"So, Blaze, you been having a good time on your vacation?" Amy asked the cat princess sitting across from her as she sipped her tea. Blaze had always come and gone from their dimension, usually depending on if the situation there called for her presence. Recently though, the Sol Dimension had entered a new era of peace with the majority of the pirates having either been wiped out or fleeing for uncharted waters in fear of Blaze's retaliation. As such, the situation in her world allowed her to come to Sonic's world for an extended stay to treat herself to a break. And judging from the fact that Marine had not yet called her back to her dimension, Blaze had to assume that things were going just fine there for the time being.
At the moment, Blaze had met up with Amy and Cream for teatime outside of Cream's home. Her friends may not have been in her life for all that long, but she treasured whatever time she could spare with them, especially Cream considering she was the one who initially helped her to open up to other people.
"Between just being able to enjoy myself and make myself useful where I can? Quite fulfilling. I'm glad I did this," Blaze replied with a smile as she sipped her own tea. Though Blaze was indeed technically on break, she was not one to always rest on her laurels, so she'd help the Restoration and Silver give aid to those in the world who needed it.
"So are we!" Cream chirped from across the table, her head just barely peeking over the edge from her being so short. Her Chao, Cheese, laid on his stomach atop her head, smiling contently. "We're always happy to have you! How much longer do you think you'll be staying?"
"Until I'm needed back home, I suppose. Though considering how things were when I left, that could be quite a while longer," Blaze said with a smile to her small rabbit friend.
"Yay!~" Cream said with a giggle, proceeding to then take one of the cookies on the table and eat it with glee.
"Glad you're enjoying yourself!" Amy replied, though her smile faltered ever so slightly as she kept speaking. "Just wanted to make sure you're happy here because…you don't really talk about your home all too much,"
Blaze raised a curious eyebrow. "Hm? What do you mean?"
"Well it's just-" Amy fiddled with the spoon in her tea. "Whenever you do talk about your world and your kingdom, it's always as a collective, not so much any individual friends you might have there. I know you weren't really much of a people person when we first met you but…you have some at home you miss right?"
"Ah, yes, well…" Blaze began, fidgeting a bit. "There was Marine, and my personal guard, Gardon. But they were very understanding of my situation. I'll be glad to see them when I return home, of course,"
"Just those two?" Cream asked, doing her best to sit up so she could be more visible, now seeming a bit more concerned that Blaze might not have many she could call friends back at home.
This line of questioning appeared to make Blaze a bit uncomfortable, as her cheeks had a slight tinge of red to them. "I-I um…I suppose there's a…select few I would not mind seeing again. But the time will come when it comes,"
Though she didn't have context for what Blaze meant, it was clear to Amy she might've made her uneasy. She was fully prepared to apologize but was thrown off her train of thought when seemingly out of nowhere, an immensely cold breeze passed over the girls and the Chao, causing them all to collectively shiver. The odd thing about this was that it did not just vanish instantly like they'd expected, and instead lingered there. Especially strange considering it was July and it was perfectly warm mere seconds earlier "O-Oh gosh. Why's it so c-cold all of a sudden?"
"C-Chao chao chao chao chao!" Cheese stuttered, having stirred from this slumber by the cold.
"O-Oh Cheese, it's okay! I'll keep you warm!" Cream said as she reached up and pulled Cheese off her head, choosing instead to hold him close to her chest to warm him up.
Though Blaze was not as affected by the breeze due to the nature of her powers, even she had to admit it was quite a bitter cold. "That's…strange. It's the middle of summer. It shouldn't be-" a tinge of slight unease came over Blaze's eyes before she closed them and shook her head. "No, no, he couldn't have…" Blaze mumbled quietly to herself.
"Hm? Blaze, what is it?" Cream looked up at her, seemingly worried.
"Nothing Cream, just…a silly thought is all, nothing to worry about," Blaze tried to reassure her, but to seemingly little effect as the young rabbit still didn't appear convinced.
Cream would have pushed the matter further if it wasn't for Amy suddenly jumping up out of her chair and startling them.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?!" Amy shouted pointing off in the distance. Blaze and Cream's attention was drawn to where Amy was pointing and right away saw her cause for concern. Off in the distance, past the grassy hills and trees, was a huge, cone-shaped wave of snow barreling at breakneck speed straight in their direction, coating the ground in its path with ice and additional snow.
"I-It's a snowstorm! But…on the ground?! In summer?!" Cream shouted, baffled at the sight.
Blaze said nothing at first, squinting her eyes to try and get a better look at the oncoming wave of snow. Whatever suspicions she was seemingly having earlier appeared to be confirmed as realization flashed across her eyes, quickly being replaced with dread soon after.
"Ooooh no," Blaze muttered. She frantically stood up out of her chair, unconcerned that she'd just knocked it over.
To Amy and Cream, the obvious solution to the raging cloud of snow heading their way was for Blaze to just use her pyrokinesis to melt it. However, to their confusion, Blaze attempted no such thing. Instead, she seemed to opt for shouting at it.
"WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT STOP!" She yelled at it.
"Blaze are you trying to reason with a blizzard?!" Amy asked her, dumbfounded.
"No, you don't understand, it's not-" Blaze saw the grounded snowstorm was approaching too quickly and she would not have time to explain herself. "Rrgh, blast it," she growled in frustration. To the shock of Amy and Cream, Blaze turned around and bolted in the other direction, leaving a small trail of fire in her wake,"
"Blaze wait!" Cream yelled.
"Did she just leave us?! But what about the-" Amy wasn't allowed to finish her sentence as she was interrupted by the mass of snow that just zoomed right past them, following Blaze all the way down the winding road. To the two girls, it would seem whatever force that was behind this was uninterested in either of them as the worst that happened to them was a few stray snowflakes landing on their clothes.
"It didn't…do anything to us," Cream said with confusion, tilting her head as she stared down the road. Cheese did the same.
"Whatever it is, she must've known it was only after her," Amy said, standing up. "Come on Cream. If even Blaze is running from this, it must be dangerous. We have to help her!"
"O-Okay!" Cream said with a determined nod, still feeling a bit cold. "Let's follow that snow!"
Blaze raced away from Cream's house, occasionally glancing behind her only to see the wave of snow gaining on her whenever she did. The small flames that her running created in her wake did little to slow the storm down, and she growled in frustration again. Her suspicions about the situation had been confirmed, and she now had a million questions overtaking her thoughts.
'This doesn't make sense!' she yelled internally to herself. 'My guards and Marine have careful watch over the Sol Emeralds. Those should be the only way to get from our world to this one…so how?! How is he here?!'
Unfortunately for Blaze, her train of thought briefly took just enough attention off maintaining her speed for the snow to close the distance between them. It appeared to pounce forward like a cat, colliding with the Sol princess and enveloping her in a cloud of ice-cold mist.
"Agh!" she cried out as she tanked the hit. Not in pain, moreso great irritation as the force wasn't enough to actually knock her down. She was, however, now unable to move her arms for reasons that were clear to none but her. When the snow around her finally settled on the ground and no longer obscured her, it became obvious why.
Pressed right up against Blaze was someone else. A light-blue male feline with fur significantly fluffier and thicker than Blaze's own. He was strikingly well-dressed, wearing a dark blue suit jacket with a white dress shirt and white ascot around his neck. On his lower half he wore a pair of black dress pants and white dress shoes with a gold buckle on top of each of them. His face was what stuck out the most about him though, as he wore a pair of large, black rectangular glasses in front of his eyes and had several dots of black fur marking his forehead.
And the cat in question was hugging Blaze in a tight but loving embrace.
The cat's eyes were shut and he had the biggest smile Blaze had ever seen on his face, and he proceeded to rub his cheek against Blaze's own, nuzzling her before he spoke.
"Ooh my sweet, beautiful princess! I've found you at last!~" he said, giggling a little.
Blaze could feel the embarrassed blush rushing to her cheeks from the cat's affectionate nuzzling and squirmed in his grasp. "R-Rgh, Blizzard you lovesick fool, what are you doing here?!" she yelled.
The cat Blaze had addressed as Blizzard opened his eyes, his eyes being a light shade of purple; the dazed, smiley expression never leaving his face. He put a finger to her lips. "Shhh don't ruin the moment, dearest. I only wish to savor this hug a bit longer," Blizzard said as he pulled her back into the embrace and sighed happily.
The blush on Blaze's face intensified. "Y-You…rrrgh, this is serious!"
"Aaaah so warm~," Blizzard purred, seeming too lost in bliss to hear her.
"Um…Blaze?" Cream's voice could be heard from in front of them. Evidently her and Amy had followed them the whole way; Amy having had her hammer drawn as she was prepared for a fight. "What happened to the snowstorm?"
"And who's your friend?" Amy asked, lowering her hammer. She used the term 'friend' loosely though; she'd given enough love-hugs to Sonic in her time to know one when she saw it.
Blizzard looked up at Blaze with a grin. "Well? Aren't you going to introduce me?"
Blaze exhaled from her nose with a hint of annoyance before gently pulling Blizzard's hands off her shoulders to face Amy and Cream. "Very well. Amy, Cream, this is Blizzard, Blizzard the Manul. He's the prince of a kingdom of ice in the north of my home world," Blaze clarified.
The manul stepped forward and respectfully bowed before the two girls. "A pleasure to meet you, ladies. That snowstorm back there was just my powers manifesting. Apologies if my rather explosive entrance frightened you," he said, taking Amy's hand in his own and giving it a quick kiss.
Though Amy recognized he was just being polite, it didn't stop her from lightly blushing. "Oh! Well…nice to meet you too, your highness,"
"Oh no need for the formalities with me, miss Rose," Blizzard said. He stood back up, adjusting his glasses as they had begun to dip a little. He quickly glancing over Amy and appeared to be impressed. "Might I say I am just ADORING your outfit? Such a warm aesthetic with all the red!"
Amy giggled. "What? This old thing?" she asked, half-twirling to show off her dress a bit more.
Blizzard then looked down at Cream, smiling and patting the young rabbit's head. "And you must be Cream. Blaze has talked quite a lot about you, little lady. Glad I can finally put a face to the name!"
Cream also giggled, holding Cheese up. "Cheese too!"
"Ah yes, how could I forget?" Blizzard snickered, also petting the Chao's head. "Cute little creatures. We don't have these back home. Never seen one in person until now,"
"Chao chao chaaaao," Cheese let out a sound somewhat resembling purring.
"So…exactly how do you know Blaze?" Amy asked, though she felt like she already knew the answer after seeing Blizzard hug her like his life depended on it.
"Oh! Well besides the fact that all the monarchs from our world know each other to some degree-" Blizzard hopped back next to Blaze and gently held her hand. "I'm Blaze's boyfriend!~"
Cream gasped in surprise, with Cheese mimicking her. "Really?! Blaze, you didn't tell us you had a boy you liked!"
Blaze, now thoroughly flustered with nearly her entire face turning red, pulled her hand away and crossed her arms. "D-Don't feed his delusions. He's merely a suitor at best. We are not in a relationship,"
"Awww," Blizzard whined, slightly leaning up against her. "But I could make you so happyyyy,"
Blaze, wishing to get the subject off this as fast as possible, did not address Blizzard's pining. "M-More importantly, you still have not answered my question. Why are you here…better yet, how?
Blizzard smiled a bit more bashfully, looking at the ground and pushing his index fingers against one another. "E-Eheh…um…would you believe me if I just told you my love could simply not be contained even by the barriers between dimensions?" he asked nervously.
"No," Blaze said with a deadpanned expression.
"Aagh, okaaaaay," Blizzard said with a groan as he began to begrudgingly explain. "I'd gone to the Sol Empire because I wished to see you, but you weren't there; just Marine. I'd asked her where you'd gone but she was hesitant to answer. It took me handing over more chocolate than one could imagine for her to tell me and grant me access to the Sol Emeralds to get here,"
Blizzard could tell that Blaze was infuriated by this new development from the scowl forming on her face and put his hands up. "I-In her defense I very highly doubt she would have done this for just anybody. C-Come now, the both of you know me," he stuttered a bit nervously.
This seemed to lessen Blaze's frustration by a hair, exhaling a bit and shutting her eyes. "I'm going to have to have a serious talk with Marine about this upon my return," she said, once more opening her eyes to look at Blizzard again with that stern expression. "What's more, do you mean to tell me you left your kingdom just…on a whim?"
"M-My guards and staff were all caught up to speed, everything is fine, honest!" Blizzard said, looking back towards the ground with his hands behind his back, appearing to feel guilty. "I just…mmnn…can you blame me? You leave without knowing when you'll return without so much as telling me. Did not even say goodbye. You know how I feel about you; how did you expect me to take it?" he asked, lightly kicking the dirt.
Now it was Blaze's turn to feel a tinge of guilt over the situation, her eyes looking away from Blizzard and her mouth forming a saddened frown. "Admittedly…not telling you my plan was rather thoughtless on my part. I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings," she said before facing him again. "But still…you should learn your priorities better going forward. Are you sure your kingdom will be alright?"
Blizzard nodded. "O-Of course! After all, any pirates that are left out there know better than to traverse those icy waters of mine. My people are in contact with Marine, if something happens, she can just pull me right back!"
"Hm…I guess you do have a point," Blaze said as she considered this. The waters of the Ice Kingdom were known to be especially dangerous to traverse for those whose ships were not built to withstand it. Not like there were many pirates left out there anyway, she certainly saw to that. "And it could be nice to have company from home around…"
Blizzard gasped a little and looked at Blaze with widened, hopeful eyes with his hands clasped together and his tail swaying. "So, you really don't mind me staying for a while?"
Blaze managed a half-smile. "I suppose not. Just so long as you behave yourself,"
Blizzard squealed and almost immediately hugged her again. "Eeeheheeheee!~ Thank you thank you thank you my beloved! Oooh I missed youuuu!~"
This wasn't the first time Blizzard had called her one of the sappiest pet names she'd ever heard in her life, and knowing it would likely not be the last, she groaned a bit despite the growing blush on her face indicating she did not completely despise it.
"Awwww, you two remind me so much of me and Sonic, it's so sweet!" Amy swooned before an idea came to mind. "Oh! You hungry? We should show you around the Restoration; plenty of places to eat there!"
Blizzard put Blaze down, much to the latter's relief. "Now that you mention it, I am feeling a bit empty after obliterating my calories with my little snowy display earlier," Blizzard said patting his stomach a little. "Say…you wouldn't happen to have anywhere there that serves strawberry shortcake, would you? I've never gotten the chance to try it but have heard wonderful things!"
Amy's smile grew even wider. "Ooh…I think we're going to get along great,"
Meanwhile in the Sol Dimension, Marine was in Blaze's throne room, sitting atop a six-foot-tall pile of chocolate coins. The young raccoon looked very content as she popped another one into her mouth, while Blaze's personal guard, Gardon, looked on disapprovingly.
"I doubt her highness is going to be pleased to find out you traded access to the most powerful artifacts in our world for…this," the koala said shaking his head.
"Mate, it's just Blizzard, you know the bloke's harmless…well harmless to us anyway; pirates, not so much." Marine said as she chewed. "That will be a problem for future Marine, so lets just let her deal with it,"
I'm really happy to be posting this just because out of all the Sonic OCs that I've made so far, I like Blizzard the most. Guess you could call him my comfort character. Essentially I made him to be the Sol Dimension's equivalent to Amy in the same way that Blaze is the Sol Dimension's Sonic. Not modern, more mature Amy though, at the moment he's more in Dreamcast-era Amy territory lol. You could say he also serves as Blaze's polar (lol) opposite in personality and powers.
The current cover art was a commission I had done by the very talented Qkora01 on Twitter so go check her out; though I'm sure if you're active in the Sonic community there's a chance you already have :)
Also follow my own Twitter where I ramble about my various characters and occasionally post artwork of them that I've had commissioned. You'll find me under The_Sheep_