So, I was wondering: There are some women that when they get pregnant, they like to surprise their husband with the news and come up with some creative way to tell them. Alternatively, some women like to just come out with the news, and both are fantastic and amazing.
My question though: For Amy and Rouge, what did they do when they told Sonic and Shadow they were expecting? 👀👀👀
Gimme the deets
Oooo, very good question Saph!
Let's start with Rouge. When she got pregnant with Angel, she was so unbelievably excited. She was planning on doing something elaborate to tell Shadow, but he picked up that she was hiding something pretty much immediately, so she just ended up telling him. Now as we know, the miscarriage hit her and Shadow very hard, so when Rouge got pregnant with Spark, she was really scared to say anything. She was worried the same thing was going to happen. She didn't say anything at first and managed to keep the secret for at least a couple weeks. Eventually, she pulled Shadow aside one day and just told him. It was at least another month after that before they told Ember. Dawn was a surprise baby, so Rouge didn't waste any time after she found out she was pregnant. She rushed right to Shadow to tell him the news.
Now as for Amy, she was much more creative about telling Sonic. For Joy and Lux, she gave him a gift bag that had baby socks inside. Sonic was confused at first, but then it clicked in his head and he got immediately emotional. Then he found the second pair of socks. XD For Rose, Amy slipped her ultrasound picture into an envelope and then put it in the mail pile for Sonic to find. For Elise, Amy set an extra plate at the dinner table that night. The kids noticed before Sonic did! And finally for Chip, Amy pulled out some of Lux's baby clothes that she'd been saving. She brought it to Sonic and offhandedly mentioned that they'd be needing it again. Sonic finally managed to pick up on what she was hinting pretty quickly this time.
You got it Saph!!! Strap in, we're going kid by kid and explaining my entire thought process for each of them! >:D
Ember
So when I first made Ember, he originally wasn't technically a Shadouge kid. Can't remember how much I've said on tumblr, so I'll just go over it all. Beta Ember was from a (now abandoned) AU called Legacy. Basically, Shadow died in SA2, which lead to Sonic and Rouge teaming up to learn as much as they could about this so stinkin mysterious hog and what was going on with him. Eventually GUN decided to make a replica of Shadow, but one they could control this time, one that was more perfect than Shadow had been. Rouge discovers this baby replica (Ember), almost ready to come out of the tube, and she immediately calls Sonic to help her bust him out before GUN can implant a chip in the baby's brain so they can control him. The two rescued the newborn and then went on the run from GUN, eventually becoming a family. (Yes this was a Sonouge story XD)
So Ember was basically a clone of Shadow, but wasn't an exactly clone. I figured GUN wouldn't have easy access to Black Arms DNA, so Ember is 100% hedgehog. Since he was a clone, I knew I wanted him to look pretty similar to Shadow, but I wanted him to be just a little bit "off." Like an incomplete copy job. His black fur isn't quite as deep of a color as Shadow's. I usually describe it as "dusty black." And instead of red stripes, Ember has orange. It was that orange color and the overall faded looking colors he has that led me to naming him Ember. I thought it fit! And that's also why Ember's stripes look the way they do. I wanted to evoke the look of flames with their shape. This was also around the time I was playing around a lot with what mobian feet look like, which is why Ember doesn't wear shoes. (And at this point, I don't think I could design any for him that look good anyway XD) I also decided to not give Ember any Inhibitor Rings. If he was a perfect version of the Ultimate Lifeform, it would make sense for him to have more control over his Chaos Powers and not need them.
Ember's personality wasn't really a set in stone thing while he was a character exclusive to Legacy. He was still a baby, so he was mostly just babbling a lot. I did a flash forward scene once where he was older and absolutely miserable because this version of Ember would have occasional massive growth spurts programmed into his biology to get him developed to the point GUN wanted him to be and it hurt. Despite his severe lack of development though, I really liked him and wanted to take him and make him a character in my Sonic-verse. So since I was running out of steam on Legacy anyway, I yoinked him up, revamped his story just a bit and dropped him into Shadow and Rouge's laps!
I didn't want to change too much, so Ember's story is still largely the same. Created by GUN as a better version of the Ultimate Lifeform. I decided to nix the accelerated growth thing so Ember could grow up normally. I was also coming up with the idea at this point of Ember being super shy and traumatized by GUN. He couldn't really be like that if he was rescued as a baby like Beta Ember, so I decided to have Shadow and Rouge not discover him until he was a bit older. I think the age I decided on was like seven. At that point, Shadow and Rouge discovered him, took GUN to court, and adopted him. Anyway, so as a result of GUN's treatment of him, Ember is not okay. :( He's super shy and unsure and he's always questioning his place in the family, always wondering if he really deserves to be here. But he loves his family and is super protective of his little siblings. I also decided it would be SUPER cute for him to have a crush on Sonic's oldest daughter Joy.
There's still some things about Ember I don't quiiiite have figured yet (like his pseudo super form thingy) but for the most part, that's everything! Some things had a lot of thought put into them and some were just me going "yeah that's cool, let's do that."
Spark
Spark's been around for pretty much as long as Ember has. Just like him, Spark was originally part of a different (now abandoned) AU called Project Shadow: Restoration. In that AU, Silver goes back to the future and looks for Shadow, only to discover that he allegedly "went insane" shortly after his wife Rouge's death and was locked away as a result. Silver goes on a quest to find Shadow and eventually does, only to discover Shadow also had a SON who was also locked away, so they go track him down as well.
I wanted Spark to be a more traditional fankid in the sense that he's kinda a mix of his two parents. Once I decided that, it was kinda just picking and choosing what traits he got where. He got his main black fur from Shadow and the white in his stripes from Rouge. He got his separated eyes, eye color, nose shape, and ears from Rouge as well. And recently I updated his design just a liiiittle bit to give him a more Black Arms-y tail. (I keep forgetting to post his new design aaaaaaa) I made his quills downturned for really no reason. XD I just thought they looked nice. I gave him blue shoes to match his eyes. And I gave him inhibitor rings because he can control his Chaos Powers about as well as Shadow can. You can't quite tell in his art, but he doesn't wear gloves (BECAUSE I LIKE IT WHEN CHARACTERS GO GLOVELESS), and the white is actually just his fur color on his hands. His stripes are thick. I really wanted Spark's stripes to be thicker than his dad's.
Beta Spark actually had this weird thing going on with his mortality because I wanted him to still be a little kid when Silver and Shadow rescued him from his stasis pod. Beta Spark aged EXTREMELY slow. He was still the equivalent of a 5 or 6 year old when Rouge died of old age. I decided to scrap this when I yoinked him for my Sonic-verse.
I wanted Spark to be the spark of joy in Shadow and Rouge's lives, hence the name. I also wanted his personality to reflect that. He's happy, bubbly, and overall carefree.
I decided early on that it would be hard for Shadow and Rouge to get pregnant because of Shadow's weird alien DNA. I even made a vague reference to them having a miscarriage baby prior to Spark (more on her later). So as a result, I decided Spark was a preemie baby, born early and needing to be in the NICU for a bit, but recovered quickly because of his Ultimate Lifeform heritage. Admittedly, this decision was made largely because my baby sister Potato was a preemie and I have a soft spot for those kinds of babies.
When I yoinked Spark for my Sonic-verse, I didn't change much aside from getting rid of his slow aging thing. Just like Ember, I wanted him to grow up normally.
Dawn
Dawn was the latest edition to my Shadouge family. I'd already yoinked Ember and Spark and as I was looking over the family, I decided there really needed to be a girl kid. I hesitated on what she would be like for a while. I made reference to her in a little oneshot I wrote for another person's AU that I never posted (NO I'M NOT SAYING WHAT IT WAS) where I mentioned Shadow and Rouge were married and had a kid named Spark and Rouge was also currently pregnant.
When I finally started designing her, I decided to follow what I did for Spark, but reverse it a bit. She got the main white fur from Rouge and the red stripes from Shadow. I gave her Rouge's bat wings and Rouge's general eyes shape. She got Shadow's hedghog ears, the female hedgehog nose shape, and Shadow's red eyes as well. I decided to play around a bit with her eye markings and gave her more of a mask like shape because I liked how it looks. I also gave her bangs just because. She looks cute with them! Her clothes were a real struggle for me and I was honestly just throwing things at the wall to see what stuck. I decided since she's a little kid, she's probably in that age where she insists on getting herself dressed, regardless of if she's choosing stuff that matches at all. I wanted to show off her leg and arm stripes, so I gave her short sleeves and shorts. She later morphed into being athletic, so of course she'd choose shorts and short sleeves over other clothes. I decided she was into art and let her decorate her shoes with stickers. XD Once again, she doesn't wear gloves. I also decided she's got better control over her Chaos Powers, so she doesn't need inhibitors.
When coming up with a name for her, I realized I had a bit of a pattern going on with Ember and Spark's names. Those were two words that were faint lights, but had the potential to become bigger under the right circumstances. I decided to keep with the theme of increasing light and chose the name Dawn for our third kid.
Dawn's personality has kinda gone all over the place. It's still subject to change since she's still a little kid, but right now she's bright and bubbly like Spark, really into sports, arts and crafts, and an absolute mama's girl. She knows she's the youngest and she will take advantage of that. >:)
[insert info on Spark and Dawn's new Black Arms stuff that I will go over when I post their new art]
Angel
Ah yes, the secret bonus child. Remember how I said in Spark's section that Shadow and Rouge had a miscarriage? I decided to keep that idea. Before Ember was adopted, they lost a baby. I've kept the details about Angel purposely vague since she was never born. For a long time, all I really had for her was her name, chosen both because she is an actual angel and as a soft reference to Maria. Angel doesn't really have much more to her. If she had lived, she would have inherited the Doom Wings from Shadow. I've been toying around with giving her a design and possibly a role in some storyline, but nothing's official yet.
And that's all of them! Let me know if you have any more questions! I love talking about my kiddos :D
