Welcome, everyone, to the extras chapter of "Knuckles' Party". In this little bonus chapter, if you choose to call it that, you will find some interesting tidbits of information (well IMO they are interesting) that may have affected the story's plot line and such. I am planning on going through each chapter and explaining things that I may have already said to some but not necessarily all of you. So lets begin then…
Things that need to be addressed:
1) the age of the characters: Ok now when I first started writing this fic it was with the notion that the characters were about twenty-ish. I did not find out until recently, after a few PM's and a review, that Tails is only eight years old…my bad. However I plan on continuing to write my Sonic fics with the notion that they are twenty-ish.
2) Character Personalities: Alright, this is another one that I got asked about in PM's and a review. Why are the characters out of character? Ok, this one is a bit hard to answer, but, put simply, I did not feel that the characters were that out of place for the age I was writing for them to be at. Most of the people who asked this probably missed the note I put in chapters 1 and 3 about the age thing. Also in my profile I state that there is a boundary that should not be crossed when trying to write a humorous story. In order to make a story like this work you need to take the characters out of character a bit, but remember not to go so far as to make them almost a brand new character. Usually this happens in stories where authors try to "force the funny". This is a term I use to describe stories that try way too hard to make a story funny instead of giving it a "natural funny". If you still don't understand go search the humor stories on the site and start comparing the ones that are truly funny to the ones that aren't so much so, and you will know what I mean.
The Chapters
Chapter 1: This chapter wasn't really that long, but I knew exactly where I wanted it to go. I always just use the first chapter as a launch pad for the plot line, and this worked out perfectly. I liked how I wrote it up to reflect myself and my friend Nic. I picture myself as Tails in this chapter and Nic is Sonic. Sonic and Nic can both be kinda cocky at times but both know when they need to be serious about things. Nic and I always pick at each other and I felt that if Sonic and Tails were real people, they would act the same way. It just gave me more insight as to how the characters would work together if I wrote it like this, and I'm glad to say I think it worked out nicely.
Chapter 2: For this fiction, I had originally planned Knuckles to act like a surfer, but as this chapter continued I grew tired of that idea. It just didn't seem like it fit. Then, as though God sent me a messenger, DJ Bleach brought up techno in his first review. This actually worked out very well for me because I could incorporate this idea into the character of Knuckles since I really didn't have any good ideas other than the surfer persona for him. So Knuckles became the resident techno freak in chapter 3. This also worked out for me character wise because I could use Knuckles now apparent love of techno, metal, and remixed music in general to write for him as though he were my friend Cody.
Also, I received some nasty PM about the amount of cursing in this chapter. It was enough for DJ Bleach to point this out to me in his first review, but someone just had to put in their two cents about it. After this I decided to cut back on the swearing to avoid any hot water I might've gotten into by being defiant and continuing the way I was. Also I liked the idea of the Chaotix owning the beer distributor. This was due to my love of these characters (yes I was one of the few who got to play "Knuckles Chaotix" on the 32X) and the fact that I always pictured them as party animals (especially Vector, I mean c'mon he always had headphones with him in that game).
Chapter 3: This chapter was strictly born out of my frustrations at my job. The night I sat down to write up this chapter I had nearly gotten fired for telling off a customer who was literally beating on one of our self-checkout machines and she ended up breaking part of it. It turned out to be one of my favs and I am so glad I wrote it now. So I guess I have to give a thanks to that damned idiotic customer, thanks a lot asshole. Also I had been listening to a lot of the band Apocalyptica (they play metal music on cellos) and that was where the Stardust Speedway Orchestra thing came from.
Chapter 4: This chapter is my favorite. Even though nothing really happened to advance the story, I enjoyed writing it because I could work on my descriptive writing skills. The way I pictured Knuckles home was based on a few things really. First off, I decided he should have a large house which could be considered mansion. This was due to his status of being the guardian of the Master Emerald. Secondly, the party room in his basement came really from just the slight personality twist I gave him. I figured he liked to throw parties and he listens to techno; why not give him a basement that looks and feels like a nightclub.
Chapter 5: Quite possibly my least favorite chapter. I do not like the way that I wrote this one. At first I liked it a lot, but now looking back there is a lot more that could be done with it. I do like that I reused myself in it though and I do like the beginning but towards the end I hate it (right after the catfight is where the story goes downhill in this chapter). I will probably focus a lot of energy into this chapter when I go back to do my rewrite.
Chapter 6: Ok, while this chapter was definitely not the best it was one of my absolute favorites. I rank it right behind Ch. 4. I just started playing Sonic Heroes and got my first look at the character of Big, and I must say: I 100% HATE his character. I'm sorry to anyone who does like him, but I see him as a cat form of Barney the dinosaur. However, beings that I was already using this fiction to rip on Tails, I decided to just let him make his cameo as a drunk instead of a retarded idiot.
Also I decided to make Knuckles become an angry drunk when he drinks vodka. This came about because I've heard so many stories so many times from my girlfriend and her father that her mother gets angry whenever she drinks Budweiser and how she acts. My GF also just made the suggestion to me the night I updated this chapter. They made me laugh so hard that I just had to do something like that, and Knuckles' regular character just seemed to click with this idea so well. I loved this chapter. ^^
Chapter 7: I rank this chapter somewhere in the middle. I didn't really like it that much. I have been pretty busy lately and didn't have a clear mind when I was writing it unlike all of the others. I do like the ending however and feel that it was fitting.
The "Name the Stage" game
Well I really only got one response to this little aspect of my fic, but felt that I should give away the answers now anyways. And so here they are:
Angel Island: The name of the brand of cigarettes that Knuckles and Sonic smoke. The name came from the opening stage of Sonic 3.
HydroCity: The name of the beer distributor that the Chaotix run. Name comes from the second stage of Sonic 3.
Marble Garden & Ice Cap: The brands of liquor that Sonic and Knux decide to drink. Taken from the third and fifth stages of Sonic 3 respectively.
Aquatic Ruins: The cola that the trio buys at Wal-Mart. Taken from Sonic 2's third stage. Credit goes to liunt for finding this one.
Hill Top: The cigars Shadow discussed buying. Taken from Sonic 2.
Lava Reef: The potato chips the trio gets at Wal-Mart. Taken from the game Sonic & Knuckles. Again, props to liunt for getting it right.
Stardust Speedway: The CD that Tails buys. A bit tricky on this one, a lot of people thought that this one came from Sonic 1. Nope, this one came from Sonic CD.
Well that's it folks. That is all I have to say about this fic other than I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'll hopefully see you all back for my next Sonic fic and until then happy reading and writing,
Sons of Ocelot