Since I was pushing the word limit on the final chapter of the Laundromat Arc, I decided to make an entire article laying out all the references and details I put in the now famous 4 parter C:

Sophocles Fukuro the Owl AKA "Old Man Owl"

First is our criminal mastermind, Sophocles, who's named after a character from the Early Sonic canon from a version of the fabled Sonic (pitch) Bible, entitled Stay Sonic. According to the "official guide", Sophocles was the first person ever to spot Sonic, who was wandering around in Green Hill Zone. Sonic was too young to remember this, but Sophocles never forgot. Sophocles is never seen nor is there any real information on the character other than the fact that it's a sharp eyed owl. I actually think this is where Paramount got the idea for the character Longclaw from in the Sonic Movie. It certainly would make sense, given the similarities between the two characters. In fact, I was originally gonna name him "Sophocles Longclaw" as a reference to Longclaw, however I decided to stay away from the Movie Sonic canon.

But the disguise he adopted for this plot is a reference that's further from the mainstream. Old Man Owl is a character from the Sonic the Hedgehog OVA and I took that character's design and demeanor for Sophocles' disguise because it made so much sense. Who would suspect Old Man Owl to be an evil criminal in disguise? Nobody, that's who! That's actually where the idea of Sophocles Fukuro the character began, I wanted to implement an Old Man Owl reference and then I was thinking of who would be the best twist villain and it all just kinda came together.

His last name is a reference to another, slightly more mainstream reference, Dr. Fukurokov from Tails Adventure. "Fukuro" simply means "owl" in Japanese, which explains why he was given the name Fukuro, whereas -kov seems to be a dig at Russian naming conventions. Not sure if "-kov" has a literal meaning in Russian plus I didn't want to be too obvious with the last name, so I just left it at "Fukuro". Plus the similarities between Old Man Owl and Dr. Fukurokov are striking. Both the same colored owl, with thick rippling glasses, and around the same age. It was Dr. Fukurokov's personality and characterization that I intended for Sophocles' character, or at least what I imagine Dr. Fukurokov's personality and characterization would be. Maybe I'll put him in a story one day, who knows? ;)

But yeah, I couldn't give away the reveal too fast, so I left little clues. Mr. Shellwinkle calls the Fukuro Conglomerate "buzzards", which is a type of bird of prey. He also introduces Sophocles as "that fowl Sophocles", a fowl is another word for bird. He calls him a "bright boy—not a surprise from a Fukuro, really", which references the wise old owl stereotype. And Fukuro being his last name could draw comparisons to Dr. Fukurokov for the more well travelled Sonic fan. The thick rippling glasses are also what Gerald Robotnik wore, another evil genius to draw comparisons to, as well as the "cape-coat" being a lab coat.

As for his fighting style, I just really thought it'd be cool to do a fencing character for Charmy to fight by himself. Thus I made him a collapsible rapier sword to use against Charmy, and use it he certainly did. He actually had it hidden in his shoe, just like the remaining amnesia juice™ he used in the fight. More on the final battle between owl and bee later, for now I want to stick to characters.

Quatre the (Black) Jackal

Next, Quatre the Jackal is, if you hadn't guessed already, part of the now defunct Jackal Squad from the Forces Prequel comics. I wanted to put in a mysterious, but friendly and suave character and I just imagined one of the Jackals could fit that role perfectly. Plus I had to have a reason for her to be at the laundromat, the Jackal Squad all wear clothes beyond gloves and socks, so it all worked out.

And yes, what she was referring to in the past was the events that led to the Forces game and she rebelled against "Infinite" before he became Phantom Ruby edgelord, thus she didn't participate in Episode Shadow. She was with the other detractors, minding their own business. But after "Infinite" became Phantom Ruby cuckboy, he ruined the world for all black jackals. Everywhere she went she was treated like his henchman, she was never trusted and her squad broke apart under the pressure. After the war, the stigma against black jackals had only slightly gone down, so she came to a neighborhood that was mostly quiet and everyone kept to themselves. Only for this random mystery to happen, sweeping her into it. And you know the rest from there.

She's named after the approved names of some Jackal Squad members, approved of by Adam Bryce Thomas, the artist behind the Forces Prequel comics. It was among a list of names which include: Uno, Deux, Trois, as well as Quatre. Of all the names, I just think Quatre sounded the best. I like her character quite a bit, she's got a different vibe going than any of the other characters thus far and she and Charmy have good banter. I wonder if we'll see her again in future chapters. Only time will tell.

Also, I do have a song that I associate with her, in case you were wondering! Keep Looking (Slowed + Reverb) by Sade. It's a really chill, calm, but groovy tune. Contemplative, suave, smooth, and just a hint of mysterious. I think it fits her to a tee ;)

Investigator Charmin "Big Bear" the Grizzly Bear

And then there's Big Bear or Charmin the Grizzly Bear if you want his real name. I like Big Bear more, so I'm sticking with that XD Charmin is obviously a reference to the toilet paper brand with bears as their mascots, I wanted something that evoked a cleaning product without going too far off the beaten path. And well, he did debut coming out of the bathroom with a head drenched in toilet water. Charmin seemed on theme at that point XD

I knew I wanted a red herring and I thought about making that character be an actual red herring, but I couldn't do that for 2 reasons. One, I have created this fan universe with strict rules, fish aren't sentient beings is a big one. As well as certain insects, like grasshoppers, worms, spiders, etc. Bee's of course are excluded from that, as well as all related arthropods to bees. And two, it would have been WAY too on the nose to create a literal red herring as the red herring. It wasn't funny at that point, it was just dumb. So I scrapped it and started looking for other animals to fit the role. Then when I was searching, I saw a picture of a little bear Animal Buddy from Sonic Adventure 2, and he was under-lit so he looked real spooky and menacing for no reason. And I was like, okay, that'll do XD

His job was one I thought a lot about, mainly to find a comical, but logical way to explain his mysterious appearance in the laundromat that no one saw him entering the front door. I couldn't make him an employee because of course Mr. Shellwinkle would know him, I couldn't make him a criminal either because I wanted him to be completely innocent of all wrongdoing as the crux of his twist. So all I could think of was he must be some official person with access to the entire laundromat, and the funny idea of an FBI agent, but for laundry, was all it took to take me down that path. Him being super excited and pumped up for that job just felt natural after this chapter was already coming together.

Mrs. Tortoise, Mr. Rupert Shellwinkle, & Vector's New Look

Mrs. Tortoise was just a light reference to Oogway from Kung Fu Panda. A kindly old turtle who was flighty and aloof at first thought, but strong willed, wise, and kind when you got to know them. I named her Mrs. Tortoise simply because I didn't know what else to call her and giving her Oogway's name was just weird. So Mrs. Tortoise she remained. XD I did think her first name could be Rose, but decided not to include it because it didn't feel organic at all.

Mr. Shellwinkle, I don't know where I got him from. I just knew I wanted to have a mustached grumpy old man to be the owner of the laundromat. And as I wrote him, for some reason, another Kung-Fu Panda character came out, Mr. Ping the noodle shop owner and the main character's adoptive father. As soon as I realized that, I just naturally wrote him like I would for Mr. Ping if he was in the story and the rest is history XD

He might have been the most entertaining for me to write, aside from Charmy and Sophocles. He's just so snarky and sarcastic, but also comically over the top and childish in some cases. I originally had him mean his final demands of Charmy, but decided to make him turn that into a prank because I didn't think it would make sense for his character, who'd been so impressed and enamored with Charmy in Part 3, to turn around and treat him like that in Part 4. Especially after he would see how injured Charmy was and how badly he beat up his enemy for him. It just wasn't computing, so I changed it to be a prank and I think that's for the best. Though I intentionally didn't let him pay Charmy, just because I still wanted him to be cheap and crotchety because of all the damage the fight did to his business. Plus it would have been a nice funny note for him to go out on XD

His name was frustrating for me because for some reason I kept wanting to write him as "Winkleshell" or "Wrinkleshell", which I hated the sound of, but couldn't stop myself from unconsciously going there. Eventually, I just wrote it as "-winkle" first, then circled back and added "Shell-" to it. That worked out, thankfully XD Rupert just sounded like a fitting first name so I used it for that one gag.

And last but not least, the Chaotix themselves make their appearance at the very end, Vector sporting his DJ Vector design from Sonic Forces: Speed Battle. He looks really good in that outfit and I've been meaning to include it some kind of way in the series ever since it was revealed. Now all we need is some special outfits for Charmy and Espio and I'll be able to fit those in XD

Amnesia Juice™

As for other details, Sophocles' magical memory erasing detergent was originally not part of the plot! I was just gonna have it be special corrosive detergent and leave it at that. But somewhere along the way, I realized I needed something to give him an edge over Charmy and Big Bear, as well as a detail to make the case more confusing and complicated. I figured if my red herring had no memory, he could be affected by some kind of amnesia juice™. And the rest just kinda fell into place, as these things tend to do.

By the way, all the different names for it are:

Memory Erasure Mixture (M.E.M.) - used by narrator, thought of but never used by Sophocles

Déjà-Goo - used by Charmy, stolen by Sophocles

Forget-Me-Slop - thought of but never used by Charmy

Brain Bleach - used by Big Bear, approved by Charmy, would have been approved by Sophocles

Mind Wiping Formula - used by Sophocles

Amnesia-juice™ - used by Charmy, stolen and trademarked by Sophocles

I couldn't decide which one I liked most, so I just used all of them and made it part of the jokes. The tricky part wasn't the name though, it was explaining how this thing could exist in this universe. Originally, I was gonna go with Chaos Energy, because that's kinda the obvious go-to when something crazy and unexplained happens. But that felt kinda boring, kinda generic, so I tried to think of another energy source. And that's what I was looking for, an energy source of some kind that I could pair with detergent stuff and create a Mind Erasure Mixture. But I couldn't make life energy work and I didn't want to use an obscure MacGuffin, like the Time Stones or Chaos Rings, because then we're back to the Chaos Energy problems, plus the question of how Sophocles got these items, where they've been all this time, and most of all how they relate to mind wiping or telepathy type stuff in any way.

So many roadblocks! Until finally, I thought about it in reverse. What about looking for something that has telepathy and trying to attribute it to the Memory Erasure Mixture's creation? I immediately thought of Silver's Psychokinesis, but I couldn't make that work, there was nothing that Sophocles could pull from Silver to put in detergent. But then I thought of the other psychokinetic character from the games, one most have forgotten about or didn't realize he had psychokinesis. I am of course referring to Black Doom, Shadow's big bad. Then I remembered the Black Comet was teleported to the surface of the planet, specifically in Westopolis, which if you recall, I made a neighboring city of Central City, where the story takes place. And the rest is in the final chapter of the arc, the gas from the Black Comet infected the plant life, including pine trees which is the Fukuro's obsession, thus leading to him creating a pine scented detergent with special evil properties. That was fun to come up with, it was a really crazy, but just crazy enough to work thing XD

Charmy VS Sophocles: The Final Showdown

The final battle was something that I'd wanted to do for a while, a fight in the middle of a crazy factory with lots of different moving parts that the fighters would take into account and have to maneuver around. It was only when I settled on a laundromat that I developed the concept of laundromat owners making their own detergent and fabric softener in house as an excuse to have the final battle be in a crazy factory. It was also done in an effort to nerf Charmy enough for someone like Sophocles to pose a real threat. Charmy has super strength, super speed, flight, a stinger, electricity powers and wind powers, as well as energy blasts. That's pretty OP for this situation.

So I made him fight in a location that would naturally put him at a disadvantage and close off those options for him. All the liquids and metal kept Thunder Shoot off the table, his wings being covered in surfactant took Whirlwind and flying off the table, the cramped space made the energy blasts less viable so he didn't think to use them, and then the amnesia juice™ rendered the Spin Dash techniques as more dangerous than useful. He still had his super strength, his stinger, and his super speed to work with though, as well as his ace in the hole finishing move. But that required prep time and pointblank range to happen, so that was also off the table until the very end, which he had to set up in advance.

Speaking of that ace in the hole finishing move, I call it Blowback because... it blows... the opponent... back... yeah it's not a clever name XD But, it is a technique that I came up with for Espio to use in future chapters, so I thought it'd be neat if he taught it to Charmy as a last resort technique. You'll actually see Espio use it in his serious chapter against Shadow, as a kinda foreshadowing of the technique being a thing before Charmy uses it in his showdown with Sophocles (timeline wise, Espio's serious chapters take place before Mighty and Ray's return). I try to tie things like that together to help you, the reader, absorb the new information I'm providing this fan universe. Hopefully this concept will be an easy thing to understand because I will be using it a lot in future chapters ^^U

Blowback is based off of Tai Chi, obviously, but it's also based off of air bending from Avatar the Last Airbender. A lot of the elemental attacks in this universe have strong roots in that show's concept of elemental bending. I'll probably write a separate article all about that. But for now, just know that Charmy has an elemental affinity for Wind and Electric energy and he uses it in various ways, such as Thunder Shoot, Whirlwind, and the Blowback technique. Espio also has an elemental affinity for Wind energy, as well as some others that I guess I'll save for another article.

And if you're interested, the song I imagined playing for the fight was Jaw Breakin' News! from the TMNT: Shredder's Revenge game. It had that energy I was looking for and I just put it on loop as I wrote the fight XD

Orange Soda Reveal

Finally, the Orange soda reveal was something I came up with when trying to figure out how the amnesia juice™ would give away Sophocles without contradicting the clues I already had for it. Namely that it stains badly and it doesn't become corrosive unless it's super heated after mixing with water. I knew I wanted Charmy's sense of smell to play a huge part in the case because he's a good tracker, plus bees have a heightened sense of smell, comparable to dogs. Then I looked back over Mr. Shellwinkle's interview with Charmy and realized I put the pine joke in there and I figured that would be a good detail to bring back in a major way. And I have a history of taking soda cans out of the machine and it being really wet, so it all fit nicely in the end.

The idea of having Charmy and the owl roll it back and forth was just a visual I came up with when writing their initial exchange in Part 3. But I noticed that it fit into Quatre giving him an Orange soda in Part 1 and even Charmy's aesthetic heavily featuring orange all made me want to play up the Orange soda as this memento of his first case. It just seemed to make sense.

And I think that about does it for this article! Thanks for reading, I hope you found it interesting if not educational and I'll see you next time C: