I think it’s time to clear up this confusion even to myself. I totally forgot about it for many years, but now that I’m older, I think there was one injustice caused by me many, many years ago. It is a kind of creative injustice I didn’t notice back in the day, I was too swept into the thick of things, and I sought attention too eagerly to bring up one important detail: one of my Sonic characters wasn’t created by me. It was an OC made by an acquaintance based on my own fanfiction, and thus I forgot to mention the guy who made one of the antagonists.
Raik the hedgehog. He ended up playing a major role as an antagonist in one of the spin-offs I wrote with a friend. We were writing a crossover with our Sonic OCs, and even though I always believed that story being secondary and not canonical in my own headcanon, Raik is worth mentioning, because my then-friend – Fargus – used to love him as a character too much. Raik was created by Kostya (or Constantine), whose family name I’m not sure I can remember. I also don’t know if Kostya was even interested in Sonic anymore by the time he got online. He saw my characters once and I told him a bit of the story, and he created Raik as an aide for the evil queen Gera I already had in my fanfiction. He also drew a fanart of Sonya the echidnahog – my Sonic OC, yet I believe he kept it, so I don’t have it.
It was so long ago… Year 2001, maybe? In Summer.
We all were kids who spent time outside a lot, most of the time that we weren’t in school. Especially during Summer. Small city adventures, available anywhere you go… We imagined a lot too. Those were the times of magic and wonder, where it seemed like anything is possible…
I feel guilty for not properly crediting Raik’s creator so many years later, but to be fair, I don’t even know his full name… I only remember him as “Kostya”, and since I only saw him a couple times in my entire life, there’s no way to say we were even friends. Just acquaintances through our mutual friend – Max.
Today, I’m writing this because my conscience won’t let me feel as a proper human being without it. I like being credited for my work, so have to credit others for their. Now that this memory is off my shoulders, I can go and create something new of my own 😊
