Strike a Match

     Refreshing my mini little blogroll! Ordered from highest activity to lowest activity~

@premnition​ || Blaze the Cat (Sonic the Hedgehog)

@sacchariinity​ || Pink Villager (Super Smash Bros. / Animal Crossing)

“I love you, I've always loved you, I will always love you.”

it's commitment, it's devotion, it goes often without saying, but is felt nonetheless. it's accepting that you would travel to hell and back for them if they asked and knowing that they would do the same for you. it's an old ache, long after they've burrowed deep into your chest and settled there like a weight- grounding, an anchor point. even when you're apart, you can still feel the shape of them, it's like phantom pain. neither of you can help but succumb to the other's gravity, yet neither of you fear the collision. it means that you trust them, that they make you feel safe, that they feel like home.

tagged by: I STOLE IT.

𝟎𝟏. 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐒 / 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄:  Aaron

𝟎𝟐. 𝐁𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐇𝐃𝐀𝐘: April 10th

𝟎𝟑. 𝐙𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐀𝐂  𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐍: Aries

𝟎𝟒. 𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: 5′11 (and a half)

𝟎𝟓. 𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐄𝐒: Writing, video game here and there. I’m gonna attack Metroid Dread like a wild animal when that drops. I should be reading but what is a library. Watching videos that divulge a ton of useless sonic the hedgehog information.

𝟎𝟔. 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐑: Dark blue, purple, pastels.

𝟎𝟕. 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊:  I.. haven’t read in so long, dude. But probably something from the Heroes of Olympus book series. But if comics count, then definitely one of the big ass Calvin and Hobbes collection books.

𝟎8. 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐃: i eat like shit. Pizza, i guess? Some sort of sweet that’s garbage for me? 

𝟎𝟗. 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐌 / 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖: The D.emo.n S.lay.er movie. I binged the fuck outta that entire series semi-recently sdfghygtrfd.

𝟏𝟎. 𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍: hm well let’s see, avatar, avatar. mmm, avatar. oh! and avatar. right, right, cant forget avatar. and i guess av-

𝟏𝟏. 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐃 𝐔𝐑𝐋: Spreads out a bunch of books across the table and taps my temple like I’m smart. Alright so the word ‘Prem’ in Hindi translates to ‘Love’ in English, and a red Bindi, which is name for the circular mark people wear within the Hinduism religion of India, can represent honor, love, and prosperity, which is what Blaze holds for her home dimension. Because the general color red within this culture means much of the same

 Her reactions were nearly priceless to the deranged salesman. Talking things out wouldn’t have nearly been as interesting, especially with how this cat wasn’t vocally responding to him. Spamton watched the onslaught, his smile remaining unchanging in light of her fiery rage. Letters and heads alike burnt to a quick crisp as he watched her glide and weave through the set of clearly not properly safety-checked roller coaster carts…

 …Only to see a bomb that was supposed to explode in her vicinity explode in his, as he almost comically remained still as the explosion hit him, full force with it being lit with fire. His form was completely enveloped in smoke, as the other would hear his form clank and warble from the sudden burst of force and damage. Before any possible catharsis from hitting him back could settle in for her, his laugh echoed out from the cloud of smoke,

 “IF YOU KEEP THIS UP, YOU’RE GONNA GIVE ME–…”

 Something clangs. It’s hard to tell with his form obstructed by the smoke, but it’s… As if there was something inside of the machine’s chest, violently trying to get out. There’s suddenly an unfamiliar noise. It’s… Disgusting, to put it lightly. It’s a squelching noise, as if something slimy had suddenly emerged from god knows where. But what about this mechanical thing was remotely organic–..?

 “[[HEART BURN]].”

 The titanic monstrosity itself doesn’t come out of the smoke, initially. A blue heart shaped thing abruptly snakes out of it, its eyes flashing yellow on and off. It looks at Blaze with an expression that could only be defined as pure malicious glee, the dark blue veins on it pulsating as it suddenly lunges at the cat, Spamton’s body being awkwardly dragged along behind its too-organic-looking chain as diamond-shaped bullets fly out of it, intending to give a full on chase until it’s destroyed. Why is it slimy. What the hell is this thing?

     Fireballs continued their disposal of letters and metallic heads alike, attacks still trained on getting rid of the excess left over from the last onslaught she had scraped through. But ears would flick to the sound of a roaring detonation, metallic clambers and creaks denoting another successful hit. Oh, if she had the luxury of rejoicing in it, though. The remains of the coasters’ contents were just finished being reduced to nothing but ashes as laughter made ears flick and fan outward in further irritation. 

     Sights snap back toward her foe shortly after, catching an eyeful of billowing smoke; remnants of the bomb, no doubt. What she couldn’t place a source to, though were continued metallic bangs resounding out from inside the concealing smog, rattling inside a quickly buckling cage it was determined to get out of. Was a wild animal about to burst out of this monstrosity’s ribcage? Was she going to have to fight that, too? Because frankly, after the stunt with the rollercoaster carts, this feline found it difficult to completely rule the possibility out.

     ...And the fact that her wild guess turned out being far closer to reality than it had any right to be? It was almost as upsetting as what truly did jump out at her. There was no live animal to be witnessed, but... it sounded just as organic as one... The squishing, stomach-churning noise of something wet and fleshy being shunted from the robotic foe she faced. (Robotic? She was beginning to have her doubts). It speaks on what is to come, and golden sights narrow in reaction, readying for whatever sickly horror was prepped behind the curtain of smoke.

     Truthfully, though? Was it in any way wrong to say her face still made a plenty visible reaction to the vein-lined heart appendage lurching out at her? The smile it shouldn’t have had in the first place so stretched, so bounding-off-the-face excited that she was half-expecting it to belt out a scream of twisted delight? No, it wasn’t. 

     But it was another luxury she couldn’t afford: the moment of pause it would take for full-out disgust. No matter how off-putting the sight truly was, teeth gritted, reaction time forcing the body to jump forward in the direction of the thing, bounding head-long before any squeamish emotional state had any say in the matter. Placing gloves atop the heart (WHY IS IT SLIMY. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING?) and vaulting over it, paws made sure to extend claws out for an extra bit of damage before continuing her swift trek. 

     The visceral ‘chain’ was met with heels grinding down its length (but it was more akin to slip-and-sliding, frankly. she hated this. she hated this.), and atop the shoulder of her opponent would Blaze pause. 

     There, the other could get a proper zoom-in of the feline’s ragged expression, lips curled in foul-spawned disdain, sights snapping to the face-full of salesman she currently had access to. She looked unto him in... Disbelief? Confusion? Abject horror? All of the above? While verbal responses continued to keep themselves locked inside the mind, her face already spoke a thousand words.

     It wasn’t long before golden eyes ripped themselves away from the face for one reason or another, instead choosing to glance toward the neck. There was heat under her feet, a chasing heart making its way for her back, bullets spewing out where heart valves were supposed to go. Fine, it wanted her so badly? Then it would have to go around its owner just to do it. 

     Once the heart continued its pursuit back toward the body it came from, claws sunk their lengths deep into the neck of the machine as the grasp was used to swing around and around the neck, grappling the head by allowing the cord of her heart-shaped pursuer to coil about his neck after each lap she took!

     But she wasn’t done yet! There was no part of her that wanted to stay as close as she was to this freakshow of a foe, so once enough raveling had been done, claws would detach from the neck, change targets to the heart, and sink into its sickly self on her kick-off back down to the ground, momentum pulling the organ along for the feline’s descent.

  He watches her movements, her agility being the main thing standing out to him as he continued firing shots of what could only be described as pure energy. His seemingly permanent smile that took up most of his face only seemed to widen as she rushes forward, his arm cannon primed as he tries to take another shot, but the sudden change in movement was not something he accounted for. The strings holding him up clearly made an attempt to get his body out of the way, but her hit landed.

 Spamton felt the claws make a terrible SKREEEEEK noise as they raked across his face in a harsh movement, his entire body taken back by the force of the attack as if he was nothing but a ragdoll. The hand that was once the cannon reformed back into a hand as he reached for the wound on his face. He did not bleed– It was similar to how one could leave marks on metal. Whatever this thing was made out of was clearly high quality, but it was also clear he could still feel pain.

 That brief moment was the only respite Blaze would get, as his wings stretched out, the strings holding him seemingly quivering in anticipation. 

 “YET ANOTHER ROUGH [ customer ] DRIVING A [ hard deal ],” He stares down at her, his pupils unseen, but clearly looking right at her. “DON’T YOU WANT TO BE A [[BIG SHOT]] RATHER THAN JUST A MERE [ hot shot ]?”

 Something whirrs to life behind her in the darkness. A set of roller coaster cars filled with piles of mail, bombs, and what looked to be Spamton heads, cackling loudly, came careening towards her, the lights on the cars practically blinding as the squeaky wheels made the most unpleasant of sounds.

 “I’M NOT LETTING THIS [ once in a lifetime ] OPPURTUNITY PASS, [ cat ].” His voice echoes out as the chaos approaches, “YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE MY [ deals ] ONCE I GET THAT LITTLE [[SOUL]] OF YOURS.”

     Sheared metals raked across the ears as much as it did claws, the reverberance of the successful connection still shaking inside the feline’s head. A good, clean hit, though the other’s simple reaction to the pain she left showed clear as day that it would take more where that came from to put this one down for the count. Lucky for her, she had more than enough raw flames for every inch of the strung-up salesman. 

     And so did he, it would seem. Her plan was to keep moving; retain speed through these halls and make it a chore most infuriating to land a concise shot on the lilac bullet. Emphasis on was. For underneath her heels, she felt the tracks beneath her feet shutter and quake with the vibrations of rapid activity, its source coming closer and closer down the line with every passing second. Though, her foe spoke over pandemonium on express delivery... Her soul? Oh, she’d have to unpack that one later, there was way too much happening right now.

     Before she could question what was on its way, sight was obscured in an instant, white blinding lights hitting the eyes and forcing them to close. But ears flicked from the clacking, the... cackling? 

     Gloves shield the eyes, giving them the breadth they need to widen in shock at the ceiling-high pile of... mail. Robotic heads that howled with laughter? Bombs?! A body leapt all the same once the realization had been made, but with no clear through-way to even begin dodging toward, full impact was taken, barreling through the carted-along wall as form could do no more or no less than tense and brace for impact. 

     It was much more solid than a mound of letters should have been. Perhaps it was the metal heads that tacked on that extra hurt she was feeling. But once body emerged on the other side, expression spelt far more anger across the face than there was when it was going into the attack, cuts now littering the clothes, body no-doubt in the process of bruising beneath them. We weren’t doing that again, the mind thought as face hardened. No, not at all. 

     Instead, there would be quick ignition of flames jettisoned from the heels, keeping the feline hovering for the next wave of miscellaneous goods and nightmares carting toward her. Then, with a matching set of flames gathering in the palm, blazing balls of fire would be slung from mid-air at her obstacles, making spaces to glide through, feet-produced flames her jet boosters. The letters, the chattering heads, the   wait. 

      She talked, and talked, and talked– and Yuck just barely stood there, breathing heavily through charred lips. Through their blurring vision they could barely make out that whatever she was saying, it had really riled her up towards them, but the actual words that came out of her mouth were nothing but DEAD NOISE in their ears. Perhaps exhaustion and extensive damage had both taken their toll, affecting their hearing or muddling their focus…

      Or perhaps they were zoning out her drawn out lecture on purpose. That was even more likely from them, honestly.

       There WERE certain words their mind DID pick up, however; words like ‘foolish’, ‘nothing’, ‘failure’ and ‘you lost’. Their expression betrayed nothing but fatigue and pain, but those words stuck to their brain, blaring out alarms. Still…they did nothing.

      Not until she turned on her heel to leave again– and found herself held back by a severely burnt paw that held on to her closest arm with a vice grip like an iron ball had been chained to her.

      And it hurt. It hurt to reach out to her, basically throw themself at her before she got too far. It hurt to hold on to her so tightly, just to make sure she wouldn’t just brush them away again.

      It hurt, and Yuck didn’t care. “Y…you….”

      “….you c-coward.”

      Their words were hoarse and raspy, and it took so much effort to get them out– but the hostility was palpable, in both their words and their eyes (even now, despite everything, those eyes were the SUN). Their grip on Blaze’s arm tightened, charred yet still sharp claws digging through cloth and fur.

      “…you think…y-you’re….doin’ me….a favor…?” A laugh that devolved into a cough; Yuck had to face away to regain their breath. “…that…I’m goin’…to learn….somethin’….from t-this…?”

      Oh, they HAD learned something alright; they learned that the next time, they had to make sure she would regret ever getting in their way. But this time, they’d make sure SHE learned something as well.

      “…F-finish…finish this…stop…actin’ like….you’ve won…”

      The claws trembled, digging deeper until they found flesh, and then kept digging until blood dripped down her arm.

      “Coward…fight me….to the END…!”

     When the ruler was attacked, she was always prompt in her response time. A rebuttal to enact and a strategy of attack forming soon after.

     When the dead rabbit crawling’s paw snagged the most of her wrist, claws digging deep, deeper, yet deeper still into the veins of her arm. All to spit in the face of death, all to spit in the face of Blaze... The woman remained stark still. Their words, they could have every syllable, each word that fought a battle of its own just to spit in the face of their opponent. 

     Blood had begun to trickle from the puncture wounds, crimson staining regal sleeves, slashed fabric revealing lines of red streaming atop the fur. Still would the ruler remain motionless.

     By every right, they should have been dead, and here they limped with the strength to still hold their opponent in place. This is what they put their energy into. Refusing to learn. Refusing to stay down. Refusing to admit defeat. ‘If there is no victory to be had, then there is surely knowledge to be salvaged from the ruins of defeat.’ is what ran through the mind. But nothing was said. It would be hard-fought battle to even notice a semblance of a reaction to the pain that sundered her caught limb. Utterly immobile was the feline. All for one simple reason.

     She was done. Far past done, in fact. Sick and tired. The red stains of the arm would soon begin to alight, blood catching fire like a line of oil igniting like a fuse. And in this burst, her captor would find their body pulled forward with enough sudden force to cause possible whiplash, off-hand positioning itself so that a firm chop would connect with the side of the rabbit’s neck during the monster’s abrupt and forced movement. A hefty blow that would surely and swiftly knock out any soul...

  —This was… far from the sight Rock expected on today’s mission. Similarly, he’d figured that going in through the front door was by no means the best path forward. Looking for a different path forward—a series of pipelines, a hidden entrance, an open window, whatever worked—was his goal, and hey! He was about to have one! There’s just, you know. A pyrokinetic cat in the way.

  “Um… h-hi.”

  Yep. That’s all he had at first. She was by no means a Robot Master he’d fought before. The poor kid’s just confused. And a little hurt that she wouldn’t even turn to look at him. After a pause, he shook his head in an effort to regain his composure.

  “Uh, are you a friend? Foe…?” Please say friend, please say friend…

     Ah, so they were... rather deadset in their intentions of conversing with her while she was in the middle of something, hm? Great, that’s just great. It really just made her tail flick and bristle with clear and obvious joy, it did. Ears flattening back? Another universal sign for delight. 

     Despite being talked at, Blaze’s metal-rending flame continued without pause, back remaining turned to the other. “  Depends,” she strained. “Will there be further words spoken within the time it takes for me to get this door down?” A little rude, but forgive her, the beads of sweat spawning from this tiresome act were beginning to get a little bothersome. ...Just that, though. Nothing else was picking at her, currently.

     Silence would quickly befall the feline yet again, except this time, nothing would be said until her job was finished. At the end of the cutting flames’ final pass, a tense exhale would be let loose, the superheated entrance would be kicked open by a powerful heel, and the thunderous rock of the thick slab falling inward.

     And only then would attention finally turn to the boy, a bit of alleviating steam puffing from the nose during a slow inhale and a long, drawn-out exhale. It could have been a cartoonish way of displaying rage... or it could’ve been the cat centering herself after such force of fire was exerted, flames replenishing and letting off excess smoke in the process. That was up to the helmeted one to decide for himself. 

Metallix remained stationary as his pyromantic opponent performed her opening attack. The twin tornadoes of towering flames converged into a single searing vortex focused directly on the spot the robot was standing. A low chuckle emerged from Metallix’s vocalizers. Predictably aggressive, he mused as he perused the data stream containing all known information about Blaze the Cat. 

Within his blood-red heads-up display system, he watched as the temperature skyrocketed. Yet, he did not react immediately, as his composite alloy exoskeleton was more than capable of absorbing this paltry amount of heat. When a small warning indicator blipped into vision, Metallix finally chose to react. 

The blue Chaos Emerald socketed within his central power core sparked into activation. Energizing the android with immense levels of raw, unfiltered Chaos Energy. A burst of unrestrained power dispersed the towering tornado of fire, buffeting the surrounding ruins with a violent shockwave. 

Metallix stood undamaged and now partially empowered with twisting, electrified energies sourced from the captive Chaos Emerald. His blue metallic chassis glowed vividly neon as torrents of power burned and burst around his body. 

The robot took several steps towards the feline Mobian. “I guess I should be thankful.” He spoke with a mocking tone, Metallix’s digital sound synthesizers emitting a deep voice laced with cold contempt and infinite anger. “You saved me the trouble of tracking you down. It’s always nice to see the insects come to me to get crushed." 

Metallix raised his right arm, which immediately reconfigured itself into a multi-barrel mini-gun. The weapon whirred to life, spinning the barrels into a blur of motion. A burst of rapid-fire high-energy plasma soon followed, tracking his target as their battle truly commenced. The weapon tore through the remains of the surrounding structures with ease. 

Metallix would not allow himself to be outdone in regards to speed. Thruster vents on the rear of his torso roared to life, lifting his heavy robotic form off the ground and into the air. He sped into the pursuit of his enemy, spitting unrelenting firepower from his mini-gun. A pair of missile pods unfolded across his shoulder plating and launched a quartet of heat-seeking missiles towards Blaze. 

"No use running. You’re mine." 

     Stress test concluded. Results are extremely conclusive. She would need far more firepower to even singe this one. The need to figure out just what form of Metal Sonic this was had steadily risen, for she was not an expert on these sorts of things. If only her friends Sonic and Tails were here, they would surely be able to deduce the machine’s origin with their combined skills. 

     Alas, it was just her, and she would not shrink in the face of adversity, no matter how considerable the odds were stacked out of her favor. The best she could do was use her own knowledge and put each conclusion she came to under a trial by fire to prove if it was correct or not. Though for now, the only hint received was the sudden and immense shock of souped-up strength, electric energy sparking off of his metallic quills, his chest glowing with an albeit familiar light. 

     She herself couldn’t sense the energies, but the Sol Emeralds residing within her felt the reaction, similar power from an alternate universe wavering in the opposing power. That monster had a Chaos Emerald inside him, curses! The hill it would be to fight against power of that caliber by herself would be akin to a straight vertical climb! She would try to do so for as long as possible, but the possible requirement of Burning Blaze’s power was clocked, realized, and stored for later.

     For now, it was time to run. Speed returned at the transformation of robotic limb into supercharged turret fire, a roaring burst igniting legs made to match the destructive boom of the Metal Sonic’s own thruster, chase taking a corner here, a dive through a smoldering building there, all to avoid the chasing spread of bullets. 

     Mind flashed with thoughts as speed was maintained, another problem rising... This machine was assuredly built with Sonic in mind, and while her footspeed was nothing short of marvelous, there was no one out there with Sonic speed. Yet another battle she would surely lose if no plan was formulated... Think, think!

     Hmph, it was a little wild, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The flare of missile propulsion tugged at the feline’s flaming heart, spotting their arrival immediately. But instead of dodge, she kept pace until her explosive packages were set to arrive, their roar making eyes slit in preparation. A finger then snapped, killing the flames from the four incoming projectiles. 

     But that wasn’t all. In a whirl, body diving horizontally, two of the four force-dud missiles were snagged from the air and tossed backward toward the Metal Sonic. As for the remaining two? An exertion of fiery will reignited all four missiles as her two are held onto for dear life, form doing away with footspeed and relying entirely on the propulsion of missile flares.

     The two reversed shots were set to explode unto a tailgating machine upon their reactivation, but the two clutched to Blaze’s chest burned even brighter in the pyrokinetic ruler’s grasp, missiles serving as the perfect boost of speed she needed.