A god's Favourite Toy (Yandere Xenophanes x Male Reader)

Secrets Among Familiar Hills

(Y/N POV)

After double-clicking the icon, I waited for a few minutes as a black screen appeared on my laptop, the game was probably loading at this point. After a few more minutes of nothing, blue text appears saying "Introducing a game you'll wish you could play forever", and vanished back in to the darkness the minute I finished reading it. After that, the iconic Sonic 1 title screen popped up, playing the recognisable track ever fan has memorised in their head, as Sonic rose up from the ring. I let the song play for a bit longer before clicking Enter, which I registered as my start button, to begin the game, but the title screen changed for a quick second. It came so quickly, I didn't have any time to notice all the changes, but I did spot a few.

For starters, the large ring Sonic rises out of was all brown and black, presumably because it rusted, the lake and mountains in the background were replaced with red static, and I swear Sonic's eyes changed from green to red. Not knowing what to think of...that, I waited for the first level to load, only to be greeted by something I wasn't expecting.

"Before we begin the fun part, select one of the available characters you wish to play as."

I slightly jump in surprise from that voice, it sounded childish and friendly, yet felt off if used in a completely different situation. Brushing it off for now, I get greeted with a character select screen, looking similar to the save files from Sonic 3. Scanning through the characters revealed a whole lot to choose from, ranging from classics like Tails and Knuckles, to more modern characters like Silver and Zavok, to even characters said to be forgotten like Bark, Bean, and even Honey. I doubt even Tom could remember them, and he's a bigger Sonic fan than me.

Speaking of Sonic, the blue hedgehog was nowhere to be found on the selection, which really confused me. Shouldn't Sonic be a playable characters if this is a Sonic game? I was about to scroll back to the classics, when that voice spoke up again.

"Having trouble picking a character, I could choose if you don't mind"

Thinking this is something the developers added in as a joke, I decided to respond back as a harmless joke.

(Y/N): No, just wondering where Sonic is, can't have a Sonic game without the blue blur.

"He's an unlockable character in this game, but he's very tricky, so good luck player!"

Ok, that got me spooked. I wasn't expecting that voice to actually hear what I said, but why would someone implement that into the game? Does it make the game more interesting, or does it serve as a little prank to scare some players? Either way, I couldn't answer that question now, it's time to pick a character. I scroll through the characters before I land onto Metal Sonic. Ever since I played Knuckles Chaotix, Mighty and Metal Sonic became my favourite characters, even if I gravitated to Metal more since Mighty was rarely in most Sonic games.

"So you chose the robotic doppleganger I see? Now then, good luck! You'll need it..."

After selecting Metal Sonic, that voice came back, only sounding more ominous. I thought about quitting right now, but I had just started! I'm not going to let some creepy voice ruin a possibly good game, so I stayed put and waited for the first level to load. Eventually, the level loaded, with the words "Familiar Hills" appearing briefly before the level revealed itself. The first level was the iconic Green Hill Zone (with it being night time since stars and the moon can be seen) from the first Sonic game, which would've made any Sonic fan roll their eyes, but not me. The only time I've ever properly experienced Green Hill Zone was when Kyle let me borrow his copy of Sonic Generations for a week, so this level was still a bit new to me. The music was also different, sounding like the original Green Hill Zone track, but a bit slower than usual.