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Post by slomoto on Aug 24, 2008 22:45:09 GMT -5
 It was 10 AM when Ridgy Didge yawned and stretched his way out of bed. When he realized the time, as revealed to him by an extremely complicated window-mounted sundial system originally used by the ice-dwelling polar bears of the northern mountain region, he had a minor fit. Tumbling out of bed, Ridgy shook from personal horror. "How could I have overslept seven hours?! I was feeling so good yesterday." He whined, but almost instantly re-composed himself. "Oh well, it isn't as though I'm urgently needed." Ridgy straightened out the fur at his sides and adjusted his pith helmet for a proper angle before sauntering out into the open. Ah, the sunshine. There was....oddly more of it than usual. Then he spotted the dead leaves. Blowing in from the direction of the woods were lots of brown, dead leaves. The trees that surrounded the outside of their peaceful enclosure have begun to shed and allow the extremely hot summer sunshine through the baring branches where there would usually be large canopies of shade. "Hm, how odd..." Ridgy bent down and took a leaf. It was still somewhat moist, but brittle. As he sifted it in his hands it began to crumble into a brown mulch with a funny smell. "This is unreal." |
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Post by Lans on Aug 29, 2008 11:36:26 GMT -5
 From somewhere overhead came a loud rumbling sound, like someone taking an electric saw to a log. And if he looked, Ridgy would find Manic asleep on a large branch, flat on his back and snoring away, a pair of drumsticks somehow still clutched in one of his hands. |
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Post by slomoto on Aug 29, 2008 21:47:30 GMT -5
Ridgy looked up at the sleeping hedgehog and clicked his tongue. The woods were falling apart and he was sleeping. Ridgy knew he was often the one to cry wolf over things that later turned out to be insignificant, but he had a bad feeling about this one for certain. Ridgy reached down and scooped up some pebbles. "Hey! Manic! Wake! up!" With each word he tossed a pebble up in the air towards the hedgehog, looking up only to see a couple of the rocks recoil and hit him on his helmeted head. |
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Post by Lans on Aug 31, 2008 22:06:57 GMT -5
The green hedgehog shifted enough to turn away from Ridgy, muttering something that resembled 'piss off' but more rating breaking. |
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Post by slomoto on Aug 31, 2008 23:20:29 GMT -5
 Ridgy gave a huff. He wondered if it was worth his time giving the little spiny metal-head an opportunity to share in this insight of his. Of course, since there was nobody else around, Ridgy had no choice. He reached two hands up and a tail around to hoist himself up the tree. When he pulled, he fell backwards, landing on his, for lack of a better word, bum. The bark of the tree had stripped clean off and when Ridgy looked at the bare interior, he saw that it was not a healthy ivory, but a sickly brown. It was as though the entire tree was stuffed with compost. "This is a bad dream, this is a REAL bad dream!" Ridgy ranted, pacing back and fourth. |
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Post by Lans on Sept 2, 2008 21:48:27 GMT -5
"'s a good dream...go 'way," Muttered the snoozing hedgehog. |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 2, 2008 21:59:01 GMT -5
Ridgy fumed, his chest heaving. Then, he calmed down. "Okay Ridgy Didge. No time to panic. I just need to use my infamously cool logical thinking to handle this." Once struck by inspiration, and a delayed pebble, Ridgy's lips curled in to a wide smile. "Oh Maniiiic...some hot drummer groupie came by my study today. Says she want's her t-shirt signed!" |
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Post by Lans on Sept 3, 2008 22:08:53 GMT -5
*SNORE* Yeah that might have worked better if they weren't in the middle of nowhere with no t-shirt wearing hotties in sight. |
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Post by Leda on Sept 4, 2008 19:54:27 GMT -5
 It did, however, provide a perfect opportunity for a rambunctious chameleon to sneak up on his latest victim. With a wide grin, the invisible body flew through the air almost completely horizontal as he tackled Ridgy to the boardwalk. "HIIIIIIIII!" |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 4, 2008 20:32:13 GMT -5
With an 'Urk!' and a 'thud' Ridgy fell onto his back on the ground with the impetuous chameleon on top of him. His head reared up as though he was about to say something, but then his eyes rolled back and his head re-entered the back of his pith helmet as it lay back into the ground. Ridgy had a strange momentary dizzy spell. It felt like the ground he was lying on turned upside down, then washed over his eyes as it corrected himself. He shook his head. "Espio?" He inquired, his momentary loss of equilibrium creating the minor confusion about what force knocked him over. |
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Post by Leda on Sept 4, 2008 21:13:39 GMT -5
"Good guess," the chameleon chuckled, dripping into view and taking a seat on Ridgy's abdomen. It appeared that the overbearing drama of the previous day had passed as fleetingly as the weather, and Espio looked as playful as ever. "What'cha doin'?" |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 4, 2008 21:18:14 GMT -5
"Look at this!" Ridgy said, thrusing a pile of dead leaves into Espio's line of vision. "What does this mean to you?" |
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Post by Leda on Sept 4, 2008 21:25:29 GMT -5
Recoiling a bit from the deceased foliage, Espio quickly threw up his hands and countered with, "Uh uh, I've already got look-out duty! I ain't cleaning the decks, too!" |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 4, 2008 21:32:05 GMT -5
"No, Espio. The trees out here are all turning brown prematurely. It's the middle of summer and there are dead leaves on the ground. The bark is flaking off as well." Ridgy rose and dusted himself off. "Hmmm....we need someone who knows plants. While my genius in history is as abundant as the sky, I don't know a lot about biology." |
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Post by Leda on Sept 5, 2008 22:28:07 GMT -5
For the most part, the information went in one ear and out the other. Espio really wasn't too concerned with the foliage; maybe it was just a hot year and they were changing early, who knew? He sure didn't, nor did he care. Rising to his feet, the chameleon dusted himself off, and unfortunately, began to run his mouth when the topic of a botanist came up. "Well, whoever you talk to, it won't be Rouge. Y'know she's STILL sleeping in? I mean, not just putzing around the lodge, she's actually still IN bed. I went in there to talk to her, and she didn't even open here eyes! All she'd do to acknowledge me was flick her ear." Rolling his eyes, the teen folded his arms and continued, "What's with her, anyway? I mean I know she's usually really subdued, but that was pretty extreme." |
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Post by Lans on Sept 5, 2008 22:29:11 GMT -5
*THUNK! THUNK!* A drumstick shot into the side of the tree near each of their heads. "Man guys..." Manic said with a yawn as he finally awoke, "...why're you being so loud?" |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 6, 2008 22:01:27 GMT -5
Ridgy looked up from his hat which he'd pulled off to cover his face at the sight of the flying drumstick. "Well it's broad daylight, there's nobody else around, and we're doomed! Doomed I tell you!" Ridgy presented the two with another hand full of dead leaves. "Imagine if a disease like this began to eat up the trees back in Meadowood, not even Bark could repair our homes if the wood is rotten!" |
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Post by Leda on Sept 6, 2008 22:21:47 GMT -5
"WHOA!!" Espio exclaimed as he just managed to duck the flying stick, narrowly avoiding getting nailed in the side of his purple head. Righting his posture, the chameleon turned and gave his best friend an annoyed glance. "Well we obviously can't be disturbing you THAT much if you can still throw like that!!" Ignoring -- or rather, losing focus on -- Ridgy's outburst, Espio continued pondering out loud. "Say, you guys don't happen to know if Rob finally told Rouge he's got a raging boner crush on her, do you? Maybe he confessed and they were up all night. ... Although, if that's the case, that's pretty crappy of Rob to just disappear on her in the morning. But then again, with Rouge being so lazy, maybe they never actually got anywhere and he just stormed off in the middle of the night." ESPIO, STOP TALKING, YOU IDIOT. |
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Post by Jamie Lee on Sept 8, 2008 22:47:46 GMT -5
 ". . . E-excuse me?!" Karma often had a way of sneaking up on you, and for Espio it seemed to happen all too frequently. With unintentional stealth Rob now stood behind the chameleon baring an expression that played somewhere between riled and embarrassed. |
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Post by Lans on Sept 8, 2008 22:50:49 GMT -5
Manic, who was quite used to Espio blathering on about stuff, just smirked knowingly. Yeah, he'd noticed, not like it was that hard to see though. His smirk just widened when Rob showed up. "Busted, dude," he said quietly to Espio. |
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Post by Leda on Sept 8, 2008 23:54:47 GMT -5
With a surprisingly high-pitched yelp, Espio sharply flinched aside and turned to his guardian with wide eyes. "HOW THE CRAP DO YOU DO THAT?! You're gonna give me a heart attack one'a these days!!" The chameleon pressed a hand to his breast, able to feel his heart racing beneath it. |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 9, 2008 8:53:24 GMT -5
" Finally," Ridgy said, bowing his whole body backwards slightly to accommodate his relief "Here's someone who can do something about this!" He reached forward with his hands full of mulch towards Rob. "Look at the stuff falling off the trees, Rob. There has to be some sort of disease or something effecting the condition of the woods, and we can't let it get to Meadowood." |
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Post by Jamie Lee on Sept 10, 2008 0:29:59 GMT -5
Except that Rob really didn't seem to be paying much attention. Having caught the tail end of Espio's ramble, what the boy said pretty much put the archer into a minor state of shock. "Uh, w-wha?!" he finally sputtered, shaking his head. "What does it matter to you what Rouge and I do?!" he paused, his cheeks having turned a rosy tint. " ... Was it really that obvious?" |
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Post by Leda on Sept 10, 2008 1:09:12 GMT -5
Having apparently escaped a verbal lashing, Espio grinned and folded his arms behind his head. "Oh c'mon, old man! Y'know anyone else that trips over their own feet and takes ten minutes completing a sentence when around someone they just like as a mediocre friend?" Pausing to glance toward the treetops, the teen added, "Although, that seriously must take some dedication. I try to make her laugh now and then and can't even get her to smile. Heck, today I couldn't even get eye contact." |
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Post by Jamie Lee on Sept 10, 2008 2:29:46 GMT -5
"Mediocre?!" And just like that Rob's fluster turned to that of upset. "What in the world gives you the right to talk about her that way?! She does a lot for everyone around here you know!" |
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Post by Leda on Sept 10, 2008 9:04:54 GMT -5
"NO NO NO!!" Espio frantically defended, wildly waving his arms. "My point was that she's NOT mediocre because you get so goofy and... and... ..." In lieu of potentially digging himself into a deeper hole, the chameleon dove behind the nearby oppossum, chuckling nervously and camouflaging in the process. "HEY, LOOK, RIDGY HAS LEAVES!" |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 10, 2008 21:04:44 GMT -5
"I do." Ridgy said meekly, knowing what little meaning would soon come from Robert's assessment. |
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Post by Lans on Sept 10, 2008 22:50:02 GMT -5
Ignoring Ridgy's leaves, Manic decided to bail Espio out. "What our purple scaled friend is trying to say, Rob man, is that, yes, it's as obvious that Robotnik is a fat tub of lard that you have a thing for Rouge." |
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Post by Jamie Lee on Sept 11, 2008 13:22:48 GMT -5
Aaaaand that rosy tint returned. Scratching at the back of his head through his hood, Rob coughed forcefully into his hand and turned to Ridgy. "... So. I hear you have leaves." |
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Post by slomoto on Sept 11, 2008 20:41:55 GMT -5
Ridgy looked down at the leaves he was holding in his hand. Even he was beginning to feel silly trying to make a case about a bunch of soggy dead leaves. But he steeled himself and spoke up. "Robert. There's something out here making the trees wither and die out early. We're losing our cover, and the structure of our homes might be in danger." |
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