't have to deal with her as a villain anymore. 

39.

Sarge (s06e13)

He was so interesting and cool at the beginning, and then he was interesting because of his relationship with may and daisy but when we got to the end I just didn't really care about him and was happy to see him. As for izel I didn't feel much about his death. The daisy and mack team up was nice tho.

38.

Sinara (s05e09)

She was a cool character but I didn't really have this big interest in her. She looked cool and her fight scenes were cool, but that's it. Same for her death, the fight with daisy was cool but other than that I didn't really feel much because of her death.

37.

Kasius (s05e10)

At the beginning I wasn't really sold on him but he grew as a villain and became a pretty cool villain. (Not my favorite tho). His fight with mack was cool but again, his death didn't really impact me emotionally.

36.

Gideon Malick (s03e17)

Again, another villain whos death I didn't really care about, however he's a bit higher cause I liked the way his vision came true in a way I wasn't expecting.

35.

Victoria Hand (s01e17)

I didn't necessarily care or like her the reason why it isn't lower is because it was an important part of the plot and for the whole Ward thing

34.

Gordon (s07e10)

Meh. It was sad but I also didn't really care too much about it.

33.

Jaco (s06e09)

A side character that I didn't necessarily love and whose death didn't really upset too much, however I was sad that he had died because he was such a good person who deserved better and I would've preferred if someone else had died.

32.

Gordon (s02e22)

That whole scene just kinds of really rocks. "Science biotch" + the fact that you don't know if it's Fitz or Gordon who got impaled. I don't know, it was cool.

31.

Glenn Talbot (s05e22)

I'm actually not happy with the direction Talbot's character took. The fight with Daisy was awesome but I wasn't sad to see him go because by that point they had just ruined his character for me. I'm sorry.

30. 

Ruby Hale (s05e18)

I didn't like her and I know and understand why people sympathised with her, I just couldn't. So the reason why this is so high is because of Elena and her emotions and reasons. Plus the tension in this scene was so high and it was really emotional.

29.

Jiaying (s07e10)

It was a bit unexpected but also so sad because daisy had to see her mother die again, and this time her mum wasn't trying to kill her but to protect her. However I didn't feel too much during that scene. 

28. 

Christian Ward (s02e08)

This is higher not because of Christian himself but more so because of Ward and everything that happened while he was killing him. It was really interesting for sure.

27.

AIDA (s04e22)

AIDA has SO MANY cool moments that I love and she's probably my favourite aos villain, and her death was okay, but it just left me like "oh okay they burned her and now she's gone". Ghost rider Coulson was brilliant, but her death itself just left me a bit underwhelmed I guess.

26.

Raina (s02e22)

I actually couldn't stand Raina and found her extremely annoying so I was really happy when she died, but it was a really cool scene: seeing Jiaying "betrayal" and daisy being there to witness it.

25.

Enoch (s05e10)

At the time I didn't really LOVE Enoch yet, I thought he was really cool and I was sad to see him sacrifice himself to save everyone, but I didn't really care that much. (If I researched it now it would be 100 time sadder)

24.

Eric Koenig (s01e19)

He was an okay character but i didn't necessarily love him however just the image of his dead body that we can't see with the blood streaming down the wall, Ward cleaning what he used to kill him etc it was all really daunting

23.

Andrew Garner (s03e15)

I don't know if it counts as a death but when Garner turns into Lash  permeability. His scene with May was just so emotional and sad.

22.

Grant Ward (s03e10)

Don't get me wrong, I loved Ward getting his chest crushed by Coulson, but then hive got his body and I know he's not Ward but I was still so annoyed that a part of ward was still there. If it wasn't for that this one would soooo much higher. I just remember being so annoyed that he was somewhat still there.

21.

John Garrett (s01e22)

Not one where Coulson shoots him which is so funny, but the part where Mike gets to beat the shit out of this mf who ruined his whole life and kidnapped his son.

20.

Agent 33 (s02e22)

It was such a cool scene. I don't know why it's so high, but just her being killed by the one person she trusts, him killing the person he's with thinking she's someone else. It's so fucked up and tragic and,,, fitting.

19.

Rosalind Price (s03e09)

I never liked her and never liked her with Coulson but her death scene is such a great scene. I don't know how to explain it but that scene is just so perfect imo. So yeah, this is high not because of the emotional impact but just because it was a beautiful scene.

18.

Melinda May (s06e13)

This one was such an all around cool death scene but also really really emotional. Daisy had already lost Coulson and was devastated by the idea of losing May too. However because she was saved 3 seconds after I literally cannot put it any higher.

17.

Holden Radcliffe LMD (s04e11)

Such a badass Fitz moment where he just takes that gun and shoots him in the head.

16.

Melinda May (s04e03)

I knew that May wasn't going to die and they would bring her back but that scene still manages to be extremely tense and just generally well done. Loved it so much.

15.

Mack's parents chrnicoms (s07e06)

This scene is so brutal. Not only has mack jut found that his real parents are dead but he also has to kill two chrnicoms that look and talk and have his parents memories.

14.

Elena Rodriguez (s05e10)

This one was another really emotional one and I thought it was great, however I can't put it higher because I knew that wasn't the current Elena and I knew they were going to fix it. Still a brilliant scene all around tho.

13.

Jiaying (s02e22)

An all around powerful scene. Jiaying trying to kill her own daughter and then Cal telling Daisy that he would do it so that she wouldn't have to deal with the guilt. Just wow. It was so sad.

12.

Jiaying

Just seeing her being experimented on, her organs being taken away, the fact that Cal found her body and had to sew her back together. It's so horrifying and sad.

11.

Mack and Mace LMD (s04e15)

I'm sorry but that whole fight scene between Daisy and them is so badass and coul and the way Mack's skull was torn apart by daisy was just brilliant.

10.

Holden Radcliffe (s04e22)

At this point I actually cared more about him and I was sad to see him go but more than that the scene was just so well done and I LOVED it.

09.

Melinda May/Phil Coulson LMD (s04e15)

Another brilliant scene but more than that it was so sad because in a way she was May, she had her memories and she felt like May and she had what she had tondo because she would sacrifice herself for Coulson, but that wasn't him.

8.

Jeffree Mace (s04e18)

I actually always liked him but by this point he had grown on me even more. But what I love about this death it's how fitting it is. He had gotten famous because of a lie but here he proved himself, he proved that he is that person and that he deserves the glory that he got.

7.

Robbie Reyes (s04e06)

His death scene is visually so so beautiful. Him flying in the air with the broken glass. Beautiful.

6.

Leo Fitz LMD (s04e15)

Jemma having to stab the person that she loves the most. The way in which he was still begging and acting like Fitz at the beginning and then turned impassive like a robot. It was such a hunting scene.

5.

Lincoln Campbell/Hive (s03e22)

I never really got attached to him but this scene was so sad because of Daisy, because of her pain and desperation. I cried my eyes out in this scene. "He's paying for all of our mistakes".

4.

Hope Mackenzie Framework (s04e22)

That whole scene is just heartbreaking. I don't know what else to say. It's just heartbreaking.

3.

Katya Belyakov (s02e17)

Bahrain is just,,,, again heartbreaking. This is so high because this is such an important moment for May and it's just so heartbreaking. 

2.

Enoch (s07e09)

The fact that this is the second time that he died to save the world and the team. However this time it was 100 times sadder because I didn't just think that he was cool but I actually loved him. Devastating. Cried a lot.

1.

Leo Fitz (s05e22)

I'm biased cause he's my favourite but I just cried my eyes out during his death. It didn't even matter that I knew that he was in season 6 because I was just so devastated.

[incorrectcyranoquotes]

WHY I SHIP CYRANO/DE GUICHE or, answering a question that none of you asked. First of all, it’s all Jacques Weber’s fault. I always loved De Guiche as a character, but the way Weber played the role in the 1990 movie is just heartbreaking. So fuuuck you Weber for making me cry for a man that’s supposed to be the “villain”. And thank you. But let’s talk about De Guiche’s relationship with Cyrano, ok? And let’s do it with screencaps.

Cyrano: [offends Valvert] De Guiche, who should be offended as well: [TINIEST SMILE]

So now we know that De Guiche actually LIKES Cyrano and his humour. And of course he does, he’s smart enough to be able to appreciate it.

NEXT:

De Guiche, trying to not sound desperate: PLS BE MY PERSONAL POET Cyrano: How about no.

Poor Antoine. He just wants Cyrano to write nice things for him. And look at his face HERE:

De Guiche: You’re proud Cyrano: No shit, Sherlock.

One of my favourite things about this scene is the way Antoine looks down the moment Cyrano moves away from him. Like, Antoine, you’re not even trying to hide the fact that you would very much like to kiss Cyrano but you’re too shy to do that. You’re an embarrassment, dude. Speaking of which:

PERSONAL SPACE, ANTOINE. I hope you won’t think me mad if I say that I find this man’s lack of care about personal space hilarious. And he doesn’t do it only with Cyrano, he does it also with Roxane! Which is actually another proof of the fact that he would gladly shag both the Gascon cousins. Shut up, I’m not imagining things.

De Guiche: so I did this shitty, cowardly thing, which actually gained us a small victory. What do you think about it? [internally: please say you worship me. PLEASE] Cyrano: rip to you but I’m different

Can we please talk about Antoine’s constant need for Cyrano’s approval? I mean he’s always talking shit about the man but the moment he performs a minimum act of “””courage””” he immediately runs up to him to tell him about it. So not only Antoine finds Cyrano FUN, he also considers him a role model. Look at his face the first time Cyrano compliments him – I mean, sort of. Let’s say the first time Cyrano acknowledges his personal improvement:

He’s like: “OH. MY GOD. DID HE JUST SAY THAT ABOUT ME? #BLESSED.”

What about the scene where they fight together against the Spanish? We see them acting as one which is great, since they’re actually very similar: both proud, both cultured, both ironic and both Gascon. But it’s not the only important thing: what’s truly importanti is that they recognize each other. For the first time, they truly understand the aforementioned similarity.

De Guiche: I’m not saying we should kiss, but remember that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean 3 where Elizabeth and Will get married during the battle- Cyrano: You know, for a moment I kinda hoped you would kiss me, but then you had to be a fucking nerd about it and now I just want to punch you. [Things that didn’t happen but definitely should have.]

Look at them kicking Spanish butt. How nice.

And then... and then 15 years pass, and still Antoine thinks about Cyrano:

De Guiche, calmly: How is Cyrano doing? Le Bret: Not good. De Guiche, not so calmly: NOT GOOD???

Look at him. Look at him worrying about the love of his life.

Le Bret: Yeah I mean, Cyrano is always the same asshole, spilling tea about all the phony bitches in town. I told him to cut it out, but he won’t listen. De Guiche: [the sweetest smile EVER] 

He’s worried, but he’s also so proud of Cyrano. Had Cyrano been different, had he been more like him, Antoine could have never loved him.

De Guiche: so an asshole told me yesterday that Cyrano could die by accident. TELL HIM TO BE CAREFUL AND STAY INDOORS, for the love of God. Le Bret: [internally: who are you and what have you done with De Guiche???] I’m trying to laugh, but I’m actually dying inside.

De Guiche: In my life I earned nothing but illusions and regrets. Roxane, noticing him become teary-eyed: [internally: oh God, what is this about? Let me say something so that he’ll just go away.] But seriously tho, he looks like he’s about to burst into tears. And I am too right now. Nothing in the world will ever convince me that he’s NOT talking about Cyrano, of course he is, the biggest regret in Antoine’s life is probably not working on becoming worthy of Cyrano’s love. He’s rich and powerful, yes, but he’s lonely. And soon, Cyrano will be dead. Had he talked sooner, maybe he could have saved him. Or maybe not. Cyrano’s devotion to Roxane is stronger than his love for life, we know that.

And Antoine knows that too.

[mobius-prime]

302. Sonic Universe #18

The Tails Adventure (Part 2 of 4): Trouble in Paradise (Part Two): The Honeymoon's Over

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

Well, that's quite a straightforward title, isn't it? No more honeymoon for you, Bunnie and Antoine! With the two lovebirds captured, Tails is left to face Speedy alone. It should be noted that Speedy, despite being a bird and even clearly mentioning wings as something necessary for flight, does not actually fly with his wings. He doesn't even appear to have wings, just ordinary arms, but he flies anyway, just sort of… Superman-ing his way through the air, I guess. Apparently, the Battle Bird Armada considers Cocoa Island to be their private training ground, having moved in sometime in between now and the last time Tails was here, and Speedy has a personal grudge against Tails for his "unnatural" flying, since only birds should fly.

Tails leads Speedy on a chase through a network of caves in the cliffside nearby, and Speedy is amazed at just how fast Tails is able to fly. He manages to catch up and smacks Tails downward, but when he turns around to finish the fight, Tails is mysteriously gone. Speedy then gets a message calling him back to the fleet, so he's forced to leave, while Tails, having concealed himself and T-Pup under an overhang, tries to catch his breath. Despite wanting to save his friends, he's exhausted, and admits he can't come up with a plan without sleeping first, so asks T-Pup to keep watch and wake him in the morning. Fast forward to… the next morning! Bunnie and Antoine have been placed in separate cells next to each other in the Battle Bird Armada's hideout inside the fake island, and apparently while they've been alone, they've come up with a plan, ready to execute it as soon as their captors enter the room.

So! You remember how the Eggman Empire has been expanding their recruits into the Dark Egg Legion lately? And how all those recruits are "legionized" by being outfitted with cybernetic limbs and such? Well, the current Battle Lord, Battlekukku XV (Speedy's father), has in fact mistaken Bunnie for a member of the Legion! She realizes pretty quickly what's going on as he sits her down for a friendly talk, and immediately falls into her new role, graciously "forgiving" the Battle Lord for not recognizing who she was and bragging about how she's a deep cover agent who married Antoine just to investigate the Freedom Fighters from within. She gets him to explain why his Battle Bird Armada is here, finding out that though they're not a part of the Eggman Empire they maintain friendly relations, and that their ultimate goal is to rule the skies and seek out their ancient homeland - though those annoying "rogues" have been hindering them lately. Hey, it's those "rogues" again!

Yeah, so the Babylon Rogues (and Bean the Dynamite) being defectors from the Armada has been hinted at here and there very subtly before now, but given that this is the first time we've actually heard of the Battle Bird Armada it just goes to show just how far into the future Ian plans his plotlines. Also, I know Bunnie is meant to be fibbing here about Tails' abilities, but like, she's not wrong about him being a child soldier. It's just that every other member of the Freedom Fighters is also a child soldier, or was once in the case of those who have aged into adults by now, so it's not even particularly noteworthy by this point. While Bunnie continues to get the Battle Lord talking about his Armada, Tails wakes up and makes his way back to the Sea Fox. It's under guard, but luckily he stopped by his workshop to grab some gas bombs, and thus the guards get to take a nice little nap of their own as Tails uses the Sea Fox to explore the edges of the artificial island from under the water. He can't find a way in, but he does find out that it's connected to Cocoa Island's extensive underground cave system, so he intends to continue his search there. Meanwhile, Antoine gets his cell guard talking in perhaps the greatest callback to the infamous "margarine torture" scene from SatAM to ever grace mine own eyeballs.

'Twan, you gotta be sneakier than that! Speedy calls the Battle Lord and raises the alarm, and Bunnie insists she be the one to pursue the escaped Antoine, as the situation needs her "personal touch." Under the water, Tails finds himself under attack from several of the Armada's troops in submarines of their own, and though he manages to defeat them he doesn't want to risk staying under there any longer, surfacing quickly. Antoine, racing through the base's corridors, happens upon a door and thinks he's found a way out only to be outraged that the door opens into nothingness, a long drop between him and the waves below. He briefly seems confused by something he sees in the water, but then Speedy, Bunnie, and several more Armada troops corner him, and Speedy and Bunnie get into an argument over who should take charge of the situation, during which Speedy clearly mentions her being a double-agent for the Dark Egg Legion. Antoine, hearing this, seems stunned, and Bunnie frantically tries to convince him to come with her so that she can explain things to him in a safe location.

Oh, no! I can't believe Antoine just totally committed suicide on panel in this comic for children! I'm sure this is completely real and not a ruse at all! What a cliffhanger!

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 71

Thank you to @satan-parisienne for being my #1 beta reader and literally writing half this chapter.  So many conversations between us are captured in their essence when Sophia and Tyche interact, but this was such a rare opportunity to transcribe such a conversation. 

There are so many other people I want to thank, but if I thank all of you, this post would be literally just tags. So, I want to include @baelpenrose and @anotherusrname for also being there for everything that doesn’t make it into this story, and @charlylimph-blog for being the light and joy in the world that I wish I could be. 

No worries, this isn’t the last chapter, I just had a really rough week from a mental health perspective.  The show will go on.

At some point during the night, Xiomara vanished with the gorgeous artist. This left my sister, Charly, and myself to annoy Sebastian until the guys could come and rescue… someone.  I wasn’t sure if they saved us or the poor pub-owner. All I could remember after Xiomara leaving was Charly deciding Conor was a good chair: intending to sit on her stool, she had unceremoniously climbed in his lap instead. After some wiggling to figure out the difference, she had pronounced the chair to be soft and warm.

With a snort of laughter that made my eyes water, I had to explain that it wasn’t the chair she was practically wallowing in, it was my boyfriend’s lap. With a very serious look at his face, she had only patted his beard and announced that she understood why I kept him since he was so comfortable and warm. That was the point when Coffey scooped her up, tossed her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and took a still-waving Charly home, and everything else kind of blurred together.

As for myself, I woke up the next morning being tortured for my sins. Someone had decided to play a recording of a cement mixer over a looped track of a chainsaw, at full volume, targeted straight at my ears. Groaning in pain, I covered my ears and quickly realized I didn’t have enough hands to also cover my eyes. The chainsaw stopped abruptly and I felt the mattress dip to my left. I cracked my eye when an arm nudged mine. Maverick was handing me a cup full of something that was quickly snatched away when I tried to sniff it. He brought it back with a pointed look, so I placed my faith in him and chugged it.

If it smelled half as bad as it tasted, no wonder he wouldn’t let me take a whiff – only every shred of self-control I hadn’t exercised the night before kept the concoction my stomach. It tasted like analgesic, so I assumed if I kept it down, the hangover would go away eventually. That didn’t make the act of forcing it to stay in my stomach any easier.

When I no longer felt like my brain was trying to escape my skull through judicious use of a sledgehammer, I took a deep breath and braved opening my eyes. What little light there was in our bedroom was no longer cleverly crafted from sharp objects, and the cement mixer had been replaced by Conor snoring away to my right.

“He took the late shift to make sure you all got home safe,” Maverick whispered softly. “So I agreed to be the one to deal with your hangover.” When I glared at the empty cup he had taken from me, he shrugged and smirked at me. “Analgesic, electrolyte solution, and an anti-emetic.”

“No wonder it tasted like ass,” I grumbled.

Jokingly, he waved a hand in front of his nose before pinching it. “I think you’re just tasting your mouth, honestly.  You really need to brush your teeth.”

Scowling, I ran my tongue over the inside of my teeth – and immediately regretted it. Did I eat a dead rat or something? I whimpered to myself before staggering to scrub the taste of whatever it was out of my mouth.  After a rather prolonged date with my toothbrush as well as a shower, I managed to walk much more gracefully into the kitchen to get some coffee.  Conor had already beat me to it, however, handing me a steaming cup as I walked in. He carefully ruffled my hair – I was still struggling with flashbacks – and bent down so I could kiss his cheek.

I pulled back and arched an eyebrow. “You sure you don’t want that kiss from someone else?” I teased.

“You would never believe how awkward that was,” he deadpanned, rolling his eyes. “Charly’s a nice girl, but I got my hands full with you two. Sides, she’s a bit much for me, you catch my drift.” He gave me a pout and tapped his cheek again.

Giggling, I obliged before going to sit on the couch and putting my head on Maverick’s shoulder. “Do I smell better?” I yawned before sipping my coffee.

“Much,” he exhaled gratefully.

I snuggled in further, now that I was granted approval. “Tyche make it home okay? I’ll admit I don’t remember much.”

“Yeah, she’s fine.  Antoine took her home not long before Coffey came and got Charly.”

“They weren’t sneaky at all, you know?” As I said this, Conor walked in with a quizzical look on his face. “We knew you, Coffey, and Antoine were sitting in the opposite corner all night.  Zach showed up later, hung around for a bit, so did Simon but he headed out kind of early.”

“You weren’t supposed to know,” Conor scowled comically.

“You and Coffey are the two tallest humans on the ship.  Did you really think you were hiding? Especially with Xiomara at the table?”

“She’s got a point,” Maverick laughed. “What is it you always say? Xiomara has horse’s ears?”

Conor tipped his head back laughing. “I said I hadn’t seen her in a donkey’s ears, which just means a really long time. But yeah, I should have known she would see us.  We figured she’d be on our side, not ratting us out.”

I buried my face in Maverick’s shirt, laughing.  Sitting up, I wiped a tear from one eye. “Love.  Xiomara was in the military and trained in hand-to-hand combat, and you don’t want to see what Tyche can do in a fight.  She fights dirtier than mud.  We were safe, I promise.”

“Let us worry,” Maverick pressed a kiss to my temple. “You don’t get to hog all the overprotective instincts, you know. And besides, if any of you ladies thought that Coffey wasn’t going to be watching Charly like a hawk, you’ve lost your minds. I’ve seen what she can get up to when she’s sober. Drunk? No thank you.”

“Speaking of Charly,” I adjusted so I was sitting straighter. “Galactic education starts next week.  She told me she’s in one of the first classes.”

Maverick nodded. “Yeah, same section I’m in, I think. I didn’t recognize the teacher’s name, though.”

“At least that means we know it isn’t Simon,” Conor pointed out with a grin.

“Be nice,” I remonstrated. “Eino administered all his testing for certification, and he’s pretty impressed with Simon.  Even in the practical observation, he did a great job.”

“Wait,” Maverick ventured slowly. “If this is a new curriculum, how is there a practical observation?”

Conor shook his head before reaching forward to squeeze the other man’s knee. “The educators have to go through the course before they can teach it, just like anything else.  They’ve already been trained in how to teach, but need to know what they are teaching.”

I picked up from there with a nod. “Simon, on the other hand, is already familiar with the material but had to go through training to know how to teach. So, two birds, one stone.” Leaning forward, I flicked my wrist to bring up my datapad where everyone could see it. “Simon is one of three people who will be fully reassigned to teaching the Galactic education courses, while every other trained educator on the ship will be teaching one to three sections in addition to their existing coursework.”

“Nearly every other educator,” Conor corrected with a stern look.

“You sound like Tyche.”

“With good reason! You never told anyone you were a teacher!”

“Wait, what – “ Maverick sputtered, confused. “You were!?”

“One, I never actually taught on my own, I changed careers in my last year as a student-teacher. Two, I did tell other people! It just never really came up that often.” When Conor opened his mouth to object, I cut off the statement I knew was coming. “And I have mentioned it to the two of you, so I don’t want to hear it!”

Conor’s mouth shut with a click and realization dawned on Maverick’s face. “All those nights you were going through candidates to teach the courses… You kept saying you would make sure the program succeeded….”

“Even if I had to teach it my damned self,” I finished. “I wasn’t kidding.  All I need is about fifteen more hours practical observation, according to Eino.”

“You asked?” Conor looked skeptical.

“Well, Tyche did,” I admitted. “Just because we were having a hard time finding enough candidates to dedicate their time to just that course.”

“I thought Alistair was a teacher?”

“Librarian,” I corrected. “Totally different skill set, believe me.  I tried suggesting that he teach a section or two, and got an earful about the differences.  Ironically, he gave me a lecture about how he isn’t trained to lecture?” Shaking my head, I finished off my coffee. “Anyway, we managed to find enough teachers, so courses should start next week.”

“We should celebrate!” Maverick grinned. “A big family dinner, since we kept it small for Insert Winter Holiday. Invite everyone!”

I started counting in my head and groaned when I hit the double digits. “Mav… that’s…” Xiomara, Zach, Hannah, carry the three…. “That’s fifteen, sixteen people?  I don’t think we really even have room for everyone.  Especially if we don’t want people getting overwhelmed.”

“You and Tyche may want to talk about a family dinner rotation.” I thought Conor was joking, but a look at his face told me he was dead serious. “When there were just five of us, it was one thing, but now? The dinners the two of you make are turning into the hottest table in town.”

With a sigh, I shot a quick message to Tyche to see if she was in the land of the living.  Rather than respond, she showed up at my quarters, Antoine in tow and Mac staring balefully from her shoulders.  “Hangover remedies are revolting, but work,” she proclaimed while making a beeline for my kitchen.  Shortly, everyone was seated with a fresh cup of tea or coffee. “Now, why have I been summoned from my lair?”

I gestured to Maverick first. “Handsome number two had the idea to have a family dinner to celebrate the launch of the new education courses.” I paused for effect. “All of the family.”

Tyche sputtered and choked on her drink. “Where would we fit them all!? Neither of our quarters are anywhere approaching large enough.  We would need a small mess hall, which kind of ruins the effect.”

“I agree.  But I also agree we need to celebrate… what if we talked to Sebastian and took over the Undine for a night? It’s smaller, with dinner-style tables.”

She tipped her head side to side, thinking. “It might work.”

“Well, Handsome number one came up with another good point.” I gestured for Conor to explain.

“I just think you and Sophie should consider setting up a rotation for family dinners. Not just who is cooking,” he rushed to clarify, “but who you’re inviting. We love you girls ‘til the wheels fall off, but you adopt strays faster than most cat ladies I’ve met. Not that I’m complainin’, being part of that number!” He held up his hands in surrender. “But don’t you lasses think the ‘come one, come all’ approach is getting to be a bit much?”

To my surprise, Antoine nodded even more emphatically than Maverick did. “Sophia, Tyche, he is right. Only sheer luck and good manners have kept the two of you from being overwhelmed by your insistence on feeding anyone who arrives during your ‘family dinners’.  Inviting specific people on specific evenings may be the best idea, while also considering keeping some meals to just the five of us.”

Before the objection could even bubble up to my throat, Maverick squeezed me against him. “I can actually feel her heart breaking.” Briskly rubbing my arm, he dropped a kiss on top of my head. “Sweetheart, you and Tyche both said it yourselves: If everyone chooses to drop in on any given Wednesday, neither set of quarters have room to accommodate that.”

Tyche heaved a sigh of concession. “Okay, I definitely see the point about the ‘just us’ dinners… I’ve really missed those, honestly.  But, how do we decide rotations for everyone else? How are we supposed to make it fair?”

I sat bolt upright as her words hit me. “You. Are. A. Genius.  I actually have an answer to that!”

The expression on her face was matched by the one Mac was dishing out when my exclamation interrupted his nap. “Okay… How am I a genius right now?”

“How to make it fair.”

“So, for bringing up the question?”

I nodded my head emphatically before gulping down the rest of my coffee. “Themes.  We are going to set… five. Five themes. Culinary ones.  We are going to set… five. Five themes. And anyone who has a standing invitation to dinner will be asked to rank them, one through five, and we’ll use that to set the rotation.” I grinned triumphantly as Tyche’s face shone with realization, but then looked at the guys.

All three of them were completely lost.

“Everyone except the five of us will get the list of themes… something broad.  Not a specific dish, but a really broad type of food. They rank the five, with one being the absolute preference and five being ‘hey, not my favorite, but if Tyche or Sophia are cooking, I may give it a shot.’ The first, say, three people who ranked a certain theme their favorite get that, then the rest get their second choice, so on and so forth.”

“Ideally, no one will have to eat their fifth choice theme,” Tyche clarified. “Or even their third.”

Maverick hummed briefly. “So, say everyone picks the same thing for their number one. How do you decide who gets it?”

Tyche and I glanced at each other before I shrugged. “Honestly, the three who have the most restrictive dietary needs, are closest to us, and get along the best. If everyone picks the same thing for their first choice, it’s going to be something plain and probably vegetarian because that’s the majority of Derek’s diet and he has the most restrictive one. So it would be Derek, Grey, and probably Zach who got that one.  Everyone else would then get their second, and so on.”

“But,” Tyche emphasized, “letting everyone pick the meals they would prefer makes it the most fair and easiest on us, because then we know what to cook each week.  And there would still be meals for just the five of us, right?” She glanced at me, questioning.

“At least every sixth meal, but I would prefer after every three,” I admitted.  “That gives us once a Terran month.”

“What about big meals?” Maverick pressed. “For everyone?”

I tapped my chin for a moment while Tyche furrowed her brow. “Quarterly?” I asked, just as she suggested “Birthdays?”

Ugh. Both made sense. “Well, our birthdays are three months apart, give or take a few years, so we could still do quarterly. I just figured the Terran equinoxes and solstices, because they align with pretty big Terran holidays in most cultures and religions.”

“If you went with that, it would mean we could have the option of quiet birthdays,” she pointed out.

“That’s what I was kind of thinking,” I admitted. “I mean, what if we don’t feel like peopling on our own days?  We could still do that, in addition to the other four, but it wouldn’t feel mandatory.”

“I like it. That’s the solution.”

I grinned widely, happy with the compromise. Conor, however, waved his hand where everyone could see it. “For those of us who don’t have a mysterious psychic connection that even Noah says doesn’t exist, what exactly are your themes going to be?”

“Spicy, simple, protein, vegetarian, and soup,” Tyche and I answered in unison.  While it wasn’t intentional, we managed to stifle our surprise and laughter to make it look like we had done it on purpose.

Antoine looked thoughtful before nodding. “That does, actually, make the most sense.  Those are such severe distinctions, excluding the soup, that there should be no difficulty with anyone having a definitive preference.”

I thought about that briefly. “Yeah, I know ‘soup’ feels like a stuck on category.  But I genuinely know people who hate it, and also some who will eat any soup or stew you put in front of them.  It’s about the food touching, the flavors combining, and so on.”

Maverick was the one to back me up on that bit of information. “Derek will probably rank soup as either first or second, especially if you go by the strict culinary definition.  For someone who doesn’t like mushy food, he practically loses his mind if you give him a bisque.  It’s crazy.”

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[cutegirlmayra]

Happyhoganon: You make a prompt for me that have to do with Pre-SGW Sonic and Post-SGW Sonic chatting (after saving both of their timelines from destruction)?

So, this was hard to research for. There was a LOT of history… I would like to thank my saving grace @solerwolf21 for being such a great friend and help during my research of Archie Comics.

This will probably not be done moving forward. In my prompt rules, I’m making sure to be more stricter about them, so if I really don’t know about the prompt you’re asking for, I may just save me the trouble and say I won’t do it. However, that was implemented after you posted this prompt request, Precious Anon. And it is my duty to fulfill my promises!!!!

As a result, here is my best attempt after learning a spark note history of the Archie Genesis Waves XD

PROMPTS ARE ON SHUTDOWN! I have one more prompt to go, restrain thyselves! The gates shall open shortly once they are all done!

Prompt:

It wasn’t a happy ‘family’ reunion.

The two Sonics were caught in a ‘limbo’ effect caused by Eggman’s backfire of experimenting further with the Chaos Emeralds.

Luckily, the effect wouldn’t last long, but Sonic saw his other timeline and knew it was gonna feel longer than what it really was.

He couldn’t run from this talk, though he really kinda wanted too.

He had been fighting really soul-searching inside himself to understand the long lost memories, but now wasn’t the time to get all sentimental.

“You sure don’t look like a reset.” The Other Sonic scoffed, folding his arms before deciding to just go through with it and talk. He put his hands to his hips and leaned forward, snarkily. “What? Afraid to face your trauma you thought you escaped from?”

Sonic grimaced, that scowl was something he was used to seeing through the eyes of someone else, not necessarily himself…

“Not very charming to greet an old friend.” Sonic joked back, but was biting on his words. He held himself back, “Long time…” he began.

“No see.” The other Sonic seemed to respect that fact, and also straightened up a bit. “You mind telling me why you look so sour?”

“…Things aren’t all rainbows and sunshine on my end, either.” He tossed a hand out, gesturing while he spoke.

“Really? Hard to imagine.” The Other Sonic narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, must be awful. Your friends and family alive, kicking and fighting just like the old days? Must be rough…”

Sonic shook his head, “This isn’t a contest.”

“A contest!? Why are you trying to act so cool now!? I know the real you! I know what’s it’s like to-!” the Other Sonic lunged forward but didn’t dare to move too close. It was obvious to the both of them that they couldn’t really touch each other, this was mostly a mind-over-matter situation. The whole experience was probably just in their heads, but they both felt real, and that made this conversation very awkward…

“Bunny… Antoine…

                                            Sally..?”

Sonic remained silent, but couldn’t bring himself to close his eyes to what the Other Sonic was asking.

“…Right, you have to admit it there, pal. You sure have some nice daises this time around.” The Other Sonic was closing himself off again, looking away and folding his arms, tried of this Sonic’s pitful excuses. “Your time has nothing to complain about.”

That got Sonic.

His head whipped up, stepping forward, “Daises grow on top of graves!!! We may not have had your exact struggles, Other me… but we’re just as much a team that suffers and laughs together as much as yours was!”

That made the Other Sonic’s eyes jump with feeling. They held themselves wide and open to this Sonic’s words…

His anger was replaced with sorrow… and he dropped his arms, tilting his head back to this Sonic.

Sonic sighed, trying to compose himself, “We may have been built upon your suffering… but that doesn’t mean… we…” he thought about his words carefully, trying not to be so impulsive. He could feel that beast inside of him and didn’t want to feed it any further.

“It’s time to let the past, or what was once the past, die along with the future that never happened for them.”

The Other Sonic gripped his fist tightly together.

“And what if we didn’t want to go away..? Not like this… not to what you are… though it may be somewhat better.” he turned back to Sonic, “I still miss it.”

“…There were the good and the bad.” Sonic scratched behind his head, “But I wouldn’t say I miss it… some of that good still remains, maybe even more than before this whole mess… but again, that mess doesn’t exist anymore. It may clutter our thoughts, now that we remember so much… but it’s not us anymore. Just watch. We’re gonna be better than you.” he gave a confident and stern look back to his other.

The Other Sonic acknowledged it, looking him dead in the eye, as though challenging him to dare and say it again.

“We’re gonna survive, just as you did. We’re gonna do better than that though. We’re gonna survive my way. The Sonic way.”

He continued to hold eye-contact, as though making this Sonic swear to it.

“I won’t let you or anyone else down again, other me. I’m Sonic. Sonic The Hedgehog. I’ll keep my friends, family, and everyone else save from Eggman or whoever dares tries to threaten my world and my home. Mobius… it’s not just a place. It’s a life that lives inside all of us. No matter what happens, we’ll all find a way. Life goes on. Memories change and fade over time. Nothing’s truly accurate or even concrete anymore. Not in this world. We’re gonna make peace with what was or might have been… and I’ll show you.” he extended his hand.

The Other Sonic smiled, almost chuckling at the action he knew that this Sonic understood he couldn’t complete.

“Entrust me with it?” Sonic finished, “The future of this world.”

He stared a good minute, his head hung down, tried of trusting and having it backfire and blow up in his face.

But he did hold up his hand, as though a gesture of ‘farewell.’

“You better not disappoint.” He smiled, returning to a time he knew he could never relive again.

“…I’ll do more than that.” Sonic smirked, his usual cheery, confidence showing through like a radianting light upon a lighthouse. “I’ll strive to impress you.”

“Ha!” the Other Sonic mocked, “Alright, you do that.” He waved him off, walking into the light as the vision-like experience began to fade.

“Just do me one thing…” The Other Sonic stopped as the light began to envelop him.

He turned with a kind look upon his face back to his present self, “Just make sure…

                              Everyone… and everything… ends with a smile.”

END.

(How’d I do, partner? XD)

[sonicrevival]

Reunions: Chapter 4 of 4: Answers

Alright, time for the final part of Arc 2.

Read on Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18573268/chapters/44028463

Sonic: Revival- Reunions

Chapter 4 of 4: Answers “Answers would be good, Geoff…” Sonic nodded for a moment. He took a step forward, but stumbled, pitching into Nicole and Emerl’s arms as his legs gave out. “On second thoughts… I think most of us are gonna need a rest before we do anything else…” “You should probably get that hand looked at as well,” Nicole added. “It doesn’t look healthy.” “You… have a very good point there…” *** With Emerl taking care of getting the rest of their teammates home, Nicole took on the task of escorting Geoffrey to the hospital, along with a pair of guards. Regardless of circumstance, the skunk had still killed the ruling monarch, and injury or no injury, going two for two on treason wasn’t something that tended to be taken lightly. He would almost certainly be under heavy guard for a long while after this. However, as she watched the skunk disappear into a solitary ward, a nurse approached her. The older-looking giraffe had been shadowing the group since they entered, and Nicole turned to face him with a quizzical look. “Can I help you?” She asked. It sounded more defensive than she intended, if the nurse’s slight recoil was anything to go by, and she cursed inwardly. Naugus had managed to put her on edge around regular civilians, and she inwardly thanked every god she could think of that someone had put him down for good, even if it was his own lackey. “Sorry Ma’am, it’s just that we saw the battle in the plaza, and realised that one of your team would probably be coming here, so I waited. It’s about your friend, Antoine.” *** “Welcome home, Sally,” Bernadette hugged the squirrel gently, Jules laying a hand on her shoulder. With the exact situation regarding who was the monarch in flux, Sally had decided to spend the night with Sonic and his family. “Thank you, Mrs. Hedgehog. It’s good to be back,” She smiled warmly. “Now, Sally, if you’re going to insist that we use your name, you can at least do the same for us,”  Bernadette gave her a wry grin, which she returned. “Very well, Bernadette,” She nodded. “Uncle Chuck said he’ll be home late. Apparently having a fight to the death with the head of state right outside the Council Chambers creates a lot of paperwork. Especially when the king loses,” Sonic shrugged, leaning against the door. “He said that if we haven’t eaten by the time he gets back, he’ll cover that. Says Sal and I have gone too long without his cooking.” “Well, he’s not wrong,” Jules nodded. “That’s what I said,” Sonic grinned. *** Tails, Rotor, and Emerl stood outside the Prower residence, having paused to bid farewell to the fox. “When we’ve got all of today’s events sorted out with the council tomorrow, we should probably all head over to the lab and take a look at you, Emerl,” Tails suggested. “Hey, at least buy me dinner first!” She flicked one of her optics off, imitating a wink as he let out an exasperated groan. “Not like that…” He sighed. “I mean, seeing exactly what it is you can do. Power-copying is fairly obvious, but I want to know your limitations.” “That’s fair,” She nodded, folding her arms slightly. “We should also probably look into the whole “Chaos Emerald” situation,” Rotor added. “Counting the synthetic, you’ve got three of them in there, and, well, they’re not exactly stable when they’re brought together outside of a complete set. That’s a lot of power, and we should probably be sure you can contain it. I don’t want you to feel like we’re not trusting you-” “Nah, it’s cool. I don’t know a whole lot about them, save for them giving me a power boost and showing me what I think might be old memories. Last thing I want is to overdo it and cause problems by absorbing more of them,” She replied. “So I’d be glad to help you with that.” “Good to hear,” Tails smiled. “Anyway, I should probably go. I need to tell Dad that Mom’s gonna be home late.” “You also need to recover from the whole fight thing as well,” She added. “That goes for both of us,” Rotor sighed, rubbing his forehead. “That pain spell was nasty.” “Yeah. You’re lucky you didn’t have to deal with that, Emerl.” “I know, right?” She nodded. “Anyway, catch you later, Tails.” “Yeah, same to you.” “See you tomorrow.” *** “You know, you don’t have to do this, Ames,” Bunnie sighed as she let the pink hedgehog into her and Antoine’s house. “Maybe, but I want to,” She replied, glancing around the dusty hallway. “You’ve not been here since Antoine went into the hospital, coming back was always going to be difficult, especially alone. That’s why I’m here.” Bunnie smiled, and threw her arms around her, squeezing slightly. “Yer a good friend, y’know that?” “Bunnie, you’ve been supporting us ever since I joined the fight, and from what the others say, before that too. Supporting you when you need it is the least I can do,” Amy returned the hug. “Thanks.” As they stood there, Nicole flickered into the hallway, smiling broadly. “Bunnie, I have news!” She beamed, as they looked up at her. “Antoine’s showing signs of waking up. His brain activity has been on a steady increase over the last few days, and he should be coming out of the coma within a day or two.” Immediately, Bunnie pulled Nicole into the hug. *** The following morning brought a buzz of activity to the Council Building. The Freedom Fighters, along with Harvey’s secret team, and the new arrival of Emerl, all clustered inside the main chamber, with Geoffrey there, one arm bandaged, both cuffed behind his back. “It would appear that we’ve been kept in the dark here… You’ve clearly all been very busy lately,” Rosemary frowned. “I believe an explanation is in order.” “Where should we start?” Sally asked, standing amongst her team. Dylan opened his mouth to answer, but Isabella spoke up first. “Well, I think the first thing we should say is ‘Welcome home’ to all of you. Before we get into the heavy part, it’s a relief to see you all alive and well,” She said. “Thank you, Isabella,” Sally smiled. “But let’s get down to the reason we’re all here.” “Let’s start with the, uh, regicide?” Hamlin shrugged. “I was no supporter of Naugus, but Mister St. John murdering him raises some complications.” “I wouldn’t call it regicide,” Sally shook her head. “Nicole explained to me what happened with Naugus’ accession, and that was probably the least legitimate coronation in the entirety of history. The crown is important, yes, but the physical object is ultimately just a fancy hat. Removing it from one man’s head and putting it on another does not a new king make, regardless of the size of a cheering crowd.” “We’re here to represent the will of the peop-” “Yes. The will of the people. And that extends to all of Acorn, not just one city, and should be conveyed through due process, not a screaming mob.” Her eyes narrowed. “Additionally, given that Naugus was an escaped convict, responsible for not only multiple counts of attempted murder and trying to ignite a civil war between Mobians and Robians, but instigating the Great War, then I can only ask what in the name of Chaos were you thinking?!” The various members of the Council, with the exception of Isabella, were starting to look awkwardly at each other. “Given that this system was formed in response to my father’s own mistakes, which included trusting Naugus…, I can only refer to this as a resounding failure,” Sally almost growled. Sonic placed a hand on her shoulder, and she visibly relaxed. She took a deep breath, and sighed. “Given the circumstances… I believe we should disregard Naugus’ reign as legitimate.” The Council talked among each other for a moment, quietly, visibly cowed by the Princess’ anger, until they nodded slowly. “Motion carried.” “Thank you. Geoffrey is many things, but ‘kingslayer’ is not one of them,” Sally nodded. “Princess, you have my sincere thanks for-” The skunk spoke up, but stopped when she turned to face him. “Don’t mistake this for fondness, Geoffrey,” She snapped. “Naugus’ reign being illegitimate puts you in a poor position as his kingmaker, especially considering that his previous pardon of your betrayal has now been rendered null and void. I recognise that you’ve suffered more than many during this whole debacle, but that doesn’t excuse your actions.” “Of course…” He slumped back into his seat, Sally turning back toward the Council. “So, what’s next?” “I would like to ask about this… “Secret Freedom Fighter” team that appeared to guard us yesterday,” Penelope spoke up. “Where did they come from?” “The Secret Freedom Fighters were a creation of myself and King Elias,” Harvey spoke up. “They were formed as an underground resistance to Naugus’ rule. Understandably, the fewer people that knew about their existence, the better. They were successful in preventing him from gaining the ability to brainwash all of you in order to attain absolute power.” “I see… well, thank you for your service…” Dylan mumbled, not the only member of the Council  looking unwell at the thought. “And King Elias? Where is he?” Isabella asked. “He was injured during our last mission, broke his leg, and is currently recovering in our hideout,” Silver replied. “We asked if he wanted to be here for this, and he and Sally seemed to agree that him returning before the dust settled on Naugus’ death would complicate things,” Harvey added. “Very well…” “What of Naugus’ other dealings?” Hamlin prompted,  glancing at Geoffrey. We’re now aware of his ill-fated attempts to gain control of our minds, but what else was he up to, why was he hiding in Commander St. John’s body?” “Allow me to provide that information, as someone who witnessed it all first-hand,” The skunk replied, rising in his seat a little. “Get comfy, this might take a while.” “We’re all ears, Geoff,” Sonic shrugged. “Very well… my… former master’s power grab began the night of Mina Mongoose’s previous concert. We were present on a nearby rooftop, and when Miss Mongoose performed her rather on-the-nose song about Nicole-” “Something that she did apologise for, by the way,” Nicole cut in.  Isabella smiled knowingly, and the rest of the time sighed with relief, while Emerl’s tense form relaxed. “Yes, well. As I was saying, when the song was performed, Naugus used his magic to amplify the feelings of the crowd, and it seems his level of control over the citizens of the city seemed to increase until he was outright dominating the crowd outside the Council Building during yesterday’s battle.” “So, the general populace aren’t afraid of Nicole?” Sally asked. “I didn’t say that. Naugus’ magic amplified fear that was already there, it didn’t create anything new.” “Why would anyone be afraid of Nicole?” Emerl asked, voice raising. Nicole put her hand on her shoulder, smiling sadly. “It’s alright. When I made this city, I thought only of the good I could do with my power. I knew that very little was capable of breaking into my processor, due to the way my code is written. I didn’t expect magic to be my weakness, and in that respect, I was overconfident. While Sally has protected me against future invasions of that sort, I do think that some level of limitation does need to put on my control over Mobotropolis,” She said. “We’ll discuss that soon, as we continue to deal with the fallout.” Charles nodded. “As you were. St. John.” “Thank you,” Geoffrey nodded. “In any case, while Naugus was able to gain control of the city that way, his health began to deteriorate. Whatever that white energy wave that came from the Death Egg was, it destabilised him.” “Destabilised?” Penelope asked. “He wasn’t one person, he was three previous wizards fused into a single being. It seems that their minds were reawakened, and they started trying to separate themselves. This resulted in his mutations, his magic becoming more chaotic, and his sanity slipping,” The skunk continued. “He had sanity?” Sonic smirked. “Well, relatively speaking,” He sighed. “Regardless, he was never sure how he reverted Mrs. D'coolette to normal, but he wanted to recreate it so that he could use Princess Sally’s condition to maintain his security. Unfortunately, with his condition deteriorating, he began to try and find a body to hijack. He visited the former king, and Jules Hedgehog, but both of them refused his offer of healing, and he ultimately settled for me.” Sonic and Sally both narrowed their eyes, hands clenching, but Geoffrey continued all the same. “Ultimately, he was driven out by your ploy with the Sword of Light, and for that I thank you, in spite of the damage to my hand,” He finished. “I see… Well, this information will be useful.” “And the robot?” Rosemary asked, glancing at Emerl, who looked up as the room’s attention focused on her. “Tails, is it one of yours?” “Not exactly. Emerl here was something of a group project for the Brain Trust when that was a thing. We discontinued the project when Fiona warned us that a single robot like her once wiped out the empire of their creator, and while we tried to ensure that she’d be safe to activate, we couldn’t guarantee it, so we didn’t wake her up,” Tails explained. “Sally and Nicole had the activation codes hidden away, to be used in a situation where the worst-case scenario of bringing her online couldn’t make things a whole lot worse.” “I took a risk, but it was a calculated one,” Nicole spoke up. “If Emerl hadn’t been stable, I could’ve deactivated her. Fortunately, she was stable, and I can’t say I have any regrets about the decision I took. Without her, we might not be standing here right now.” “Yeah, she pulled us out of the fire when Eggman pulled a fast one on us,” Sonic shrugged. “She and Nicole saved my life,” Sally added. “Emerl brought Nicole to Holoska, and while Nicole shut down the self-destruct bomb and released my mind from Eggman’s command, Emerl quite literally saved my heart. Eggman took out more core and used it to power one of his mechs, and he tried to destroy that too. Emerl extracted it and removed the EMP generator that it was wired to…” Those who hadn’t been present when Sally’s modifications were discovered turned pale, the room’s temperature dropping. “W-well, I can certainly promise that, in light of these revelations, we will be reviewing our approach to the war with Eggman, perhaps working toward a more… active route,” Rosemary muttered. “But, while your defences of your new comrade are touching, they are appeals to emotion, not fact.” Emerl sighed, and stepped away from the wall she was leaning on, folding her arms. “Can I say something for myself?” She asked, striding to the front of the party. “Go ahead.” “Look, I understand why you don’t trust me. You’ve had some bad experiences with purpose-built bots. You’ve been fighting a guy who makes bots that look a lot like me since some of you were children, and others among you were forced to be his slaves. And the two groups aren’t mutually exclusive,” Emerl slumped slightly. “I want you to understand that I’m here to help. Your protectors are my friends. They can say all they like about me saving them, but I’m just following in their footsteps. I won some fights because I don’t get tired and I don’t feel as much pain. That’s all. But y’know what? I’m good at that. And I like doing it. And I like them. So I’m going to keep doing it. And frankly, you can’t stop me.” Emerl straightened, folding her arms as she took a few more steps forward. “I don’t need your approval to be their friend. I don’t need your approval to be their ally. Heck, I don’t even need to live here, I’m a robot, and I have three chunks Beryl fused with near-limitless power fuelling me, I can go anywhere I like and just swing by when I’m needed. But it would be much easier for all of us if I didn’t have to do that.” “Well… You’re certainly… passionate in your approach,” Isabella blinked, looking down at her. “Yes, perhaps if you want to convince us, you should show the appropriate respect-” Hamlin began, stopping short as Emerl appeared in front of him, hovering to meet the height of his chair as she stared down at him. “I’ll give you respect when you earn it,” She replied, before flashing back to ground level. “If anything, I’m being too respectful. So far, all I know about you is that you put Naugus in charge and exiled Nicole without actual justification. I’m not exactly familiar with your laws, but I’m going to hazard a guess that justice isn’t a popularity contest.” “Emerl…” Nicole ventured. “As forceful as Emerl is being… I can’t disagree with her,” Sally shrugged. “Regardless of her origin, Nicole is a person, and you have a duty of care to all of your citizens, not just those of flesh and blood.” “We’ll, uh… strive to improve that in future…” Rosemary slouched into her seat, as Sally offered a dry smile, and Emerl folded her arms. “Make sure that you do,” The princess replied. “Despite the outrage on her part, I can speak for Emerl’s integrity,” Charles said. “We would like to have your capabilities on record, though.” “Well, I can do… basically anything that I observe and understand,” Emerl tapped the closed optic in her forehead. “I can scan the abilities of others, and then adapt them for my own use. I have currently gained powers from Nicole, Sonic, Tails, Bunnie, and Mecha Sonic. I have additionally acquired weapons from Bunnie, Amy, Rotor, Mecha Sally, Mecha Sonic, and the former Eggman-goons we fought at the oil foundry, along with standard combat training from all parties. I’m always willing to add more powers, too.” “And the Chaos Emeralds? Reportedly you absorbed the one that Naugus held.” “Yeah, it seems to happen automatically when I touch them. When I do, I get flashes. I think they’re memories. Then the Emerald gets absorbed into me, and I get stronger. That’s all I know. Tails and Rotor are going to run some tests, and once that’s done, I’ll have more of an answer for you,” Emerl replied. “Can you… uh… spit them out?” Penelope asked. “Not that I know of,” Emerl shrugged. “Sorry.” “While they may be safer in your possession… we did want to use an Emerald to try and heal King Maximilian,” Dylan frowned. “Well, I can still do that. I used the one from the Death Egg to help fix Mecha Sally, and I’m sure I can learn a Chaos Heal from someone else so I can patch up organics too,” She responded. “Well… alright then,” Rosemary sighed. “Miles, can you get these tests done, and make a report. Then we’ll make a decision on where we stand with your new friend.” “Sure, we’ll get right on that,” Tails nodded. *** The meeting didn’t last long after that. Geoffrey was escorted back to the hospital, remaining under guard. Sally remained with the Council to discuss the situation she had engineered in the desert, and most of the others went their separate ways. Tails, Rotor, and Emerl all went to the lab, where they began setting up the equipment for the Gizoid’s tests. “What is this, a lab or a gym?” Emerl asked, optics flickering over the various machines. “It’s both,” Tails replied, looking a little proud. “I wanted to create a facility here that we could use to determine how strong, tough, fast, etcetera, we all are, as well as tracking improvement. We’re going to test your speed, strength, and your inbuilt weapons. We’ll also hook you up to the computer and see if we can run a scan on your programming.” “Sounds good me, except that last part. I dunno why, but I feel like that’s a bad idea,” She replied. “But if you want to try it, sure.” “Alright then. We’ll start with strength…” The strength test didn’t last long. Emerl’s first punch tore the bag from its mounting, hurling it into the far wall, sand spilling out. Speed tests were similarly short-lived, and her chainblades were carving through everything short of the few scraps of armour they had left from the wreckage of the first Egg Beater. “She’s off the charts…” Tails sighed, watching as the Gizoid ambled out of the test chamber, heading up to join them. “I… it must be the Emeralds.” “The Emeralds? That’s your field of expertise, not mine.” Rotor frowned. “Normally we only use them when we have all seven, because they can be unstable without a control, but I’ve managed to determine that when he’s Super, Sonic receives a power multiplier of 700%,” The fox began. “One-hundred for every Emerald, in other words.” “So it could be that, with two Emeralds, Emerl is experiencing a boost of 200%?” “Precisely,” He nodded. “We’ll have to get this place set up for a Super-level subject…” Emerl walked into the room, stretching herself out, despite the lack of muscles to keep limber. It just felt right to her. “So, uh, did you get anything out of that? Because I feel like that didn’t go as planned,” She asked. “No, but we’re going to reset everything and get it set up for a higher level of combatant. We think the Emeralds are what’s pushing you over the current limits,” Tails replied. “Still, the fact that you’re stronger than we can measure is, in its own way, a measurement.” “I suppose,” She shrugged. “How long will it take to set up for a second attempt?” “Not sure. We’ve only measured aura before when it comes to Super modes. Getting something that can actually take a hit… Well, we'll work it out later. We can do the scan now, if you like?” “Sure, why not?” Emerl shrugged. “I already destroyed some of your equipment, what’s a computer on top of that?” “Oh, what’s the worst that could happen? It’s not like you’re going to melt it, right?” Rotor asked. “Well, okay then… Wait, I think Nicole’s coming, hang on,” She held up her hand, and sure enough, Nicole appeared in their midst, grinning ear-to-ear. “How did you know?” Rotor asked, raising an eyebrow at the Gizoid. “We’ve shared a head, I can kinda feel it,” She shrugged. “What’s up, Nicole?” “Sorry if I’m interrupting, but Antoine’s awake!” She beamed. Emerl didn’t know much about the coyote, other than what she had been told or was able to pick up from the conversations she’d been privy to, but the matching smiles on all three of her friends’ faces were all she needed to see. An impulse of thought, faster than any verbal conversation, invited the lynx into her head, and she gripped the two scientists’ shoulders, warping all four of them away. Nicole guided her to the correct room, and she landed outside it, releasing her friends. Tails pushed the door open, and they all stepped in together. Bunnie and Amy sat to one side of the bed, the former clutching Antoine’s hand tightly as she hugged him as carefully as she could manage. Sonic and Sally were at the other, Sally gently holding the coyote’s other hand. They looked up as the newcomers arrived, and clustered together around the bed. Finally, they were reunited. *** A world away from the turmoil of Mobius, cold blue eyes snapped open, a spark of purple rippling through them. A change in the air, a familiar aura, a presence he had hoped lost, but deep down, he always knew would return. Miles Prower rose to his feet, running a hand through his black hair. He stood at the centre of a peculiar pattern, three runes arranged in a triangle, connected and contained within concentric circles, more runes filling the space between them. The eldritch sigil had been seared into a ledge of rock, jutting from the side of a black mountain that rose from a frenzied ocean, grey waves slamming against the stone, and Miles had been sitting at its centre for the past three and a half days. He looked down at his hands, and found the same sigil now branded into the backs of them. Clenching his fist for a moment, violet light ignited within the the fine lines of the markings, both those in his skin, and in the stone at his feet. He grinned, and turned away from the precipice, picking up his coat from the rock where he had hung it half a week prior, wrapping it around his shoulders. Descending the rough-hewn steps into the bowels of the mountain once more, he called out to his sole companion. “Myrddin, where are you?” It was less a question than a demand, and his brow furrowed at the lack of response. The old wizard was becoming increasingly difficult to rely on lately, Miles had noticed. Still, he’d got what he needed from him, so that wasn’t really an issue any longer. If anything, it was most fortuitous that his journey had reached its end just as his perennial adversary returned from his exile.

[laviarray]

Why I can’t stand Ian Flynn’s writing style.

 Ever since I read his stuff from issue 160, he consistently makes fundamental mistakes that no professional writer should ever make. He incorrectly builds his story lines, doesn’t know how to handle characters unless told, his themes are poorly thought out and shows no imagination in his fantasy or action beats. However, I tend to ask for positive opinions before because I wanted to get more insight into why people like his stuff. While I am glad for the input, I can’t get past how his writing is ambitionless and lacks basic understanding of storytelling, leading to a very unengaging script.

 EXAMPLE?

A good example of this is in issue 267, where Sonic and Rotor meet an Eggboss and Rotor’s father, Tundra for the first time. Flynn said he wanted to try to set up the mains to have rivals, with Rotor’s being Tundra. In this story Rotor meets Tundra after not seeing him for years, gets mad at him for working with Eggman, Tundra throws them into prison and then they break out with the ending being Rotor and Tundra looking up to the sky to show a parallel of… something?

Rival?

There are a lot of problems here, but the main one is that the story fails to establish these two as rivals, mainly because they have nothing to be rivals about. Being rival isn’t just being on different sides of a fight, it’s about two characters who want to beat each other for their own personal reasons and are usually written in for the writer to challenge something about at least one of the characters. Ash from Pokémon shows this pretty well. Each of Ash’s rivals are usually written in to challenge him on some element of his character. Gary challenged him on his lack of privilege and struggling to keep up. Paul challenged him on his kindness and loving nature to his Pokémon. Sawyer on his pride and his seniority getting the best of his ego. Just to name a few.

 Tundra on the other hand, doesn’t challenge anything about Rotor. Tundra does call his technology interest “hiding behind his toys” and calls him weak, but so what? Besides the fact that working for Eggman contradicts this worldview, what does this mean to Rotor? None of what Tundra speaks here contradicts Rotor’s beliefs. Rotor has never defined his strength or character to his technology nor does he have any world view that deals with strength or lack thereof. Neither of them have any reason to want to butt heads over or to compete against each other and neither of them have anything to prove by beating the other. Rotor doesn’t even have any anger or animosity towards Tundra after meeting him. He just sulks in the cell before Sonic tells him to get over it (remember this).

Maybe this could’ve worked as a revenge subplot for Rotor wanting to get Tundra for failing his home town, but that ends up being undermined when Rotor isn’t mad or vengeful towards Tundra during this whole issue. Sonic gets more upset at Tundra than he does. However, this still falls flat because the only reason you would know or care about Rotor’s home town is if you read supplementary material. Not universe issues, which still would be a bad place, but special issues that most people couldn’t get. So… yeah, there is no animosity between these two.

 Rotor’s character

I’m not surprised this doesn’t work, mainly because Flynn doesn’t know how to write characters and Rotor suffers from this the most out of the leads. Throughout the shattered world arc, Rotor is never given any major character traits besides being super focused on saving the world, and by that I mean being a straw man for why the characters keep getting distracted from the A plot to focus on side missions. He’s never given any personal moments or conflicts before this, nor does he have any motivations or wants outside of the conflict of the arc. So by the time we get to 267, the only thing of note about Rotor is that he is into technology, but not in any way that is personal to him. So having him get a rival was always going to be pointless.

 Give Flynn a break!

However, as I hear from every Flynn defender, “This might’ve been fixed later”. Two problems. One, why would any sane writer introduce and have the rivals interact without establishing some animosity or reason for them to see each other. Two, if that wasn’t the goal of this issue, this comic issue is beyond pointless. Nothing else of note happens in this issue. They have a light show of a fight scene, get caught, meet Tundra, breakout, leave. Besides getting a Gaia key, that could’ve been anywhere, there is no other reason to get these two on their own to meet Tundra, other than to establish their rivalry. To be honest, I’m not sure what’s worse. The fact that they dedicated half an issue to this half-baked idea, or that they wasted the other half on Eggman getting Metal Sonic back, that should’ve been 3 pages at best, instead of writing a story that is a major game changer for a lead character to the fullest.

(We totally needed to cut pages from learning about and developing a lead character and dedicated the same amount of time to seeing Eggman get Metal sonic back... Im not kidding they are both 10 pages.) Now the reason I was asking you guys for your thoughts was because I want to gauge how others view the comics too. However, when I get outside of comic fans, I get… interesting views. For example, I showed this issue to a group of people that all have daddy issues (as in they had to fight their dad to protect their mom kind of issues), so it should’ve been easy for them to relate to Rotor. They were also a wide range of opinions on Sonic, ranging from hardcore fans to ambivalent. However, after reading it, they all had the same reaction of “Well… That happened…” with all of them feeling nothing after reading. And after we discussed it, we figured out why. The story never gives you a reason to care about Rotor, Tundra just shows up and leaves, leaving no impact on the story or audience and there isn’t a reason to get invested with the conflict when Rotor isn’t.

 “OK, that was a bad issue, but that isn’t all of them?”

Except it is. Every last problem that I brought up here shows up throughout Flynn writing.

Poorly developed main characters?

All of them written around this quality and the ones that aren’t usually have characterization mandated or coming from other parts of the franchise.

(ok... we were five stories in at this point... Why were their 12 characters in the main cast (Chip not pictured)? Longer slice of life stories would have issues developing characters with a cast that big.) Rivalries that don’t go past superficial elements of the characters and don’t challenges the leads well?

Pretty much all of them, but especially Antoine’s with Hood, Nicole’s with Phage, and Bunnie’s with Cassia

“What about Sally and Clove?” I don’t count them as Flynn said in his podcast “Sally would be too busy to have a rival”. Which speaks volumes about his writing priorities.

Having characters get Pep talks to get them over writer inflicted trauma and to never address again?

Flynn did this 8 times in Shattered world and already 2 times in IDW (Issues 1, and 3)

B plots that go nowhere and should’ve been cut early in production?

Most of the issues during shattered world

Dedicating an entire issue to one plot detail that may or may not be relevant to later issues?

This is practically his brand at this point.

(These two are going to be soooooo relevant and integral to the story. Just... you know... Not for this entire arc...) And these aren’t his only problems.

  What is your point?

So why am I going through all of this? Why did I just type all of that for you guys? For 3 reasons.

1) I want you to understand where my vile for Flynn’s writing comes from. Not because of one thing he did wrong or that he doesn’t get a certain character right. But from a comprehensive look at his written patterns and worldview on writing.

2) I do genuinely want to understand why this man is well liked as I’ve seen some writers do half the crap Flynn does and get flogged by their fan bases.

3) If possible, try to get us to ask for better. I don’t hate Flynn or anything, but it boggles my mind that he is seen as a great writer when he is subpar at best. I don’t want him fired or anything but I don’t want him on any other branch of the franchise, nor do I want to see anyone thinking he should be either.

Now I’m fully willing to admit I’m wrong on all of these points, so feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, I’m going to get ready for the completion of the arc in IDW. Expect a full essay by Janurary!

[rachelbethhines]

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 168

“Blackout” - Sonic the Hedgehog #207 

So way back in issue #110, Robotropolis was nuked by Station Square. Now I didn’t cover that story in the retrospective, but since then the city has been kept under a containment field and New Mobotropolis has been using the radiation as a source of power. 

As such the Iron King gets the idea to break the shield thereby draining  New Mobotropolis of it’s power and bringing it’s automated defenses down. 

But first he has to get through Sonic, Monkey Khan, and Amadeus Prower.

 If you remember from the Home arc, the fort guarding Robotropolis was Armand’s last command post before he died. And I kind of love this idea that literally everyone loved Armand. That regardless of what political sides they wound up on or what disagreements they might of had, no one had a bad thing to say about him. That Max and Amadeus were both his best friends right up until his death. Kind of telling that the revolution didn’t start until after he had pasted away.

Also on a side note, I’ve been reassessing my opinion of Amadeus recently. Before I had just lumped him in with Rosemary and kind of conflated her actions with his and that’s not really fair. Don’t get me wrong Rosemary is still a horrible person who could die in a fire for all I care, but re-reading through the series again I’ve notice that Amadeus is a pretty decent dude. He’s no Armand, or Jules, or even a Wynmacher but he is still genuine in his beliefs, makes actual good points concerning his grievances towards the crown, and is actually there for and supportive of his son. 

Good job Amadeus you manage to be better then Max, Locke, or even your wife. Not that that’s hard but given this book I’ll take it. 

But enough waffling about let’s get back to our main characters. 

While the above mentioned characters are off saving the day Sally drops in to visit Bunnie and Ant. 

*squee!* We get to see their home! And it’s clear that Bunnie is the interior decorator. I can’t say the Southwestern thing is my style but I do love that awesome dreamcatcher. This is the only room we actually see though so it’s possible Ant got a say elsewhere. Like perhaps the is bedroom in a Rococo style? While you know damn well he’s the one who organized the kitchen even if Bunnie may have picked out the silverware.    

Also fan theory confirmed  Bunnie is clearly reading a gossip/fashion magazine while recovering. 

Cuuuute! And it’s shows that yes there are little things about Ant, like his over-protectiveness, that annoy Bunnie, but she knows it comes from a place of love so she can’t get mad about it. Which is just sweet. 

Fucking thank you! Finally we get some female friendship moments in the comic! As much as I love Bunnie and Ant’s relationship it often comes at the expense of their other relationships and they both could stand to be integrated into the rest of the cast more. 

But the other problem here is the Sally doesn’t have enough of a support system. Part of this is her own fault for not opening up to others easily, part of it Max’s abuse cutting her off from her friends, but a good chunk of it is the writers just forgetting that the characters have friendships and lives outside of Sonic and romances. 

Also small confession; this is one of the main reasons why I don’t support Sallicole in the reboot. Neither Sally nor Nicole have any other close relationships with any of the other female characters post-reboot. Why should I have to sacrifice my w/w solidarity in order to see LGBT representation? Why can’t I have both? Why can’t the comic show Sally as Bunnie or Amy’s BFF and let Nicole talk to someone else for a change?

And this a frustration I have in much of the media I consume simply because there’s not enough female characters. Far too often any given show, movie, book or what-have-you will only feature two main girls and if you happen to ship those two together you can say bye-bye to any female friendships. Like please just add more women into stories for fucks sake. 

Anyways enough getting sidetracked, the whole reason Sally is here is to ask for relationship advice since a.) Bunnie is her BFF and b) Bunnie and Ant are like the only friends she knows with a successful love life. I honestly think the only other couples not torn to shreds right now are Knuckles/Julie-Su and Elias/Meg. 

But who is Sally crushing on you may ask? 

Monkey Khan. 

Yeah seriously. Up til now it’s been so subtle and shoved into the background that this story almost feels out of nowhere. Maybe if Flynn had actually committed to following through with it, I might be more favorable to the pairing, but after this tease it doesn’t really go anywhere and they’re right back to teasing Sonally again. Even though the Sega mandates had forbidden their love by this point. 

Also Bunnie, what do you actually know about dating? Antoine is the only person you’ve ever seriously been with and the “break up” with him wasn’t even a real. To which you’re response was to mope about and the try and make him jealous by flirting with Sonic. Not what you'd really call dating around. 

I love you both but, honey you and Antoine seriously lucked out on the whole finding your soulmate thing really early in life. 

Anyways Bunnie proceeds to describe Sally’s “type” while juxtaposed with scenes of Sonic and Ken fighting. Highlighting just how much of a rebound guy Khan really is. He’s a substitute Sonic in this relationship and you know that’s just a disservice to all parties involved.  

To Monkey Khan because he deserves better then to be yet another a sonic clone and this undermines a lot of development Flynn had given him recently. 

To Sally because she deserves more then to be saddled with yet another dead end relationship that only ends because of the powers that be decided to fuck with her character. 

And to Sonic, who deserves to be more then a prop for love triangles just cause he’s the title character and Sega has a bunch of stupid mandates. 

Still, at least there’s more honest communication going on with this triangle then the ones that came before and I appreciate this talk with Bunnie even if I don’t like the circumstances that brought it about.   

Also this is the best advice Bunnie has given her during this whole scene because it’s born from actual experience. How many years did she crush on Ant before admitting she liked him, three? If you want something then take a chance. You may not get it but if you don’t try how will you ever know? 

In conclusion Sonic and Ken trick the Iron King, Sally asks Khan out, and we get a wired ship tease of Sonamy. Flynn does remember that she’s only 12 right? 

Oh well they are actual friends here so you could take this as platonic. 

Next time on the retrospective we finally get to the invasion proper. 

[idolizerp]

[ LOADING INFORMATION ON GALAXY’S MAIN VOCALIST HWAN…. ]

DETAILS

CURRENT AGE: 20 DEBUT AGE: 17 SKILL POINTS: 13 VOCAL | 07 DANCE | 00 RAP | 10 PERFORMANCE

INTERVIEW

the little prince.

now, really, midas media couldn’t have come up with a better brand even if they had tried. the little prince was a household name: shot straight out of the stars, wide-eyed, cradling his beating, tender heart. dropped on this earth to question a world of grown-ups, who had all forgotten what was truly important in their every day lives. "it is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” so the novel had said. “what is essential is invisible to the eye.“

and what did the heart see?

midas’ heart set its sights on the one and only lee hwan. lee hwan, the poster child for Everything An Idol Should Be. lee hwan, the veteran trainee. lee hwan, the resident baby genius. cut from only the best cloth, hwan had always been destined for greatness – and, even before galaxy’s debut, he would go on to carry the title of midas media’s ‘little prince’ with pride and unabashed confidence. he was the trainee with his own fanclub, after all. the highly anticipated galaxy’s very own golden boy.

( so where had it all gone wrong? )

galaxy debuts in 2014. during the months prior, marketing had worked hard to keep his fans fed. it was hwan’s face that would pop up first in that green search engine and antoine de saint-exupéry’s novel would take home that loss. the public knew his face, the public knew his name. the public knew lee hwan, the little prince – …but who the hell was galaxy anyway?

the group’s debut was underwhelming at most. the ball was slow to start and it took more effort than they had ever anticipated to get it rolling. galaxy’s golden boy could only get them so far. and with the fanbase that did bloom, fans gushing over their little prince ( “he’s too pure! he’s too good for this world!” ), so grew his critics, as well ( “man, midas favors him. look at that line distribution. he can’t even sing that well?” ). lee hwan, the poster child for all idols. lee hwan, with his angelic face and tender voice. lee hwan, who had always been told that he had enough stage charisma to swallow up an entire audience whole –

yeah. no. lee hwan, the little prince, was pretty fucking disappointed.

and, needless to say, midas media was too.

( but hwan hadn’t given up everything for this. he hadn’t sacrificed his time, his effort, and his life for this. five years as a trainee. transplanted from masan, changwon-si, separated from his mother and his father and everything he had ever known. denied a normal childhood in the hopes of a legacy. promised greatness but shoved into the backseat at the first sign of mediocrity. no, hwan hadn’t signed up for this. and he wasn’t about to go down without a fight. )

hwan worked hard. carried the weight of his title like a shroud and worked really, really – really – fucking hard. weathered the negative feedback on his vocals, endured the company’s sudden reluctance to have him involved in album production. smiled like an angel for the cameras and jumped in with clever one-liners for the variety crowds. he fought tooth and nail, with that perfect, perfect face of his, to make a name for himself. to salvage his group. to endorse his members. to survive in an industry that worked like a goddamn revolving door.

because, let’s face it, if midas wasn’t going to save galaxy’s supposed golden boy, then lee hwan would do it himself. the little prince was his title – and he’d protect that goddamn crown until the very, bitter end.

BIOGRAPHY

i.

circa 2009.

“is this really what you want to do, hwan-ah?”

hwan stares up at the gleaming building before him and swallows around the lump in his throat. his mother’s hand is too cold in his and he can feel his father’s gaze prickling at the nape of his neck. questioning him. doubting him.

hwan squares his shoulders. stands up as tall as he can.

“yes. i love music. i love singing,” he answers firmly. fake bravado saves him and he prays that his hand isn’t shaking in hers. “yes!”

three hours later, he presses a shaky, ink-stained thumb to a paper filled with too many words he does not understand. his father’s gaze is unreadable. his mother’s mouth twists as if she might cry. hwan drags his ink-stained thumb along the curve of her mouth and smiles when he stains her bottom lip red.

“please don’t cry,” is all that he says.  

this is what i want, is what he hopes she hears, instead. i promise.

ii.

circa 2010.

he rolls his ankle first. his shoulder injury comes the week after.

most injuries could be brushed off – but the shoulder turns out to be tricky. hwan cannot wear it like the other bruises he hides beneath his hoodies and it refuses to be fixed by a trusty salon pas patch from the convenience store down the street – and so, finally, he relents on the seventh day.

the doctor sets his shoulder in a matter of minutes. eyes his ankle and leaves to update his medical chart. his aunt watches, teary-eyed, from the foot of the hospital bed – but hwan is no stranger to pain and manages to smile shakily by the end of it all. the nurse offers him a small sticker for his efforts.

“you were very brave,” she praises him warmly.

hwan returns the smile. wide and crooked.

“it didn’t even hurt!” he lies. “i’m used to worse!”

this earns him a curious smile. his aunt clears her throat.

“he’s a trainee,” she clarifies. “a trainee at midas media. he’s in his first – no, his second year. injuries… are common. he – he dances a lot.”

“ah,” the nurse clicks her tongue, peeling off another sticker from her roll. she presses it onto hwan’s cheek, now, with a grin. “then here’s one more for you. please don’t forget me when you become a big superstar, hwan-gun!”

“i won’t!” he laughs brightly, rubbing at the sticker on his face. “you and my aunt can join my fanclub as soon as it opens! i’ll make sure you’re the first ones! i’ll even sing for you two when you join!”

the nurse nearly presses her entire roll of stickers into his palms after.

iii.

circa 2011.

“you wrote this?”

hwan can’t tell if he’s in trouble or not. he tucks his hands behind his back respectfully and straightens up just in case.

“yes. yes, i did.”

yongguk stares at the tattered notebook in his hands, hwan’s headphones still dangling from one of the pages. he itches to reach for it but holds himself back. wills himself to stay put, hands politely folded, his expression schooled into the closest thing to neutral as he can make it.

“this…” yongguk starts, voice unbelieving. “hwan-ah, this is…”

he finally looks up from the notebook and meets the young trainee’s gaze. hwan isn’t sure what exactly the producer is looking for but yongguk searches his face like he’s looking for the path to enlightenment in hwan’s crooked wire-rimmed glasses.

“this is really… really… really – good,” he finally breathes out. he slowly sits down. steals hwan’s usual spot against the bookcase but doesn’t even seem to notice. his eyes are already back on the notebook, thumb smoothing over half-finished lyrics, written in hwan’s messy scrawl. “how long have you been writing your own music, kid?”

hwan (he’s pretty sure, now, that he isn’t in trouble. probably. hopefully.) takes an uncertain seat down beside the older man. rubs at the back of his neck and wrinkles his nose.

“i don’t know?” he replies truthfully. “since the beginning? before i came here. before i started. i don’t know. i can’t remember the first song i made. i think i’m just always making music. i’m always listening to something. i always wanna listen to something. i’ve never… i never thought someone else would wanna hear it too.”

yongguk’s voice turns reverent and he reaches out eagerly for the boy’s wrist. pulls him in closer. motions towards the mp3 player and the dangling earbuds.

“let me listen again,” he asks earnestly. sincerely. hwan feels something swell in his chest that he can’t quite place his finger on. it feels like pride. pride in being praised? pride in being heard? his head swims and he feels lightheaded with emotion when yongguk tugs at his wrist again. “let me listen one more time?”

yes, i love music! i love singing!

the memory echoes in his ears and, as yongguk eagerly hits play, hwan suddenly realizes that he wants to add one more thing to that list.

i love music. i love singing.

but i think i might love making music – and letting people listen to it – even more.

iv.

circa 2012.

"is that lee hwan?”

“the lee hwan? midas’ lee hwan?”

“oh my god, he’s even better looking in person.”

“kinda short though, don’t you think? i read in a daum cafe that he’s not even 160cm! maybe that’s why he still hasn’t debuted. they’re waiting for him to grow a few more centimeters, kekeke.”

“shh, what if he hears you?”

“he can’t hear anything, he has headphones in –”

hwan rolls his eyes and sits up straighter. taller. his shoulder aches at the sudden movement and he rests his head against the bus’ glass windowpane for support. the city is speeding by, the sun melting into the concrete horizon up ahead. the school girls to his left fall away and he tilts his chin up, letting the light kiss his face.

he forgets about practice, he forgets about his shoulder. he forgets about the questioning, prying, curious eyes to his left and to his right – maybe that’s why he still hasn’t debuted yet? kekeke – and simply lets the sunset swallow him up whole.

v.

circa 2013.

“is that the best you can do?”

jungah ssaem’s gaze is unforgiving and hwan bristles beneath it. yesterday, this had been enough. yesterday, jungah ssaem had praised him for being great.

“did i do something wrong?” he counters, meeting her glare with his own. if he was older, he would’ve resisted. if he was smarter, he wouldn’t have started at all. but lee hwan is sixteen years old with an ego that barely makes it through the front door and he isn’t about to take shit from a vocal trainer who had failed out of a girl group seven years prior. “i thought i sounded fine.”

jungah’s eyes narrow.

“you sound the same as you did yesterday,” she replies curtly. “did you even practice the points i told you to review?”

hwan is unimpressed and unfazed. he flops back down onto the piano bench and rolls his shoulders back, rubbing at an aching spot with a frown.

“i don’t agree with the points you wanted me to practice,” he answers simply. “if i add in the adlib you want, it makes me sound old. this way is trendier. it sounds better like this.”

“lee hwan, are you really that–”

“good?” hwan lifts his gaze to meet the older woman’s. levels it steadily and yawns once. “yes. i am. i know what sounds good. yongguk hyung already approved, too. i’m keeping it this way. i sound better this way.”

if looks could kill, jungah ssaem would’ve murdered him, right then and there.

luckily, she can’t. obviously, she won’t. not if she wants to keep this job. not as long as lee hwan fucking sits on his stupid throne.

hwan yawns again and reaches for his headphones.

“are we done here?”

vi.

circa 2014.

“i’m proud of you, hwan-ah.”

his mother is shaking and hwan moves to pull her closer. gathers her in his arms and presses his cheek to the top of her head. his limbs are clumsy. he hasn’t held her (she hasn’t held him) since he was a child and he isn’t sure what to do with his elbows. she leans into him anyway.

“you looked so good up there on stage, honey,” she whispers into the collar of his shirt. he can hear his members hollering behind him. “i’m so, so proud of you.”

the words smooth over his heart like a balm.

like a sunset on a bus in june, it warms him from the inside out. fills out the cracked, broken parts of himself. soothes the ache in his shoulder that burns more from bitterness than injury, better than any medication could. i’m so proud of you. he thinks it might make up for the years lost, too. the graduation he missed, the friends he hasn’t seen. i’m so proud of you. does it make up for his father’s absence? does it make up for the years he spent sweating, crying, bleeding alone, in practice rooms meant for five but could only allow one? the disappointment, the hope, the gossip, the hate. his crippling pride and the soul-crushing competition. is it enough to make up for it all? is it enough for him?

i’m so proud of you.

yes, hwan thinks with a slow exhale. yes, it is.

i love music, i love singing!

“this is what i always wanted, remember?” hwan breathes in his mother’s perfume. tightens his grip around her and tries to hold his broken family together in his arms. “this is what i want. this is what i’ve always wanted.”

i’m so proud of you, lee hwan.

vii.

circa 2015.

the first headline reads: much-awaited galaxy debut! overshadowed by produce 101′s breakout season finale?

the second: midas media speaks out on declining record sales. olympus will save the kpop wave!

hwan drops the third ( who is galaxy – ) without even bothering finishing reading the title. his drink is sour and the sunset has been long finished.

he stares outside the black, empty window, regardless.

viii.

circa 2016.

(he didn’t fucking sign up for this.)

ix.

circa 2017.

“lee hwan,” jungah smiles coolly, raising her coffee cup to him from across the hall.

hwan grits his teeth and forces himself to stop, dipping his head in a brief, uncomfortable bow. her smile only grows.

“i heard this unit doesn’t include you?” she taps a finger against the cardboard cup and hums, sing-song. “what’s yongguk doing – not including you on this track? seems strange not to include the main vocalist, don’t you think?”

“this concept isn’t–” hwan suddenly snaps his mouth shut. swallows down the words. the defensive retort that had threatened to tumble out. it burns down his throat like the very coffee in jungah’s hands.

“what? cat got your tongue?” her mouth is twisted in a pleased, unnatural smile. she nods her head towards him dismissively. motioning for him to leave. motioning for him to keep fucking going.

“don’t worry,” she laughs down the hall as she heads towards the elevator. “…we’re done here, lee hwan.”

ix.

circa 2018.

“hwan, i didn’t know you were so clever!”

“your face is a gift from the heavens, to be honest.”

“your recent unit project was done so well, hwan. i heard you’re interested in participating in the actual production for the next one? fascinating!”

“i saw you on that variety show yesterday! you did great, honey.”

“hwan! lee hwan! can i please have your autograph!”

“my son actually told me the other day that he wants to become a singer because of you. he saw you and told me he wanted to become an idol, just like you, bless his heart. can you believe it?”

“hwan – lee hwan!”

x.

i love music! i love singing!

this is what he wants.

whether he’s twelve, or fifteen, or twenty fucking years old.

this is what he wants!

even when he’s loved. even when he’s cast aside.

this is what he wants?

…right?

[downtowndaegu]

FIC REC

"You'll give me that much, won't you, fluffy flower?"there are some I’m going to exclude, simply bc I don’t feel comfortable sharing them bc of some themes  ★ - favourites

Threes. | Vhope | Angst, Smut★

When Jung Hoseok tells his boyfriend to stop flirting with other people, he thinks Taehyung will at least put in a little bit of effort to do so. Instead, Taehyung suggests they have a threesome with someone to prove that Hoseok's just being overly possessive. When Jungkook willingly agrees to participate, however, Taehyung quickly realizes he's made a mistake. aybe Taehyung's the overly possessive one after all.

Cruel Intentions | Yoonmin | Fluff, Angst

"Hey, Suga Hyung!" Hobi called with a persistent nudge.

"What, Hoseok?" Yoongi grunted in annoyance as he attempted to focus on his food.

"See that fresh piece of ass from class earlier?" 

Suga lifted his head, turning his gaze towards where his friend was pointing."Yeah, what about him?"

"Bet you can't fuck him before the end of the semester."

Break Me and Recreate Me | Part 2 of Cruel Intentions

He's back, Jae-Hwa has finally made his way back home to his twin Jimin. According to Jae-Hwa, he's only back to reunite with his brother and make up for lost time. But Yoongi thinks other wise. Slowly but surely, things begin to take an unusual turn for the group of friends. Lies are told, secrets remain hidden, and for one friend in particular, 'What he doesn't know won't hurt him' becomes the string that has him dangling between life and death. Sequel to 'Cruel Intentions'

Bangtan Unleashed | OT7 | Smut 

Nobody knows the real Bangtan. What happens when the stage personas drop and the filter comes down? Pure insanity that's what.

i know you wanna go to heaven (but you’re human tonight) | Taekook | AU - Werewolf | Angst?

Taehyung just thought it would be a one night stand, but he gets more than he bargained for.

wonder | Jikook | Angst★

"You see, one loves the sunset when one is so sad." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Look Closely | Yoonmin | Angst, Fluff★

All Yoongi had to do, was look at the boy closely and give him a chance. All Jimin had to do, was exist. All the others did, was watch the drama unfold from the sidelines, popcorn in hand. __________ Yoongi was always against Jimin joining the band. Jimin was as hard working as Yoongi. Love found it's way.

tell me how to make this better | Vmin, OT7 | Angst★

“Do you remember when I asked you to be my boyfriend?” Jimin asks, a few tears slipping from his eyes at the memory, phone clutched so hard in his hand it's hurting his fingers. “An-and you said that you couldn't possibly do that? Because of the band?”

Taehyung makes a sort of wounded noise, beginning to talk over him. “Jiminie whatever you're thinking please-”

Jimin laughs, hysterical and high pitched as he turns himself over into the fetal position, hardly able to stop himself from vomitting. “It was because you didn't like me, wasn't it?”

Welcome Home | Namjin | Part of series, it’s so cute <3

Seokjin is used to getting calls from social workers at all hours of the day, but never this late at night.

(In which Hoseok loses a mom and gains two dads and four brothers.)

This Confession Note Wasn’t Meant For You | Vmin | Fluff, Slight Angst★

When Taehyung finally musters up the courage to slip a confession note into Jungkook's locker but fails miserably and ends up putting it in Jimin's locker instead.

Cinnamon Crisp | Taekook | Fluff | AU - Uni, A/B/O

Jungkook needs his daily dose of cuddles and Taehyung likes to wear Jungkook's clothes. They don't care that alphas and omegas aren't supposed to be best friends.

I’m Sorry I Forgot About You | Dad Yoongi, Son Hoseok | Fluff, Slight Angst★

Yoongi accidentally falls asleep during the day, leaving his 4 year old Hobi alone thinking his Appa doesn't love him anymore

My love is a Man with Many Faces | Mainly Yoonmin, elements of Yoongi x Everyone too | Angst with a happy ending

Out of all the people Yoongi befriended, Jimin was the only one who remained.

love triangles are out of fashion (three’s not really a crowd) | Polyamory, Maknae Line | Fluff, Slight Angst | AU - college/uni★

Jeongguk didn't think this dating thing would really work, but then again he also didn't think he'd end up casually seeing not one, but two hot guys

& making a bet to see who could get a boyfriend first was not Taehyung's finest idea, but Jimin thought they would at least have different tastes in men

you have 1 new message | Namjin | AU - Non Idol | Fluff★

r u n c h r a n d a. fuck this is going to sound like the weirdest shit okay look i used ur selcas to catfish and this older dude is gonna buy me stuff but i have to send him a selca with a peace sign

~ * ~ pingkeu jin ~ * ~ hahahahahahaha wtf

moonless marigold | YoonMinSeok | Fluff, Slight Angst | AU - college/uni & soulmates★

Part one of Jihope Bingo - Team Hoseok: Soulmates

"You see in black and white until you meet your soulmate."

"Why? That sounds horrible, Mom."

"Because nothing else should bring to you the beauty of a flurry of colors like your soulmate should, Hobi."

Will You Stop Time?  | YoonKook | Smut | ITS PURE FILTH GUYS

"Jungkook knew he shouldn't have done it. He really shouldn't have.

But when his mouse hovered over the 'Buy Now' button on Amazon, he thought about what could happen."

OR

Jungkook secretly loves to wear chokers around the dorm and one day decides to buy a new one, though someone catches him-

make a wish | Jimin x Everyone | Fluff | DogBoy?? idk what that means

it's jimin's birthday, and the puppy boy is going to get a day dedicated to himself that he will never want to forget.

flowers love the sun | Taekook | Fluff | AU - Greek Mythology★

Taehyung, a beautiful mortal, had caught the eye of the Jeongguk, a god.

Based on the Greek myth of Apollo and his mortal lover Hyacinthus.

Of One Sided Crushes | JinKook | Fluff | AU - College/uni

Jeon Jungkook has three questions for the Gods of crushes and one-sided love. One, what are you supposed to do when your crush sees you like their younger brother? Two, what are you supposed to do when your crush who sees you like their brother kisses you? Three, what are you supposed to do when your crush who sees you like their brother is drunk when they kiss you?

Why Min Yoongi No Longer Hesitates To Apologize First | YoonMin | Fluff, Angst | Fem - Yoongi at some point 

Min Yoongi has a problem. Whenever he fights with anyone, he never apologizes first. He and his beloved boyfriend Park Jimin fight all the time but breaking up, by rule, is something they never do... Until one fight of theirs takes a particularly ugly turn and Jimin breaks up with Yoongi. What happens when Namjoon and Hoseok decide to go for a 'beyond the mundane world', eccentric solution to help out their brokenhearted friend patch up his relationship? Answer? Something none of them could have ever expected! But ever since then, Yoongi has stopped hesitating before saying sorry :)

These Tides Fall Over (shades of blue and you) | Taekook | Fluff | AU - College/Uni★

"You can't expect me to let my royal savior die in the middle of the library."

In which Taehyung calls Jeongguk "Prince Eric" every chance he gets, and Jeongguk suffers.

Dandelions (Do) Not Grant Wishes  | Taekook | Angst | AU - Childhood friends & Ghosts★

"You'll give me that much, won't you, fluffy flower?"

here’s SOME of the fics in my notes, do reply below if you want me to post the rest of the 200+ fics I have saved - Admin Kay

[thetravelersjournal]

Gear Foxx- Chapter 12

Back From The Dead?

“When I asked to join the Freedom Fighters, I was expecting…”

“Something more exciting?” I offered.

“Something less dull,” Mina whined, slumping down against the metal underneath her feet.

“I don’t know. I wouldn't count sneaking onto Robotnik’s new turf as ‘dull’ per se,” I replied, diving my hand into a bag of chips.

“Yeah, but Sally just has us on guard duty. We could be fighting Eggman in there or... something,” she grumbled.

“Aw, come on. Guard duty isn’t that bad,” I said between bites, “Right Tails?”

Tails grunted in response, glancing up at the screen monitoring the rest of the team’s whereabouts for a moment before turning his head back to the plane magazine he was reading.

Freedom Fighting training was going reasonably well, enough to the point where Sally felt comfortable enough to bring us on a mission with the team. We had been led to a place called Megaopolis (which, from the looks of it, appeared to be a destroyed, abandoned New York City), where it was rumored Dr. Robotnik was trying to set up a base of operations. However, since Mina and I were still inexperienced, it was more of a ‘watch and learn’ kind of mission than anything else. Right now we were squatting down in an old, overturned taxi, faded grey from its prolonged time of disuse. It provided easy cover from dozens of the doctor’s Eye-cams that wandered the ancient Apple, but it was slowly wearing down on our nerves as the three of us were forced to sit and lie down while the rest of the team explored Robotnik’s new hideout.

Mina sighed before turning and staring at the screen, watching Sonic and the rests’ progress. I tilted my head back and stared at the ceiling, mulling over our training results in my mind. I was performing well above average during the regimens so far, and the only thing that seemed to give me any trouble was my cooperation skills. Antoine was particularly impressed when I managed to keep up with him during fencing practice, and had given me a sword for the purposes of training. The blade sat uncomfortably at my side, its hilt digging into my waist. I sat up a little more to relieve some pressure. I wasn’t really sure what I thought of my new friend just yet, but I’m sure I would get used to it. It was better than a gun, at any rate.

Mina was also doing fairly well. She seemed to struggle with making quick decisions and couldn’t figure out how to work a computer to save her life, but she was a great team player and got along with everyone easily. While I was a little more reserved, Mina was open and friendly, and easy to trust. I could tell that everyone thought she would make a great Freedom Fighter, but I don’t think they were too sure about me yet. I could tell they still had Station Square on their minds whenever they looked at me, so I just quietly sat back and tried to do the best I could. However, there was one other thing that Mina had trouble with- something that made me realize why she wanted to become a Freedom Fighter.

Every time Sonic came into the room, she would become astonishingly distracted. So far, whenever she had caught a glimpse of him during training sessions, she had run into a tree, gotten hit with the back of a sword by Antoine, tripped over her own feet, and-

“Ah!” Mina suddenly cried out as the screen in front of her lost its picture, turning to loud static.

“Huh? What happened?” Tails asked, putting away his reading material.

“I-I don’t know! I was trying to figure out how to zoom in, so I turned this dial and…”

“There isn’t a zoom feature. It’s just supposed to record the layout of Eggman’s base,” Tails said, crouching beside Mina as he started fumbling with dials.

I inwardly sighed. I had absentmindedly watched Mina mess around with the screen, knowing that she had been trying to get a closer look at Sonic.

Sally’s voice suddenly came over the intercom, “Is something going on over on your end?”

“Everything’s fine, we just lost video feed from the camera,” Tails replied, banging his fist against the machine.

“What? Did someone mess with the controls? I specifically asked that no one touch them!” Rotor’s voice rang from the background.

“That’s my fault,” I declared, scooching over, “I was bored and started twisting the knobs on the console while I was lost in thought.” Both Mina and Tails stared at me with looks of puzzlement for a moment, but before they could say anything Sally spoke her mind.

“Oh for… one of the main points of this mission was to make a track record of all the twisting pathways in here… Nicole, do you think you could run a survey of our path for a little while?”

“Affirmative, Princess,” an electronic voice rang on the other end.

“Tails, I want you to get the scanner back up and online as fast as possible.”

“Yes ma'am,” Tails saluted, only to quickly let his arm fall when he remembered Sally couldn’t see him.

“And Gear,” Sally continued, annoyance now ringing in her voice, “We’re going to have a discussion about this when we get back.” With that, Sally hung up, leaving the three of us in silence. Mina was the first to speak up.

“Gear, why did you do that? I was the one who goofed up!”

I just shrugged, not really sure myself. I had mostly just done it in the heat of the moment, not really thinking about the consequences of my choice. At this rate, I could get kicked out before I even joined the Freedom Fighters.

“Let’s not worry about that for right now. Gear, you think you could help me get this running again?” Tails pointed to the static-filled screen.

“Quicker than a certain someone we know!” I replied, leaning over the console. But before I could get to work on it, I was distracted by a soft, creamy aroma. The fragrance permeated through the musty air, cutting through floating mold spores and dancing gracefully with the wind.

“Huh? What’s wrong now?” Tails asked, observing my hesitation.

“You guys smell that?”

“Smell what? I don’t smell anything,” Mina replied.

“It smells similar to- I don’t know, citrus maybe? Some kind of fruit for sure; there’s something else too…”

Tails frowned, “Well, you’re the only one who brought food with us. Are you sure there’s-”

“Wait, I smell it now too! It smells like a sweet flower,” Mina declared. Tails looked around in annoyance before finally catching the scent on his snout.

“You’re right! It smells really fruity and… maybe a little bit like-”

“Gunpowder!” I cried, shoving the two away from the console, “Hit the deck!”

A bullet simmered through the space where Tails’ head had been a second prior before loudly smashing into the computer beside us. Ear-splitting static now filled the air as I stuck my head out of the car and glanced around, searching for our attacker.

“Tails! Wake up, wake up!”

I looked back to see Mina softly slapping Tails’ sleeping face. A small bump was slowly becoming visible on his forehead.

“Uh-oh… must have knocked him unconscious when I pushed them to the floor,” I thought. I heaved an exasperated breath of air before stepping out of our hiding place. Even when scanning my surroundings, nothing was out of the ordinary. Nothing except for that out of place smell…

A small clomping noise was the only warning I got before the butt of a rifle cut through the air mercilessly, aimed at my head. I was barely able to spin and dodge the attack before having to avoid another directed at my knee. My attacker’s speed was incredible and gave me hardly any time to jump out of the way with each swipe of their weapon. But what was even more intriguing than the velocity of their stock was their appearance.

Rather than a robot bearing Robotnik’s insignia, a tan lynx with long, vibrant red hair was gaining ground as they unceasingly kept attacking me. A dark beak-like mask was attached to their face, obscuring their identity. A beige cloak was wrapped around their body, from which I could make out other hidden weapons attached to their side.

“Gear!” Mina cried, taking in the situation. She dashed toward us but tripped in her haste. Assuming she was initiating combat, the assassin turned away from me to face Mina, striking in the general direction she was in moments ago. Mina, on the other hand, had already hit the ground, knocking into their feet and causing them to fall over as well. I grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet and away from our attacker.

“Thanks for the save,” I said, drawing my sword, “I needed a moment to breathe.”

“But who-?” Mina tried asking, but the lynx had already started their next attack, putting away their rifle in favor of a long baton with pointed edges. I pushed my friend away before hastily guarding, surprised by the raw strength my attacker was displaying. They pushed me back, rushing me once again with another swipe of their weapon. I dodged, parried, and blocked their attacks as well as I could. They still managed to graze me a few times, and I could now feel warm blood running down my arms. I was running out of steam, something my enemy fully planned on exploiting. They struck the ground at my feet, causing me to lose my balance. I looked up at their emotionless mask as they prepared to strike.

The wadded-up remains of my snack bag struck the back of their head, drawing away both their attention and mine. Mina stood a few feet from the both of us, knees shaking. I swiftly took advantage of the situation, kicking the lynx in the gut and jumping back to my feet. They followed the movement of my attack, backflipping a few times until they were a few feet away.

I took a few shallow breaths, trying to regain my composure. The creamy scent once again hit my snout, making me lose focus. I gripped the hilt of my blade a little tighter with my blood soaked gloves.

I had to think of a way of stopping their attacks long enough for the others to get here. It was obvious that our attacker was stronger, in experience and strength. While I had been in similar situations before, I was still unsure of how to confront said situations properly. If I could hold out until the rest of the Freedom Fighters got here…

The problem was Mina. Based on her reactions to the entire fight so far, she was at a loss of what to do. I glanced over at her, noticing the slight fear in her eyes, the sweat dripping off her fur. She was doing well in ignoring her fear, at least enough to the point that she could stand up. But it wouldn’t be long before the lynx found the weak link in our small party.

I focused my eyes back towards them. An overwhelming urge inside me forced me forward, telling me that I had to protect Mina. If I couldn’t save her, then I had no right to call myself a Freedom Fighter in training.

My feet moved on their own accord, bringing me closer to the assassin as my pace went from a walk to a jog to a run. They guarded, preparing to deflect. I concentrated, once again imagining the flowing green energy that connected everything flying around me. I shifted my body through the void, moving a few feet behind them. The assassin hesitated, watching me vanish into thin air, before swirling around to face me, their baton cutting through the wind. I teleported again, quicker then they could turn, moving a foot off the ground to their front. I raised my knee and connected it with their large disturbing mask as they once again turned towards me. A sharp crack bounced off our ears, hitting nearby buildings. I hopped away, wary of a counterattack.

The lynx’s mask was practically split in two, desperately clinging onto their face with what little grip it had left. It was bent at a slight angle, hindering their ability to see. With a grunt of annoyance, they threw the guise off their face and to the ground.

“Wait, it’s a girl?” Mina exclaimed, pointing.

The lynx sighed, pulling off her cloak. Dark green eyes pierced mine, almost devoid of life. She was dressed in light combat gear, small knives and a few hand pistols attached to the side of her belt. She wove her hands through her hair, which had gotten tangled during our brawl. The stripes across her tan fur seemed to pulsate in anger, illuminating a thin scar on her right shoulder.

“And here I was thinking this would be easy,” she exhaled, throwing aside her baton and drawing one of her guns, “I should know better than to trust Sweeper on these things.” She held the pistol up, pointing it at Mina, “Move and I shoot.”

I stood my ground, glaring back at her. “What-,” I started to say.

“No talking either, it’s a waste of my time,” she interjected, “Now, you’re going to come with me quietly. Or not, my client never specified how ‘alive’ you needed to be when I bring you in.” Her face was all business, and I knew if I didn’t comply there would be consequences.

I was a little more worried about Mina than myself, so I slowly lowered my sword to the ground and silently walked over to the mercenary with hands held up to the sky. She smiled, knowing that she had won. What neither of us expected was Mina running towards the lynx at lightning speed, clocking her in the jaw. While pain didn’t register on her face, surprise did, and she dropped her gun out of shock.

“Based on her reaction, she thought Mina didn’t have it in her to fight back,” I thought as I started sprinting towards the two, “Guess we were both wrong.”

Mina fell back as I swiftly approached with fists raised. The lynx, now on her guard, reached for one of her knives, thrusting it at me. Much to her astonishment, I didn’t back off, and as the cool blade pierced my side I connected my knuckles with her abdomen, sending her to the ground.

“Are you okay?” Mina cried, rushing over. I grunted in pain as more blood left my body in larger quantities. I clutched my side, wary of the knife that was stabbing my insides. My eyes, however, were focused on the bounty hunter in front of us.

She was already getting up, albeit at a snail’s pace. She wiped away some saliva that had escaped the scowl on her face. She grunted as she rose back to her feet, her hands once again reaching for another weapon attached to her waist. A small beeping suddenly rang out, interrupting her, and the two of us watched as the lynx pressed the button of a small device on her ear.

“I’m in the middle of something,” she said.

“I’m well aware,” a tiny voice answered, “but we need to bring you back in. Now.”

“Is she using some kind of communicator?” I asked myself silently.

“Can’t I wrap this job up? I’m almost done here,” the mercenary angrily replied.

“Well, rather unfortunately, your client-”

“Who do you think she’s talking to?” Mina suddenly whispered to me. I shushed her, hoping to regain the conversation.

“-mands were too… narrow sighted. I will reimburse you for your time, Kaitlyn, and I have another assignment for you, which I have emailed to your console. Leave the one named Gear Foxx alone- for now.”

For a moment, the lynx didn’t answer. A small groan echoed out of the taxi, breaking the silence. She sighed, muting her transmitter. She turned away from the two of us, picked up her things, and slowly walked away, taking that strong peachy scent with her.

“Shou- should we go after her?” Mina asked hesitantly.

“No. We’ve got other things to worry about right now,” I groaned. I gingerly walked over to her abandoned helmet, still creepy looking despite its condition. I picked up one of the two halves, rotating it around in my free hand, observing it. On closer inspection, it vaguely resembled a plague doctor’s mask. A small tag stuck out from the inside reading, “Property of Mx. Fruity and Co.”

“We’ll leave this mystery for another day,” I said, attempting to make my way back to the car. Pain spiked in my side, causing me to stumble. Mina caught me and laid me down on the ground. My vision blurred as I tried to make out the red splotches that kept appearing on the floor.

“Wait, you’re not walking in this condition! I’ll try to contact Sally.”

“Yeah, you- you do that…,” my voice managed to croak out just as the world started dimming around me.

“-The lacerations on his arms should heal given time- as for the wound to his stomach, it just missed any major organs, but he should get some rest for the next week at least. The time to fully recover will still take a while, but considering how fast those broken bones of his healed after what happened in Robotropolis, I’d give a complete recuperation time of a few months.”

“Thank you, Doctor Quack.”

I slowly realized I was lying down in a hospital bed, staring up blankly at the ceiling. I tilted my head to the right, peering over at Dr. Quack and Sally. They were slightly blurry, only coming into focus after I had blinked a few times. I noticed the throbbing in my gut was held back by a layer of fresh bandages covering my midsection. A clock on the wall counted off the seconds, amusing my eyes as they watched the hands slowly turn. I moved a little under the blanket covering me, noticing the comforting warmth that was washing over my cold, feeble body. Sally finished her conversation with Quack and entered the room before noticing I was awake.

“How are you feeling?” she asked, sitting at the end of the bed.

I turned my head back towards the ceiling letting out a soft moan. “Numb,” I declared simply, too tired to elaborate further.  Silence slowly crept into the room as I waited for Sally to reprimand me for my rash decisions.

“Mina told me about what happened.” I attempted to speak, but Sally cut me off, “Why did you lie?”

I eyes grew wide with alarm as I realized where I had been stabbed. “Did she see my brand when the doctor was performing surgery? Not to mention the doctor knows now too…,” I thought, my mouth quivering with terror. I forced myself to remain calm as I asked, “What do you mean?”

“I mean the console. Mina messed with it, so why did you say otherwise?” Sally was looking at me with a faraway gaze, as if it didn’t really matter what my answer was or not.

“Because…,” I paused, trying to find the words, while at the same time breathing a mental sigh of relief, “It was obvious who the better Freedom Fighter would be. Mina gets along with all of you so effortlessly, something I can’t do. She opens her heart to people, but I can’t. And… I know you all trust her a lot more than you trust me. Maybe it’s because I keep to myself, or maybe it’s because of what happened in Station Square,” Sally frowned at this, but didn’t say anything, “but I figured Mina had a better chance of becoming a Freedom Fighter than I did.”

A long, quiet pause held back my breath as I waited for Sally’s answer. She continued staring at me as the clock slowly ticked away, filling the void in my eardrums.

She finally sighed and stood up, shaking her head. “If you want to be a Freedom Fighter, you need to have more confidence in yourself. Besides, Mina announced that she would quit training, starting today,” she declared.

I swiftly sat up, at the cost of sharp pain trying to dig its way out of my abdomen. I held the covers close to my chest as I cried out, “What? Why would she-?”

“I’m not sure, but it was her decision. You can ask her about it later.” She walked toward the door, before suddenly turning back around, “I wasn’t going to cast you out of the team for something as little as that, Gear. That’s the reason we have these training sessions- so you can improve on your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.”

She left the room, leaving me with nothing but my thoughts. I stared blankly at the sheets, clutching them tightly in my fists.

“Overcoming my weaknesses, huh?” I muttered.

Dr. Quack quietly entered the room, surprising me when he spoke suddenly, “Ah, our new problem child is awake. If you want to get on my good side, then you won’t leave that bed till I say otherwise.”

He proceeded to give me the same spiel that I overheard him and Sally discussing. Once he was finally done, I asked the question that had been bothering me for a while.

“Did anyone else see it?” I asked with a slight edge of malice in my voice.

“See wh- Oh, you mean that weird mark on your chest?” My eyes narrowed as my worst fears were confirmed, but only for a few seconds, as the Doc continued, “Yeah, no one saw it, except for me. You wanna tell me what that’s all about?”

“No,” I replied sharply, looking away, “And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about it either.”

“Alright. Not like it’s my business anyway, so your secrets safe with me kid. If it bothers you, though, I can prescribe an ointment…”

“Thanks Doc,” I sighed, flopping back against my pillow. I stared at the ceiling for a few moments before realizing just how tired I was.

“Get some rest, kid. You’re gonna need it.” Dr. Quack walked out of the room, and I was once again by myself.

I yawned before closing my eyes. Darkness now covered the landscape as I drifted off to sleep, forgetting my troubles and the mysterious new enemy I had just faced.

Wow this only took forever.

Read the Beginning!- Prologue

Previous Chapter <—> Next Chapter(IDK)

Gear and Kaitlyn belong to me.

Kaitlyn created by iiTryano-Chan

Mina, Tails, Sally, and others belong to SEGA, Archie(?) or Ken Penders.

[mobius-prime]

162. Sonic the Hedgehog #94

Okay, okay. I know. I know how many of you just put your heads down on the table in complete exasperation. I get it. But just stick with it. Bear with me here. I had the same reaction when I first read through the comics - the reaction of why the hell does a Sonic the Hedgehog comic have a back to school episode?! - but in the end, it does tie further into previous points I've made about Sonic's character as well as the state of the war. That said, Spaz, what the hell happened to Mina up there? Why does she look… like that? Sonic and Tails look totally normal but Mina looks like she was dragged straight out of some badly drawn early 90s anime that only aired once in Japan and was never even officially subbed because it was so low quality. I know you're a better artist than that, Spaz, we've seen your work before! Come on!

New Order

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: FRY Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So right away, we've jumped forward a month and a half from last issue. That's one hell of a time skip, especially for a comic that doesn't usually do big time skips.

Of course, Sonic is not at all happy about being confined to Knothole. We’re talking about a character whose entire personality has always revolved around being able to run free and fight back against anything threatening his friends, who's now stuck hanging out in his room all day. Worse still, the entire time he's been in Knothole, he hasn't seen Sally once, having been prevented from seeing her by a combination of his house arrest and her royal duties. He still finds himself thinking about her, however, and she in turn has been thinking about him.

I honestly really like the use of Art Mawhinney's art to indicate that she's looking at a photo from when they were younger, given that his cartoony style contrasts with the more anime-like style that the comic has been going for lately. Also, while it's great that Sally has her family back at last, it's still concerning that they've been monopolizing 100% of her time lately so she hasn't had any time to see her old friends, even though they live in the same village. Sonic has also found his mind preoccupied with thoughts of the Overlanders he failed to save, who are still stuck inside Robotropolis for the time being, with shadow-bots enforcing nighttime curfews on them and keeping a close eye on their activities. Colin, exploring the palace, finds his brother working on something in the lab, and in the interest of keeping his dealings secret Eggman overenthusiastically invites him, along with Agnes and Hope, to spend some time together as a family. Hope, to her credit, seems very suspicious of Eggman, officially making her the smartest Overlander here despite being only fourteen or so (at least, the wiki has extrapolated that age from the dates of other significant events like the Great War and the length of the first war against Robotnik, though I'd personally put her at more like twelve). Eggman, to deflect from questions concerning how much he's changed over the years, asks Colin to describe why he and the other Overlanders were apparently just hangin' out in space for the past ten years.

Really, this entire interaction seems like something that should have happened right after the Overlanders' first entrance into the city, not six whole weeks afterwards, but eh, whatever. Anyway, Sonic finds himself unable to sleep properly the night before starting school, and gets irritated when Tails teases him about Sally being in looooove with him and wanting to get married in the future. The next morning, they find themselves roughly awakened by an earthquake, and immediately spring into action, falling right back into their routine as heroes.

At least Sonic is still able to keep his heroic actions up even when confined to the village, eh? In Robotropolis, Eggman visits Snively in his prison cell, and Snively begs not to be roboticized for being caught out after dark. Eggman agrees, in return for his loyalty of course, as well as zipping his lips about Eggman's true intentions for the Overlanders. He even decides to give Snively a little more incentive, in the form of a promise of revenge against his father Colin for not recognizing his brilliance all those years ago…

After breakfast, Sonic and Tails meet up with Bunnie and Rotor. Amy, if you'll recall, is still back in Mercia with her cousin Rob, and interestingly, Antoine isn't part of the crowd heading to school at all, suggesting that by now he's past high school age, making him the oldest Freedom Fighter. Sonic is concerned and disappointed that Sally is nowhere in sight, and reluctantly parts from Tails to go to his own class, since Tails is with the younger kids. However, back in Robotropolis, Hope has found herself becoming too suspicious of Eggman to ignore her concerns any longer…

Uh oh, Hope, you may have seen something you weren't supposed to see… better get back to safety before Eggman finds out about that and silences you. Tails is heading toward his class with the other kids when he realizes he's lost his bookbag somewhere, and in retracing his steps to find it, he suddenly finds himself confronted by the ghostly image of Athair, who tells him that he's needed as the Chosen One immediately and teleports him away, to the bafflement of a watching turtle in the hallway. Sonic gets to his class, and Mina is happy to see him there, thrilled that they're sitting near each other. Bunnie arrives as well, but when Sonic tries to introduce her to Mina she only gives her a cold "howdy," her mood suddenly turning quite chilly. And then, their teacher arrived, and class begins…

So this is what I was talking about before. We've already been over in previous issues how when it comes down to it, Sonic and the other Freedom Fighters are child soldiers who have never known a day of peace in their life. At least back when Robotnik was thought to be defeated permanently and the king was trying to get the kingdom back to a state of relative normality, Sonic was able to partially come to terms with the idea and find happiness in being able to settle down with his family. But now, the kingdom is back in a state of active war, and here he is, the spearhead of the resistance, forced to stay out of the conflict and learn physics and algebra in a standard high school setting. It's obvious that it's getting to him in a big way. We sort of end up stuck in this strange position where on the one hand, yeah, children and teenagers shouldn't have to be the ones on the front lines of a war, and should get a chance to just act their age and have a childhood, but on the other hand, Sonic the legitimate war hero is now stuck in Knothole with his hands tied, twiddling his thumbs while everyone else, even the others his age and younger (remember, he's the only Freedom Fighter on house arrest), are free to go and do whatever they like. It doesn't even seem like anyone has had the idea to try and get the Sword of Acorns back from Eggman, even though that's what started this whole mess. Honestly, I just feel bad for him. Once class has finally ended - after one hour of agonizing boredom for Sonic - he and Bunnie approach Nate, asking why they haven't seen Sally at the school yet. They're shocked to hear that she is instead receiving private lessons at the castle, only further isolating her from everyone else…

The Best Laid Plans…

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Rom Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

Unlike the previous story, there's no time skip at all between last issue and this one - I'm just going to presume, honestly, that the disappearance of the Floating Island is an event that happened during that time skip, and the main story has only just caught up to it, because otherwise the timeline makes no sense. Nic is surprised to find Nack returning to her without Knuckles in tow, but is quite pleased when he tells her they got their money and a bonus to boot, and can wash their hands of the whole affair. As they leave, they remember that they left Charmy and Saffron further into the woods, but decide not to worry about it, as in the end, what can a couple of little bees do? Charmy and Saffron, meanwhile, begin to realize that they've been left alone, and immediately spring into action, hoping they can reach Knuckles before anything bad happens. Unfortunately, that's not really in the cards, as Knuckles has already been hooked up to the Chaos Syphon, with another echidna linked in on the opposite side, presumably to act as a conduit for the energy being sucked from Knuckles so it doesn't just explode into the air. At least, that's what I'm assuming, because it doesn't really specify, but this echidna does become important later on, so I figured I should mention him. Gala-Na again offers a weak non-apology for what she's about to do, before ordering the syphon switched on.

So, this is torture. This is just straight up an actual torture scene. Gala-Na is knowingly, willingly, torturing a sixteen year old because she's afraid of the power he wields despite him not even asking to be born with it in the first place. If anything, Locke should be the one facing punishment for what he's put Knuckles through, but of course, we know Penders would never let that happen. Knuckles starts screaming uncontrollably, and to the shock of the echidna onlookers, begins trying to resist the power of the syphon, making Gala-Na worry he might actually break free. The other echidna on the receiving end of the energy also begins to feel the pain, yelling that he thinks he can't handle any more, and while the others try to encourage him to hang in there, Charmy and Saffron happen upon the awful scene. As Knuckles finds himself actually reduced to begging for it to stop through gritted teeth and Gala-Na gives another "apology" to her "young friend" (can you guys tell how much I hate her? Is it too obvious?), Charmy and Saffron dive in towards the operators, hoping they can stop the syphon before Knuckles gets hurt too much more. Of course, this is Penders writing, so he can't resist throwing in another weird, stilted 90s feminist comment somewhere.

Earth to Penders: women don't actually talk like that. Also, oh yeah, remember that whole "flight mode" thing where apparently bees can turn small or big as they please? I almost forgot about that, but I guess that's what's supposed to be happening here. With the device shut off, Knuckles breaks free of the syphon, but only seems more powerful than ever, with his irises replaced by pure white eyes, and as everyone watches he disappears in a flash of energy. Gala-Na, aghast that her plans seem to have only made things worse (GEE, YOU THINK, GALA-NA?), tries to contact the weasels once again before they get out of range, but they witnessed the entire thing from the air and refuse to get involved any more than they already have, leaving a horrified Gala-Na to stand over the now-unconscious echidna on the receiving end of the energy, wondering what to do next…

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 46

I’m on a roll!  Yet another chapter beta’d by @parisconstantine (in which I learned about French terms of affection), and I’m already 1600 words into chapter 47.  I’m not sure if the next chapter will be a long one or if I’ll end up splitting it into two parts. Time will tell on that front.

Oh! Oh!  Sam and Simon both get last names in this chapter!

This covers the first six hours of the Food Festival, so minor mentions of food.  I can’t think of any other warnings beyond that, but if you find something please shoot me a message so I can update it.  I’m learning every day about things that trigger people, so sometimes I miss things that aren’t glaringly obvious.  However, I’m always willing to learn.  At the end of the day, this is very slice-of-life, after all.

Edit:  I am reposting this, for 2 reasons.  Most importantly, I included some characters in this chapter who I need to attribute to their rightful creators.  So, Thank you @charlylimph-blog for Ivan Thorson and Coffee Williams.  You are an incredible writer, and I didn’t want these two to languish in obscurity after all the hard work you put into submitting them for the last contest.

The second reason is just because I posted it too early and wanted to put it out there for the people who look for my chapters on Tuesdays.  I love you all!

“Okay, everyone for Alpha Shift, sound off.”

“Tyche Reid, Admin Observation, is online.” I could hear the smirk in my sister’s voice.

“Antoine Costa, Support Personnel, online.”

“Sophia, do I really have to do this?” a familiar voice wheedled.

“Yes. I need to know who is my eyes and ears on the ground.”

“Ugh. Zach Khan, Support Personnel, online.”

“Derek Okafor, Civilian Observation, online.”

“Sam Richardson, Civilian Ob-observation, o-o-online.” I couldn’t help grinning that Sam agreed to help out.  Usually, he kept out of any operations on the ship, but he was the original tester for Antoine’s project, so he had just assumed he would be part of today’s actions.

“Maverick Okima, Support Personnel, online.”

“Alistair Worthington, Resource Adjunct, online,” my assistant dutifully called off in a bored tone. Only I could see the sardonic look he shot me.

“Sophia Reid, Resource Command, online,” I breathed in relief.  “Thank you, everyone. You have two objectives today: first, a general assessment of the low-stim session so that we know what we did right and what we can improve on in the future; second, getting feedback on how Mr. Costa’s dampening and proximity updates to the translation chips are working, again with a goal for future enhancements.  Tyche Reid has graciously volunteered to be our control on the chip project, so she will be providing only a baseline evaluation of the low-stim session and the quiet rooms.”  In reality, my sister wasn’t volunteering so much as refusing to get the upgrade until I agreed to do the same.

“Soph, if you are going to keep being so formal, we may as well shut this down now,” my sister huffed. “Mr. Costa my foot.”

“I’m trying to be professional,” I grumbled back. “This is an official Council operation, to be saved for posterity.”

“Do you truly believe that Xiomara will tolerate being referred to as ‘Miss’ or ‘Councillor Kalloe’ for six hours, Sophia?” Antoine asked smoothly.

Fighting back a chuckle, I refused to concede his point. “That’s Simon’s problem, not mine. She and I are on shift in the festival at the same time, so Simon will be running the show from here.”

“And you have deluded yourself to believe that Mr. Rodriguez will continue to address everyone formally?” Alistair scoffed. Et tu, Brute? I had argued with him for weeks to call me Sophia.

“If you start calling me Mr. Okafor, I’m going silent until this is over, Sophia,” Derek threatened.

I threw my hands up defensively, even if most people couldn’t see me. “Fine! I get it, I get it. I’ll chill out with the names, but I am going on record that it was under duress and threat of operative failure.” I shook my head and took a deep breath. “Okay, so, back to the point.  Tyche, your job is providing an assessment of the low-stim Festival session, as it appears to someone without the implant upgrades.  Derek and Sam, your jobs are to evaluate the session with the upgrades.  I need all three of you to report back two specific things: what worked better than your past experiences, and what still sucked.  Maverick, Zach, and Antoine: you are there both in your capacities as support personnel in case something goes horribly wrong, and to make sure I hear about anything they don’t realize shouldn’t be happening.  Everyone clear on your jobs?”

I got six affirmative answers before continuing. “Okay, other than that – have fun!  Try new foods, let me know what to try when it’s my turn, just enjoy yourselves as much as possible!”  With that, I left the group channel open and watched the map of the festival.  The three teams were entering from different points to ensure that, between the six of them, everything could be evaluated. In theory, everything should go off without a hitch.  The vendors were already briefed to be prepared for attendees during this session to provide a list of flavor and texture aversions, and Miys was already stationed in security alcoves to ensure that the vendors were complying and attendees weren’t abusing it.

It was only fifteen minutes before we got our first update.

“Team Try New Foods, reporting early success,” Zach Khan’s voice broke in. “Kosher food stall was an overall hit, the Jainist stall admitted they had nothing that Derek could like except papadums, and Derek tried both falafel and chicken tikka masala.  Jury’s out on the masala, but he likes falafel.”

“I really thought falafel would be too squishy,” I admitted.

“Apparently not,” Zach chuckled. “He said it’s like a meatball, but no meat.”

“I mean, yeah,” I agreed, still dazed. “That’s cool, though.  And the Jainist vendor didn’t give him a hard time about the list?”

“Nope,” he popped the last letter, something he tended to do when he was really excited. “Just smiled, read it, and apologized that everything he had was either spicy, sour, or squishy.”

“How did the Kosher and Halal vendors react to the list?”

“Thoughtfully,” Derek interjected. “The Kosher vendor clarified if I like onions, and the Halal vendor just wanted to know if I meant pepper-spicy or herb-spicy.”

Awesome. “Good job, guys. And congrats, Derek, on the new foods.  Keep it up and let me know.”

Thirty minutes later, not everything was sunshine and rainbows, though. Sam and Maverick had so far reported three vendors whose stalls were too pungent to approach, and Alistair was already in contact with and arguing about the need to keep the dishes covered during the low-stim session. “I understand that the smell is what draws people in, usually, ma’am, but you agreed to keep all smells to a minimum for the first six hours. That includes keeping the atmospheric scrubbers engaged and keeping the dishes sealed.” When the woman on the other end started to argue, he swiftly cut her off. “When you signed up to be open during this session, you were given a list of the restrictions, and you signed off on it. Low Stimulus, and that includes stimulating the nose. You can either seal the food, as you agreed, or we can have your stall closed down for the remainder of the Festival, per the agreement you signed.” With that, he disconnected sighed before turning to me. “So rude,” he informed me with a shake of his head.

“Which stall was that?” I asked, wrinkling my nose in dread.

“Fortunately, just the seafood stall,” he explained. “Along with the Cajun and Jamaican stalls.  So, pungent, but no one has reported nausea as of yet.  Miys is already in the area, trying to dissipate the odor.”

“As long as it isn’t the Japanese stall,” I gulped. They had insisted on serving natto, but explained that it would be sealed in individual portions throughout the festival, and only opened by the person eating it.  While I couldn’t exactly argue, I didn’t have to be happy about it.

I heard from Tyche right at one hour into the event.

“Soph,” my sister practically shouted at me. “Do you want to explain to me why one of the Quiet Rooms looks like you robbed my quarters?”

Oops.  Forgot about that. “Tyche, they’re designed to be relaxing, quiet, and provide low stimulation.  I can’t help it that your quarters are practically a smooshy cave.” Three, two, one…

“A hammock!?” she demanded. “Why don’t I have a hammock?”

“Make up your mind, Tych. Are you offended that the room looks like your quarters, or jealous that it’s better equipped?”

“Both. Definitely both,” she asserted. “Ooo, you included the sound scrubbers we had installed in your quarters, didn’t you?”

“I knew it!” I almost shrieked. “I knew it sounded muffled in my quarters since I got back!  That was completely uncalled for, you brat.  You know I’m hard of hearing!”

“You also have an implant in your brain that directly translates language into your auditory cortex, so it’s not like you couldn’t hear us,” she pointed out. “And all your alerts and alarms were already calibrated for you to see them as well as hear them. What I don’t understand is why you never had Miys fix your hearing.”

“Are you kidding?” I scoffed. “Loud noises are bad enough as it is.  I can’t imagine how it would be if I could hear them better.”

“Aaannnnnnd that’s why we put the scrubbers in your quarters,” she finished. Well, walked right into that one, I admitted to myself. “This room is nice, by the way, once I got over the shock. Quiet, relaxing on the eyes and ears. How buff are the atmo scrubbers? It’s like my nose just quit working, but I can still breathe.”

“Really buff,” I clarified. “I’m not sure how many food and personal odors are going to be at the main event, so I erred on the side of overkill.”

“Do all the quiet rooms look like this?” Antoine asked, his tone full of curiosity.

“They do not,” I grinned. “Antoine, you’re going to love this, I think.  There are five different themed quiet rooms, and two of each for a total of ten. You two are in one of the Dark Rooms.  The Green themed rooms are furnished with plants and small fountains.  Medium theme looks more like my quarters, with lighter grays and some purples thrown in. Cool theme is mostly blues, with diffuse light to give an underwater or polar night kind of feeling.  Finally, the Light themed room is whites and pale yellows, with indirect light to create a feeling like a sunny day.”

A hum of approval. “I think that makes the most sense,” he agreed. “Not everyone finds the same things soothing, but I think you created enough variety to cover everyone.”

“So, how is the event going for you guys?”

Tyche sighed. “It’s going okay, but I’m not entirely certain that’s not because of who I am.  I haven’t seen any flashing lights, no loud music is playing, so that’s good.  The vendors have been very deferential, which I didn’t think to expect, honestly.”

“I don’t think that’s because of you,” I hummed. “Derek is having a similar experience, honestly.  Sam has reported some vendors with fragrant stalls, but that’s been addressed.  Alistair, anything else?”

Without glancing up from his data screen, he shook his head. “Other than the incident with the smells, nothing negative reporting yet. Derek and Zachary have dutifully sent in additional reports regarding the reactions of each vendor to the food preference lists, so far the balance is in the positive. Samuel and Maverick are reporting similar responses.”

“And the upgrades?” Antoine asked hesitantly.

“So far, nothing major…” Alistair trailed off.  “Support personnel are reporting receiving proximity alerts from non-clients, and I’ve received several queries regarding if that is normal?”

“It’s expected,” Antoine sighed. “We are working on an algorithm that would reduce the alert volume for support personnel who are on duty and in the presence of their respective clients, but it wasn’t ready in time for this event.  But, yes, it is normal and to be expected.”

“Understood. Request approval to release a mass communication to all registered support personnel?”

“Approved,” Antoine and I answered immediately.  I continued. “Alistair, do we have any reports regarding the effectiveness of the dampeners?”

“Yes and no,” he stated. “General reports indicate conditions that are difficult to separate from the intended atmosphere of the event.”

“Tyche, are you still on Level Fourteen?”

“Yeah, why?”

“If we send you the reports from any participants in that area, do you have time to corroborate?”

“I mean, I do, but I thought I was supposed to be participating?”

“Sorry,” I winced in contrition. “You’re right. I just… got ahead of myself. Yeah, it can wait until after your shift at the event.  Just make sure you’re recording your observations so you can do an accurate comparison later, okay?”

“We’re both recording full video, Soph,” she assured me, a rustling noise in the background. “I’m about to head back out into it, but I promise to keep my eyes peeled.  I’ll keep shooting reports to you as I make my way through the vendors, okay?”

“Sounds good,” I exhaled, leaning back in my seat as she disconnected.  Watching the map for a few more minutes, I saw all three teams circulating through the event.  Sometimes a team would stop at a Quiet Room for several minutes before continuing.  Small reports were trickling in, some from the three teams, some from vendors, and others from support people who were simply attending the event in a professional capacity.  However, no further urgent matters were reported aside from Derek and Sam finding a handful of new foods each.

Finally, we were approaching the end of the low-stim session.

“Alpha Shift teams, relief teams for Beta Shift are on their way,” I notified them once we were fifteen minutes out from the end. “Beta Shift teams, please report when you are online.”

“Amelie Marechal, Crowd Control, reporting online and heading to rendezvous with Derek and Zach,” a cheerful voice chirped not two minutes later. I managed to smother a chuckle as Alistair scowled at me, remembering our conversation the day before.

“Coffee Williams, Crowd Control, reporting online and arriving to relieve Costa and Reid” came the next, this time a smooth baritone.  I hadn’t spent much time around the man, but Antoine assured me that he was perfect for diffusing difficult situations.

“Ivan Thorson, Crowd Control, online,” followed quickly after.  “Heading to meet with Amelie and relieve Tyche and Antoine.”

The next two Beta Shift members left me speechless. “Conor MacMaoilir, Crowd Control, online and relieving Maverick and Sam.”

“Grey Hodenson, Crowd Control Command, online. I’m with Conor and we are relieving Okima and Richardson.”

Alistair managed to sneak in a couple surprises of his own, apparently.  When I glared at him, he merely smirked at me before tipping a non-existent hat towards me.  I barely caught Mr. William’s teammate checking in before I managed to recover. “Sophia Reid, Alpha Shift Resource Command, reporting for hand off to Crowd Control Command. Grey, confirm handoff?”

“Handoff complete, Sophia,” came the familiar, neutral voice. Finally, they cracked and I could hear a smile in their next words. “Please take care to get some rest between now and Delta shift.  We expect that shift to be crowded, and you will be Resource Observation. Also, I would like to request that you do not allow Xiomara to kill Simon?”

“Hey, that’s a tall order!” I objected, only half-joking. “I’ll try, no promises. And I promise to get some rest.  First, I need Alpha shift teams to come debrief in my office, then I’ll take a rest interval for Gamma.  Deal?”

“Mr. MacMaoilir and I agree that is sufficient.”

“Maverick, make sure she gets some sleep, or I’ll let Tyche give you what for,” Conor interjected. I didn’t even try to suppress the groan that followed.

Introducing the two of them had turned out to be a terrible idea on my part.

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[rachelbethhines]

The Antoine and Bunnie Retrospective - 165

“The Freedom Fighters of the Future” Mobius: 30 Years Later IV - Sonic Universe #8

So did we learn anything new about Belle and/or Jacques in this issue? 

Well they both speak French like their father, though Belle tends to speak it most. 

Also Melody saves Jacques in a role reversal from last issue.   

And from this panel we can infer that she has a crush on him. 

And that’s it. They don’t even play much of a part in defeating Chaos. They just distract it during the city’s evacuation. 

Well so much for the review.....

Head Canon Time! 

Let’s start off on an easy one. They call Antoine “Papa”. So what do they call Bunnie? Cause I don’t think it’s mentioned here. Mama? Ma? Maw? Mère? Mom? 

I’m partial to “Ma”, but “Mama” would be both very Southern and very French at the same time. 

Speaking of motherhood let’s move on the to the elephant in the room. How could Bunnie have kids, and why would those kids have cybernetics? 

Well here’s a list of theories. 

Bunnie is fully derobotized in this timeline. With the kids own cybernetics being unrelated to her. Either A.) they choose to get them because it’s no longer a social taboo in the future and there’s obvious advantages to having them or B.) they’re medical replacements either due to an accident or illness like NIDS. NIDS being especially plausible as it effects the nervous system, and as it’s partially inspired by real world HIV, it could be transmitted from mother to child. And we know Buns on anti-mobius has this condition meaning Prime Bunnie could be a carrier. 

Bunnie does have her robotics but is still able to have children in spite of them, but not without complications during the pregnancy which lead to the need for prosthetics for the kids.  

Test tube babies. Though why not just adopt in that case? Unless some nefarious villain was like trying to clone the FFs or something. 

Jacques mentions an Elemental War to Sonic, though being erased from the timeline means that he no longer remembers it. 

However both Jacques, Lara-Su, and presumably Belle and Argyle do have memories of the war. We aren’t given specific info on when this happened or what ages the children were during it or even their ages now. Lara-su seems to be more of a young adult here rather then a teen with the twins being friends of Argyle’s suggesting they’re close in age. It’s possible that Belle and Jacques fought in this new war to some degree. Given that they have weapon attachments to their robotics further aligns to that. Could be they choose to receive cybernetics to fight with (thanks Uncle Bo) or were injured in the war. Also it was a magical war so magic could be involved as well. 

Of course this is all assuming that the “Ixis Resurgence” wasn’t what Flynn was building up to with Naugus’s take over before the reboot. 

Which leads me to the last set of fan theories...How do alternate timelines work in the Archie Sonic universe and how are they different from alternate universes? 

So remember when I covered that Guardians of the Galaxy parody that the comic did?  

One of the things I found frustrating about it was that it stated that alternate universes are in fact alternate timelines. Following the theory that if you change the past, you’ll just wind up in an alternate universe while your previous timeline carries on without you. 

This is a theory not supported within the comic itself. For starters, anyone can come and go between alternate worlds at anytime and those worlds still exist regardless of their actions. However only a few people can travel through time and time can be changed. Events and people can be erased or reshaped. Special equipment is needed to keep you within the world if you become out of sync with time. 

To summarize Silver wouldn’t need to time travel to change his past if he could just zone hop to a world where a good future has already happened. As infinite possibilities create infinite worlds, meaning a good timeline already exists and doesn’t need to be saved or made. 

So I therefore maintain that alternate worlds are not the same thing as future timelines. Different worlds are concrete. The future is not. It is in flux and follows the Back to the Future theory of time travel. If you screw up and erase yourself then it’s game over. 

Which begs the question, “How did Sonic come back from being “erased”? 

Well, I also have an idea. 

The event that forced him to go back in time didn’t just threaten Mobius prime it threaten the whole multi-verse. Kind of like another certain event that threatened the whole multi-verse...

Yeah, I believe that the 30 years later arc, the second half of it anyways, is actually the future of the reboot. 

Think about it, Antoine is still alive, Bunnie is able to have kids which in the reboot is more plausible due to her different origins, Sally is queen and Elias is no where to be found nor even mentioned, Shadows development from the original continuity didn’t happen, and Archie exclusive characters from the old continuity must wear special devices or be erased from existence.  

Sonic wasn’t erased from time he was displaced into a recreated world. There’s two Sonics, present sonic that caused the reboot and future Sonic that traveled through the genesis wave into the altered timeline. Present Sonic as some point disappeared either by dying or was erased due to the paradox of having to Sonics leaving only future Sonic.  Add in the fact that reboot messed with everyone memories and you can see how that paradox could effect them again.

The only niggle in this head cannon is Lara-Su and Julie-Su. It’s never stated if they have those devices or not. But it’s not hard to assume that if Lien-da and Tails could access them then so could Knuckles for his family. 

So yeah there’s my long ass list of head cannons for this series. Feel fee to reply with your own. 

Next week we’ll go back to the main timeline again.