Work Text:
Staring down at the purring blue form in your lap, you wondered what had become of your life while you continued scritching behind its– his?– ear.
Everything started when you were at a garage sale. Because of course, when it comes to buying haunted items, it's always garage sales– never a-a library or from the supermarket. Which, y'know, makes sense because why would a haunted item be in a supermarket? But still. Always garage sales.
(How do people even end up with this stuff? Like normal people! Life is weird.)
Tangent aside— you were browsing through what was on sale when, as you were poking through a bunch of game cartridges, you felt a pinch and a zap, yelping in surprise. You sucked on your finger after looking it over, feeling a faint burn. Weird. A closer look showed just normal game cartridges for the Gameboy, Nintendo DS, a few XBOX DVDs… so what the hell had shocked you?
And then your eyes landed on it. A scratched up looking game disc, a print of Sonic the Hedgehog on the top. Picking it up carefully, you'd felt a shiver go down your spine, a violent one that had your breath hitching.
There was no name on the top, and honestly, you were sure even then that this was a hacked or modded version of one of the games– or just… pirated.
Anyway, out of pure curiosity for what was on the disc (I mean, it bit you pretty much), you bought it, carefully wrapping it up in some tissues in your bag and then placing it in the pages of a book you also bought. Then once you were done perusing what else there was on sale, you went home, prepared a late lunch, and watched the newest season of that show you like, completely forgetting about the game.
You only remembered it the next day when you emptied your bag and went through your haul. Carefully taking the CD out, you eyed the scratches, sucking on your teeth before beginning to carefully wipe it, cleaning it to the best of your abilities before putting it into your computer.
“Please don't be a virus.” You muttered, starting it up.
Turns out, it was not a virus.
It was worse.
The game had started off normally enough, a slightly retro Sonic game loading up, though the Sonic on the title screen looked a little… rough.
“Buddy, what happened to you?” You whisper to yourself, eyeing a childhood favourite character. “What is this, Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic becomes depressed? Geez…”
For a moment, the screen glitches. And then you swear you hear… something, a gritty, jagged sort of sound. The Sonic on the title screen is grinning now, teeth sharp.
You just stare, lips pressed together.
Then, with a deep, reluctant sigh, you began playing.
Within ten minutes you had played enough of the game to know this was some edgy weirdo's attempt at a ROM hack. Tails and Knuckles literally die! Violently!
“Whoever made you had some issues.” You mutter, sliding your mouse up to close the tab. “Sonic would never do that, fuckn’…”
You click. It doesn't work. Clicking repeatedly, you glance at the centre of the screen, getting a very weird feeling. Like there's something watching you.
In the middle of your screen, the messed up looking Sonic character is staring straight at you, eyes black as pitch, pupils two blood red dots.
You pause.
You hum.
Then you rapidly try exiting the tab, closing it, and even turning off your computer.
Clearly, you're fucked because none of that works, not even when you turn the plug off.
On the screen, text appears.
I am God.
You blink.
I am God.
You lean away, wheelie chair pushing away from your desktop.
I̶͍͕̙̗͍̱͊̃͊͂́̋̕ ̴̳̜́͆͒̃͋̓̇a̴͈͇̱͓͑̅͗̇́͝m̸͔̞̘͛̿͆͝ ̷͈̙̇̾͑̚͠G̵̥͍̀͗̌̕̚̚͜o̵̢̦͈͙̣͔̺͌̊͘͝d̴͖͈̹̱͊̎̇͘̚͝
Well, fuck.
The screen begins to glitch, going black then rainbow; then the colours begin to melt and turn black, all happening in complete silence as your heart pounds in your chest.
Abruptly, the screen goes dark, everything turned off. Then–
You yelp as a hand shoves through the screen, fingers wiggling as whatever was beyond your screen began to pull itself out. Slowly, dark messy blue fur and quills became visible, followed by pale skin and black eyes.
The creature dropped out of the computer, off your desktop and straight into your lap.
Two blood red eyes stared up at you.
“I am God–”
“Awww!”
You suddenly coo, reaching for the cute creature in your lap, squishing his cheeks between your hands. “You're adorable! What are you supposed to be, a Halloween skin for Sonic? A Creepypasta version? Hmm?” You ask, ruffling his fur and quills, all sign of fear and worry gone the second you laid eyes on the plush looking creature.
The creature– Sonic.exe, X, God– blinked, shocked at your actions. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, your nimble fingers found his ears and– ohh.
Tail beginning to wag, Sonic.exe slumped into your lap, beginning to purr softly as you kept petting and scratching his sensitive parts, combing your fingers through his quilly mane and scratching his scalp.
Oh, he was definitely keeping you.
Awareness came to him in parts.
Ever since he was defeated by his last would-be victim/slave, X had fallen into a deep slumber, contained within his realm and the disc that acted as a doorway from his dimension to the human one. There, he rested, floating in the nothingness that made up most of his world, only small, scattered areas existing so far.
But them–
A brush. Awareness. He reached out. “Ow!” Then cold absence once more.
He cracked open his eyes, feeling for whatever that was, waiting.
And then he felt you again, touch firmer, more present as you lifted up the disc. As you looked at its reflective surface, Sonic.exe stared at you, slowly beginning to grin as excitement and hope welled up in him.
Yes, he thought, do it! Take me with you. Play the game! Come to me!
And you did. He heard you buy the disc, watching as darkness consumed it– likely put in a case– and he waited for the light to return, for you to start his game and let him out.
But it didn't happen. Hours passed and all he heard was muffled noise. Reluctantly, and feeling greatly annoyed, he fell back asleep.
A day must've past, because the next thing he knew there was light again, and there you were, getting settled before your computer and putting the disc in. The moment it slid in and the computer began to read its information, Sonic.exe moved.
As the game started, he stared at you, drinking in his newest plaything. You were cute, and very funny. He couldn't help but laugh at your words, even if they were slightly insulting to his beloved Sonic. Please, like Sonic could ever be depressed!
But… still funny.
The events unfolded like they always did. You played the game, were shocked by the events that happened in it, and then he alerted you to his presence before entering your reality, ready to claim your soul for himself and make you his eternal slave.
… except that's not what happened.
Instead X was curled up in your lap like a well-loved cat, purring and kicking his leg as you rubbed him all over, fingers an absolute delight.
This. This is why he loved humans! Not that he's ever received such affection before, but he's seen it happen, and oh how good it feels! He'd seen humans pet up animals before but had never imagined–
Letting out a glitchy purr, Sonic.exe turned his head, peeking up at you lazily, satisfaction filling him. And then, as you slowed to a stop, flexing and waving your sore, tired fingers, X realised he'd been here a fairly long time.
And that nothing had happened.
Blinking, he sat up, confused. He turned his attention inwards, feeling for his very essence, his soul, and found that he was– he was fine.
This was… new. Unprecedented. Usually, Sonic.exe had a short period to enter the human world and steal a humans soul, but for some reason… for some reason this time was different.
Was it you? Or…
“Soo… what are you?” Tilting his head back, he stared up at you, meeting your curious gaze; your fingers once more rubbed behind his ears. “Seriously. Like should I be scared? You're too cute to be scared of but also you did just come out of a haunted game like it's The Ring.”
X just stared at you.
“I am god.” He said simply, making you sigh.
“Buddy, if you're god, then I'm going to have to slap you for all the shit going on in the world.” You say simply.
He blinks. Oh. Usually people are more…
“Sonic.exe,” he finally says, adjusting himself in your lap. “Or X. I'm a god of my own dimension.”
You stare blankly for a moment before blinking, registering his words. Your throat bobs and you nod, humming.
“That's… nice. So, uh, why… Sonic?” You gesture towards all of him. At that, he sits up straighter.
“Sonic is the most amazing being in all of existence!” He declared immediately in response, a reverent tone to his words. “He's amazing, perfect, how could I not base my form off of him?”
You stare in silence. “… sure. Sonic is cool. I like Sonic. I mean, I prefer Silver myself.”
“Sacrilege!” He hissed, baring his sharp teeth at you.
You jumped.
“Woah, woah! Hey, buddy, I didn't say I hated Sonic! I just have a preference! What, people can't have preferences?” You held your hands up, X eyeing you suspiciously for a moment before calming down.
He supposed you had a point. Though your opinion was wrong, you were allowed to have it.
You exhaled softly, rubbing the back of your neck. “You're something of a Sonic super fan, huh?”
X nodded his head, fast enough to be a blur. “Absolutely!”
“Right.” You stare at him awkwardly for a moment. “So, what did you think about the movie?” You awkwardly ask, not sure what else to ask.
But X just tilted his head. “… what movie?”
“The– the Sonic the Hedgehog live action movies? There's three of them?”
His jaw dropped.
There were what?!
“Did you not know? Damn, talk about being a fake fan.” You joked.
Sonic.exe immediately snapped out of his daze when you said that and gave you an insulted look; he then responded the only way that was appropriate.
He jumped you.
Some time later, you and Sonic.exe sat on opposite ends of your couch: you holding a bag of frozen peas to your bruised and scratched cheek, him glowering as he forcefully sat wrapped up in a tight blanket.
Ignoring his glaring, you grabbed the remote off the side table and turned the TV on, scrolling until you found the first Sonic movie.
“Here,” you muttered, annoyed. “Now stop being a little shit. It was just a damn joke, Jesus…”
X didn't know whether to glare harder at that or stare at the screen. In the end, his love of all things blue-blurr won out over his dislike of your tone.
As he quickly became absorbed by the movie, you got up to check your injuries and clean them up. As you did, you wondered what you were going to do about your new… pest problem.
As cute as he was, he was twice as annoying and just as dangerous (sadly). But how did you go about getting rid of an… alternate dimensional deity?
Glancing into the living room, you saw him kicking his feet as he enjoyed the movie, completely enamored.
… maybe you could just bribe him?
It was certainly worth a try.
Completely sucked into the screen, Sonic.exe almost missed the delicious scent of food being prepared. Sniffing the air, he reluctantly tore his eyes from the tv, watching you in the kitchen.
“What are you doing, human?” He asks, still tied up all snug. He could escape. He just… didn't want to.
“Well,” you sigh, loud enough to be heard from the kitchen. “Sonic loves chilly dogs, right? So I assumed so did you. Am I wrong?”
Eyes widened, X immediately teleported to your side.
“Yes!”
You flinched and smacked him. “Don't fucking do that!” You snapped, then froze. “I didn't mean to–”
X just blinked. Then blinked again. His cheek stung.
Oddly, he liked the sting.
“… can I have mine with mustard?” He asks, just completely moving on and ignoring what just happened. You latch onto it, nodding. He hums. “Good…”
Seating himself on the countertop to watch the tv from here, X considered you from the corner of his eye, mulling you over.
You were… different from the other humans. Different from those that tried to defeat him. Different from those that reveared him.
Your character was neither enemy nor fan, but more like that of a companion– like Knuckles or Tails or even the other characters of the Sonic franchise. Grey. Capable of both positive and negative interactions.
Then and there, Sonic.exe decides you're going to be his friend. You're perfect for the position, really. So far in all the humans he's interacted with, their reactions have all fit into one of two categories, yet you'd reacted differently, made your very own category just by being yourself. It was perfect. It only made sense.
So Sonic.exe turned to you and said: “You're my friend now, human. I'll refrain from enslaving you for the foreseeable future.”
You just paused, glancing at him as you stopped what you were doing.
“… cool.” You said lamely, going back to preparing you both a meal.
X just smiled, happy. A glitchy, jagged laugh left him as he continued watching the movie while keeping his friend company.
A few months later…
Waking up to a face full of quills was sadly commonplace these days, and no matter how much you insisted on it, X never tied back his mane, leaving you to wake up like this.
Sighing, you rubbed your eyes clean, glancing down to find your life roommate lying on your chest again, clinging to you tightly.
Calling X clingy was putting it light. Ever since you two had become closer, it was almost impossible to get away from him. You couldn't even go toilet in peace without him wanting to follow you.
But… as annoying as it was… it was also kinda nice.
With a deep sigh, you stretch, groaning in the back of your throat as you do. Relaxing, you run your fingers through his quills.
“X? Wake up.”
A muffled noise against your chest.
“C'mon, fluff, up you get. I have things to do.”
“No,” he mumbled. “I can make you my concubine, a god to rule beside me, you don't have to do anything.”
“Washing doesn't do itself, bud.”
He whined.
Reluctantly, very reluctantly, Sonic.exe got up, giving you a sleepy sad look. Yet despite that, he loyally followed you around, practically attached to your hip as you went about your morning routine, the powerful being giving you a helping hand here and there with his powers.
As you prepared breakfast for the two of you, X watched.
“I'm glad I met you.” He said softly.
You hum, smiling a bit. Cute.
“I'm glad we're friends.”
You pause a bit. “Um, X… you– we're not really…”
“We're friends.” He said again, daring you to disagree.
“… sure. Absolutely. Just gonna… ignore all the non-friend stuff we do, then.” You nod. “Cool.”
You didn't always understand how his brain worked, but that was fine. Even when he was being weird or scary, you liked your hedgehog-shaped “friend” plenty.