"Whereas Silver, I would think, for all of his openness and naivety... is hesitant to make new friends, because he's used to seeing them die. You don't want to make connections after a point, but he is also, y'know, clearly desperate to make connections, because he's a people person. He likes other people, he wants to be around other people, he wants to protect people." -- Ian Flynn, on Silver the hedgehog
(NOTE: this quote is from an upcoming Espilver BumbleKast Mini sponsored by @transmanshadow!)
Okay I finally figured out Comet's origin story. Long version under the cut but short version is: knuckles finally got to reunite with the surviving echidnas but they didnt want to leave their homes to live on the floating island, so an alien felt bad for him and gave him a fankid <3
Okay so to recap stc canon: Knuckles has spent his entire time on the floating island believing he is protecting it until his people return. he doesnt remember, but he used to live in the ancient echidna city with Tikal and Pachacamac, but somehow was transported 8000 years into the future (present day). This happens after Tikal briefly brings Sonic back in time to help the echidnas fight off the Drakon empire--fish-shaped aliens that discovered chaos energy (the emeralds were made by the Drakons with the echidnas' sacred emeralds, then the echidnas "stole" them back and the drakons declared war). They succeed in beating them back for this battle, but my headcanon (which ended up being p close to what Kitching supposedly planned out) is that after this battle, the drakons come back and end up wiping the echidnas out--those that arent killed are taken off mobius as prisoners/slaves. At some point, some of them are able to escape and form a sanctuary away from the drakons.
Okay now we gotta talk about the Kaamdaarns. The Kaamdaarns are alternate dimension aliens that appear in 113, 119, and 120. They are peaceful aliens with "highly advanced science" indistinguishable from magic, which they use to disable any weapons on their planet and then also to free Shorty from his cybernik suit.
so the STORY WITH COMET GOES... Kintobor helps Knuckles to identify some kind of beacon signal that appears to be coming from other echidnas. Knuckles and Sonic hop into a spaceship (tekno and porker collab) and through a dimensional portal (tekno and kintobor collab) to find the source. they find a colony of echidnas long-established on a sanctuary planet under the protection of the kaamdaarns. the reunion is pretty bittersweet for knuckles bc like. these are people 8000 years removed from his culture. there are maybe some things still in common but otherwise their lives are completely distinct from how he grew up. and after 8000 years, very few if any of them consider the floating island home more than the place they are now. even those that might be interested in going back with knuckles are wary of the risk of leaving the safety of the kaamdaarn planet and being captured by drakons. and for a bunch of ruins... it's not really worth it
so knuckles has once again lost the whole Purpose of Everything He's Done and ummm well it goes about as well as the first time that happened
so he's hanging on by a Thread but the kaamdaarn that brought him and sonic to the village--her name's haven here she is--
says "you know what will fix that? a child." and see above: her making comet. GREAT idea, i agree. i mean the thought was more like "surely there is a way for you to both stay with your friends AND with other echidnas." but same difference. anyway sonic doesnt know what kind of egg that is.
thanks for listening. here's porker lewis as a reward :)
Rough art, but wanted to show Dr Daria's colour scheme! (From here). Heavily based on her canon colours lol
For context, this is a New Yoke version of Maria who didn't have a version of Shadow at all and survived to adulthood. She's in her late 40s and thinks her relatives (the Chaos Council) are stupid and very much stands against them