#where shadow realizes nine wants sonic's energy

[sonicrainicorn]

sonic prime really trying to make me ship sonadow like it's no big deal

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

That scene towards the end of the S3 trailer

The one where Shadow is running to save Sonic from disappearing

What if by that scene, the main conflict is changed? Nine is no longer actively trying to get ahold of Sonic, to drain the paradox prism energy from him. Just like Shadow and his focus on saving Green Hill over the Shatterverse before, he concedes that *nothing* will exist if they can't fix the paradox prism (assuming that the crew comes to the conclusion that they need to fix the paradox prism to have a chance at fixing the rapid breakdown of the shatterverse).

What if after episodes of fighting Nine and avoiding having his prism energy taken from him, Sonic gives himself over willingly. Nine has just realized how far he took things, how tunnel visioned he became on a goal with the sacrifice of things (and a person) he cared about. What if he feels guilty, resolved to help fix the universe they live in before anything else, and Sonic *asks* him to drain the energy this time?

And no matter what Shadow or Nine or anyone else says, no matter how uncertain doing so would make Sonic's fate uncertain and put it at stake, they can't refute the argument. Doing this could kill him (just like back on Ghost Hill, when Sonic asked for Nine to give him energy to match that of the prismatic titan), but is there any other way to save the shatterverse?

I'm not sure what the answer is myself, but perhaps they hope so. They're running out of time, and if they can't fix it, all of them will die. So, they all form a plan.

What if Nine feels this guilt as he drains the prism energy from Sonic? What if he feels more awful (and a little jealous) when it's up to Shadow to ultimately save him (because Shadow's the only other one who can move quite as fast)?

What if Shadow runs and runs, desperate too to make sure that Sonic won't die? What if he's frustrated at Nine and Sonic (because why did it have to come to this?), but also frustrated at himself (because maybe if he could have been there with Sonic, or maybe if he was the one searching the shatterspaces before, maybe he could have stopped all this before it went too far, maybe he could have kept Sonic safe from this fate)?

What if Shadow enters that shatterspace with Sonic in his arms, hoping so badly he'll pull through, trying not to think about what'll happen if he doesn't?

And what if Nine is the next to enter the shatterspace, arriving before anyone else? What if Nine watches Shadow hold Sonic's barely existing form and feels a pang of jealousy, and a waterfall of guilt. What will he do if Sonic doesn't pull through?

[shannonallaround]

Sonic Prime Story Snippet 2/2 (post S3E1)

Read Part 1 here

The first thing Shadow noticed as he regained consciousness was the light. 

It came through his eyelids as a purpley-pink—too bright. Shadow squeezed his shut eyes tighter, groaning in the back of his throat. Eventually, he cracked them open. 

Directly before him, in all its shining glory, stood the paradox prism.

Shadow gasped at the sight, and he immediately regretted it—a thousand needles shot through his rib cage. He hissed, eyes snapping shut again. He released his breath slowly to try and minimize the pain. 

Gradually, Shadow looked back up at the prism, and he stared. He had only briefly glimpsed it before when it was gripped by Dr. Eggman’s excavation robot. Up close, and now fully restored, it was far grander than Shadow remembered; it was magnificent. 

The supernatural light radiated from within the prism itself, dancing off its surface and reflecting off everything in the room. It was like nothing Shadow had ever seen. He tried to move closer, only to stop short when something pulled on his arm. 

Shadow whipped his head around to see metal domes completely encasing his hands, keeping his arms extended outward on either side. His feet were trapped too, the domes connecting to a larger metal ring that circled him. He was completely suspended in the air.

Shadow yelled in frustration as he pulled against his restraints with all his might. Nothing happened. He boosted his air shoes—

Wait. Where were his air shoes?��

They weren’t turning on. That meant he wasn’t wearing them. Shadow felt his breath quicken (a painful experience). His eyes darted around the room, scanning every surface, but his shoes were nowhere in sight. He growled, and it turned into a furious yell as he yanked against his restraints again. They didn’t budge.

He was the Ultimate Life Form—this device shouldn’t be able to hold him. It was almost like…

It was custom-made for him.

“What do you think?” 

Shadow looked up past the prism towards the voice: it was Nine. 

The fox hovered in the air above him, that infuriatingly smug look from before still on his face. 

He flew to where Shadow was, landing on the balcony between the hedgehog and the prism. “I designed this device specifically with you in mind. Though I did borrow a little from a contraption the Chaos Council made a while back.“ He looked directly at Shadow then. “Not even Sonic could escape it.” 

Shadow growled, glaring at the fox. “Too bad you’ve caught me instead of him.” He still pulled against his bonds, though more subtly now. 

“Oh, don’t worry; that won’t last long.” Nine strode across the floor towards Shadow’s left. “The Grim Birdies will find him. He can’t run forever.” 

“You’d be surprised.” Shadow ignored the pain that flared up in his chest as he continued to speak. “Where are my air shoes?” 

“Trying to change the subject?” Nine smirked at him. Shadow glared daggers back. “They’re locked away,” Nine waved his hand dismissively. He now turned to face the prism. “Can’t have you interfering.” 

Shadow gritted his teeth. “This is insane. How do you even expect to get the prism energy out of Sonic once you catch him? You think you can just tear him apart and take it out?”

Nine stiffened, though his gaze remained fixed on the prism. He spoke over his shoulder. “I have a plan. Your myopic little mind couldn’t understand it.”

Shadow scoffed, disgust clear on his face. “You know what’s myopic? Being willing to destroy the entire universe for personal power! There won’t be anything left by the time you’re done, including you! Is that really what you want?” 

Nine turned his head slightly.  “What do you mean, ‘the entire universe’? I’m making a new world!” 

“And destroying all the other shatterspaces in the process!” 

At that, Nine froze. He turned further towards Shadow, staring at him. “What?” 

“Haven’t you realized?” Shadow scowled at Nine. “The entire multiverse is collapsing because of you and your selfish fantasies!” 

“That—!” Nine sputtered, then shook his head, steeling his resolve. He turned back towards the prism. “Once I have Sonic’s prism energy, that will be a non-issue. The shatterspaces will stabilize, and I’ll be able to remake everything as it should be.” 

“Who are you to decide what that looks like?” 

Nine spun around then, snarling. “Who are you to decide? You and Sonic were doing the same thing—you were using me, planning to just wipe me from existence to get your old friends back! 

Shadow took a breath. “That was never Sonic’s intention,” he said. “He thought he could save everyone.” 

“No,” Nine spat, “he tried to trick me into thinking we were friends so I’d help him. He never cared.” 

“That’s a lie.” 

Nine turned away, muttering under his breath. “You’d like me to believe that.” He suddenly crouched, pointing his robotic tails at the paradox prism. Green-tinted lazers shot out, causing the prism to pulse until a beam of light brighter than Shadow had ever witnessed shot upward into the sky. Shadow squinted from the light as the room shook around him. He barely heard Nine yelling over the commotion. 

“I’m going to turn this place into my paradise, and no one is going to stop me!” Nine stormed up to Shadow as the rumbling settled, jabbing towards Shadow’s chest. “Not you, not Sonic, not anyone!” 

“You maniac!” Shadow flung himself at Nine. His trap pulled him back, as he knew it would, but it was enough to make Nine flinch and take a single step backward. The fox’s hands turned into fists, and he grimaced. 

“You think I’m the maniac? You’re the one throwing your life away for someone who doesn’t even care about you! He’s abandoned you here, left you at my mercy! And even if he did care,” Nine scoffed then, looking away, “it won’t last. It never does. No one can be counted on. You’ll see that.” 

Nine turned and walked towards the balcony stairs, his back to Shadow. 

“There’s no place for me in the universe. The only way I’m gonna have a future worth living is if I make sure it happens myself.” 

“At the expense of everyone else?” 

Nine’s head turned, and he glowered at Shadow. He opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly an ear-splitting screeeach!! came from the distance. Nine’s face lit up, and without a second glance back at the imprisoned hedgehog, he lifted into the air and flew up through the ceiling to greet his robot scouts. 

“Nine! Nine!” Shadow called after him, fighting against his restraints again so he could stop him. The fox was long gone, however, and Shadow’s bonds still held fast. He suddenly found himself alone again. The paradox prism still glowed in front of him, its power now seeming more ominous than before. 

Shadow sighed heavily through his nose. All he could do was hope that, with the Birdie robots’ return, Sonic wasn’t with them.  ------- DO NOT TAG AS SHIP

[callme-aprilroseisha04]

guys I’m rlly sorry I haven’t posted in a while other than reblog but I’m trying to put all my energy into that sonic prime au explanation so I can get it out by the end of next week (the end of my winter break) so here’s my in progress explanation on what the @&$!? is going on in the voices!au

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OK so originally I had this MONSTER essay in what this was about but im really really bad at explaining things and I don’t want to leave you hanging forever so instead I’ll just give you a basic rundown of the concept and all the plot points. Also, important thing to mention, I HAVEN’T FINISHED SEASON 2 YET. Y’know, where the majority of my AU takes place. Haven’t finished that. Haven’t even seen Chaos Metal Sonic. Sorry, sorry, I know, I’m a fake fan but in my defense every time I turn on the show I want to bang my head against a wall, tear all my skin of, and run in circles at the speed of light (in a good way) (but also in a bad way) (a good bad way). Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I need to quickly explain the concept behind this. In the first episode of Season 2, Avoid the Void, Sonic doesn’t realize that he can run out of the Ghost World. He’s stuck there. This also means that he can’t save shadow from falling into the void (this is why shadow doesn’t have an arm or a leg in my au illustrations, he wakes up before he can be fully disintegrated, but he did lose some limbs.) Back to Sonic, since he has nothing better to do, he tries to take a nap at the beach where his friends are at and starts “taking” to Tail’s projection. Then, the voice comes. I don’t really know how to describe this. There is a voice, like the name states, but it’s also a lot more complicated than that. When “it” comes, sonic can’t hear anything; or well actually he can hear things (sometimes the noise feels oppressively loud) but he doesn’t know what people are saying, so to him it just sounds like gibberish. Also, this isn’t always true, (it just depends) but his eyes won’t focus properly and they get really blurry, like can’t see what’s in-front of you blurry. Also, headaches! Because apparently we needed to make this even worse for him for some reason. It’s not at its worst here, but as you can expect he is pretty disoriented after it’s done. Shadow comes back to the ghost world, Sonic is understandably surprised by his lack of two limbs, he gets the tech and bounces, yadayadayada, all the stuff. More importantly, now we get Nine back! Chapter two; Sonic goes to Boscage Maze, they’re ripping the place up, Sonic goes to help Thorn, mini “voice” episode as an appetizer, he gets a tech upgrade from Nine, he goes to fight, gets the main course “voice” episode, Nine gets in trouble cause emo tween egg boy caught him talking to Sonic trying to figure out what’s wrong with him and why he’s talking to himself, Sonic gets the shard from Thorn, he runs of with it, emo eggboy sends a message that they’re gonna kill Nine unless Sonic gives them the shard, Nine tells him not to, he goes anyway and THROWS THE SHARD INTO THE OTHER SHARDS THE EGGMEN HAD COLLECTED SO HE CAN SAVE NINE, (he tries to get the shards back but they got swarmed by robots) and finally they get out and go to the ghost world. Shadow is really, REALLY mad at him for trading a SHARD just to save a little kit boy and ALSO mad because Sonic wants to keep Nine there, to keep him safe. Eventually, Shadow gives in after Nine mentions that he could build shadow a prosthetic, but he adds the clause that the moment nine finishes the prosthetic, he leaves. After that, Sonic goes to get the rest of the shards back while nine makes shadows prosthetic at tail’s workshop. For the next few chapters, we get into some sort of a routine; Try to get the shards, come back to the ghost world to rest, squabble with shadow, chat with nine for a little, and repeat. Some important things to mention from this period are: 

Nine is intentionally taking his time making Shadows prosthetic as well as making it break really easily & adding a secret “feature” that allows him to DUCKING electrocute him from afar using a remote implanted in his mechanical tails; 

Sonic doesn’t actually sleep during this time, he just takes 3 hour naps so he can get back home quicker, which only worsens the voice thing; 

Shadow, (who doesn’t understand what’s going on with sonic other than the vague sense that something’s wrong with him, unlike nine who got a basic lil explanation from sonic after asking wtf happened at boscage maze) is getting increasingly frustrated with Sonic because of how long it’s taking for him to get all the shards, as well as his continual trusting of nine.

This continues for a while, those “episodes” get worse and worse, Sonic grows closer to Nine and tension keeps building between sonic & shadow until……… THE EGG COUNCIL COMES!!!!! Again, since i still haven’t seen season two of Sonic prime, I don’t really know how this is gonna happen, but I do know it is gonna happen. (btw nine finishes shadow’s prosthetic & leaves like a day before the egg council comes) This is a massive battle and I have like a whole thing on how it’s gonna play out but the important things to not for the story are: Shadow finally sees Sonic’s “episodes” play out in front of him & he is understandably confused and concerned, but their in a battle right now so he can’t really do anything about it and …..

SONIC TRIES TO CHOP OFF HIS F$!)KING ARM! Ok, I definitely need to explain this a little more. During the first occurrence of the “voice,” it mentions something about them and sonic being the same person, & basically just says “I am a part of you, Sonic. The only way to get rid of me is to get rid of you.”  Edgy silly stuff like that, y’know? Well, during this one, it repeats that again and in Sonic’s panic, he decides to do something incredibly stupid and risky based on even dumber reasoning. You see, the voice said it was a part of him, not all of him. It also said that in order to get the voice out, he’d have to “get rid” of himself too. So, using this logic, if he only gets rid of a part of him, then he gets to keep living without the voice constantly haunting him. This is admittedly pretty silly logic, but he was in the middle of what is basically a panic attack, so cut him some slack. He tried to use a piece of scrap metal that fell off the robot to remove his arm, which unsurprisingly doesn’t work very well. It only cuts halfway, but sonic can’t really tell that it’s still attached since he’s unbelievably tired, & “it” did shut up after he stabbed his arm open soooooooo. He manages to drive the egg council off to their own dimension before passing out from blood loss, leaving shadow to rush him to tail’s workshop so he can get bandaged up, made harder with shadz new leg getting absolutely trashed.  ————————————————————————

that’s all I have done rn, and it’s still in rough draft form, sorry everyone about the delays!

also this:

the last 2 are from later on in the story, just added them for the funzies

[bluebunnyears-08]

Nine is Tiny and It's All Sonic's Fault

Just a random prompt I thought up on the spot. Inspired by @heckinconfusedparade prompt response to someone's ask. This is an alternate universe where Sonic doesn't meet shadow, and Nine didn't have a plan that involved being captured.

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

This was all Sonic's fault.

Nine remembers telling him not to touch anything. But he couldn't listen - he never listens! - and now Nine was only a few inches tall. To be fair though, Nine did forget to shut the machine down, but it's still Sonic's fault because the idiot messed with it.

If he hadn't poked and prodded around it earlier, it wouldn't have had the ability to work in the first place. The council limits the city's power to suit their own needs, and Nine simply converted it, and the power used for the trains into his lab and home. That's how everything worked.

It was supposed to be a simple stop point. Sonic recently saved Nine from his captivity by the council, and they escaped to his lab. Nine knew they wouldn't find them there, they hadn't for years.

They rested here for a day and a half before Nine got to work on building another invention, something to take down the council. Sonic zoomed around his lab, his hyperactivity too energetic to contain in the small place of his home.

It wasn't long before the blur explored his lab and discarded inventions. Nine didn't mind, as long as he didn't touch or break anything. Not to mention, he liked the company.

Then Sonic got to the shrink ray, a big hulking invention with a pointed tip. He had to touch it, he had to pull the trigger while it was pointed at Nine, who didn't realize what happened until it was too late. He felt energy pulsing around him for seconds before everything went dark and silent for a moment.

When he came to, he was only a few inches tall. Looking around, his workbench now a mountain, and everything much farther and bigger as well, he realized what happened. He forgot about that invention, he made it because some things took too much room, so making them smaller was easier. It was also because he wanted to defy physics, that was a reason too.

Now he had to get Sonic's attention as the blue blur called his name, looking for him. The urchin's footsteps caused slight tremors, his voice was louder and now hurt the fox's ears, and due to Nine's small size, his ears couldn't catch the fox's yells.

Sonic didn't know what he did yet. All he knew was that he pushed a flip of a cool invention, while it happened to be pointed at the young genius, and Nine just vanished. Confused at what just happened, and concerned for the young fox and his whereabouts, Sonic began to search. He called out his brother's counterpart's name and walked around the area Nine was, finding nothing worry began to tighten around his heart even more.

Nine meanwhile, climbed onto his table, using his metal tails, which thank chaos he had on him during this size, he'd be helpless again, making it easier. Now on the table, he looked around for ways to get the blue hedgehog's attention. He resorted to knocking things off, which proved more effective as those emerald eyes looked in his direction as the hero tilted his head in confusion. He stopped and waited for the speedster to close the distance, ignoring how his breath slightly quickened and shoulders quivered when Sonic's eyes landed on him, his tremoring footsteps walking towards his now small insignificant form.

He won't deny that he took several steps back until his back hit the wall as his friend leaned down to get a better look at this odd bug. As soon as he realized what happened, Sonic suddenly lurched back, making the kit flinch. He then rubbed his eyes and looked again, much closer, looming over the fox, much to Nine's discomfort and fear.

"N-Nine?"

The nerve for the guy to look surprised when it was his fault Nine was tiny. He made it clear to let him know that as he glared harshly up at the blue buffoon, the recipient averted his emerald eyes guiltily, his gloved hands rubbing his quills nervously.

"Whoops...heh....my bad...i-in my defense, you didn't tell me what that did."

"Doesn't matter whether I told you or not, you should've known not to touch anything in my lab."

It was his fault, so the hedgehog had to fix it the fox deemed. But how? Sonic didn't know anything about mechanics and the conversion of matter. Not to mention the urchin can mess it up, and he didn't want to think about any possibilities if that happened.

"Look, due to my unfortunate circumstances caused by you and your refusal to listen, I'm going to have to guide you on fixing this situation that you caused. But in order to do that, you're going to have to listen carefully."

Sonic smiled and gave a thumbs up, his usual meaningless words of optimism pouring out of his mouth, 'something blah blah we'll fix this', Nine didn't really listen, he was too busy fuming. After a half hour of trying, and failing, to get the blue blur to build a reversal switch on the shrink ray, he figured it'd be easier than having him build an entire one from scratch.

Nope, Sonic didn't know the first thing to listen, and because of that, it was late by the time they got anywhere. Unfortunately, that was when Sonic stupidly decided to take a break and try it again tomorrow, to Nine's annoyance and frustration.

He tried to argue back, but Sonic was just as stubborn. He was firm in going to sleep and trying again later since 'they could try again when they had more energy'. Nine tried to make a compromise, Sonic can go to bed and he can fix it himself, but the hedgehog wasn't having it.

"You need to rest too, and you're not going to get anywhere if you're tired."

"I'm not tired!"

"Sure...if you aren't, then why did I see you yawn several times. I saw them, you didn't do a very good job at hiding them you know"

At Sonic's knowing grin, Nine merely glanced away and tried to cover up another yawn with his hand. He heard the hedgehog chuckle in amusement and felt his face flush in embarrassment.

Nine only huffed in response and ignored the concern, walking towards a wrench on the workbench (which he stayed on the entire time, he didn't want the hedgehog's hands on him).

"Well, that's not important right now, you can go to bed, but I'm going to fix the mistake you made since you can't figure out basic instructions."

At that, he heard and felt Sonic huff in frustration, before suddenly feeling something soft and firm wrap around him. He tipped in surprise and panic, before looking down and realizing it was the hedgehog's fingers. Sonic didn't pick him up, he just held him gently but firmly in place, but that didn't make it any less panic-inducing. He began to squirm and struggle, deeply uncomfortable and embarrassed about how easy it is.

"S-Sonic! Let me go!"

"Sorry, little buddy. But you need rest, we can work on it tomorrow, okay?"

"Oh sure, then we can get nowhere again because you don't know how to do simple mechanics!", Nine's voice was dripping with sarcasm and anger, but there was a slight tremor in his voice that went unnoticed.

"Hey, maybe if you didn't confuse me with your rants about the third space squared stuff then we might've gotten further, but we can try again tomorrow-"

"Forget it! I'll fix it since you don't help with anything!", anger took place now, not just the anger of recent events, but the anger he held onto and kept in a bottle, " You're the reason I'm small in the first place, did you forget that? We can't get anywhere because you have so much trouble listening, you can't follow basic instructions!"

"You're not making it any easier you know, with all your fancy words and your technobabble!"

"I'm not making it easier? Maybe I'm not, even though you are the one who doesn't understand basic science and how mechanics work, but you aren't helping at all! You never have, all you do is show up only to disappear without even saying goodbye, then you just come back like nothing happened! I went back for you, I went back to help you, but what happened? I got captured while you vanished to who knows where! You only cause trouble, you don't help, you never have!"

Sonic went silent, guilt taking over his features the more Nine spoke, and as the kit did, tears began to flow down the child's face. Tears of anger and abandonment, that he caused. After Nine was done the only thing hear was the pants and sniffles from the now broken-down fox.

For a while, nothing happened, until Nine jolted in surprise as the fingers holding him in place lifted him up, and pressed him against a wall of soft fur, a faint and fast throbbing buried within it. Sonic's fingers moved to gently pet the sobbing fox lovingly.

Nine froze, having not expected to be hugged with such care, to be comforted in such a genuine way. He listened to the calming heartbeat of his only friend. But the dam soon broke down completely, he grasped the peach fur and sobbed into it, relishing the gentle touch of the fingers rubbing his head.

As he did, Sonic finally spoke.

"I'm sorry Nine. I didn't know you'd-I didn't think that - I'm so sorry I made you feel that way, I should've never - if I knew I would never have left. But I won't do it again, I promise. I-", the hedgehog choked, "I'm so sorry. I want to help you Nine, from now on. I'll get you back to normal, I promise. I don't want you to feel abandoned or hurt. I will help you, I won't leave you alone again, I-I promise."

Sonic paused as he heard no response, and looking down he saw the tiny kitsune had fallen asleep, his tiny chest rising and lowering rhythmically. The urchin chuckled softly, giving the tiny child a light squeeze, holding his carefully and gently in his cupped hands, then moved to get to bed. After wandering about he found the kit's bed on the second floor accessible via a ladder. Getting there, he put the kit on the pillow, carefully putting the blankets over him, succeeding in not waking the child. He gently rubbed the kit's head with his finger once more, chuckling softly when the fox murmured softly and leaned into his caring touch.

He eventually found a couch and drifted off himself. The next morning, they eventually found a way to reverse the effects, and things went to normal after that, but the child was slightly more open and affectionate, just a bit. And Sonic made sure to care for the kit and keep him company.

They were both happy. Even if both of them knew it wouldn't last forever. Even if neither of them knew the true effects of the world around them, they were trapped in a painful cycle, one that might affect the universe itself.

But they were happy. And at that time, that was all that mattered.

[therealsinnohdawn]

things i would have liked to see in season 3 (excluding all the things i want to see purely for selfish reasons, i legit think these would make the writing and pacing better)

-scene where sonic asks nine “where’s shadow?” upon returning to the grim. the show does a lot to emphasize that the two care about each others’ safety, and it feels wrong that sonic doesn’t even question shadow’s absence at all and just presumes him dead without a word

-scene where mangey and sails talk to nine. the only person who ever tried to reason with nine was sonic, and i think it could have been really interesting to touch on how nine could have turned out if he had friends

-scene where renegade knucks and dread talk, or a callback to “a captain makes sacrifices.” dread’s redemption, while interesting, didn’t seem to really be motivated by much of anything. you could say he was inspired by the friendship he saw between the roses, but that’s a stretch at best. it would have been better if he did try to steal the prism first, got his ass beat and then rescued by his crew, and THATS when he realizes that the treasure was friendship.

-more interactions in general between the various counterparts. in season 2 the show makes a huge point of saying “when two counterparts meet it’s super weird,” then suddenly rebel and prim are besties with zero time spent on their first meeting.

-establish sooner that “taking sonic’s prism energy away will kill him.” this is pretty easily inferred by the audience but it could stand to be more explicit.

-various loose ends that never got tied up. what is the “eternity of darkness” in the void? they made a huge deal out of it by shadow almost dying to it, and it was never mentioned again. i get that they probably just ran out of time but another plot where perhaps nine stumbles into it and sonic goes in to try and get nine out could be super interesting. or other scenarios, im just spitballing. also, why couldn’t shadow pass through gateways? how did five eggmen end up in one shatterspace? why are there five eggmen but only three of everyone else? there are a ton more worldbuilding questions that could be answered, but these questions are glaring holes that probably should have been wrapped up.

-the last episode in its entirety just feels rushed. nine realizing his mistakes, the chaos council getting canned, sonic dying and then being saved all happen in the space of like ten minutes whereas the battle in the grim lasted like an hour and a half. why spend so much time building to a resolution for the resolution to be so rushed?

idk it just feels like this script could have used a few more passes. i personally think the pacing and everything of season 2 was so much better, and this season feels like they just forgot about a bunch of stuff they were building up.

the roses were perfect though, zero notes on them.

[my-name-is-jefferooni]

I JUST SAW “GRIME TIDINGS” AND I AM SHOOKITH TO MAH CORE

The new episode was… Oh my god. There’s so much Sonadow in just this first episode and I am close to fucking SOBBING.

So to start off, we got the fabled “Sonic feels bad about how Nine took the shards” in the cavern scene and even though it ended far too quickly compared to most other predictions, it was still very enjoyable! Shadow wasted absolutely no time in getting Sonic back in the game, while it took Sonic a while to realize that now is NOT THE TIME FOT A GODDAMN MENTAL BREAKDOWN. Twas a great interaction that had my soul flying outta my body frfr

THEN SONIC’S FRIENDS LITERALLY START FLYING AWAY AND MY HEART JUST SHATTERS BECAUSE WTF THEY LITERALLY JUST WENT TO SAY HI TO GOD I AM NEVER GONNA BE NORMAL ABOUT THAT THEY LEGIT JUST SAID “Bye Sonic cya in heaven” AND THEN WERE GONE LIKE WHAT

Poor Sonic just had to speed run the five stages of grief lmao

AND THEN ALL MY WORRIES WASH AWAY WHEN I SEE SONADOW WORKING TOGETHER TO GET OUT OF GHOST HILL AND IT IS SERIOUSLY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SEQUENCE OF 3D ANIMATION I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. There is so much squash-and-stretch, so much dynamic posing, so many fast movements, so many moments where you blink and you miss something. It’s so fluid and so expertly done, my heart was melting when I saw it. Prime is just straight up eye candy at this point and I am not in any way complaining. This scene was so pretty and so epic and so intense. And I could feel literally every impact. Wonderful story boarding to whoever did the storyboards. You have my full respect.

And then Shadow gives Sonic a compliment and my soul once again leaves my body. I am not okay.

AND THEN THE SONADOW FANKID BATTLE ENSUES WOOHOOOOOOOOOOO

And then. AND THEN. WHEN NINE BRINGS OUT THE OTHER 4 ROBOTS TO FIGHT SONIC AND SHADOW THE TWO HEDGEHOGS LOOK AT EACH OTHER AND GO “Behind you!” AT THE SAME TIME AND I START DYING AGAIN. Feel bad for Big tho. Bro didn’t get a robot… 🥺 Feel so horribly bad for Shadow too. He got stuck fighting the Rouge robot during the fight. Must’ve been a horrible experience. Can’t wait to see how he’ll react to the other versions of her though! If we even get to see him again…!

Which by the way, the ending scene…? OH MY GOD??????????? THEY REALLY HIT US WITH THE BIGGEST CLIFFHANGER EVER. SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG. SHADOW THE GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING HEDGEHOG. THE BITCH WITH ALL THE EMO DRIP AND THE HEELIES. THE ONE WHO CAN FUCKING FLY NOW. YEAH. HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF FOR SONIC. WHAT!!!!!?????????

Obviously, he’s not gone for good. Cuz then we wouldn’t be able to call this season “Sonadow Prime season 2.” But the fact that he gave himself up and chose to fight off a whole horde of super strong and powerful robots that could beat him in an instant all because Nine had his sights on the blue blur…? That is A LOT. Especially since we’ve waited like 2 whole decades for some good Shadow characterization. In no way am I complaining, duh, but for someone like me…? MAN I WAS NOT OKAY.

Sinister Nine is… It is wild. I always knew he was gonna be a problem ever since Shadow pointed it out at the beginning of season 2, but I never expected him to actually be this evil. He lands next to Sonic and Shadow before the sacrifice, and when he reveals what he plans to do to Sonic… He’s hardly recognizable anymore. It’s scary, how utterly broken and changed he feels. This is still the same fox as before though, just a bit more sure of what he wants. And that’s terrifying.

So naturally, when Shadow figures it out, he is mortified.

AND I START INTERNALLY SCREAMING BECAUSE I WAS NOT EXPECTING HIM TO REACT THAT WAY OH MY GOD BRO WAS FLABBERGASTED HE WAS SO TAKEN ABACK HE WAS SO HEARTBROKEN HE WAS LIKE “Why u tryna hurt my boo???” AND THAT MAKES THE SACRIFICE HIT THAT MUCH HARDER. OH MY GOD. MAKES IT WORSE THAT SONIC HAD NO IDEA WTF HE WAS TALKING ABOUT TOO.

Anywhizzle my energy has dwindled since my first watch because it’s been like 30 minutes but I just wanna add that. I am pretty sure it’s official that the Prime Universe is dead. Gone. Deceased. That shit ain’t coming back, I can guarantee. We spent like half the episode trying to get out of Ghost Hill and then mourning the loss of it, and I highly doubt all that screen time is gonna go to waste. They’ll probably say that Sonic succeeded and that we’ll be shown everyone returning to normal, but based off what we see I at least hope this isn’t the case. This now feels more like a show about moving on, about finding out who you are and making friends. It’s about change, but it’s also about connection. And with the Prime Universe gone, with Ghost Hill destroyed, and with the Paradox Prism in Nine’s grasp until the foreseeable future… I really doubt we’ll see Ghost Hill restored. This fact is amplified by the fact that we’ve been getting more screen time and development with each different universe/shatterverse.

Aight that’s all for now bye bye

[ebachan]

Sonic Prime - Part 02 - Trailer 01

Yo,

so the trailer for new episodes of Sonic Prime arrived, and it was packed with quite a number of awesome scenes! I also want to point out some neat details I've noticed, and I haven't seen many people mentioning them. Also, this will be a rather long post ^_^;

EDIT: See the end for new info about the last trailer scene!

Shadow's hand is hilarious here XD That stretch and squish animation technique is just perfect XD There is a reason this style still has its charm after all those years.

Also, Shadow packs a punch! Sonic's body literally shattered part of the "Space-shard". See the small pieces floating away from Sonic's body.

Upon entering Prime Green Hill, Sonic's shoes and gloves become "Digital"(?). Despite there being a Paradox Shard his gloves and shoes "don't" change their form? It's hard to tell, or this may be their form for this "ghosted" world.

I love Shadow's face here! It's like "Seriously, and YOU are my rival?". It's a mystery how Sonic can go toe to toe with Shadow if he has trouble landing! XD Could this suggest Shadow is half-hedgehog and thus his other bloodline "eliminates" this hedgehog's problem? Well, he is canonically a Black Arms hybrid, so, it's possible.

I can't help, but this Shadow has a serious lack of sleep! The dark areas under his eyes are more visible than Sonic's! But it may be just the lighting. It's also nice to see that Shadow may feel pity or empathy for Sonic since seeing him so down is not just rare, but this may be the very first time for both of them.

Ghost Big? Okay, this confirms we may see the rest of the gang and Dr. Eggman in their ghost forms. It seems their "spirit" stays where they were in the moment of Shattering.

Shadow has the TECH! This scene is after Shadow explains to Sonic how to fix the world and before he realizes he has to work together with Sonic! So far we have seen Shadow take only one Tech piece, but I think he may take all of them, but ultimately won't be able to travel between dimensions (T_T). And that's because he doesn't have any Paradox energy inside.

But Sonic has, and he demonstrated he can travel between worlds without touching the shards now.

Dread returns right after getting the Shard. Notice the weather. It's calm, which happened after Sonic touched the Shard. My theory is, Sonic absorbs the energy from Shards. Making them perhaps a little bit less powerful, allowing himself to touch them (as seen later in the trailer and during the leaked No Place fighting scene), and to travel between worlds without touching them (and maybe being able to choose where to go).

This scene is cool in two aspects.

Nine is rubbing under his nose, which is a gesture Sonic does. Meaning, Nine may pick up a few of Sonic's habits to calm himself down by pretending this gesture is done by Sonic.

See the purple behind him. I think this is a window and we see the portal to Void.

My guess is, this is shortly after Nine will make his escape from captivity.

Chaos Councill will get their hands on their shard, Boscage Maze, and No Place ones. There is still one on Grim and Prime Green Hill. I suspect this scene is from near the end of the 15th or 16th episode, creating a cliffhanger like the last time -_-. Or it can be somewhere in the middle and the batch will end with them gaining the Grim's shard too.

My guess here is, the dimensions will start merging, but in the wrong way as the proper anchor of reality is in Green Hill. I bet all of this will be triggered by them obtaining the shards. And it may be their work or a side effect of the shards being close to each other.

I swear Shadow is so reluctant to work together with Sonic because of his chaotic energy! XD Given Sonic has all of his techs, it may be during their first time meeting. Also, the dialogue will probably be from a different part, but it fits this scene so well XD.

Sonic is putting on his tech! Does it means he had lost them to Shadow, but since Shadow can't use them, he gave them back, so Sonic can travel while Shadow may be able to do something in Green Hill? Like collecting Chaos Emeralds? It would be so cool if it turned into Paradox Vs Chaos Emeralds fight in the end with both hedgehogs going Super!

Froggy is hiding under the hat XD And the Pirate Froggy is copying their Big joining the battle :-D This is so sweet!

We have officially Super Badniks too! They seem to be at least twice the normal's size :-O Their design is very similar, so that's kinda boring (but I get it). But they seem to have the fire blades Dr. Deep has on his Suit-Armor, so that is a nice add-on.

Why is nobody talking about this?? Rusty and Black Rose are working together! There is definitely no Nine to control Rusty since her eye is red/dark pink! Rusty is fighting alongside them because she wants to. And I love how Black Rose supports Rusty to do a big spin kick while shielding the Shard. My guess is, Rusty somehow unlocked her old memories and realized what has Chaos Council done to her. She was showing signs of glitching in the 8th episode after seeing Black Rose after all.

I wonder... what if Dr. Deep went into No Place world while Dr. Bable went into the Boscage Maze? They are this confident with their strength and this would speed up their search for Shards. Also Sonic is in the background of Thorn Rose, but it seemed he wasn't moving. Maybe he was waiting for the right time or was cautious to not endanger Thorn.

There is no way there isn't a scene where Nine interacts with his other selves. I bet it will push him forward and make him question himself.

I love how Dread makes this ship his own! And there is a big fight happening on board as I can see Catfish, both Amy, and Dread fighting Dr. Deep. I suppose Sonic will return here after his talk/fight with Shadow.

This scene is both funny and wholesome. Nine reunites with Sonic which leaves him perplexed, confused, and both happy. Nine isn't one to hug, so this takes him aback. And Sonic is just happy to see Nine is alive and okay. And given Sonic is theorized to be autistic and ADHD, for him to give such a big hug is a huge deal!

There is a holographic screen on top of these Super Badniks. This one seems to represent Dr. Bable's mark. But I wonder if there is more to it.

It's cool to know others can visit other worlds too, but will be Shadow able? I so wanna see him! But here we see Dread falling down. This begs the question - Is any of the Knuckles able to glide? Or able to learn it?

And the biggest reveal is - Metal Sonic!! Like in for the Part 01 with Shadow! At first, their design is kinda odd. Especially from the front, but from the side they look really good. And the most strange part is their personality. They are nothing like any of the previous Metal Sonics!

We can see them emote, and make victory/peace signs. No way they were made by Chaos Council! Nine had to be responsible for making them! And all of it in an attempt to have "Sonic". One that won't leave Nine. That has to be the reason he is so "cheerful". And it's important to note, this Metal is running not flying or hovering. That itself is very unique!

EDIT: Watch the trailer on Netflix! There are about 3 extra seconds for Metal by the end. As they show V, they outrun Sonic who seems to be in shock and even halting!

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

Oh my gosh, this was long! But well, this was a fun trailer! I hope we get at least one more or a scene or two like for Part 01. Feel free to tell me what you think or if you have spotted something interesting too :-)

[mysticalibra1994]

My Sonic Prime dream

So, this only happened at nearly the end of my dream. Due to not consuming any apples (and/or any snacks that naturally contain melatonin), I don't really remember the first half. The second half, though...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sonic did it. He actually did it! He saved his home, Green Hills! Everyone is there celebrating...

But, wait. Where's Tails?

As Sonic was about to go and search for him, Shadow stopped him.

"Don't, I'm picking up some disturbance based on Chaotic Energy." "You're right, Shads. Something is disturbing... The chilidogs don't have onions on them! I bet Tails is at his workshop getting them ready. Back in a jiff!"

Back in a jiff... For some reason, those words caused Tails' ears to twitch.

By the time Sonic got there, Tails attacked him; stunning the blue hedgehog.

"Wha...?" "Don't 'wha...?' me! You left me back in New Yoke when you said you'd be back in a jiff..." "T-Tails? What's gotten into you, bud?" "I'm not your bud and I'm not Tails..."

Sonic was confused by this sudden change in his little brother. As he thought back to figure out what went wrong, he had a sudden realization... As the rest went back into their own shattered universe, there was a blip on New Yoke's prism edge. Due to how small it was, hardly anyone noticed it. Not even the Chaos Council noticed. But only one person did. Unfortunately, Shadow was running out of time as he desperately brought Sonic back home. So, he didn't have time to tell him. That "blip?" Everyone back in Green Hills will keep their memories of the time before the shattering of the Paradox Prism. Everyone, except Tails; he accidentally got Nine's...

"Oh... That was what Shadow kept trying to tell me! Huh, I always thought it was he hated parties."

Nine!Tails were fed up! Fed up about how clueless Sonic appeared. Fed up assuming that Sonic never takes anything seriously. But most importantly, he was fed up that Sonic lied. By the time Sonic said "back in a jiff," it was back in New Yoke and Nine was taken by the Chaos Council. The poor anti-social kid waited and waited until he lost count of how many "jiffs" flew by.

Now, in Tails' body, he decided to take his anger out on Sonic.

By the time he finished, Sonic was mangled as his quills were plucked out until he looked like he had severe mange. Nine!Tails did this. But, Sonic is smiling? Why? What gave him the right? Who gave him the right to smile like that?

"Why...? What on Earth could you believe that you have a good reason to continue to smile?! HUH?!?!" "Because you needed it. Nine, you've been alone all your life. You had every right to be angry, you just needed to let it out on someone. Someone who wouldn't fight back. Someone who wanted you to feel at peace..."

By the time Shadow got inside the building, Sonic's vibrant green eyes went dull. Nine!Tails shakes his still and limp frame; trying to wake him up. The sobbing kitsune noticed Shadow's shadow on the ground. As he waits for a whallop, Shadow places his hand on his shoulder. Nine!Tails hesitantly look up to see Shadow crying a bit.

"Why? Why aren't you hitting me like how I...?" "No. Don't finish. I noticed the blip on New Yoke's edge. By the time Sonic and I made it back home, I-"

Shadow's throat felt a bit sore as if he was getting an unfortunate flashback. Instead of finishing his sentence, he knelt down at Sonic's level to close his eyelids.

"Sayonara, Sonic. Say 'hi' to Maria for me..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Honestly, I don't know how I dream these things up! If I knew, I would have my own TED Talk and/or a TV sitcom about it!

Speaking of dreams, I can't believe that it's 2024 (about halfway to 2025) and we STILL don't have machines that record your dreams like taking a video camera with you to record everything!

[heckinconfusedparade]

Prisme Au Amy. They managed to fix the paradox prism but the catch is that Amy still has to give the energy she absorbed from it which definitely scared her but she supposed it had to be done. I like to think it did make her weak that she couldn’t stand luckily Shadow is there to catch her. Amy is happy to have he friends back, especially Sonic since she definitely has a bit of trauma from the alternate Sonic’s wanting to kill her.

It’s all over. The prism is back together, and Amy and Shadow get to return home. Unfortunately, this took a lot of Amy’s energy since she was the one who broke it in the first place.

“Amy..?..AMY!” Amy hears a deep voice calling for her. She lifts her head and sees Shadow rushing towards her. She tries to stand, but struggles, her body begging to be put to rest. Amy manages to get to her feet to greet Shadow who’s looking at her in relief. Her knees give beneath her, but Shadow catches her. He’s glad she’s ok.

They hear the grumbles of their friends waking up around them. Amy feels a little stronger seeing them wake up.

Knuckles is the first on his feet. He looks around him. His eyes lock on Amy who is still struggling to stay on her feet, even with Shadows support. He rushes over to her “Amy! Amy are you ok?” He and Shadow get her to a rock where she can sit down. Amy holds her head, then looks at Knuckles. She gasps and goes to hug him, but nearly falls over. Knuckles, confused accepts the hug, but makes her sit back down.

Rouge is next. She breathes a sigh of relief seeing everyone is ok.. for the most part. She’s shocked to see Shadow there “Shadow?” Shadow looks over at Rouge “oh. Hey Rouge.”

Rouge slowly makes her way over “is Amy ok? She looks..” Shadow stops Amy from falling over again “she’s ok. We’ve just been. Through stuff.”

Rouge is confused, but eh. It’s whatever. She gets to teasing Knuckles.

Tails is the next to rise. His little legs stop him from getting up right away, and his fur is messy. He makes his way to the group. Amy nearly tears up seeing him. After meeting Nine, she is happy to see Tails in somewhat high spirits. She tries to hug him too, but nearly falls on top of him “I’m so sorry Tails.. I should have listened to you.. to all of you!” Tails looks at her confused “what are you apologizing for?”

“I heard you warn Sonic to be careful since we don’t know what the prism does.. but I wasn’t careful myself. I’m sorry.” Amy squeezes the poor kit who is now hugging her back “it’s ok. No damage done!”

Shadow looks at Tails with the most expression he’s seen, and it’s one of ‘ARE YOU SERIOUS RN’. Tails chuckles nervously.. guess there was damage done.

Sonic is now making his way towards the group. It took him the longest to stand. Amy finds more strength and stumbles her way to Sonic, locking him in a tight embrace. Sonic gently holds her with a confused expression. He realizes she’s shaking. She pulls away and cups his face. Sonic gives her a questioning look, not really understanding where all this sudden affection is coming from.

“Amy?? What’s going on?” Sonic asks. Amy for once is lost for words with him. She just goes back to holding him. He looks at the others trying to figure out what’s happening, but they are no help, because they just shrug. Shadow though is giving them a fond look, knowing full well the amount of bs Amy went through with the other Sonics.

Amy is able to rest up, then she tells everyone the story of Shatterspace.

You may be wondering what happened to Eggman. He isn’t gonna wake up for a while. Bro was practically split in 5, give him a bit. Nobody caaaaares about Eggman!

[solalunar-eclipse]

Team Dark: A Holiday Special

Chapter One: Omega

Two | Three

Word count: about 5800 words

WARNING: this chapter contains entomophagy (eating insects)

Author's Note: I'm finally back! Sorry to make you all wait so long, but I really wanted to get this project out by December, so...here it is. I hope you all enjoy! (Also, apologies in advance for any bad formatting: Tumblr is being very uncooperative right now.)

...

It was, officially, a ‘lazy day’.

Team Dark was spending time at home, resting after the holiday frenzy of yesterday. Rouge had suddenly realized that they hadn’t decorated yet and that they all still needed to come up with present ideas for Team Sonic, so she and Shadow had spent the entire time in a sort of constant state of panic. Omega tried his best to help them, intermixed with a lot of gloating about his perfect memory and how he’d remembered to get a gift already.

He’d gotten punched halfway across the room for that one.

Now, a certain striped hedgehog was relaxing in his room, reading a book quietly. Until (of course) the peaceful silence was shattered by a loud blaring noise that sent him racing out the door and halfway down the stairs to their common area. Rouge was standing in the middle of the room, and shouted out to him, “Shadow! Come down here, I’m calling a group meeting!” Shadow winced and massaged one of his ears, his quills relaxing from their startled position as he walked over and sat down on the couch. He glowered at Rouge, who stood in front of him with the ‘team meeting airhorn’ still in hand. Despite his stare, she was still poised to blast again if Omega didn’t show up soon. Thankfully for Shadow’s hearing, Omega appeared quickly, albeit with much complaining about being dragged away from his targeting system calibrations. “Alright, Rouge, what’s all this about?” the hedgehog sighed, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. She smiled cautiously at the two of them. “Before I say anything, I want you guys to know that this offer is optional. If it’s too much for you, you don’t have to say yes.” Omega spun one of his hands around, making a slight whirring noise. “Please continue.” Rouge sat down on one end of the aforementioned couch, sinking into the cushions with a sigh. “Okay. Let’s see. I haven’t...ever talked to you guys about my family before, have I?” “I do not recall you initiating any such conversation.” Omega answered, at the same time as Shadow replied, “No….?” “Well. Considering everything...I kind of figured it’s about time I told you all my story.” She smiled again, but it was a little bittersweet. Shadow inched closer, caution sparking in his eyes. “Where to start...I mean, I have a mom, two sisters, a stepsister, a stepbrother, and a stepmom. And a dad too, I guess?” “You guess?” Omega asked skeptically, before being shot a fierce ‘no questions‘ look by Shadow. “It’s alright, hon.” Rouge said, putting a hand on the hedgehog’s shoulder. “I guess I should really start at the beginning.” “My dad was a cat and my mom is a bat- obviously, hah. My two officially related sisters are twins, three years younger than me. Right before they were born, though...my dad left. He took all the cash with him when he did. And, well. Left Mom with a barely-paid-for apartment and without a job. “We, uh. Heard later that he ran off with some lady from his job. Mom...didn’t take it too well.” Shadow’s eyes widened and Omega smacked a fist into one hand. “Rouge. Is your father, hypothetically, good at withstanding high-powered attacks from a hypothetical extremely destructive robot?” She snickered. “No, he’s not. But please don’t actually fight him, alright?” His hands crackling with chaos energy, Shadow hissed, “Rouge...I think I like his plan.” He bared his fangs as he spoke, looking furious. Rouge smiled gratefully at the both of them. “Thanks, guys, but he’s really not even worth your time. Let me keep going, okay?” Omega sat back, irritated at the lack of pulverizing Rouge’s father going on, and Shadow, reluctantly, allowed his chaos energy to dissipate. “Yeah, so he left, and that was a whole thing. Mom worked hard for us, but it just...wasn’t enough to make ends meet. I started my career of...relieving people of their fancy objects-” here she winked- “at the age of eleven to help out. Dropped out of school after eighth grade to start full-time thievery once I turned fourteen, and, yeah. I had to leave home, otherwise Mom and the twins would’ve been in real trouble. “I got busted after two whole years by the one and only Guardian Units of Nations- not a bad streak, if I do say so myself. Then, I started working for G.U.N. to pay my dues to society, and...you all know the rest after that. I still kept sending checks back to the family, though.” Shadow and Omega were both looking at her with unreadable expressions at this point. “I’ve stopped doing that now, actually, since Mom’s been with her girlfriend for like a year now. She’s dating this super sweet cardinal who gives her basically everything my dad never did- her name’s Camellia and she has two little kids from her last marriage. She’s been so good for Mom, honestly.

“I know it’s usually supposed to be this whole thing where the stepdaughter hates the stepmom, but that’s not for me. When I got the news, I was just like ‘Oh, so that’s why I’m pan’ - yeah, really- and now I’m cool with it. Plus, I’ve got two new little sibs, so it’s all fine.

“So...yeah. That’s my family.”

Shadow sat there in deep thought for a minute. “Your family sounds nice...I’m just sorry you had to go through all of that.” he said, when he finally spoke up.

“Yeah, they’re great- and it’s okay. I mean, if it wasn’t for all that, I never would’ve found you guys!” she said, looking much brighter now. “Now that you know about them, you wanna see some pictures?”

“Certainly.” Omega said, curious to see these people that Rouge cared for so deeply.

“Okay, so...these are my twin sisters, Midori and Neela.” she said, showing a social media post of two identical coffee-colored cats posing for a selfie. Even their fur markings were exactly the same, as well as the shade of their golden eyes. Despite the fact that they were felines, something about them looked an awful lot like Rouge. The shape of their faces, perhaps?

“And here’s Camellia and Mom.” A picture came up of a beaming, moderately curvy white bat and an equally overjoyed cardinal with their arms around each other in front of a beautiful sunset.

“This is Jade, my stepsister, she’s ten-” Rouge showed an image of a young goldfinch playing soccer, kicking the ball fiercely. “-and that’s Spark, my stepbrother.” A small cardinal with a grin as broad as his mother’s was swinging on a swing at a playground, his eyes bright with the excitement of childhood.

Shadow smiled, looking as though he were a mixture of genuine happiness and a little ever-present pain. “They all look wonderful, Rouge. I’m...honored...that you felt like you could show us this.”

“That wasn’t so bad, honestly- I’ve been wanting to figure out how to do that for a while.” the bat said. “This is going to be the hard part.”

Two pairs of eyes watched her expectantly.

She exhaled. “Every year...my family has this big, three-day Wintersweek party. And when I say big, I mean seven out of my mom’s nine siblings and their spouses and kids. Like, more than twenty guests big.”

Omega interrupted her there. “If your mother has nine siblings, why did none of them bother to help her when she needed them?”

Rouge looked at the floor, a little sad. “Four of them were in debt themselves, two live in crazy places around the world and didn’t really know, and...the other three tried to help. Mom refused to take more than she could pay back. They still helped do other stuff like watch us while Mom was working, though.”

“Understood. You may continue.” Omega replied, shifting into a slightly less confrontational pose.

“So. I always go to this party, except for those two years when I was on the run. This is going to be my third year back. And…

“I really, really, reallyreally want to introduce my family to my two best friends. You know, the ones who live with me and always have my back and mean the world to me.” she said, looking straight at Shadow and Omega. The former blushed a faint green at the praise, while the latter scoffed.

“Of course you wish to do so. Our excellence is unparalleled.”

Rouge smiled hopefully at them. “I know it’s a lot to ask of you guys, but...will you come to the party this year?”

Omega processed this for a minute. “How amenable is your family towards weapons of incredible destructive power being present in their home?”

“Well, see, about that….” Rouge muttered. “...you might have to empty your weapons cartridges before we go.”

“I am unsure if this is an acceptable outcome. I will respect your wishes to an extent, but I refuse to be without weaponry at my disposal.”

The bat thought for a moment. “...you can bring the flamethrower, but only if you put a PIN lock on it.”

“...”

“...”

Rouge stared him down. “There’s going to be kids there. Kids.”

“Accepted.” Omega said finally. His tone switched to a more triumphant note as he added, “I shall come and impress all of your relatives with my power.”

Shadow had reservations, too. “Won’t it be weird, having people who aren’t really your family there?”

“Shadow…” she said gently. “...you two are as close to me as my ‘real family’, and I want you to be there.”

Omega noted that Shadow was behaving in a manner that suggested he was ‘flustered’. He folded his arms tightly, lowered his head, and his mouth was pressed tightly into a line- an attempt to hide a smile. “...but won’t I take up too much space? An extra bed is more difficult to manage than an outlet.”

Rouge sighed sharply, becoming frustrated with his hesitance. “Mom has air mattresses up to her ears specifically for this, and she lives in Camellia’s house now, which has like ten bedrooms anyway. And you’re totally not going to be ‘a bother’ or anything, so don’t even say that. Mom basically screamed when she found out I was bringing people, and I mean that in a good way. She didn’t stop asking me questions for half an hour.”

“I…” Shadow said tentatively, close to giving in.

“If they’re ever too much for you, though, just feel free to hide in one of the back rooms. There’s plenty of places where you won’t be disturbed.”

The hedgehog sighed, but he didn’t look upset. “I suppose I can try, for you.”

“Yes!” Rouge shouted, kicking her legs before getting up and bouncing up and down. “Heck yeah! This is gonna be great!”

…

Over the next week, they discussed the party numerous times, and Rouge spent a lot of time sitting in the middle of mountains of wrapping paper, packaging presents for her family. Omega and Shadow had tried to help her, but she’d insisted that they not worry about it. “It’s my family,” she had said, waving them away. “You being there is already more than enough. I’d never ask anything else of you.”

Shadow had still made cupcakes, though. Omega helped with the icing.

On the first day of the event, they set off early, making the several hours’ drive from Central City up to Rouge’s family’s house (north of Empire City) so that they’d arrive just before lunch. Thinking of Shadow, Rouge didn’t want him in particular to get caught up in the early (and supposedly quite intense) greetings that her family usually participated in. Omega resolved to turn his force output down just a little- he didn’t want to accidentally break someone’s hand instead of merely shaking it in introduction.

Of course, this all meant they had to endure a four-hour car ride together, involving lots of fights over what music was playing, several different long-distance driving games, and multiple threats to toss one another out the window while moving at 80 mph or more.

So, generally uneventful for them.

...

When they arrived at the family’s house, the E-series robot decreased his optic zoom to 85% just to take the entire place in. It was truly an enormous building, built from what appeared to be stone but on closer inspection was...actually stone. Unexpected, yet impressive.

Omega was mildly uncertain about the heating capabilities of such a house, but at least it was structurally sound. He would have to decide on its defensibility later.

“Wow.” Shadow muttered, his eyes wide. “I know you said it had ten bedrooms, but...wow.”

“I said I wasn’t messing around with you!” Rouge laughed brightly. “This place is crazy big.”

As soon as they opened the door and the bat stepped inside, the team was greeted by a loud shout of “Rouge!” from various delighted family members.

Her immediate family rushed over first, giving her lots of hugs (while her parents relieved Omega of the numerous presents she’d had him carry). Her stepbrother jumped up and down, asking, “Did you bring a present for me? Do I get one? Do I?”

Rouge smiled at him, picking the little cardinal up and giving him a hug. “Of course you do. There’s one right over there!” she said, pointing towards the giant pile of presents.

Rouge’s mother came rushing back over at that, greeting her daughter with a tight embrace. “Oh!” she exclaimed, noticing Omega and Shadow standing by the door. “Are these your friends, Rouge? Come on, introduce us!”

The younger bat grinned. “Alright, so this is my partner-in-crime and our resident edgy goth, Shadow,” she said, gesturing towards the hedgehog. He responded with a glower at Rouge for the latter remark and a polite “Nice to meet you.” to the family.

“And this is my personal palanquin (just kidding, just kidding) and awesome destroyer of enemies, Omega.”

“Greetings, Rouge’s relatives.” Omega said, turning his volume down to a level that Rouge had termed ‘inside voice’. First impressions and all that.

After making their way through many, many more greetings- which Omega recorded to play back for name storage later- the team were finally seated at one of the large couches in the living room. Rouge, being Rouge, began to chat cheerfully with a couple of her family members, describing her latest escapades with the other two team members as well as her general social life.

Shadow and Omega didn’t speak much at first, but the latter in particular soon began to interrupt her stories to point out multiple inaccuracies (mostly Rouge underplaying how utterly awesome he was). He found that he quite enjoyed talking about their various adventures, in fact.

However, the three quickly discovered that some of Rouge’s relatives had...misunderstood her stories.

One of the many aunts- whose name Omega had not yet stored- spoke up. “Rouge, I know you said you were bringing friends, but you don’t have to be shy with us, sweetie. Shadow here seems like a very thoughtful boyfriend.”

Chaos ensued. Rouge choked on her water and Omega had to pound her on the back to help her breathe again. Meanwhile, Shadow seemed to have reflexively assumed a defensive, curled-up position, yet Omega could still make out a faint glow of green from within the black and red ball.

“No!” the bat shouted, once she’d regained her breath. “No, no, we’re only friends, really!”

Her aunt seemed unconvinced, as did several other guests.

Shadow slowly uncurled, prepared to back Rouge up- though he seemed to have temporarily forgotten how to speak in his shock. His mouth moved silently, and he seemed to be having trouble stringing together a coherent sentence.

“I am not romantically involved with Rouge in any way.” he began slowly. “I assure you, she means the world to me, but in a platonic manner. I am grateful to have a friend like her, but that is all we are to each other.”

Several other relatives decided to weigh in on this.

“He seems like a very polite friend!”

“Rouge, even if you’re not together, you had better hang on to this one.”

“He certainly likes you, and that’s what’s important.”

“It’s alright if you aren’t dating, honey!” Rouge’s mom added. “Healthy platonic relationships are very important.”

The younger bat shook her head, covering her eyes with her hand. “Guys, please.” she groaned, before looking over at Shadow.

The hybrid appeared to be surreptitiously trying to get in touch with his hedgehog heritage and burrow underneath the cushions by this point. Rouge grinned at him and wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him back out into the open. “Come on, don’t make him embarrassed! It’s only day one, guys!” 

Shadow cringed at that. Omega, meanwhile, was most definitely not recording any of this and storing it safely in his blackmail folder. Not at all.

…

A little later on, after everyone had eaten lunch, Omega (being the strongest on the team, despite Shadow’s protests otherwise) hauled their suitcases upstairs with little trouble. Rouge had been too busy talking to come with him, and Shadow looked as though he’d buried himself in a pile of cushions and probably wouldn’t be moved without extreme force, so he’d gone up alone.

Looking around the small room, he...found it quite tolerable, honestly. Sunlight streamed in through two medium-sized windows, and there were several empty floating shelves on the walls for their things, as well as a linen closet. There were only two beds in the room, since Omega just required a…

Ah, there it was. A charging port.

The robot was actually more pleased than he expected with the amount of mock evergreen, poinsettias, and other such ornaments in the room, though. He wasn’t much one for artistic expression himself (preferring to express his thoughts via some choice language and a few well-aimed rockets), but his friends were more...appreciative of such things and would likely enjoy the decoration.

Bored with examining the room already, he put down the suitcases and began to explore the house, trying to figure out what the floor plan looked like. He walked through all of the different rooms, enjoying himself while examining all of the possible defensive vantage points and the most optimal attack areas. 

Sure, fighting was his job, but who said he couldn’t enjoy contingency planning? Mapping out attacks on his place of residence and figuring out how to best repel invaders was one of his favorite pastimes (right up there with visiting the mall with his friends).

However, once he had planned out about five different strategies, he realized that an hour had gone by and that it was probably a good idea to go check up on said friends.

After he carefully made his way back downstairs- trying to walk in a way that didn’t shake the house was difficult- he saw Rouge still chatting with some of her cousins and looking very happy. Shadow was barely even visible, curled up in a dark corner and alternating between reading and listening to the conversation. Everyone honestly seemed to be enjoying themselves.

However, there was one jarring thing about this warm, familial scene that Omega noticed. 

The little children.

They were everywhere. Climbing their parents like a jungle gym, interrupting conversations left and right, running around underfoot, and generally causing mayhem in their wake. While Omega highly appreciated their impressive ability to cause confusion and chaos, he suspected that most of the other people here did not. Multiple guests looked ready to break something, and the robot was fully aware that Rouge’s family did not share his opinions on wanton destruction.

So, he decided to do something about this.

“SMALL CHILDREN,” he shouted, gaining the attention of the entire household. “I CHALLENGE YOU TO A SNOWBALL FIGHT.” That was an acceptable (and fun) form of violence, if he remembered correctly. Rouge certainly looked interested.

The children began to bounce around in various states of excitement, their energy somehow increasing exponentially at this prospect. “Whose team will you be on, mister?” Rouge’s stepbrother asked bravely. 

“MY OWN. NONE OF YOU CAN DEFEAT ME.” Omega declared.

“Yeah, right!” an older child shouted. “Come on, guys, let’s go!”

The entire group rushed outside and began to build a snow fort for the upcoming attack. Most of the children were clearly struggling to organize, as half seemed to comprehend the need for a well-structured creation and half were just piling up snow like maniacs.

Meanwhile, Omega began to carefully form large building blocks out of the snow, building a formidable fortress (snow could be imposing, alright??). Once he was satisfied with his semicircle construction, he noticed that he still had a few minutes to wait before the children finished theirs. He spent this time making snowballs, as well as a few other...adjustments. When the children shouted out “Ready!”, he was more than prepared.

Since they were, again, Rouge’s relatives, he was very, very generous and gave them the first chance to fire. The children launched snowball after snowball, but he ducked behind his fort and only one found its mark. Once they were all out of ammunition and scrambling for more, he felt a smug sense of satisfaction.

It was time.

He loaded his arms full of snowballs…

And proceeded to launch them out of his machine gun ports at the children.

The kids scattered in all directions, shrieking with a mixture of fear and excitement. Omega, during their attack, had thought to make even more projectiles, turning what was supposed to be organized warfare into a one-sided rampage of destruction.

By now, Rouge had appeared on the deck and was currently howling with laughter, tears streaming down her face as she watched Omega launch his onslaught of snow. Shadow was standing at the doorway along with several others, a giant wicked grin spread across his face.

The E-series robot truly wished he could make that second expression right now. He turned to Rouge, watching her cackle…

...and immediately proceeded to fire a massive amount of snow at her as well. Her laughter transformed into a gasp of mock betrayal as she scooped up some of the offending substance, packing it into a weapon of her own. “Oh. It. Is. On.”, she hissed, shaking the snow off her wings.

Taking to the skies, she began a counterattack, distracting Omega with varied sizes of snowballs and forcing him to try and fire directly upwards. The children, realizing that they had a powerful ally in Rouge, began to make new projectiles themselves and threw them at him from all sides, until Omega finally found that he was struggling to handle the attack.

As he began to turn the tide again, he realized suddenly that this was entirely due to Rouge’s absence…

...and of course that was when a shadow fell over him.

Followed by a giant pile of snow.

He flailed in the icy trap as he struggled to regain his bearings. Once he had managed to clamber halfway out of the snow, he saw Rouge hovering above him. Her wings struggled to hold her in the air as she laughed again, and he noticed sulkily that she was holding a sheet.

“Cheater.” he muttered, indignant at having been trapped in such an unflattering manner.

“Cheating?! From the guy who launched snowballs like missiles? Really?” she shouted down to him good-naturedly, shaking her head. “Talk about hypocritical, Omega.”

The E-series robot still insisted on having the last laugh, though- he had to get out somehow, so he powered on all of his fans at full blast to clear away the snow. And if everyone was standing too close to avoid the resulting icy shower, well then that was their problem.

After that, though, everyone had to go inside and dry themselves off. Organics couldn’t handle being wet and cold very well, and Omega didn’t like the idea of his circuitry being shorted out. He felt a great sense of satisfaction at having established his status as the cool one on the very first day, though.

He spent a little more time with the young ones after that, playing several rounds of a popular card game called One with them and stacking up all of the plus-fours. The robot showed no mercy even in games.

Several children, evidently impressed by his prowess (or perhaps just in awe of the fact that he was a giant robot) begged him for promises that he would play more tomorrow, to which he quickly agreed. Not long after, to everyone’s disappointment, the kids’ parents came and practically dragged them to the dinner table, having shouted their names four or five times by this point.

As he walked into the dining room, Omega surveyed the area, focusing for a moment on the glow that the many candles gave off on the table. Fire was always a nice touch.

Looking further, he noticed that the wooden table alone was a formidable piece of furniture, filling the largest room in the house and forcing some chairs to squeeze up against the wall just to make space. And that wasn’t even mentioning the feast laid out on top of it. Omega ignored that for now in favor of sitting down on one side of Rouge after he saw her at the table. Looking over to her other side, he noticed Shadow surveying the food spread out on the table with what most would consider a completely blank look.

Omega, however, had experience with analyzing Shadow’s facial expressions, and noted the slight tension in his face as well as the fact that he was fidgeting with his silverware. Both he and Rouge had a good idea as to why, too- Shadow didn’t need any of this.

The hybrid had been created with incredible physical resilience, able to withstand the most arduous of conditions. This included a significant lack of food. He actually ate only about three times a week, and even then he only consumed small meals. While it was about time for him to eat today, the fact that there would be even more food over the next couple of days seemed to have produced a conundrum for him.

If he ate now, he wouldn’t need to later, which could be quite awkward, particularly when everybody else would. Omega thought through the options and decided that there were three main paths he could take: eat now and not later, not eat now but do so later, or possibly attempt to eat a little on all three days.

Rouge seemed to have realized this as well. Leaning over to Shadow, she whispered, “Whatever you want to do is fine, hon. It’s okay if you eat a lot over these few days- everyone else here will too. If you don’t want to, though, that’s cool- just make sure you have something at some point, alright?”

The robot watched as Shadow relaxed slightly at her understanding words. The change was almost imperceptible, but he now sat back in his chair instead of forward, and he’d stopped adjusting his place setting.

Once everyone was seated and they’d given a quick toast, the family began to dig in. Shadow sat back and waited for everyone else to take some food first- a wise choice. Rouge, on the other hand, entered the rather impressive food frenzy with a voracity that her team members knew all too well- she often complained that one of her few vices (aside from gems and other sparkly objects) was food.

Omega took this time to survey what he could see of the dishes, interested in finding out for himself what a proper Wintersweek meal looked like. He saw two dishes that appeared to be some sort of poultry, as well as bowls of finger food that looked like they were filled with crickets and beetles. Various platters of cooked vegetables in every color of the rainbow covered the table, some with sliced fruit available as well. Loaves of bread in multiple shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the presentation, accented by artfully placed centerpieces.

Quite honestly, it looked impressive.

Rouge had a little bit of everything on her plate, and was currently digging into a buttery baked potato like she hadn’t eaten in weeks. Omega silently put his napkin next to her plate, the (sarcastic) message clear: You need this more than I do.

Shadow, meanwhile, had taken a little fruit, one piece of meat, and two slices of bread, but seemed very hesitant to eat much more than that. He looked to be quite invested in a conversation that several of the adults were having about their own teenage experiences, often leaning in slightly when a funny story came up.

Omega mostly kept an eye on his friends, while also half listening to the children talk about the latest video game that had become popular. It seemed to contain lots of fighting combined with some impressive storytelling, and the robot made a note of the game title for his own use later.

However, as he checked on Rouge again, making sure she hadn’t choked on her food, he noticed that she had left her plate to the side in favor of talking to her family about...wait.

Omega knew this story.

This was a story where he was walking through the halls of an abandoned underground hideout for a highly sophisticated ring of criminals (an assignment for their entire team). In which said diabolical criminals had installed multiple traps designed to keep people out. And these traps. Included magnets. That specifically messed up artificial intelligence.

Omega’s memory had been severely impaired by the event, but Shadow and Rouge told him later that they had discovered him stumbling around the main hub of the base, rambling out loud about things as ridiculous as current weather patterns and- he shuddered internally- kittens. He was eternally grateful for this memory loss, though, as the two had apparently, instead of taking this seriously, dissolved into helpless laughter on the spot.

Of course, they had taken him to Tails to get fixed up. But not until after Rouge had filmed another five minutes or so of him acting absolutely loopy while their laughter, punctuated with the occasional gasp for breath, filled the background.

And she was just getting to the part where they found him now-!

The E-series robot shot out of his chair and clamped a hand over Rouge’s mouth, turning his volume low and hissing “Don’t you dare.” in her ear.

Unfortunately, this only added to everyone else’s interest, as Rouge began to cackle loudly at Omega’s evident embarrassment and her memory of the event. “Tell us! Tell us!” Camellia (Rouge’s stepmother) cried out, clapping her hands and looking for all the world like a child who had just been handed a chocolate bar. 

“Help me, Shadow!” Rouge shouted through the steel grip on her face, slurring her words with laughter. The hybrid, happy to take a break from the crowded room and equally happy to shame Omega, pried the robot off of Rouge and somehow managed to drag him out of the room as everyone now leaned in to hear her finish the story.

“So we were really worried, right? Since we hadn’t heard anything? And then we-”

Shadow shut the door on her voice and smirked at Omega, but there was a tinge of real happiness in his expression. “It’s alright, Omega. She doesn’t actually want you to feel bad, you know.”

“That’s what you say.” he scoffed. “Rouge isn’t in there telling them about the time you didn’t eat for a month on a mission and then binge-”

“Alright, alright!” Shadow groaned. “I get it, but let’s let her have fun, alright? This is her family, after all.”

“Fine.” Omega grumbled. “But I will get you back for this.”

“Sure you will.” Shadow raised an eyebrow at him.

This led to a fierce staring match/arm-wrestling battle and subsequent argument over who won, immediately followed by Omega pulling out his phone and the two watching a recently popular obstacle course show. Of course, they both agreed that they could do far better than any of the contestants.

Eventually, though, as the evening wore on, the two joined back up with Rouge to head to their room. Shadow took a hot shower while Rouge changed into her favorite pajamas- they were soft and white with little pink hearts all over (her favorite colors). 

She yawned loudly just as the hybrid walked in, already wrapped in a blanket and pulling on some plain black nightwear. He didn’t really need it, but his fifty-year stint in what was essentially a superpowered freezer had left him with a distinct dislike for the cold.

Omega had already plugged into the outlet and begun to charge, but yet…”Why don’t I get a blanket?”

“What the heck d’ you want one for?” Rouge muttered, already exhausted. 

“Well, you both have them.” he muttered sulkily, glowering at them from his corner of the room.

The bat opened up the closet in the room, looking up at the top shelf. “Shadow, c’mere. I can’t reach this thing by myself.” 

He walked over quickly, not appearing to be tired at all. Omega, as always, knew better, and saw the fatigue from the long day that he tried to hide behind his “Ultimate Lifeform” title.

Rouge jumped onto his shoulders in a practiced movement, snatching a pale purple fluffy blanket from the shelf and flinging it half-heartedly at Omega. “There’s your blanket.” she declared, before jumping straight from Shadow to her bed.

She settled into her usual sleeping position, with her feet hooked over the headboard and her face and pillow about halfway down the bed. It wasn’t a typical behavior for most, but she was a bat, after all. “‘Night, guys.” she murmured, already half asleep.

Shadow carefully lifted his blankets and slid under them, trying to keep them as neat as possible. The hedgehog shifted into a half-curled position, displaying his quills to the world and protecting his vulnerable legs and chest. “Sleep well, Rouge. Goodnight, Omega.” he said softly, still trying to stay awake.

“Good night.” the robot replied.

Omega kept an eye on his teammates, the room lit only by a patch of moonlight from the window. He listened to Rouge’s slight snoring, and watched as Shadow’s eyes slowly closed and his breathing evened out.

The robot was always cautious about shifting into his own form of ‘sleep’, but reminded himself that this was not enemy territory. This was Rouge’s family’s house, and they were all safe.

Still, he watched his friends sleep peacefully for a while longer. Then, he selected low power mode from his menu of choices and allowed his eyes to go dark.

[lonelypond]

Nico Attacks: A Campfire Tale, Ch. 2

LL, NicoMaki, KotoUmi, 1.5K, 2/4

And Then There Were Two

Umi examined the ground where the path opened, her keychain flashlight still working, “Definitely more sets of feet than just Eli and Nico, one of them smaller.”

“So one of the children?”

Umi shrugged, “It doesn’t look like anyone got dragged off so Eli must have gone...willingly?”

Maki was only half listening to Umi. The music had been gone for awhile now, but now a more insistent, probably artificial, wind noise started to rise.

“Something’s going to happen.” Maki hissed.

“Sprint across or move along the trees?”

“If that’s a portable lantern, we should grab it. And I’m going to head for the house. I think it’s that way.” Maki pointed to the right.

“So would that be a predictable choice?”

Maki huffed, “Probably.”

Umi unbelted her hatchet.

“This isn’t war.”

Umi’s face, in the LED bright of the keychain flashlight, was Honoka choosing bread serious, “you know Nico better than I do, what do you think is going to happen?”

Maki deflated, “Yeah, you might have to cut us out of netting.”

“Is everything between you two a duel?”

“Maybe.” Unexpectedly, Maki grinned, “Nico never backs down, never stops pushing. It’s always an adventure.”

“She could decide to call it a night and I would be thrilled.”

Maki chuckled, “Won’t happen.”

“Whose side are you on?”

Maki sprinted for the lantern but as she grabbed it, a howl started, one voice joined by another then another. Maki headed for what she thought was the path to the house but before she took more than two steps, the scarecrow started to move. Umi saw it grab her by the throat.

“Maki!”

It seemed like an hour, but it was probably only nine seconds before Umi moved, sprinting to where Maki was struggling and cursing. As Umi was realizing Maki was in no real danger, Maki threw the camping lantern away, and the scarecrow was dragged forward by the wires attaching it, just far enough that Umi’s legs were entangled as she approached. Umi pitched toward Maki, twisting so the hatchet threatened no one. Maki grumped, skipping to the side.

“Keep that away from me. Nico forgot you’re always armed.”

“I am always prepared.” Umi sheathed her hatchet again.

Maki kicked the scarecrow, then decided to stomp on it for more catharsis.

“That’s Eli’s jacket.”

“I don’t care.”

The howls were picking up, and music was back.

“Really, Nico, can’t you come up with anything other than Bach?” Maki shouted into the night.

“It is a classic horror mood.”

Maki rolled her eyes, “She could have at least thrown in Saint-Saëns Danse Macabre. Or something modern.” Another shout into the night. “It’s not like she doesn’t know death metal exists.”

The sounds started changing, a shift from organ to a screech of metal crashing in a guitar riff.

“Thank you!” Maki shouted.

“Let’s not help the people attempting to terrify us.” Umi was taking cautious steps toward the tree line as branches shook menacingly. Suddenly, a spotlight glared directly in their eyes, and after it dimmed, black spots swimming in their vision, howls and guitars speeding up, gritty voices grinding out indecipherable lyrics, at least three songs shoved into a sonic blender, with that cacophony as a backdrop, the shifting shadows ahead turned animal. And started to growl.

###

When Eli saw the light, it triggered a rushing need to get closer. She couldn’t see anything ahead of her, barely felt anything as she pushed between Maki and Umi, her feet speeding her through the cloying darkness, even though part of her mind was screaming “That’s how the flame gets the moth,” it was not screaming loud enough to silence the terror of DARK.

As soon as there were no tree branches for Eli to thrash through, she felt hands pulling her to the side.

“HE…” She yelled but a grimy, sweaty hand clamped over her mouth and two people wrestled her forward. A child stood, shadowed by the camping lantern that was her current obsession, one of the twins.

Eli relaxed slightly when she heard Vik’s bright voice whispering “We’re saving you, Mom.”

Nico and Rin had Eli in a fairly tight grip, Nico hissing, “You say anything or run, I kill the light.”

Vik was smiling up at Eli, in a gray hoodie with adorable wolf ears. Rin and Nico were also wearing them.

“I’m going to sit,” Eli whispered softly, her legs too shaky to do anything.

Nico sighed, but nodded. “Gimme your shirt?”

“Why?”

“Just do it.”

Vik stood next to Eli, blue eyes wide, “Are Auntie Umi and Maki scared? Dia said her Mama was so grumpy about the pumpkin guts. How come we never have fun like this?”

Because Nozomi doesn’t enjoy terrifying me when small children are awake, Eli answered in her head, but she hugged Vik, “Every family has their own traditions.”

“This is so cool.” Vik was literally bouncing, spinning around the tilting pole while Nico was attaching wires to the scarecrow, while Vik was putting their ballet warm up exercises to good use. “Auntie Nico is the best.”

Eli shook her head, amused, happy that a Vik she was getting too used to seeing sullen and withdrawn was giving every sign they were having a great time. For that, she would forgive Nico many things.

Vik handed Eli a gray hoodie, “Help us howl, Mom.”

Eli thought about the DARK and then she looked at the brilliant smile on her child’s face. This was a crossroad and she knew which path to pick.

“Your mother always says I’d look cute with a tail.”

###

Maki and Umi backed up, instinctively.

“You know that’s probably just Nico and Rin, right?” Umi hissed.

“My feet won’t move forward.”

The shadows pushed closer, the forest was moving forward as metal guitar strings shrieked ‘til they shredded and clanks and chalkboard scratches answered growls. It was amazingly effective,

Umi recovered first. Which Maki only realized when she backed into something solid.

“Nico doesn’t scare me.” Umi stated, with zero conviction.

“Liar.”

And then three running, hunched ‘creatures’ rushed toward them, circling them, growling, laughing, unrecognizable, faces smeared with dark makeup. Umi braced herself, Maki went for the treeline, but the middle ‘creature’, rolled in front, so Maki stumbled forward over them, grabbing at them but only pulling off their hoodie.

Someone pulled Maki up and as she turned, she screamed at a looming HUGE inflatable glow in the dark skeleton bobbing behind Umi. Throwing the hoodie in frustration at Umi, Maki leaned over, hands on knees to catch her breath. “Dammit, Nico.”

And then Umi said something unexpected. “I apologize.”

“For what?”

“This is not solely your fault.”

Umi got weirdly formal at the strangest times. Maki raised her head and waited for the full explanation as Umi examined the hoodie.

“Nico is not working alone. Kotori made these. I recognize them.”

“So what did you do?” Maki snapped.

“Nothing.”

Silence. Bordering on angry silence. Maki never liked teasing. Umi sighed.

“Kotori might have remembered that after the Halloween Hell Cruise, I wrote Aizuwakamatsu no Yurei.”

Her award winning play. Maki knew Umi hadn’t been writing. So Kotori was worried. Ha. Everyone has interfering wives. And the Halloween Hell Cruise had been a Nico Nightmare. Maki shuddered at the memory.

“So if my wife is devious and diabolical, what’s yours?"

“Crafty.” Umi said proudly. “And caring.”

Maki stomped into the darkness, muttering something that rhymed with “tripped.”

Umi stood, watching the bobbing, grinning, glowing skeleton. Then she reached into a pocket, pulled out her clasp knife, opened the blade, and punctured Mx. Bones with one swift motion. Air escaped with a whispering scream. Umi nodded her head, satisfied.

“Hey, that looked fun.” Maki grumped.

"Maybe you shouldn’t have stomped off.”

“Show off.”

Umi grinned.

“So how many more of these do you think Nico has planned?”

Maki shrugged, “She still seems to have infinite energy.”

“So not maturing?”

“Ha ha.”

“You’re enjoying this.”

“Aren’t you? It’s” Maki paused, “invigorating.” Maki and the lantern did a circle of the clearing, to check for clues, “Why’d you stop writing?”

“Exhausted. Kaito is a fine, intelligent child, but it’s exhausting.”

“I know.” Maki shot a glare back at Umi, “And Dia’s picked up some very judgy habits from a certain babysitter.”

“Your daughter’s manners are impeccable. She’s nothing like Nico.”

“You’re wrong there.” Maki pulled on a wire but it didn’t seem to connect to anything. “‘S funny, when I was younger I would have imagined me at a fancy black tie Halloween charity event with my supportive spouse who did most of the childcare while I lived at the hospital and then I met Nico and here we are.”

Umi considered that, “What else do you do when you fall in love with a brilliant, hard working career woman who wants a family and for you to keep being yourself? Support them like they support you.”

“Yeah.” Maki got to spend every day with music and people she loved. Because of Muse. And Nico. Other generations of Nishikinos had paintings, portraits stiff in oil to hang on walls, but for her family, it was a quick watercolor sketch Hanayo had made while Maki and Nico were having an impromptu concert with their daughters. It was Maki’s favorite piece of art, quick, lively, bright, made with love.

Maki found another wire and pulled. Netting crashed down around here, leaves scraping her cheeks. Nico wasn’t done yet.

A/N: Hey.

[mobius-prime]

167. Sonic the Hedgehog #99

Blow By Blow

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Frank Gagliardo

So apparently, the entirety of Sonic Adventure 2 took place in a single day. Sonic has by now, returned in the dead of night along with Tails, whom he apparently met up with after the fact outside of Knothole. They try to sneak into Sonic's room undetected, but they're caught by Sonic's parents, who, concerned, demand to know what's going on and why he has been sneaking out lately.

Good luck with that, man. Again, there has to be an incredibly different set of circumstances that took place during the adventure, because there's simply no way that Eggman blew up half the moon and made any world domination demands to the world without being noticed by everyone in Knothole, and this issue makes it seem like the entirety of the adventure took place in secret with only Sonic, Eggman, and Rouge ultimately being any the wiser (plus as I've reiterated so many times before, this planet has one hundred freaking moons, a fact I will never be truly over, so it would have much less impact in this world to blow up one moon among ninety-nine more). The next day, a parade is held in the royal family's honor, and the citizens all celebrate as they walk through the crowds. Sally is torn between being happy about the relatively-peaceful state of the kingdom currently as well as having her entire family back together, and being sad that she hasn't seen her friends in a month and a half. However, the cheerful atmosphere sobers somewhat as the Secret Service approaches the royal family to inform them of their failed excursion the other day.

Back outside Sonic's house, his parents discuss that they may have been too harsh on him after hearing his and Tails' harrowing stories, when their conversation is interrupted by Mina approaching them, wanting to see Sonic. As they go to fetch him, Nate heads to the castle to inform the royal family that he's deciphered the shadow-bot's message sent by Uncle Chuck. When he tells them that Uma Arachnis has the sword, Geoffrey gets all irritated that he and his team risked their lives for nothing, which of course is a sentiment that rings incredibly hollow considering he's the only reason the original message didn't come through clearly in the first place. With this new information, the Secret Service heads out to interrogate Kodos, who is still in Knothole's hospital, about Uma's whereabouts.

Well, it seems Sally has finally found a way to evade Geoffrey's persistent attempts to "escort" her to her friends. Meanwhile, Sonic has begun to try to tutor Mina in using her speed, but she finds it difficult to control and gets frustrated after crashing. Sonic sends Tails away so he can speak to her alone, and as Tails leaves he hears a strange noise and flies to investigate. Sonic tries to encourage Mina, who is upset at feeling like she's not as good as Sonic despite having many things in common with him, and Sonic makes a comment about her being able to help the Freedom Fighters once she's more in control in order to help her feel better. This overwhelms her with emotion, and just as Sally and her entourage approach him to finally speak to each other…

Wow, you picked literally the worst possible time to try to approach him, Sal Gal. Tails reaches the source of the commotion just in time to see Kodos slam Geoffrey through a wall, having escaped the hospital and once again ranting about the sword. He runs away from Knothole, and Sally finally decides that she's done being passive, ripping off her face cover and immediately beginning to issue orders. She gives the order for Geoffrey and the other injured Secret Service members to be taken in for medical treatment, and takes Tails and Rotor with her to go after Kodos. When someone suggests also grabbing Sonic, she sadly declines the idea, remembering Sonic's kiss with Mina a moment ago. Meanwhile, Nate becomes disturbed at hearing that Kodos' behavior is due to his exposure to the toxic atmosphere of Robotropolis, remembering that the Overlanders are all imprisoned in the city. Outside Knothole, Sally and the others don't search for very long before they encounter Uma lying near-motionless on the ground, and as Sally rushes to her side she speaks for the first - and last - time, to tell Sally where she hid the sword. It appears that after Kodos' words about not needing anyone else anymore, she had a change of heart and decided to find a way to return the sword to its rightful owners, officially making her a cool character in my eyes. Nate, within the city, approaches Sonic to tell him where Sally and the others went, and Sonic becomes disturbed that they didn't think to come to him for help, rushing away and leaving Mina behind. But where are Bunnie and Antoine in all of this, you ask? They've been noticeably absent. Well, it turns out they're in the Knothole Prison, watching over Antoine's father.

And with that, the three of them race off to catch up with Sally, Rotor and Tails, to try to recover the sword once and for all…

What Comes Around Goes Around

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Frank Gagliardo

Okay, look. I've defended Penders' art before. The problem is, if anything, he's somehow regressed as an artist over time. The pencils he did for earlier issues were no worse than those from any of the other artists for the comics, even being genuinely charming and cute at times. But things have changed. If any of y'all haven't seen the awful, awful redesigns he did for characters like Lien-Da, Julie-Su, and Geoffrey for his Lara-Su Chronicles comics after the whole lawsuit debacle, well, consider the art of this issue a taster for just how bad it got. Legitimately, it's just so, so ugly-looking.

But anyway, we have some catching up to do. It's been a long while since we've heard anything from the Dark Legion - not since they seemingly vaporized the Floating Island, in fact. But now we finally get to catch up with them, as they pilot their weird battleship around the world, still apparently satisfied with whatever it was that they did before. Suddenly, a wave of energy rocks the ship, and they begin to get strange readings from their instruments.

Meanwhile, Knuckles finds himself outside the ruins of the Grand Conservatory, where Julie-Su was captured just before the island disappeared. As he enters the ruins, he's shocked to find several Dark Legion lackeys grabbing her and taking her away as before, while an image of himself, in his former red form, chases after them. He's incredibly confused, until a ghostly image appears to give him some advice…

Hawking really does seem like one of the cooler Guardians, if you ask me. He fades away, leaving Knuckles still confused, though he realizes that at some point, the pain he'd been experiencing has completely faded, much to his relief. Back up on the bridge of the Legion's ship, Dimitri orders Lien-Da to go fetch Julie-Su from her cell, where she's still imprisoned with her adoptive parents. Lien-Da is indignant, still full of hatred toward her half-sister, but before she can comply, Knuckles himself shows up on the bridge, ready to confront his ancestor once more…

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: K-Pop Conquers the World

I admit it: I’ve come to prefer Korean pop over American pop. The familiar argument, that Korean producers replicate American pop conventions with sly distance and scientific expertise, won’t fly — given the present mediocrity of the American Top 40, what’s to like? Rather, the auteurs behind K-pop have mastered a sort of transhistorical bricolage that stateside comes naturally only to indie bands and the occasional hip-hop beatsmith, turning the planet’s entire history of recorded music into the K-pop producer’s playground — a massive compendium of discrete ingredients available for ransacking, for twisting into concise pop structures. If this is the counterargument to the plagiarism charge, I don’t entirely buy it either, since it could just as easily produce surreal garbage. Maybe it’s just that when a musical cottage industry starts training kids to be pop stars since before adolescence, some of them turn out really talented.

I.U.: Palette (Loen/Fave)

Since going “mature” four years ago on her breakthrough album, Modern Times, I.U. has specialized in several international ballad styles, none of them originally Korean. Assuming an air of dreamy sophistication, the former ingenue has dipped her toes into lounge-jazz, bossa nova, neodisco, Celine Dion facsimile, and any number of styles consistent with notions of cosmopolitan urbanity. Leave it to an aesthete this shrewd to identify each genre’s good parts and isolate them in palatable replicas for her fanbase. The floaty, feathery R&B she offers on this album is typically delightful.

Qualities that would repel in an Anglophone or Francophone singer fascinate in her: her choices in stylistic sources position her as the final link in a chain denoting moments of self-conscious self-differentiation. Slow R&B burners this fluffy, not to mention cocktail ballads this demonstrative, would already qualify as shamelessly retro if Justin Timberlake sang them; I.U.’s translation of this mode into Korean adds an extra layer of distance, such that the music turns obsessively self-reflexive, containing mirror upon mirror. Awareness of form ensures a willingness to stretch formal boundaries, and this album uses blank space to such masterful effect that each song blurs the traditional distinction between ballads and dance tracks. Piano, strings, quietly subtle rhythm guitar, and cannily minimal drum machine create thin, restrained, readymade shapes. While she sings straightforwardly around the melody in the foreground, her breathy backup vocals — or strings, or a softly ostinato keyboard texture — fill in the empty spots between the lines drawn by the discrete instruments, tricking the listener into imagining vast expanses of space. Paradoxically, the effect is intimate; the songs and their singer have room to breathe, especially on “Love Alone,” the album’s centerpiece — a slow, haunting, excruciating ballad extraordinaire. Swaying with stark power while stealing from Brazil the concept of saudade, the song’s gentle, plucked acoustic guitar harmonics accentuate a melody inextricable from the rawness of her voice. Nine more songs in this vein produce an album of exquisite delicacy.

Thrilling in its reticence, Palette is primarily a triumph of arrangement, of instruments positioned next to each other in complimentary proportions. Hence, you can feel the ache in I.U.’s singing. Play it at night over headphones and gasp at her every whisper.

Day6: Sunrise (JYP Entertainment)

Each release by this guitar-toting gang has leaned a tad more heavily toward arena rock, and their full-length debut is where they turn on their distortion pedals and crunch up a storm. Pounding energetically as they do, there’s nevertheless a dull predictability to this move that makes me wish they’d lighten up again.

As their eye shadow and punchy, theatrical dynamics would indicate, they draw as much influence from mid-’00s American emo bands as from late ‘00’s Korean indie-rock, but their strengths are inversely proportional to those of most emo bands. Theoretically I’m not sure whether Dashboard Confessional is a band anybody should emulate. As with those avatars of bathetic yearning, Day6’s ballads, so huge and soaring and plaintive, are kitsch masterpieces — the magnificent “I Smile,” its solemn, arpeggiated guitar chime ringing out through the air, flaunts heartbreak the way a jock might bare a set of washboard abs. Their upbeat songs, however, land with a joyless thud, beholden to excessive notions about how hard the drums must hit and how gritty the guitars must sound. If the mix were crisp rather than merely polished, the guitars might crack sharply and provide serviceable contrast with the songwriting’s earnest sensitivity, but instead the band bulldozes the material into a blunt thrash. Comparison with Daydream, last year’s sublime mini-album, reveals much; when their power pop was still agile on its feet, their amusement at getting to act like heartthrobs shone through. Here the distorted whomp obscures such frivolities. The difference is slight but exhausting.

Many of their hooks remain fetching — ”I Wish,” “I’m Serious” (what a title!) — but taken together they equal an album overwhelmed by hasty rock loudness. Barring a resurgence in rhythmic spring, I hope they shift their focus to ballads exclusively. Adducing a bleeding heart may just inspire emotions extreme enough to satisfy.

Ignito: Gaia (Mnet)

I’m skeptical of foreign language rap — each language’s cadence clicks with a different set of rhythms, and not always those specified by received Anglophone convention. Thankfully, Ignito concedes nothing to such expectations, and the Korean rapper’s second album delivers sensationalist energy while realizing the language’s sonic potential for rapid-fire delivery.

Musically, this album turns being loud and obnoxious into a battle cry. Producer Kontrix’s beats — which combine synthesized strings, power chords, sinister showoff lead guitar, giant slabs of slammed electronic boom, and, on “Metal Rising,” a massed choir — recall prior hip-hop accompaniment less than they do Kavinsky, the Star Wars soundtrack (prequels only) interpreted for synthesizer, and any music imbued with the sort of grandiosity whereby a hero has only four minutes to save the world. This is maximalist orchestral technocratic schlock of the highest order, conjuring a mock sense of shock at its own presence — “oh no, it’s me!,” cry the electronic violins and the blues guitar. The bullheaded arrogance necessary for a rapper to choose this as his musical setting astounds, and Ignito delivers. He’s got the voice for it: deep, aggressive, froglike, inhabiting a defiantly angry yet infuriatingly self-assured tone that matches the orchestration exactly. Lacking sufficient knowledge of Korean rap to place him in context, I’ll compare him instead to Kevin Gates; both convey the sense that their tongues are too big for their mouths, so they can only blubber their lips. But Ignito’s flow is quicker and more multifaceted, more mindful of internal rhymes, more willing to stretch a line and break the meter. Treating macho puffery as a kinetic skill, the album plays like a pushy show of technique. He’s got the eye of the tiger, and you’re gonna hear him roar.

No clue what the lyrics are saying beyond an English chorus or two, and I’m not sure I want to — given his manner on the microphone, he might be an unpleasant character up close. I’m grateful to the language gap for rendering delectable such a vivid portrait of gruff masculinity in the abstract.

Lovelyz: R U Ready? (Woolim/CJ E&M)

Whatever the virtues of sugary soda and tacky plastic product, a reasonable consumer could wonder just how many girly electropop albums one needs. The answer is a zillion, obviously. This Korean girl group’s second album, as tangible as Silly Putty, terrifically demonstrates why.

So cheerful one might consider them a parody of pep, PC Music’s fantasy of what the perfect K-pop band would sound like, Lovelyz inhabit a childish cuteness that, contrary to expectations, isn’t common in K-pop proper — even the danciest stars typically court the adult contemporary market as well. With song titles like “My Little Lover,” a singer (one of eight) named “Baby Soul,” and a musical style whose cartoon simplicity codes as pre-erotic, Lovelyz instead pursue the diminutive. The album thrills in its one-dimensionality. Fizzy bright synthesizers squeak, whirr, and pop like balloons pop; synthetic slapped funk bass bounces like a rubber ball; hyped-up drum machines get the party going; breathless vocals project utter delight at the fact of their presence in such a playful environment. Imagine a digital electronic template as sweet and clean as Britney Spears’s, with the mood altered from flirty ambiguity to the joy a child feels upon seeing a pile of birthday presents, each shinier than the next, wrapped in glossy paper and tied with a bow. I’ll extend the metaphor: the singers, ebullient as they are, represent the kid. The spritzy beats, and by extension the whole album, represent the most fabulous gift one could have hoped for. What a treat to witness such joy.

This album ticks off so many of my taste boxes — sleekly stylized product, formalized genre exercise, crafty simulations of emotional structure, sonic textures you can taste and feel — that it inspires the sneaking suspicion that these elements all belong to one mode. They don’t necessarily, though. The album’s just perfect, that’s all.

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