Ask Sally Acorn

Hello, my name is Sally. This is my first blog. I enjoy reading and programming and my favorite color is blue. I don't really know what else to say, so... It's nice to meet you!

[asksallyacorn]

[Well, it's been a while...]

[Hello there to all of Sally's followers! I can't believe that you guys have not only stuck around, but your numbers have actually increased. Man, you guys are troopers! For those of you that don't know me yet, just call me Sally-mun.

My last update on the blog, which was posted several months ago, discussed the fact that this blog would be on hiatus while I worked on various projects, sought professional employment, and hoped to regain my mojo for this character. While those things are still true, there are a couple of important things that have changed.

First and foremost, I want to let you know that I do have intentions of resuming this blog -- but there will be some changes around here when we're up and running again.

Those of you that know me personally and/or have been here for a long time may already know that Sally's blog often paralleled my own life, and that I would frequently use her character as a sort of catharsis for myself. This all worked out without much incident for much of the blog's run, but things changed when my cat got sick and eventually passed away. Not only was I overwhelmed with grief, but as was my manner of coping, I invented a parallel for Sally to experience (which for her was the loss of Nicole). It got me through my difficult time, but it also left the canon of the blog in a place I didn't really want it to be in. All plot ideas aside, I realized that writing in the wake of what I'd established constantly reminded me of the loss of my cat, and I didn't want to continue that.

Now, there was a part of me that believed that I might regain my spark for this blog once the Archie comics finished the story arc that had been going on for the last couple of years. Perhaps, I thought, once Sally was deroboticized and I began to have doses of the genuine character again I might have a new wave of inspiration and get back into gear, Nicole's changes be damned. However, we all know now that this never happened, and the Penders lawsuit forced a reboot of the series. I currently have no judgements on the reboot because I haven't read it; I need to read Lost Hedgehog Tales first before I can move on. After that, I'll probably binge on the new incarnation of the comics and see how they've turned out.

So, where does that leave us?

It means that when I get this blog up and running again, there's going to be either a partial or complete reboot. I haven't decided yet which it'll be, and it'll most likely hinge on what I think of the new comic canon. If I think I can work with it, I'll do a complete reboot and start over, with the previous posts preserved in an archive fashion. If I don't want to adapt the new format and stick to what I've always done, I'll just rewind to before the loss of Nicole and pick up where I left off minus the stuff relating to the loss of my cat. Whichever it turns out to be, Sally will be back on your dashboard in the near future!

The only other changes I should bring up are the nature of the posts. I won't be able to post as frequently as I used to (life takes priority over Tumblr), and I'll probably focus more on answering asks than having her tell personal stories. They'll still appear, but the balance will shift to favor the former over the latter. Answering messages comes to me more rapidly than Sally posting about her day-to-day business, so I may as well focus on that to give you guys a steadier stream of content.

Also... *sigh* YOU GUYS WIN. Elias has a blog of his own now. It's currently empty, but it's set up, and it'll become operational at the same time as Sally's. This is another reason why Sally's posts will be less frequent, as I'll be managing two characters instead of one. I know it's probably a bad idea, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it.

So that's all for now! Sally will be back soon enough. Thank you all for sticking with her this long!

~Sally-mun]

[asksallyacorn]

So Sally. You were raised a pretty sheltered life both in the woods and the brief time spent in the castle. And the only relationships you've ever seen for most of your life were between a man and a woman. Despite this you seem quite tolerant of homosexual relationships. Did you ever think it odd for a man to be with a man or a woman with a woman? At least when you first heard about that sort of thing happening. WHEN did you hear about that being thing and who in the world alerted you to it?

I don’t think I properly understand what you’re trying to ask, because I can’t think of under what circumstances this scenario would even be viable. Why would I need to be ‘alerted’ to the notion that people of the same gender can love each other?

Love isn’t a difficult concept to convey, because almost everyone feels some variant of love in some way, for some person, object, or other aspect of their life. Even Robotnik, for all of his despicable qualities, is easily familiar with what love feels like, because he undoubtedly feels it when he builds a new machine or when he sees one of us suffering. He even kept a pet for a while; I couldn’t imagine him doing that if he didn’t feel some form of affection for it.

Even with my early life being sheltered, there wasn’t a lot about love that needed to be explained. I understood what it was because I knew what it felt like. I felt it for my father, for my nanny, and for my friends. I loved (and still love) people of both genders, so I’m not certain why you believe it’d strike me as unusual to see the same thing in other people. If anything, it’d make me a hypocrite.

[asksallyacorn]

Has Sonic ever told you about his adventures in Space? During that year he was thought dead I mean.

To be honest, I’ve never asked him, and he’s never offered the information. We tend to just ignore it ever happened.

[maxbburn-deactivated20240712]

Let’s make this work by ~LilBambina

[asksallyacorn]

I can now play the guitar.

...I can't play it very well, but I can play 'Mary Had A Little Pasha.'

Over the weekend I decided to give in to Sonic's offer to teach me. I figured that it certainly couldn't hurt me to learn, and one learns best when they have an enthusiastic teacher, so why not? Sonic was pretty thrilled when I accepted, and we got to work right away. So far I haven't been allowed to use his personal guitar (which I wouldn't expect anyway, with the way he prizes it), but I've learned a few cords on a cheap one we rescued from a thrift shop.

I've yet to figure out what's driving him to want me to learn, but in the meantime, it's been a surprise even to me how much fun I've had. This is a side of Sonic I haven't seen much of before!

[asksallyacorn]

How severely has sonic been hurt and how did the team react (like was he beaten or hurt near death :( )

Sonic’s endured probably any injury you could think of at least once. He’s had some very close calls, but thankfully he’s never been in such dire shape that he had to be resuscitated (and hopefully never will). He has, however, been out of commission for extended periods of time, although he tends to get back on his feet much sooner than any of us would prefer.

How we all react when he’s hurt depends heavily on how he got hurt. For example, when he’s injured due to an accident, we’re more sympathetic because that sort of thing is just an unfortunate event. When he’s injured in the line of duty, we’re still sympathetic, but it’s laced with admiration to varying degrees, because it takes a lot of courage to do the sort of work he does.

And then there are the times when he injures himself. In those situations, we’re a lot less sympathetic and tend to laugh enough to make his spines bristle up like an afro.

[asksallyacorn]

I once heard of a story of a man known as Olimar who crashed into an unknown planet caused by a floating asteroid and having all 30 parts to his space ship known as the Dolphin, scattered all across the land. He only had 30 days to recollect all of the 30 parts before he would die from the planets toxic air. But he wasn't alone in this search for the aid of the Pikmin who were almost extinct. They took the captain as their leader and together they fought countless foes and brought Olimar home.

That sounds like a story that’s worth reading in detail. I haven’t heard of it at all, but I may have to make a visit at the library I just recommended to look it up. I wonder what region that sort of mythology originates from…

[asksallyacorn]

"The thousand years of raindrops summoned by my song are my tears. The thunder that strikes the earth is my anger!"

That’s very poetic.

[asksallyacorn]

Oh my, what an interesting place this is! Almost all the inhabitants here are small anthropomorphic animals, it's no wonder the TARDIS brought me here! What a wonderfully extravagant planet! You there! Hello, I'm the Doctor. You wouldn't happen to have a library around here, would you? I absolutely love libraries.

Hello, and welcome!

New Mobotropolis has a really nice royal library, with both physical and digital databases. I can’t adequately recommend more than that, mostly because I’m not familiar enough with our neighbors to know how theirs hold up, but I definitely think the Acorn Royal Archive is a good place to start.

[asksallyacorn]

He's nothing if not persistent.

Sonic is STILL pestering me to learn how to play the guitar. I appreciate the gesture, and sure I think it'd be fun, but my hands are too small! I've let him give me a lesson before, and I find it really difficult to reach all the around the neck to hit all of the strings. I can't keep up and it makes my wrist ache.

I really don't know why he's suddenly so determined to make me play. I may give it another try, if just because he's so enthusiastic, but I still can't help but wonder what's fueling this.

[asksallyacorn]

Sonic wants to teach me how to play his guitar. I have no idea why, but he's been insisting on it for almost a week.

I can't help but feel that I'm being set up for something.

[asksallyacorn]

It's late night story time again!

I've been laying here for a while and couldn't seem to get to sleep, so I thought you guys might like to hear about some memories of Knuckles.

One thing that always stood out to me was that his clumsiness never appeared to come from a lack of coordination; he just honestly seemed to have difficulty keeping control over himself. Given what we know about him now, I have to imagine that there was far more that he was dealing with that I never knew about, so in retrospect it all makes sense. It's especially understandable considering how little experience he had with managing himself at that point.

But even in spite of it all, he never complained. If he broke something we were playing with, or knocked down a fort we were building, it was never a big deal. He'd simply get right to work making us a new one, and before we knew it, everything was all better again. Setbacks were rarely ever setbacks whenever I played with him; there was always a way to keep going forward.

In hindsight, I think I was lucky to have had him as a friend, and at such an early age. He taught me how to handle making mistakes, which I was terrible at dealing with then. (Actually, I still struggle with it to this day, but that's besides the point.) Whenever Knuckles and I faced a problem, he never even blinked. There was no pausing to cry or get angry or be scared. He kept moving on, knowing already that he couldn't change what had happened, but he could still patch it up. That became an invaluable primer for me to follow once the coup changed my life.

Now that I think of it, I don't think I've ever told him any of this. I should try to contact him soon; given how uncertain he tends to be these days, I'm sure it'd be a relief for him to hear.

[asksallyacorn]

I apologize for being a bit late with replying to this, but thank you! Nikki is still getting settled in some ways, but overall, she's doing much better than when we were all treating her as Nicole. I think it's fascinating to see the personality she's developing; she's very energetic and forward, while Nicole was always much more reserved. (As a matter of fact, she often gets perturbed with me for not getting on this blog every day.)

[asksallyacorn]

This may sound weird but do you mind if you can show us a picture of your skeletal structure of your body. You don't have to do this if you don't want to...

I don't think I even HAVE a picture of my skeleton. Unless there's a medical reason for it, it's kind of a strange thing to have on-hand. Or at least, it is where I come from.

[asksallyacorn]

No matter if a disaster is natural or man-made it tends to bring out the best or the worst in people. In this case a zombie apocalypse. Yesterday i came across a group of people attacking another proaberly to steal their supplies and I was to far away to help. By the time I got there it was to late. What I mean to ask you is how did you feel and what did you do when some mobians either forced or voluntarily joned your enemies or just decided to go bad instead of working together. Hunter

I suppose the most universal word I can use is disappointment. When my allies voluntarily switched sides, I was disappointed in them, and when some were forced to join (whether they were my allies or not), I was disappointed in myself.

There’s always going to be some degree of betrayal laced in anytime someone you know turns against you. It doesn’t matter if it’s sudden and without warning, or if it’s something you expected long in advance. You’ll never really get away from the feeling of, “How could you do this to me?” I suppose it’s due to the fact that, by virtue of being someone that knows you, they’re privy to the knowledge of why you feel the way you do about the opposing side, and yet they’ve decided to join anyway. It makes you question whether or not you knew them as well as you thought you did, and can put an ugly smear across what you’d regarded as a good name.

As for those that are taken against their will, my experiences may not be the same as what most others might feel in a similar situation. By birthright, I feel responsible for anyone I consider to be under my family’s wing. It doesn’t matter to me if they’re citizens of our kingdom or not, or whether or not I personally like them, or what sort of history they have… None of that is important when it comes to a person’s liberty and safety. If you’ve stepped within the borders of my kingdom, your well-being is my responsibility. If I’m outside of my own jurisdiction, but I find out that you’re in danger in some way, your well-being is my responsibility. Even if it’s a situation that I’m only hearing about from the other side of the world and have otherwise had no hand in, I still feel a pang of responsibility toward those involved, because I know I could do something about it.

Being in a position such as mine comes with a lot of guilt, regardless of how much I try to combat it with logic. I’m well aware that I can’t protect everyone and that failure is inevitable; that does not stop me from feeling that I’ve let people down. As miserable as those experiences can be, however, I also think it’s important that I have them. Every time I feel that I’ve fallen short, I become motivated to do better once the initial impact has faded. Remembering those moments helps me stay focused and keep thinking. Sometimes I’m able to rectify things and help those that were taken… And, unfortunately, sometimes I can’t. But I still try. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I didn’t at least try.

[asksallyacorn]

Have you ever considered working with denizens of other zones to help each other improve conditions in both yours and their zones?

I’ve had some limited experiences with other zones, and I do think that an alliance could come in very handy. Unfortunately, the sort of partnership you’re suggesting isn’t possible at the moment, as the interzonal officers still have all zones on lockdown. If the quarantines ever get lifted while I’m still on active duty (since there’s no telling how long this policy will last), I’d really like to explore the relationships my world could forge with others and set a few treaties into motion.

[asksallyacorn]

About Loss

Loss is like sailing away from someone you love. It isn't like flying away in a plane, where it's a sudden departure and only takes a couple of hours to get where you're going. It isn't like driving away in a car, where you can pull over and take a break, or even turn back if you want to. It's not even like other types of sea-faring vessels. It's like sailing.

It's a sluggish, drawn-out process. You have to keep moving forward, and no matter how much you want to turn around, you can't stop the wind from blowing. It keeps pushing you away... slowly. You can turn around and look back at the shore, and see the one you lost standing there, but they just get smaller and smaller. You start to lose the details in their face and what their clothes look like. You can't hear their voice anymore. You can't see all the little ticks in their movements. You know you need to look forward to watch where you're going, but you're afraid to take your eyes away for even a second because you know that eventually you won't be able to see them at all.

It's both cruel and merciful. The process is gradual enough for you to have enough time to catalogue everything you're still able to see, and in doing so it reminds you of other things that you've seen, and heard, and touched, and felt. And yet, in doing so, it becomes the most gut-wrenching agony you've ever felt, because thinking back on all of those qualities just makes you want to experience them again more than ever. All you can do is look back at the shore, where the other person is now just a speck. You know exactly where they are, but they're just beyond your grasp, and nothing can change that. You can't stop the wind. You can't swim back that far. Knowing exactly what you want and exactly where to find it, but being utterly powerless in being able to get it, is one of the most debilitating feelings in the world.

And eventually, they disappear. You can't see them at all. After a while, you can't even see the shore. No matter how hard you look, all you can see is water upon water. There's really no point in looking back anymore, since you're well out of range, and you need to watch where you're going anyway. You eventually find the strength to face front and move forward... but every now and then you still look back, hoping against hope that maybe, even if it's just for a fraction of a second, you might still catch a glimpse of the shore, and see your loved one standing there one more time.