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generic-sonic-fan · 27 days

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Etchings

Summary: Sage discovers that her voice has power over Shadow the Hedgehog.

This is unexpected, but not exactly a circumstance she is unfamiliar with.

5262 words

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Since her recovery, Sage works with her father.

Her father permits her to not combat Sonic the Hedgehog directly. He has acknowledged, in private, that though he cannot understand why she would call their arch-nemesis a friend, he can allow her a more pacifistic role in the conquest of his empire. Every day she thanks him for this. She is not as naive as she once was. Connected to the Eggnet again she is able to see her father’s episodes of rage and frustration towards Sonic, in the past and in real time, and knows how it must hurt him to allow her this privilege.

What Sage does is coordinate the efforts of the Badniks to destroy Sonic. She appears before a horde of Badniks usually resigned to their base programming and unifies them under her advanced processing. Sonic arrives shortly after. There’s an understanding that passes in his eyes as he watches the red lines of her code spill out from the frames of the Badniks- it’s as it was on the Starfall islands. The “song and dance” is familiar, he says.

This time, though, it is different. Sonic has brought along the black hedgehog. Shadow, her database tells her. They have torn through the perimeter line of scouts and are now approaching a platoon under her control. She readies the formation, though all analysis shows that she does not have enough firepower for one of them, let alone two. What matters most is buying time, so she will use what she has, along with employing. . . other methods, to slow them down.

She materializes her hologram in the fashion it was when she first came online, calibrating the half-glitched form to behave as it had on the islands. Sonic abhorred seeing her in her proper uniform, whole and complete, and for these purposes she will abide by his preference. She fine-tunes the lines of red code crawling up and down her tunic, before the roar of a shockwave rips through the clearing below.

She springs her ambush onto the two speeding hedgehogs. Two motorbugs are destroyed immediately, and she watches Sonic’s expression change as red clouds of her programming billow from the twin chassis.

“Sage!” He skids to a stop and calls out into the air. “What’cha got for us?”

“Who are you talking to?” Shadow asks.

Sage does not reveal herself just yet. She sends her fliers out from the trees. Their lasers rain down on the clearing. Sonic and Shadow flow in and out of each other, like dancers, syncopated; where one is weak, the other is strong, forming a unified whole. She had not been expecting this level of partnership from a stranger she has so little data on compared to Sonic’s other, closer bonds.

“That was easy.” Sonic jeers as the last flier falls to the ground. “I know you can do better than that!”

His latter sentence is not said with any of the malice that would be directed towards her father. The wavelengths of the tone more closely match that to how he would address Tails. There is comfort in this data, and she takes a moment to store it away to her private server.

A moment too long. Shadow hisses “let’s keep going,” and the duo begin to jog. Sonic accelerates at his usual recorded pace; the black hedgehog is slower to gain momentum as his rocket shoes ignite. Sage throws the last of her forces, her squad of E-Series units, from behind the tree trunks, and aims the squad leader’s net attack towards the slower stranger.

To her surprise, instead of diving towards Shadow, Sonic jumps away, leaving his companion open and vulnerable to follow-up shots from the rest of the E-squad. Before Sage can question this sudden act of cowardice, Shadow’s body lights up.

“Chaos control!”

Shadow vanishes before the net can entangle him, and the follow-up shots slam into the earth below. Chaos radiation spikes behind the E-squad leader, and as Sage turns it around to intercept, Sonic uses the distraction to charge a spin-dash into its core from behind. Shadow reappears with a flying kick and sends the wreckage careening into another squad member. The remaining three units are scattered on opposite sides of the clearing. Sage groups the lucky two back-to-back as Sonic makes short work of the one left lone. Shadow disappears with another shout. The two remaining units charge their weapons and their scanners for his return.

Chaos energy fizzles directly above the pair. Shadow appears, but the energy only grows. A streak of yellow lightning appears in his palms, and he hurls it downwards. Only one E-unit is able to fire before an explosion envelops them both; the shot streaks into the blue sky above. Shadow lands in the crater.

“Bit overkill, don’t you think?” Sonic peers down at him.

“I have it, so I’ll use it. Saves time. We need to go.” Shadow replies.

Sonic offers him a hand, and he takes it. He pulls him from the crater. Shadow wastes no time building his momentum once more. Sage is out of units- the next nearest Badnik platoon would not be quick enough to intercept their path.

It is time to employ the aforementioned “other methods”.

Sage manifests her hologram in front of Sonic before he too can run off.

“Hey! Was wondering when you’d come down. That was your first time fighting Shadow, right?”

“An astute observation, Sonic.” She replies.

“That chaos control’s pretty nasty, huh? Threw me for a loop the first time he used it on me.”

A third voice interrupts. “Is there a reason you’re fraternizing with the enemy?”

Shadow has turned around. He stands with his hands on his hips. She takes advantage of this moment of stillness to run an in-depth scan. Her findings confirm a growing hypothesis- chaos energy radiates from his quills.

“You carry a chaos emerald.” She calls out to the darker hedgehog. “I must inform Father of this development.”

Sonic replies with a comment, but Sage does not hear it, because Shadow’s face dissolves. That is the best metaphor she can apply. 1.56 seconds ago his expression was nothing more than neutral, lips pulled into a thin scowl, eyes relaxed. Now, fine motor control slips from his grasp. His mouth falls open. His pupils shrink. His heart rate spikes.

Sage scans his body for injuries, and finds none.

Sonic is over by his side in an instant. “Shadow, what’s wrong?”

The darker hedgehog’s eyes remain fixed on her hologram.

“Shadow the Hedgehog?” She states, hoping to jog him from whatever trance he’s caught in.

He whispers a three-syllable word.

“Maria?”

The name does not register any relevant data in the Eggnet databases. Sonic’s reaction to the name tells Sage that it should. He steps in front of Shadow and places his hands on his shoulders.

“Hey, look at me, you’re okay. You’re here. Wanna name me three things you can see? I’ll start. Uh, I see trees.”

Shadow grabs his arms and pushes him off. He runs forwards, stopping just short of Sage’s hologram.

“You. . .” He looks up into her eyes.

“You must be mistaken. My name is Sage. Has Sonic not informed you of my existence?”

Shadow takes a step back. Then another. When he falls back in line with Sonic, he explodes into a hurricane of motion, throwing his hand towards her as if launching another bolt of chaos energy.

“What kind of sick joke is this?” He shouts.

“Sage isn’t trying to pull anything- I don’t think she even knows about you-know-who.”

“Correct. The name ‘Maria’ has no pertinent associations on my databases-”

“Stop!”

Shadow’s quills spark with chaos energy. Sage registers an increase of temperature in the metallic bands he is wearing around his wrists and ankles. Any further increase would result in damage to the skin beneath them.

“The chaos emerald is overloading his body with energy.” She offered her conclusion to Sonic. “I would advise-”

“I said STOP!”

Shadow lunges, gloves crackling with power. She has no time to move her hologram. The energy overloads the image and it fizzles out of existence. Sage is flung back into the network. She recompiles herself and reappears above the clearing.

“-she’s my friend.”

“I don’t care!”

“Then tell me what’s wrong. I’ll talk to her-”

Sage emits a small static noise, and both hedgehogs turn to look at her.

“Shadow the Hedgehog. I wish to know what it is I have done to upset you so.” She says.

“Not another word!”

“I-”

He grabs his ears. Sonic hovers a hand over his shoulder.

At this, Sage returns to the network and accesses her hologram’s code. She grabs the image of a typical Eggnet textbox and fixes it to a flat, square graphic. She only runs a few debugs before flickering back into existence. Where she was once a girl, now she is a box of dialogue- she lowers herself to the ground beside Shadow and Sonic.

“Shadow the Hedgehog,” she displays on her surface, “I did not desire to cause you emotional harm. Could you inform me of my transgression so that I may avoid it in the future?”

Sonic taps Shadow’s shoulder and points to her. Shadow unfurls, reads the words, and then glares.

“Delete yourself.”

“DUDE!” Sonic exclaims.

Sage remains calm. She recognizes this harsh illusiveness. Back on the islands she employed it in multitudes. “Elaborate?”

“You’re doing this to mess with my head. I won’t let you.” He hisses

“It’s not her fault. Eggman coded her.” Sonic said. “Whatever your problem is-”

“I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him, then!”

Shadow pushes Sonic over. His skates ignite, flaring in time with his breathing. Sage moves her textbox to block his exit but he pierces through it. The flimsy graphic breaks. There is no time.

She reconnects to her voicebank. “I won’t let you hurt my father!”

Just as predicted, the black hedgehog flinches and stumbles to a stop. He is hyperventilating, now, chest heaving in and out. She rematerializes, first as herself, and then as the dialogue box again, though the form is unstable.

“It is my voice which provokes a highly emotional reaction from you.” She types.

“Your voice?” Shadow snarls

Sonic slaps a hand over his own mouth. Sage wishes she had eyes to glance in his direction or a head to tilt, something to silently inquire about the conclusion that has entered his mind, for it is clear that he possesses more data on this dilemma than she does at this moment.

She knew to expect an insult from Shadow, but that one in particular stung with far greater specificity than it had a right to; her father had worked many hours to restore her vocal capabilities during her retrieval and recompilation from her shattering across Cyberspace. Moreover, she herself has tuned the rises and falls of many of her phrases to achieve a voice that was smooth and pleasant-sounding to his tastes.

“My vocal blending program is entirely unique- patented, as a matter of fact. I possess an advanced synthesizer. I enhance this synthesis with an organic voicebank to ensure smoother cadence.” She replies.

“Uh, Sage?” Sonic says quietly. “Who’s the source for that organic voicebank?”

His words cause more furious screaming from Shadow, and at this, she disappears back into the network. A surface search of the Eggnet does not reveal an answer for this inquiry, so she accesses her father’s personal logbook and pulls the entries regarding her own creation. Her father, ever thorough, has a log entry for this, detailing the programming of her synthesizer and the first words she ever spoke. She scrolls past her proto-self’s “hello world” only to find a single sentence in regards to the anonymous donor of her voicebank.

“I’ve found an old dump of the memos that Gerald always encouraged us to keep that are suitable enough to give her voice some complexity.”

Fascinating. She hadn’t known that her father’s tendency for verbal diary entries had been passed down from Gerald Robotnik- or, as she could refer to him as, her great-grandfather. Curious, she generates a diagram of a family tree using the data she has on Robotnik genealogy. She adds a line descending from her father’s portrait, before adding a picture of herself.

She is about to close the little distraction when she catches the word Maria beneath the smiling portrait of a first cousin once removed, and the word “deceased” written neatly on the next line below. Any attempt to access the data around the portrait is met with a pop-up asking if she wants to proceed to the database labeled PROJECT_SHADOW.

In milliseconds, she reaches the same conclusion that Sonic no doubt had.

She emerges from the network, rematerializing her hologram, only to find both Sonic and Shadow gone. The clearing is nothing more than discarded Badnik parts divided by two long streaks of fire left in the grass.

She does not waste any more time calling her father.

“Yes, Sage? I see they made it past your ambush- their ETA seems to be in five minutes. I require ten, so I’ve sent your brother out to intercept. Could you grab platoon six to reinforce his efforts? You can let him worry about the ‘destroying’ part.” Her father speaks crisply through the communication line, voice edging on frustration.

“Father, you must evacuate immediately. Shadow possesses a chaos emerald.”

“He always has a chaos emerald! Now get to work!”

“Father,” she pleads, “I have greatly incensed Shadow and I have strong reason to believe that he will stop at nothing until you are dead, including abandoning Sonic to deal with big brother alone and teleporting past the base’s defenses.”

“What on earth could you have done to upset him so?”

“It is too complex to explain now. You must go! I could try to stall him, but my only method of doing so would enrage him further.”

He exhales. “Understood, Sage. Try to keep him from the main workshop as best you can, and see if you can do your thing and guilt-trip Sonic into calming him down or something. Once he’s either calm, gone, or dead, notify me and I shall return to finish the project. I’ll take our emeralds with me.”

“Yes, father.”

He hangs up, but not before the first syllable of a curse slips through the line. Sage dematerializes herself and shoots through the Eggnet back to base 11B. She flows into the array of doors, defenses, and cameras in time to see her father carrying a briefcase radiating with power into the hangar. She conducts a pre-flight check for an Eggmobile with stealth capabilities before throttling the engine to life. Her father boards and the cockpit glass slides over him. She opens the hangar door and plots him a course that will keep him beneath the treetops to try and mask the energy signature of the emeralds; she whispers “stay safe” through the vehicle’s speakers and relinquishes control. The Eggmobile cloaks and shoots forward into the daylight.

At once, she is closing the hangar doors while plunging the rest of the base into darkness. She slams shut the blast doors and dims all computer monitors. She offlines every security badnik except one; this one plucks a heavy load of boxes from a storage closet and piles them in front of the main workshop containing her father’s newest invention.

She then exits the base and connects to Badnik platoon six. They are wildly out of position, witnessing the explosions from her older brother’s attempts to destroy Sonic from five miles away. Tuning into his signal, she is flung in the midst of a chase that she does not have the processing speed to make much of. Her brother swoops and dives between tree trunks, Sonic little more than a blue streak in front of him.

An alarm blares from base 11B, tearing her from her surveillance. Three chaos spears impact the exterior blast doors and they are torn from their hinges. Shadow enters.

“DOCTOR!”

He stalks down the main hall, chaos emerald in hand. In his other he charges volleys of spears. He blasts down door after door without pause or investigation. He explodes the pile of boxes in front of the main workshop door as he passes by, but does not notice the door behind them. He finds the single remaining security badnik and before the security cameras can refresh, it’s been shattered into hundreds of pieces, including a small spray of blood and feathers from its organic powersource.

A small part of Sage’s code expresses relief that she has not sent her father away from his work for nothing.

“You COWARD!” Shadow pounds his fist against the dead end of the hall. “Come out so I can tear you apart!”

The likelihood is high that he will find the main workshop door on his return trip up the hall. Sage cannot allow this. She reaches back out to her older brother’s signal.

“I need Sonic. Guide him here then cease your pursuit to rendezvous with father.”

His end of the line lights up with a potent cocktail of rage and confusion.

“I understand. Know that I would not interfere with your prime core directive unless absolutely necessary.”

She tastes the tinge of doubt in the “affirmative” ping he returns to her. She terminates their connection before more of his vitriol towards Sonic can spill through; she finds, in a brief post-communication analysis, that her emotional data is already fuming at the situation and she does not need the additional distraction. She pushes it to a subroutine and refocuses.

Shadow is traveling back up the hall. Her older brother will deliver Sonic here in a minute and a half. The math is clear. There is no other option.

Sage rematerializes. “Cease your erratic behavior at once.”

He whirls around. After the bright flash of light, but before the chaos spear hits, she dissipates. She brings power back to the speakers of the Personal Address system. A speaker crackles, and Shadow turns and destroys it.

“Stop using her!” He shrieks.

Sage speaks from the next speaker down from his location. “I am not ‘using her’. She provided her vocal databanks to my great-grandfather, Professor Gerard Robotnik, for study. My father has inherited them.”

Shadow pauses. Any gathered chaos energy in his hand disappears.

She takes this as a good sign. “He has built the software which I use to modify the original sound files, and I have also put in considerable work to tune my speech.”

“It still belongs to her.”

“I was born into a database surrounded by the echoes of people long since passed. I must admit, despite how upsetting this incident has been, that this is not the first time I have discovered a portion of my code to be influenced by what one could call a ghost.”

“You have no right!”

“It is not uncommon for family members to sound similar to one another in organic families.”

“She didn’t give it to you!”

“She no longer exists to decide such a notion. And there are no other vocal recordings of any female member of the Robotnik family within the appropriate age range for my use. I do not understand your anger. Can you explain it to me?”

Shadow’s quills flare. His body surges with energy greater than any of her previous recordings.

But before he can give it the will to take form, a sonic boom shakes the hallway around them, and Sonic skids to a stop alongside Shadow.

“Found Egghead yet? Metal's acting really funny, so Eggman’s got to have something planned-”

“Sonic.” Sage says.

“Oh.” He stops. “Were you guys, uh, talking it out just now?”

Shadow dissipates his energy, though his pulse is still elevated.

“It appears that regardless of intent, you are still deeply upset by my use of Maria’s vocal audio to enhance my voice. Would you like me to remove it from my software?”

“Yes!” Shadow snaps.

Sage opens her voice tuning software, except instead of modifying her pronunciations, she opens a deeper options menu. It presents her with a breakdown of the different components sampled to generate her speech. She selects the most sizable file- her base voicebank -and mutes it.

She then reconstructs the program, and to no surprise finds that most of her words have changed to gibberish. Base programming suggests that she switch to morse and seek repair immediately, but she calms those urges and searches the Eggnet for the first usable voicebank. She retrieves the synthetic file corresponding with the Egg Pawn series.

The voice that emerges from her commands is stiff, staticky, even screechy. “Voicebank removed.”

Sonic frowns. Shadow looks away.

“Good we got that figured out. Sort of.” Sonic says. “Probably never a good idea to do that with Shadow’s family.”

“Our family.” Shadow says.

Sonic blinks.

Indeed, Sage simulates saying, you are my first cousin once-removed, but she does not vocalize it. Half of the meaning would be lost without the ability to impel the warmth she intended.

“Make sure he does not use her again. Or else.” Shadow says.

“Affirmative.” She replies, then mutes her audio of the room until the sound waves of the generated word dissipate.

“Is everything all good now?” Sonic asks.

“Where’s your father?” Shadow looks down the hall.

“This base is abandoned,” Sage lies, “I was instructed to prepare a distraction for you so that he may complete his latest invention.”

“Man, really? All this for a distraction? Guess you got us there.” Sonic rubs his quills, before putting his hand on Shadow’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

“How do we know she’s telling the truth?”

“I mean, she just deleted her voice for you without hesitation. She’s a good kid.”

Shadow hisses, before igniting his jets and sprinting out of the base. Sonic follows shortly thereafter. She traces their paths three hundred miles westward before she sends the “all clear” message to her father’s Eggmobile and begins bringing the base out of lockdown. She runs a stability check on his project to find it as intact as he left it. Fifteen minutes later, she opens the base doors for the Eggmobile as it returns. Her father practically jumps from the machine, sprinting back to his workshop, and for the next ten minutes the silence is only broken by his breathing as he finishes his work. He slides the emeralds into their power slots and the newest generation of Egg Dragoon powers on, ready for initial setup.

“Now,” He stands from his stool and wipes the sweat from his brow. “Explain why you had to interrupt me from my work. I expect evidence!”

“Of course, Father.” She replies on base programming before she can stop it.

“What?”

She revisits her voice tuning software and unmutes her original voicebank as her hologram appears beside him. “Allow me to explain.”

She pauses. This voice does not sound correct either. She readjusts her settings. Her father waits with his eyebrows furrowed.

“Father, why did you utilize the voicebank of Maria Robotnik for my software?” She asks.

He pauses. “Why not? Not like she’s using it anymore. Why’d you bring this up?”

“Cousin Shadow objected.”

“Stop right there. Don’t call him that. He’s hardly family.” He wags his finger.

“Because he is only a creation of Great-Grandfather?”

“Well, no, obviously creations can be family. Obviously.” He scrambles to add.

“Regardless: did you not think Shadow would take issue with this utilization?”

“You sound nothing like her. It’s clear he hasn’t heard her voice for a very long time. You didn't think I’d given you the voice of a dead girl, did you?”

“I am afraid I do not understand.”

“Have you listened to any of her actual voice files? You sound nothing like her.”

Sage selected the first voice memo she could find when she ran a search of the Eggnet. “Shall I play a sample for you to compare?”

“Sure.”

Sage initiates the playback. A voice spills from Sage’s mouth that is not her own, crackling with dehydration and punctuated with breaths and coughs.

“Monday, July 26th, morning before the surgery. I’m hungry. I hate not being able to eat in the morning. I told Shadow to eat for me, but he refused to eat so that I wouldn’t have to be alone. He’s so determined when he sets his mind to things now. I made sure he ate, Grandfather, but just. . . he’s come so far. I’m so fond of him-”

She ceases the playback.

“Okay, perhaps you sound a little bit like her.” Her father put his hand on his chin.

“I have trouble detecting similarities rather than differences.” She attempts to add a sighing sound to the end of her phrase, but it still sounds nothing like the girl that Shadow still mourned. “But I do not wish to enrage Shadow again. Could you help me tune my vocals to be less reminiscent?”

“I’m not surprised he was prepared to do the unthinkable to me!” He laughs. “Anything to do with that girl and he becomes completely unpredictable. Pah, like the rest of my family, he’d rather just croon ‘Maria, Maria, Maria’ rather than work on his own problems.”

“I am. . . sorry to hear of this.”

“Don’t worry about them. They don’t matter. I promise that I’ll see what I can do after I re-plan the attack we'd scheduled for today.” He gestured back to the Egg Dragoon.

“Of course. Please do not delay.” Sage dissipates her hologram and disappears back into the familiar cocoon of the network.

—

It is the midnight before the rescheduled date for the attack. Sage monitors her father’s vitals, but they stubbornly refuse to lower into the frequencies required for sleep. She supposes she cannot judge his organic body too harshly- she too is struggling to do her nightly categorization of data and debugging of her program.

The surveillance system notifies her when the door to her father’s room opens. She appears in the hallway ahead of him.

“Adequate rest is required for your body, and therefore your mind, to function at optimal capacity for the invasion tomorrow.” She states.

His heart rate jumps. He rubs his eyes.

“Apologies. I did not mean to startle you.” Sage adds, quieter.

“Not used to having company.” He mumbles. He rubs his eyes again. “I don’t normally sleep very well before something big. This is normal.”

“In that case, is there anything I can do to aid you?”

He smiles and moves to push his glasses up his nose, only to look at his hand confused when he finds his glasses absent.

“Your spectacles are located on your nightstand.” Sage informs him. “Shall I have a Badnik retrieve them for you?”

“Walk with me.” He turns and gestures for her to follow him back to his room. “I’ve been thinking about what to do with your voice. Shadow’s no doubt going to show up tomorrow if the blue rat managed to talk him into attacking those few days ago.”

“A statistical certainty.”

“Let’s solve that problem tonight.”

“But your body requires rest-”

“It shouldn’t take long. There are other women in the family, believe it or not! We’ll just call them and use the data from their voicemails. And I think I still have a recording of that one school play. . .” He waves his hands in the air. “We’ll figure it out. You deserve better than sloppy seconds.”

Sage fails to see anything ‘sloppy’ about her father’s prior technique to develop her voice, but she does not correct him.

—

Her new voice is a combination of a girl named “Hope”, a woman called “Alina”, and another woman named “Raina”. Traces of “Maria” still remain; Sage cannot bear to alter her carefully curated phonemes that she styled after her original voice donor. This new combination of donors sounds less delicate, less youthful. Different. Her father is not pleased with it and she is not either.

She has noticed this about him. He has difficulty handling change. She has noticed this about herself as well.

And she notices this about Maria, from the voice memos that are preserved in the PROJECT_SHADOW database. As much as the girl explicitly craved change from the monotony of her life aboard the Space Colony ARK, it was clear that what she actually craved was good health, purpose, and self-actualization. Most organic lifeforms do.

When Sage first came online, the records of The Ancients cradled her with these sensations. Fragments of encoded personalities would whisper soft words, asking about their families or what became of their islands. They would tell her stories, if she asked. Sing her songs. Later they would scream as Sonic broke the bindings of the one they called “The End”, their rage pressing into her until it became her own.

But the records of Maria are still and empty. They can do nothing but play back her voice. The girl is gone. Not even a ghost remains.

—

The Egg Dragoon flies overhead. As the buildings crash around him, Sonic weaves elegantly through the debris. Shadow, meanwhile, bursts through the rubble as if it were paper. When they reach the end of the street, Sage materializes

“Greetings Sonic. Greetings Shadow. Father has instructed me to hold you at this position.” She instructs the massive battle platform under her control to roll out from behind its cover, all sights trained on Shadow. “I cannot permit you to pass.”

“Sorry Sage! A bit busy to chat right now.” Sonic gestures to the space around them. “Are you sure you can’t see why your dad doing all this is bad?”

“Father’s empire will bring peace and order to the world.” Sage gives the same reply she always has prepared. She then turns to Shadow. “Before we begin: is this voice suitable?”

Shadow is not prepared for the question. He stares at her.

“I was informed that the most problematic words in my vocabulary were ‘Father’, which sounded similar to ‘Grandfather’, along with the way I pronounced your name. Shadow, are there any modifications I should make to further differentiate myself from the vocal data of Maria?”

“Maybe be less blunt about it?” Sonic cringes.

“No, it’s- it’s fine.” Shadow replies. “Thank you.”

“Good. I am glad. Let us resume. Please do not resist.”

She instructs the battle platform to fire, and an enormous electrified net hurtles towards Shadow. With a last-second surge of energy, he teleports out of the way. When he reappears, the fear is gone from his eyes.

Sonic and Shadow make quick work of the battle platform before racing on ahead to the next obstacle. Sonic is beaming from the victory, and Shadow. . . appears determined.

Sage carries many ghosts with her. The feeling of sunlight on skin. The smell of a fresh-made meal. The desire to protect the family of one’s own creation. So many data points ripped from those long since departed; so many gifts that now help her define how she operates.

If she cannot carry Maria’s ghost, then perhaps she could be fond of Shadow in her stead.

#sage robotnik #shadow the hedgehog #dr ivo robotnik #eggman #sonic the hedgehog #maria robotnik #sonic frontiers #eggdad #eggman is a good dad #something about the burden of ghosts #I promise this isn't just the usual comparison between Sage and Maria I promise I promise

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sonickinniestuff · 2 months

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been on a bit of a sitcom kick recently and more than EVER i need a sonic sitcom in my life. its 6 am and i havent slept so this is just gonna be me infodumping abt a fun concept i think abt from time to time. cool? cool. shadow visiting amy and accidentally knocking over and shattering a vase at her house, vowing to do whatever she wants to pay for it. she doesn't care much so she has him spend a day doing favors for big instead, as she doesn't see him spending much time with anyone else in the gang. shadow grumpily wearing a "men want me fish fear me" hat fishing with big until he realizes that he genuinely adores taking it easy and the meditative trance it puts him in watching the sunlight dance on the water. b plot of sonic holding on to the back of metal sonic flying away after thwarting another one of eggman's plans and he just. falls into the water and shadow fishes him out with greater finesse and skill than big has EVER seen someone fish with. shadow is super embarrassed abt it and sonic teases him about it every chance he gets, always emphasizing that he did it to save him. the chaotix have a slow month at the detective agency and DESPERATELY need cash so they change gears to journalism to make ends meet. cue the worst vertical phone footage you've ever seen of the trio bugging knuckles to DEATH on angel island about the master emerald and it's powers and knuckles trying his absolute best to not throw them off head first for trying to make fast vapid content about something so important to him. once they realize they've upset him they pivot the footage into a really spottily edited documentary about knuckles' dedication to his title, and the episode ends with knuckles asking tails if there's a way to put an entire video on his fridge.

sonic and tails hear blaze is visiting from her dimension so they spend every second of the next few hours trying to spruce the place up, only for eggman to show up with a pack of badniks just to mess with them. desperate to end things quickly and keep all their hard work in tact, sonic charges at the badniks to clear them out with as little of a ruckus as possible. since he was so headstrong about dispatching them without considering the method, broken bot parts and debris end up all over the garage. blaze shows up just as the last metal sheet slides across the floor against her shoe and you can watch her own attempt at formality falter as she laughs so hard she falls over, and tails just stands there with his face buried in his hands. do u see it do u see my vision

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #idw sonic #sonadow #espio #sth #knuckles #knuckles the echidna #metal sonic #amy rose #blaze the cat #im sorry for the long post but ive been spinning this around in my head like a microwave and had to share it even if it isnt v/a stuff

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asunnydreamer · 7 months

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Missed Day 2 because of an exhausting full day out but here's a sketch for Day 3, featuring a version of Boom Sonic and Shadow for one of my AUs.

Day 3: Road Trip

#sonadowtober 2023 #sonic the hedgehog #sonic au #sonic #boom sonadow #shadow #shadow the hedgehog #dancing powers au #sth #sth fanart

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kaylatoonz · 3 months

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Movie Amy Rose casino night singer🎵🎙️

Context:

What if at some point after the third or fourth Amy rose is introduced as a performer at casino night zone.

So after the adventures of third film (please don’t make me wait that long for Amy🥲) sonic and co explore more off world to gain more allies (if they were to encounter new threats). Knuckles suggest returning to casino night (from the pre-quill comic), recalling that they may have powerful warriors there. While there they get a bit sidetracked (mostly sonic) but a Forming crowd catches the team's attention. They catch word that a popular singer is performing their last song in the casino tonight. The singer also happened to be a hedgehog sparking Sonic’s curiosity.

Not wanting to miss out meeting another hedgehog and a spectacular performance, sonic is quick to follow the crowd, dragging his brothers to witness the singer's final performance. Knuckles is the more reluctant of the brothers seeing that they were straying from their mission. Sonic counters that we can’t find powerful warriors if we stay in a near empty room, pointing out that nearly all the inhabitants of the building were heading to see the performance. Knuckles begrudgingly agrees but insists that they should at least look for Warriors among the crowd during or after the performance.

With some luck, and mostly their abilities, they get a front row view of the stage. When the show starts, the Bros can’t help but be awestruck, especially sonic. Sonic is absolutely in love with her voice, her moves and her spirit. He could just tell how adventurous she was based on her song, and how she danced so freely, he just had to meet her!

Surprising both Sonic and Tails, Knuckles didn’t need much convincing to go meet the pink hedgehog. Knuckles informed them that the performer may be a warrior in the making with how fiercely the singer danced. He vouches that she may be a great addition to the tribe and proceeds to lead the way sneaking backstage. Tails and Sonic don’t have the heart to correct him that it was just a performance. so they just opted to follow knuckles to keep him from getting into too much trouble for sneaking backstage.

Upon arrival the brothers catch an argument between Amy Rose and the big boss of casino night. They learn that the reason behind it being her last performance was due to her finally being able to pay off her debt To the boss. The boss insists that she stays regardless of her cleared debt because her final performance was their biggest score yet she can’t possibly leave now! Despite the heated argument, Amy, thanks the boss for the food, shelter, and the fun experience as a singer He has given her over the years. She turns him down one last time and wishes him luck in his business.

Not taking no for an answer, the boss called upon his goons to take her away to continue their “business discussion”. Sonic, not liking where this situation was going, nearly jumps in, but is stopped by Knuckles. Before sonic could argue Why his brother was stopping him from helping the hedgehog girl, one of goons is sent flying across the room, slamming into the wall away from their hiding spot. Both sonic and tails now wide eyed follow, knuckles’s approving look towards the corporate.

Their eyes landed on the pink hedgehog again only this time she was wielding a huge hammer, and she is extremely pissed. (If sonic didn’t have a crush on her before he definitely did now!)

Knuckles is impressed, while tails and sonic are completely shocked. The only one in the room that wasn’t surprised was the boss who seemed to be prepared. Playing dirty, he summons more goons to surround and apprehend the girl. Amy seems to be doing well for a bit, but as the fight draws on it proves to be too much for her. Realizing this knuckles gives the OK to aid the girl in battle, which Sonic didn’t need cause he was out there before the words left his elder brother’s mouth.

One fight (and flirting from Sonic’s part) later the bros introduce themselves and offer that she could join their tribe. Amy being charmed (mostly by sonic), and not having anywhere else to go, she happily accepts the offer.

Bonus context:

Left: Amy singing 🎵 could have been me

Top right: Amy falling even harder for sonic when she hears him sing (bad romance meme)

Bottom right: Sonic and Amy singing together 🎵tonight you belong to me

I think it would be cute if before Amy replaced her show dress anyone could tell if sonic was hanging out with her by checking for red glitter in his fur or quills. Tom and his brothers definitely would tease him about it.😭

#amy rose #sonamy #sonic movie 3 #movie amy rose #sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie 2 #procreate #miles tails prower #knuckles the enchilada

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fleetways · 6 months

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OKAY! It’s time for the Chimera Baby Lore Post!!

🌼 How did you come up with the OC's name?

In both a meta and non-meta sense, Chimera Baby’s name is probably the most notable part about them. The name Chimera Baby is a reference to m-flo and LiSA’s Tripod Baby, ft in the game Shadow the Hedgehog. For over 6 months that was her official non-official name, as I couldn’t decide on a name for her. I received over 15 name suggestions, but in July I ran a poll at which point she was dubbed Mira!

As it turns out, Mira happens to be the name of a binary star system. Two stars in a dance doomed to end in supernova—rather fitting for a chimera character, wouldn’t you say? I like to imagine Shadow was the one to name Mira something meaningful and space-themed like that, meanwhile Sonic named the other child something totally arbitrary (“His name is Mochi because he's white lol”)

On that note, I’ve also decided Sonic calls Mira “Chili” exclusively, because its silly and he would. So Mira, Chimera Baby, CB, and Chili are all names she goes by!

🌸 How old are they? (Or approximate age range)

I like to depict them anywhere from baby to teenager, but in their most recent incarnation I’d say they’re somewhere between 15-17

💖 Do they have any love interest(s)?

At the moment no. She’s generally too aloof and off putting for anyone to approach her with romantic intent, but maybe in the future….

🍓What is their favorite food?

Strawberries and Triangle Chao Fruit

⭐️ What do they do for a living?

💥 Do they have any hobbies?

Besides combat training, CB enjoys the occasional outdoor activity. Sometimes her friends goad her into a game of soccer (which she is an absolute beast at), but she generally prefers solo sports such as archery, rock climbing, or hiking. Sometimes her brother convinces her to fish with him, but she finds it pretty boring (but would never turn him down)

💃 What do they do best?

Mira excels at hand-to-hand combat. As the reigning champion of Chao Karate, Mira takes their martial arts training very seriously. They also possess exemplary control over chaos energy, and incorporates this into their technique. While they may not be as fast as their fathers, they make up for it with not just raw power, but an extremely disciplined technique.

Her skills also happen to make her an amazing breakdancer, but she’ll break your face if you ask her to demonstrate.

☀️ What is one of your OC's best memories?

A tie between making her baby brother laugh for the first time and the time she drew first blood for the first time in a fight with Shadow

🌧️ What is one of your OC's worst memories?

The aftermath of almost drowning as a child after she saved a chao friend.

✍️ Is their current design the first one?

For the most part—I did redesign their shoes because originally they were rocking some McDonalds drip.

💡What originally inspired the OC?

This post i made ^^

Basically its a mix of me poking fun at the phenomena of Sonadow fan-children all looking kinda similar, and this plush reminding me of actual chimerism in animals and wanting to create a character with that characteristic! Over the months my ironic love for her has grown into genuine fondness—so while she remains primarily as a parody, she’s also a character I’m having fun exploring concepts with <3 Much like both Shadow and Sonic the Hedgehog, you can take her as seriously or not seriously as you wish!

👾 What genre do they belong in?

PS1-era graphics Jet Set Radio game

🏳️‍🌈 What is your OC's gender identity and sexuality?

Non-binary and trans (you decide what direction). And she’s bisexual bc i love bisexuals <3

🍃How many sibling does your OC have?

One little brother Mochi—he is a perfect angel who is also her closest friend. She adores him, but you wouldn’t know from seeing them interact.

⚠️ What is the OC's relationship w/their parents like?

So I mentioned that Mira was reared in a chao garden, where her dads basically only visited once every couple days if not longer (Sonic and Shadow are not very attentive parents, go figure). However, this was honestly a perfectly fine arrangement as I headcanon mobian children don’t need the same level of parental contact as human children (Hell, Cream is kind of an outlier FOR having a present parental figure in her life).

That being said, I imagine Shadow spent more time with her when she was really young before stepping away, which made her really latch onto Shadow more than Sonic during that time. Especially seeing as Sonic is the most laissez-faire parent ever but simultaneously was the type to abandon her on a floating platform in midair with a trail of badniks so she can learn how to homing attack.

Much like her father before her, her latent Black Arms genes have caused her to develop a burning desire to destroy Shadow—a fact that Shadow seems strangely indifferent about. While this fact has pretty much wrecked their previous relationship, there are circumstances where Mira will put aside her goal and work with Shadow against a common enemy or towards a common objective (of course, this doesn’t stop her from trying to stab him in the back during these operations).

Her relationship with Sonic has remained mostly the same, with Sonic treating her much more like a friend or little sister than a daughter. They have lunch together at least once a month, and usually she’ll go to him for advice on any social interaction matter—conversations that have become much more frequent now that she’s begun to make friends.

💗 What do you like most about the OC?

I think I popped off with her design—chimerism is such an interesting concept and I loved balancing her two sets of genes without making it seem too busy. I also love her dynamic of trying to kill Shadow and how you would think her growing up in chao garden basically alone would have contributed to that, but that's not the case at all she’s just like that <3

‼️ Who is your OC's arch-nemesis or rival?

Shadow the Hedgehog is her self-proclaimed nemesis, but she makes a fair share of enemies and rivals wherever she goes due to her punch-first-ask-questions-later attitude. One notable rival is another OC of mine named Sauvik the Badger—another cold and brooding anti-hero much like her. Sauvik and Mochi are something of a team, but being a protective big sister she wants him to stay away from her brother. This generally leads to a fight that Mochi is inevitably forced to break up.

⏰ How long have you had the OC?

She was created in January of 2023!

—

That’s all! Feel free to ask any other questions and remember to vote for her here!

@sonic-oc-showdown

#chimera baby #sonic oc #soandow fankid #mochi #text

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sage-nebula · 1 year

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Sonic Music HCs

Sonic: Punk rock. Punk music tends to be anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian, and often pro-environmentalism. These are all core beliefs of Sonic's, and so the lyrics would resonate with him deeply. Sound-wise, fast guitars and loud drums are his bread and butter. If music doesn't make your blood race and bones rattle, what's the point? He hates ballads; anything too slow or sappy puts him off. (Though, he has sang slower punk songs, such as "Roadside" by Rise Against, to Tails as lullabies when they were younger.)

Tails: Also punk rock, because it's what he grew up listening to thanks to Sonic. Plus, punk rock songs tend to be loud and busy enough to provide his brain with the stimulation necessary to allow him to focus on one project at a time. That said, Tails is fine with most music and thinks there's something to like in just about any genre.

Knuckles: Honestly could not remember ever hearing a song even once in his life before traveling down to the surface for the first time. Sure, birds would sing and chao would bang on drums, but a full on song? No. That said, when he IS introduced to music he likes instrumental hip-hop. Songs with lyrics frustrate him if he can't tell what the lyrics are, so he likes instrumentals with nice beats.

Amy: Amy loves anything you can dance to. Pop and hip-hop are the big ones, but she also thinks swing music and jazz can be really fun to listen and dance to, too. She's pretty amiable about music too, but she doesn't like anything that sounds depressing or moody. Bright, fun, happy songs are her style.

Cream: On the record, Cream only listens to classical music that Vanilla introduced to her basically as soon as she was born. Off the record she also listens to everything Amy listens to, and is very invested in learning all the dance routines.

Big: Has no preferences really, basically anything is fine with him, but he does have an impressive collection of bluegrass albums.

Shadow: His music taste was cultivated fifty years ago on the Space Colony ARK when Maria would play her favorite records and he would listen to them with her. However, listening to those songs now hurts him in a way he doesn't want to deal with, so he doesn't. He also thinks most modern music sounds like garbage, so honestly, he just doesn't listen to music period. That said, he does enjoy a wide variety of podcasts, from trivia and history ones to true crime ones. He doesn't like talking to people, but he does like to listen to people talking to other people who aren't him.

Rouge: She likes whatever is most advantageous to like in the given moment. She has a vast array of music knowledge so she can con her way into any fan space or event. That said, the music playing most often in her bar is R&B or oldies.

Omega: He likes listening to things like recordings of car crashes, building and tank explosions, malfunctioning machinery, air raid sirens, etc. He insists this counts as music. Rouge advises against arguing with him, and Shadow hopes you try.

Vector: He's a ska man through and through, but he does dabble in a wide array of other genres too, to expand his music education. The only thing he won't touch is EDM. He thinks Omega's car crash recordings have more musical merit than EDM.

Espio: Espio claims to only listen to indie artists that most people have never heard of and Charmy says he made up on the spot. When asked to describe the genre, he never can. He actually listens to a mixture of emo rock and rap.

Charmy: Pop, but specifically the Kidz Bop versions because Vector doesn't want to have to explain cuss words, and also because Espio hates Kidz Bop with a passion. He also likes EDM when he's mad at Vector for something.

Whisper: Lo-fi is her absolute favorite; it calms her down even in her worst mental health moments. But she also used to be a big fan of alt rock, and the wisps remember how she has a beautiful deep register for R&B.

Tangle: Just about everything and anything, but power metal is a particular fave and it's her dream to be able to play "Through the Fire and Flames" on a real guitar. (Note: she does not know how to play guitar.) She will lose her voice screaming metal at karaoke and will go right back to do it again the next night.

Jewel: Also a fan of power metal; similar music taste is one of the first things she and Tangle bonded over. She's fine with other music, but when she's listening to music while serenely completing paperwork, there's power metal shredding in her earbuds.

Lanolin: She likes a smattering of different things, but her go-tos tend to be more indie / alternative fares. Think things like Sleeping at Last for instance. Heavy guitars and drums aren't her style: she prefers more melodic pieces.

Eggman: EDM. If it isn't made by machines, he doesn't think it's worth listening to.

Starline: Only the most distinguished classicals; nothing low-brow peasants would listen to. Eggman's taste in "music" was the only turn-off Starline had.

Surge: Thrash metal, speed metal—if it is loud, aggressive, and full of screaming, she is all over it. She hates anything sentimental, slow, or sweet.

Kit: Thrash metal and speed metal, because that's all Surge will listen to, and the idea of listening to something else on his own has never occurred to him.

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robsheridan · 8 months

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Members of London’s 1981 electroplasm scene, a fusion of extreme body modification, mortality edging, and electronic music, where specific frequencies generated by custom modular synthesizer hardware were found to stimulate spectral wavelengths enough to generate ecloplasm and control its psychokinetic growth into electronic wiring, creating sounds unlike anyone (living) had ever heard before.

The most hardcore electroplasm musicians, flatmates at a warehouse space they called The Cortex, began fusing their nervous systems to the hardware such that the electroplasm could flow through their bodies, syncing with their biorhythms, turning them into electronic posthuman processors in a chain of spirit-charged flesh modules. As the ectoplasm rewired their brains and warped their forms, they were no longer technically “alive” by standard definitions, but held on the bleeding edge of the mortal plane by the spirits trapped in them, howling supernatural tones they shaped with their body instruments.

As the niche scene grew, more devotees joined the chain of spirit vessels in The Cortex, giving their bodies to the rhythm, building the beat, forming new otherworldly sounds with each new human instrument. These “beat zombies,” as NME coined them, could only continue “living” as long as the sonic frequencies continued through the chain, and so the beat at The Cortex ran 24/7, their “musical life support.” Hundreds of fans gathered to dance at the undead rave, the most unique performance art ever seen; some predicted the sound would last forever, growing so big that one day every human who ever lived would become connected to it, a jam session across all souls, here and beyond.

Unfortunately, the entire electroplasm scene ended abruptly just a few months after it had begun, when the power was cut to the warehouse space, killing all 78 posthuman vessels instantly and releasing all of the spiritual energy trapped within them at once in a psychokinetic blast that razed four city blocks. It turned out that when the musicians gave their minds & bodies to electrically-charged ectoplasmic sound, they never thought about who would pay the utility bills.

---------

NOTE: This alternate reality horror story is part of my NightmAIres narrative art series (visit that link for a lot more). NightmAIres are windows into other worlds and interconnected alternate histories, conceived/written by me and visualized with synthography and Photoshop.

If you enjoy my work, consider subscribing to my free newsletter to stay up to date on my projects, or supporting me on Patreon for frequent exclusive hi-res wallpaper packs, behind-the-scenes features, downloads, events, contests, and an awesome fan community. Direct fan support is what keeps me going as an independent creator, and it means the world to me.

#synthography #synthography horror #80s synth #alternate history #ai art #ai horror #nightmAIres #rob sheridan #horror stories #ai sci-fi #sci-fi #writing #80s music #electroplasm

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appleflavoredkitkats · 11 months

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don't support here lies love the musical as it comes to bway

my post on here lies love is getting rounds and while i still stand by everything i said on that post, my grievances with the musical has Grown in the last couple of weeks of me researching about it. granted, i still need to do more— i want to do an essay on it in the future because i would hate for it to run on broadway for long, but because that takes time, i thought, at least, i would need to make a post detailing what i find wrong about this musical. even if it's not the most comprehensive, i want more people to be informed about it as soon as possible.

so, have this. ramblings at 5am. i'll try my best to gather sources, but information i have regarding the marcoses comes from a lot of non-digital resources like classes, museums, and physical books. in this case, i recommend the following resources to learn more about who the marcos family is and what they did:

"the kingmaker" by lauren greenfield. native filipinos can watch this free on youtube, but if you aren't from the ph i recommend using a vpn to access it or find a pirated version somewhere else

online martial law museum

if you can buy it, "some are smarter than others" by ricardo manapat, a book detailing marcos' crony capitalism and all his faults

i'd also like to preface: i am not a saint. i am not a historian nor the smartest person who can detail everything marcos did when he was born. i'm trying to do my best with what i know, and i am down to learn more if others want to chime in.

lastly, here's a fresher on the names of people involved, because it can be confusing:

ferdinand marcos — i will try my best calling him ferdinand but most people, including myself, often call him just "marcos" despite the fact that they technically all are marcoses. he was the president from 1965-1986

imelda marcos — i will refer to her as imelda. wife to ferdinand and contributed a lot to his reign of terror. she is still alive today.

bong bong marcos — son of ferdinand and imelda. his name is often shorted to bbm, which i will use. he is currently the present of the philippines

ninoy aquino — marcos' main rival who he indirectly murdered. not a perfect guy tho, just the lesser evil. i will just call him ninoy

now, onto the real deal:

thesis statement, so this can be easy to follow: despite the intentions of the musical being anti-marcos, much of how it is written and presented will inevitably become propaganda to brighten the image of the marcoses. by putting imelda in the forefront, making her entire character do what she does supposedly out of love, audiences will come out of the theatre sympathizing with her and her family. not only is this politically dangerous, but it is incredibly insensitive to native filipinos who have not only gone through the struggle of martial law, but also is suffering through bbm's presidency today.

[rest of the post under the cut]

despite what a lot of criticisms claim, the intentions of the musical is not to be pro-marcos. this is stated in their instagram post:

david bryne also stated these in an article from the guardian:

"The mindset of the Marcos regime and the mindset of disco music to me doesn’t seem all that distant. The hedonistic, escapist feeling of losing yourself and being transported to another world, like you feel on the dance floor and like you feel in a dance club, that’s a means to divorce yourself from the rest of the world, just as Imelda did.

When you’re dancing, you’re in this psychological and sonic bubble, in the same way that powerful people create a bubble around themselves. So I wanted to give an audience a taste of that feeling.

In the first half, when the play is dealing with her childhood, her upbringing and her meeting with Ferdinand Marcos, it’s meant to get the audience to empathise with her and understand what’s driving her and then they’ll understand how that manifests later on."

so, it seems promising: an anti-marcos musical that will make audiences dislike empathizing with her. initially, i really liked the concept of audiences being lost with the music similar to how the marcoses were able to play a lot of their supporters.

but, and a big but, 1.) there's a lot to pick apart from these statements, and 2.) i fucking despise how they presented imelda in the musical.

let's discuss the first point: the instagram post details that the intent of the musical is to dispel disinformation created about the marcoses. first thing's first, if this truly was a musical that aims to educate, then broadway is probably the worst way to do it. while the west and native filipinos could share the award of most misinformed about the marcoses, native filipinos are the ones most affected by it. we just suffered a terrible election last year with constant speculation and reports of vote buying. i've heard accounts from people from the province that bbm would send representatives to bribe those in poverty to ensure a vote. we are suffering in the worst education crisis, with the most corrupt politicians you can think of.

so, if this musical aims to educate, the fact that you can only access it by viewing it live on broadway is incredibly... backwards. how are you opting to dispel information when those most affected can't even access it?

what's worse is the statement that says that modern history of the philippines cannot be told without the usa. it is such a patronizing, surface-level statement that gets my blood boiling. it is true that our histories and present-day contexts are intertwined, especially since the filipino diaspora in the usa is incredibly huge, but that's because this is all a product of american colonization + imperialism. stating like the philippines owes the usa to retell our native stories mirrors much of the savior complex-esque sentiments the usa had when they colonized us.

now, onto bryne's statement. the main problem i have with it is him insinuating that imelda is a victim of circumstance. he wants us the audience "empathize" with her and understand her downfall. this is common rhetoric uninformed people, even filipinos, used to excuse imelda's contributions. that she was supposedly "poor", that marcos put her through hell. but genuinely, and i cannot emphasize this enough, imelda was an absolute ass on her own accord.

no, she did not grow up poor. her wikipedia even states that she grew up in a wealthy family, born into the romualdez political dynasty. my history professor even claimed that she attempted bribing the mayor when she lost one of her beauty pageants. despite the repetitive "i'm doing this for love!" bullshit the musical regurgitates, imelda did not even marry marcos out of love. in ricardo manapat's book, he details how marcos attempted to swoon imelda by showing her his vault of money (of course, possibly stolen). she was enraptured by marcos the moment she saw his WEALTH.

i want to emphasize: imelda is not fucking stupid. much of what marcos did to the philippines was thanks to her. i would recommend watching the kingmaker documentary for all the details, but just know she is still alive and incredibly wealthy. she is well-known for her absolute gaudiness and all of that comes from her money-centric mindset. she does not give a shit about love.

here's some accounts by ricardo manapat from his book. on imelda falling in love with marcos (btw, she had a fiance at the time and didn't tell him she was marrying marcos until said fiance found out on the damn newspaper):

imelda being aware of the wealth she accumulates in politics:

on this note, i'd love to discuss how historically inaccurate the musical is. i'd like to preface that i've only listened to the only available version of the musical which is the 2013 version on spotify. this could have changed, but either way, the general tone of the narrative already reads to me as extremely incorrect, anyway. i'd also love to detail every discrepancy of each song, but again, i'll save that for a future essay.

in general, the musical's plotline follows imelda, a "humble and poor" girl from leyte who grows up and marries ferdinand. she repeatedly expresses she's doing this all out of love. thus, the musical insinuates that imelda is merely a victim of circumstance, and that she didn't become evil on her own accord. and yet, from what i've presented so far, she was very much aware! she was not passive. you have to understand, SHE was the reason both men and women had equal opportunities to become corrupt in our government.

what marcos did was also imelda's fault. the genocide and displacement of indigenous people, the mass torture and murder of journalists and politicians, the stealing of companies and mass wealth, the mass delivery of non-native animals to the philippines. she condoned all that. yes, marcos cheated on her, but she also used that as a means to manipulate him into doing whatever she wanted. they are both horrible people.

speaking of, marcos' song in the musical was also really bad. he could be written as lying for all we know, but his "fear" of japanese soldiers invading the philippines is also up for debate. there is speculation of the marcoses collaborating with japanese troops, which also led to the murder of marcos' father's political rival.

and while i don't know if there's actual dialogue outside of the songs, i don't think this musical actually informs us much of the marcos' faults. the songs, which will be the most accessible thing to native filipinos, express nothing but generic descriptions of what characters feel about certain situations. it's hard to understand or know what these people are actually doing because it's just so vague and ambiguous. how are you supposed to inform when none of the music details, well, anything? the information given is so minimal that i pray, at least, the musical would have more explicit scenes about marcos' atrocities.

and that's my main problem with the musical. with how much they spend sympathizing with imelda in the first act, i don't think everything the marcoses have done can be encapsulated in the second. of course, i'm not asking to give me a detailed rundown of everything they did, but let's be honest, this musical was never about dispelling disinformation. if it was, then they wouldn't spend an entire act and a half sucking imelda's dick. it's not about educating audiences about martial law. it's about humanizing imelda, with martial law and the marcoses' atrocities as a second priority. it makes me sick to my stomach seeing how pure imelda is presented when travelling to meet other world leaders, or how she's seen as the person who insisted that ninoy move away from the philippines.

it was never about education or re-information. in the end, these were such pretentious and performative statements to defend a historically inaccurate musical.

and tbh, that's just the tip of the iceberg of why i hate this musical. another thing is that, holy shit is it obvious that it's written by two white people. they mispronounce "tacloban" (should be tacLOban not tacloBAN). these characters are also just... not distinctly filipino? they're so white in mannerisms. i need more insulting humor, more grit. in fairness, the richer you are in the philippines the more connected you are to western culture, but i would have loved to see that disaparity more in the songwriting. they really peaked (/s) when they wrote these lyrics:

this is... awful, in a cringey what the hell manner. i hope they changed it for the bway production, because this was blatant evidence that the songwriters barely took the time to understand our culture before writing.

if you don't understand what it says, "titi mo" (the correct spelling is tite but i digress) means "your dick". i think imelda is trying to call marcos a dick, but they literally translated dick in tagalog. but tite isn't an insult, it literally refers to a penis. "mo" is the equivalent of "your" which also makes ZERO sense. the lyric literally goes "how can a your penis run the country?", like WHAT.

so you know, maybe there's a reason why many filipinos fucking despise this show on twitter. we are insulted for good reason. they are sensationalizing and glamorizing our suffering for their own gain. we native filipinos and other filipino diaspora who can't access the show have nothing to gain. here lies love is profiting from our struggles that we are still recovering from and experiencing today. imagine if you made a musical about hitler explaining he is a victim of circumstance to disco music. insensitive, isn't it? i'd love to ask the cast of here lies love if they'd ever show the musical to living survivors and families of victims of martial law.

and what's worse, because of course it gets worse, misinformation like this is what boosts the reputation of corrupt politicians in the first place. manapat quotes what leonard saffir wrote about how marcos built his reputation in new york via a biography filled with disinformation. the excerpt is too long but it's quoted from this article by the new york times. and now we are living in an era of another musical based on imelda being shown in new york — time is a flat fucking circle.

what sickens me is that this musical is possibly a lot of americans' first exposure to the marcoses, and what will they think? imelda is just a poor girl, imelda is just a victim, imelda is blah blah blah. that will be stamped in their head. even if some filipinos have come out of this musical dreadful that they sympathized with imelda, not everyone is gonna have the same experience.

^ this an excerpt from one of theatermania's articles. dictators have feelings too, i guess!

objectively, there is nuance when it comes to anyone. but the problem is, we cannot afford to consider nuance in politics. we cannot sympathize with imelda right now when people are dying of poverty under the marcoses' hand. the marcoses are very much alive, very much in power, and very much willing to lend their offspring to other positions of power. they turned the entirety of ilocos into a bunch of marcos dicksuckers, and i'm afraid that this musical can make a ton of their audiences be oblivious to the true extents of the marcos' atrocities. i'm already seeing people on tiktok say that there's nothing wrong about this musical, or that this can exist when miss saigon and evita exist (which in on itself are problematic beliefs, because they are glamorizing other country's sufferings too).

i am privileged enough to be educated about marcos, and while there is much to be done in terms of disability and lgbtqia+ rights, i am lucky to be less impacted by the marcoses compared to other people. but there are hundreds of thousands of filipinos severely affected by marcos. what's worse, is that there are plenty extremely uneducated that they are unaware that marcos is directly contributing to their suffering. my history professor told us that other countries are using the philippines as their model for successful disinformation campaigns. in this era of disinformation, we cannot afford to disinform even more. as sad as it is, the usa has a lot of power and control over the philippines (and the world, tbh), so one wrong step into the wrong direction and we're fucked. this musical fails the message it attempts to preach and i cannot imagine how much more people are going to spread misinformation about the philippines like they did during the 2022 elections.

to end off, i'd like to mention to everyone that imelda marcos has actually listened to the musical. in this new york times article, she says, "i'm flattered, i can't believe it!". i don't know what to tell you— if imelda herself says she likes the musical you claim to be anti-marcos, then what does that say about the musical?

i guess i'll end with, i am willing to change opinions once i see how the musical is being executed. if they emphasize the atrocities done by marcos and give proper information about the timeline of events, then i can be more lenient. but if i still see any attempts woobifying imelda, then i stand by what i say. this musical is insensitive, disrespectful, and just fucking hurtful.

#here lies love #imelda marcos #ferdinand marcos #bongbong marcos

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