Yip & Yap

Rouge going to GUNs shooting range because she needs to let off some steam. Shadow, who's been mopey all week opts to just sit and watch her. Which was a bad idea. Every shot makes his ears rings until he can feel them in his bones, making his hands shake and his head hurt...

He can't stop thinking about Maria.

Maria loved Christmas even if they couldn't really celebrate on the ARK. Well they could, but it was just the two of them. None of the doctors on board particulary cared to humor her, they weren't all cynical but most were. They missed their own families, Gerald had told him.

Maria said that on Earth Christmas was about offering kindness to everyone, even those you didn't get along with.

One of the nurses told him it was about wasting your checking account on shit for other people.

Shadow thinks both are true. Sometimes he wonders how Maria would've adapted to Earth if she hadn't died after so many years isolated in space. It took Sonic a while and he was only up there for six months.

Maria, despite her beliefs, got very angry around Christmas. She'd lash out at nurses and doctors, she'd bite and hit with what little strength she had left, she'd scream and cry. Shadow would protect her, though. Even when she hurt him. In fits of rage and grief Maria said things she couldn't take back, you'll rot on this stupid ship long after I'm dead, Shadow, you will.

She wasn't a saint. She was just a kid.

Rouge doesn't stay at the shooting range for long. Taking one good look at Shadow, spaced out and in the corner, she slugs her bag over her shoulder and tells him she's hungry.

On rhea island in sonic frontiers it's shown sonic is rapidly deteriorating and implied through idle dialogue he's losing his memory due to the cyber corruption

He still helps fight in the war but he's. Distant. Not talking to his friends much, not celebrating their victories as much as everyone else, generally just keeping to himself

All bc he thinks it's gonna be ripped away from him any moment now. That he's going to hear the hum of the phantom ruby's power and he'll wake up back at his cell up on the death egg, as if none of it ever happened. Just like last time. And the time before that. And so many other times before

The only thing breaking the illusion for him, making him think that maybe, just maybe, all of this truly is happening, is the fact classic sonic is there fighting alongside them

Bc like there's no way eggman was feeding that boy three nutritious meals a day. Sonic was probably surviving off of one daily meal of eggman branded mystery slop at most. Just the bare minimum to keep him alive

Do you think he lost a lot of weight during those six months. He probably had trouble adjusting to getting proper meals again after he was freed

The level of malnurishment that sonic is going through is NOT something his friends could treat on their own, so he eventually ends up in the resistance's medical wing

He doesn't handle it well

He's already pretty delirious from literally starving but the hospital environment triggers an extremely bad reaction in him. He's TERRIFIED of being there and he wants out NOW

Maybe its something about the the cold air and the sterile smell combined with other scents of metal and chemicals and what have you reminding him of the death egg. It makes him feel trapped, just like in that prison cell. He HATES it

So he ends up fighting the nurses and doctors and refusing to cooperate for treatment. He's clawing and kicking and screaming and crying NO I DON'T WANT THIS I DON'T WANT THIS LET ME GO until they have to sedate him. He's too weak by this point to do any real damage (besides some small scratches) but not only is it difficult to get ivs or a feeding tube in while he's fighting them, he's just. Not in a good enough mental state to go through the pain and stress involved in all of that

Once he wakes up again he's a bit calmer, still freaking out but he's surrounded by his friends who help him relax and stop him from just ripping everything out and trying to run

And because I’m paranoid and don’t trust the wiki, here’s a YouTube video of the level (and post level dialogue) screenshotted above.