#smolldust

Animatics thoughts/process:

The friend/foe parts were easy. For friend I drew Shadow with Rouge & Omega (I love Team Dark) as a reference to when the 3 of them went on that mission in chapter 3 that ended with Shadow’s capture.

“I could be a foe” was just the opposite of the last one. Illusion Shadow with the other illusion villains conjured by Infinite. Also fun fact, all of them have magenta eyes like the phantom ruby instead of their usual eye colors. A nod to how they’re not the real versions of the characters.

“You make the decisions”- I had it switch between various characters who’ve made decisions for Shadow at various points of his life. (Gerald on the ARK, Black Doom, Commander Tower while he worked for GUN, and then eventually Infinite when he gets captured.)

the bright yellow in the background of the Infinite frame is a nod to fanart by @/ohposhers for the same fic. I really liked the bright, almost eye strain-y yellow used in their IWYW fanart. This same/a similar yellow is used later for another frame with Infinite

sinner - I drew a scene from chapter 5 when illusion Shadow enters Commander Towers’ tent to kill him. I know it described illusion Shadow as smiling, but I didn’t like it when I drew him with a smile.

Saint - the exact opposite. This one is the real Shadow right after capture. This frame is actually the reason this whole thing ended up colored. I knew I wanted to do something with the bright light that hurts Shadow’s eyes because light can be associated with heaven/the afterlife

Devoid - I originally considered drawing the brain scans mentioned in chapter 2 that Tails shows to the others, showing the severe damage done to Shadow’s brain. But then I realized I’m not a doctor and have zero ideas what part of his brain would’ve been blacked out/empty. So messy, bright scribbles over his brain it is.

Martyr - I drew Shadow as I pictured him in my brain when he was first described/found in chapter one. I altered the mask to how I saw it (even if it wasn’t entirely accurate to how it was supposed to be seen as). It’s identical to infinite’s, except there’s no eyeholes and the ears are smaller. Not just blacked out eyeholes, just none at all. Making this worse for Shadow because why not. Also the ears are smaller because he’s a hedgehog and he has smaller ears than a jackal. The flowers he’s in aren’t super detailed, but they’re supposed to be the flowers from the chapter titles. I didnt get into too much detail, but most of the flowers (from the first results I saw on google images) were pink, yellow, and white, so those are the colors I used.

next one is Shadow being carried by Sonic in chapter 2 when he’s running to get shadow to a resistance hospital. It’s for the “I can be a cause” part of the song because his possibility of being alive was the cause behind Rouge and Knuckles looking for him in chapter 1. Also he’s the ‘cause’ that’s making Sonic run to a hospital so fast. Also yes I’m aware the posing of Sonic carrying Shadow is bad I tried several different times to fix it but I could never get it to look right. Sorry :(

next part is a pretty simple explanation: just various titles/names Shadow has been called throughout life (in my head at least, lol). The ‘sick’ part at the top of his head is supposed to stand out against all the other things he’s been called because it’s supposed to be Infinite calling him that. Considering Shadow’s “condition” came outta nowhere and Infinite is the only person to ever tell Shadow that he has a medical issues when he was supposed to be a cure

Canvas - I tried to make it bright and messy cuz this is when Shadow was tripping balls in chapter 4. It said “Petals unfurled in slow motion… violets, cyans, and golds - each one glowed faintly…” using this description, I added glowing violet and gold flowers floating through the air. Later on it says “Infinite laughed softly, and the sound made gems fall from the ceiling to the ground.” I didn’t want to have too many flowers, so I used the teal/cyan from the earlier description to color the gems instead. It later said “…when new shapes joined them - streamers unfurling from nowhere…” It also didn’t really specify color, so I just used red for some little streamers/confetti.

Doll - it just Infinite holding a limp Shadow up (like at the end of chapter 4). treating him almost like a doll. The pattern in the background is a glowing swirl of the phantom ruby colors oooooo. To show how Infinite is using it to break/control/mess with Shadow’s mind.

Next bit is just Shadow freaking out. Digging his claws into the side of his head and eyes frantically darting around. Nothing fancy or deep.

I can be a woman/man - Okay so I had ZERO idea what to do for this bit. I tried and sketched so many ideas but I could NOT come up with one I was satisfied with. Since I was listening to Spoken For on loop, I listened to one of Flavor Foley’s other songs called Ego Renegade Boy. Became obsessed it’s so peak. But anyways, this bit is sort of a reference to around 0:23 seconds in the music video because this part of spoken for mentions ‘woman and man’ and ego renegade boy is a song about be trans masc/male. The bit at 0:23 had Rin and Len aka a girl (woman) and a boy (man). Idk I just liked that bit and thought it’d work for the animatic.

another easy one. I just drew Shadow looking into the mirror like he did in chapter 6. I’m bad with mirrors and I actually reference a shot from Tadc episode 6 for this cuz I didn’t know what exactly to do lol. Not my best work, but the best of the attempts I made.

Difference & same - another easy one. Split down the middle, Shadow on one side and Infinite on the other. For “difference” you have Shadow during his early capture, glaring at Infinite and not backing down. For “same”, he’s given up. He wears the mask from chapter one (he’s the same as Infinite now). The colors in the background on his side have also dulled/faded. I also tried to make it look like his quills were bent backwards and inwards like it was described (?) but idk how well of a job I did with that.

Try to give me meaning - When I read chapter 7 and saw you described Shadow’s hands the same way I do I was like “yesss let’s go” cuz I already messed up and gave this Shadow the ear fluff I normally give him, so I’m glad I didn’t mess up the hands too lol. I had the numbers that Shadow counted at the end of chapter 4 here because earlier in that same chapter Infinite says “If you can’t focus… then don’t fight it.” & “Find something real… and count.” This is something Shadow tries to do to make sense of the things going on, to give meaning to it, but it doesn’t help bro has been drugged up.

Heaven & Hell - another easy one. A mirror was done with this one. Sonic and Shadow all happy with each other with warm colors in the back vs Infinite restraining a drugged Shadow with that harsh yellow in the background again. Although in the fic Sonic and Shadow did have a big fight before his capture, whatever the hell happened would’ve probably felt like heaven in comparison to what Infinite did to him when he was captured. Also just a little parallel/contrast between the two ships tagged in the fic.

Does it matter/can never tell - this one also came to me easily. It’s a comparison of the potted rose Sonic accidentally brought with him when he went to see Shadow in chapter 6, and when Infinite gave Shadow a bouquet of roses in the flashback in the same chapter. The “I can never tell” part has shadow looking terrified, because Shadow screams when he sees the rose Sonic is carrying (and it’s safe to say that there’s a thing with roses & Shadow and/or Infinite). Despite the difference in who was holding the flower and the way it looked/was presented, Shadow’s broken mind can’t tell the difference.

Nothing/all - another contrast thing. For “nothing” you have a perfectly healthy Shadow delicately holding a rose and for the “all” part Shadow has turned to be his disheveled post torture/capture and the rose he’s holding has wilted and is held in a crushing grip that causes him to bleed. Also I think I remember it mentioning in chapter one that his back quills were cut off. Idk if I’m remembering that correctly so my bad if not. Also please ignore how bad the “maybe I am all” part is please I know it sucks, but I was too far along to fix it.

nothing too deep about the last two. It’s just another fucked up & tortured Shadow laying on the ground surrounded by roses. (“ITS THE ROSES THERES SOMETHING WITH THE ROSES” I yell as they drag me kicking and screaming back to the padded room lmao.)

OH ALSO the colors I used for recently rescued/late capture/late torture Shadow are from the drawing the author made of Shadow in that field of yellow carnations(?). The colors for healthy/pre capture Shadow are just the colors I regularly use to draw Shadow. The early/mid capture Shadow colors are just a mix of those two.