Expensive Universe Unlike Any Other

Chapter 2 Realism Of Cartoons

Over the last twenty minutes, Zam had been waiting in line to meet Amethyst and Sonic in person, while also getting their autographs. He did remember playing Sonic Adventure One and Two on the Sega Dreamcast in their grandfather's house along with watching the episode of Steven Universe, where Amethyst faces Steven in season three. But on the other hand, he never owned any of the future generation systems to play the more recent Sonic games, nor even bothered to watch the later seasons of Steven Universe.

"Hey, relax." Zam's father said. "It's fine if you don't know much about them, at least give them a good impression of yourself."

Zam saw the way Amethyst gave her fans a rock hand gesture, not to mention the other gestures she gave fans prior to him getting up to her. He's not sure if she ever met anyone similar to him, the same goes with Sonic. With the opportunity in sight, he took his steps in front of the table.

"Hey dude." Amethyst greeded. "You seem a little different then the fans I've met today."

"He's mostly new here, this is our first ever convention." Zam's brother responded. "Today is also his birthday."

"Really!? Today must be your lucky day!" The gem said, leaning a bit too close to Zam for his liking.

"Well, I never had better birthdays before so...can you please give me your autograph?" Zam offered, while stepping back slightly.

"Aren't you excited?" She responded while leaning back. "And what do you mean by that?"

Zam wanted to answer the gem's question, but his heartbeat continued to rise. Even asking about her existence could be seen as insulting. He started panting, only for his sister to step in. "It's mostly personal, it's not that his old birthdays were horrible."

"We're gonna take him to the pokemon stand to have him pet at least one of the Pokemon." Zam's mother chimed in. "Sorry this wasn't what you expected from your fans."

As much as Amethyst felt bizarre from the way Zam reacted, she wasn't totally upset. "I don't blame you, most fans of other celebrities don't usually make the right impressions." She looked at Zam again while giving her autograph to him.

"It's not like your appearances in the cartoon caused him to act a bit counter-intuitive towards you." Zam's father added.

Zam's family went to the next autograph signing session, where Sonic's waiting. While he was being patient to give his autograph to his fans, he heard almost everything between Amethyst and Zam.

"Hey bud." He smirked while Zam's family walked up to him. "You're here for the games and to step it up on the dance floor?"

"I'm...not really good at dancing." Zam replied while trying to smile. "But I did play your games on the Dreamcast."

After looking through the schedules for today, he's aware there's not gonna be any Dreamcast games available in the convention. "Oh...sorry to say this but, we only have Nintendo Switch and none of the older generation systems available."

Now only relying on the current generation of gaming, Zam can only play either Sonic Forces or Team Sonic Racing. "I'm good without playing any games, then." He smiled.

"Hey, at the very least you could try to play one of my games before you leave. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of my franchise."

Upon hearing Sega's mascot being three decades old, Zam is now dealing with the fact that Sonic along with his friends are getting tons of recognition this year. He can only remember Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow, and most of the characters from the adventure games.

"I can give Sonic Forces a chance." Zam responded.

"Actually, how about we play Team Sonic Racing instead?" His brother offered. "Believe me when I say this, the spin off did a lot more compared to the latest mainstream game."