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Post by DB on Jul 18, 2008 14:11:53 GMT -5
For a refuge, Knothole was a busy place, with a variety of people from all walks in life, all united by their common plight. Each of them knew the hardship of losing their homes, forced to abandon the lives they had previously had. Their jobs, their possessions, and in too many cases- their loved ones. The details of how this fate befell the refugees varied from person to person, but there was always one common note- Robotnik.For a red echidna, bearing a white mark upon his chest that to his people symbolized near divinity, things were not so different. Perched on the railing of the bridge over the main river that went through Knothole, Knuckles stared almost blankly into the rushing waters below him. Dimly, very dimly, he could see his own reflection in the waters- but distorted, pulled apart by the currents, ripples, and waves. Part of him realized the irony in this- it was, in a way, a true reflection, one that a placid waterfront could never portray. How things were on the inside, rather then the out. But only part of him realized and acknowledged this, deep in the back of his mind. The rest of him was... preoccupied. He'd failed again. His duty, his one purpose in life, was to guard the Chaos Emerald. And yet here he was, pulled away from Little Planet, away from the Chaos Emerald and, were harm to befall it, completely unable to save the precious stone if it needed to be. He only hoped that Antowas would prevent such a thing from happening... but at the same time, he doubted she would. It was, after all, his duty. His purpose of life. His reason to be alive. This was what Antowas expected from him. The frown he wore deepened, and his bright violet eyes became colder. Below, the waters continued to churn as they sped rapidly downstream. He sighed, lightly, a short, restrained sound. And, to his surprise, a moment later, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning slightly, he looked to see who had come to disturb him. An echidna girl, wearing clothes that'd generally be considered representitive of his religion. She was smiling in an odd way, as if she were in a dream and was only passively interacting with the world around her. Continuing to smile, she handed the guardian a small square wrapped in a napkin. "Here." Knuckles blinked, confused, looking down the item he'd just been handed. Unwrapping it slightly, he found it to be a sandwich, of all things. He looked upwards, prepared to tell the girl thank you, but that he wasn't hungry, only to find... she was no longer there. A bit startled by the girl's sudden appearance, gifting, and subsequent disappearance, he glanced up and then down the bridge. No sight of her. Baffled expression on his face, he returned his gaze to the sandwich. He really wasn't hungry. ... Maybe Amy would like it? ... Then again, it might not be best to feed to Amy something that he'd just now randomly received from a stranger. One could never tell if it were any good. His gaze fell again on the stream. Pulling a bit of the sandwich off, he tossed it into the waters, watching the morsel become swept away. More followed in small pieces. A gift to the fish- those that survived and thrived in those turbulent waters.
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Post by Lans on Jul 25, 2008 23:02:18 GMT -5
There was a sudden breeze from out of nowhere, followed a few seconds later by a voice. "...Wow, that looks like a waste of a good sandwich," Sonic remarked, leaning on the railing next to Knux.
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Post by DB on Jul 27, 2008 12:27:04 GMT -5
Knuckle's twitched slightly at the sudden appearance of the hedgehog. Did people around here simply have a tendency to appear suddenly, or was he just lucky today? Because if it was a tendency, it was going to get very old very quickly and some people may discover why it's not a very good idea to surprise the guardian. Turning slightly to the hedgehog, he frowned, then simply held the object in question to the hedgehog. "If you care so much for it, then take it. I don't want it."
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Post by Lans on Jul 27, 2008 19:30:44 GMT -5
Sonic shrugged and took the sandwich before immediatly taking a bite out of it. Meh, it was no chillidog but it was ok. "Tanks," he said through the mouthfull of sandwich. He at least had the decency to swallow before asking, "So what's up?"
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Post by DB on Jul 28, 2008 9:37:44 GMT -5
The echidna's nose wrinkled slightly. "What do you mean, what's up?"
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Post by Lans on Jul 28, 2008 14:43:32 GMT -5
Sonic just started at him "You know...what's happening, what's the word, what's going down...that sort of thing."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Jul 28, 2008 15:55:01 GMT -5
Behind them the steady pace of footsteps could suddenly be heard entering the bridge. The white echidna they belonged to came up behind the two boys and halted. "Excuse me," Zachary asked. "Have either of you seen my niece? I was sure she passed through here."
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Post by DB on Jul 29, 2008 11:40:39 GMT -5
Knuckles growled slightly. "I know what it means. I mean why are you asking that when you already know 'what's up'. I'm stranded from home and away from my duty, which by the standards put out for me makes me a failure. What do you think?" Thankfully however, at this point Zachary interrupted. Taking a deep breath and calming himself, Knuckles turned to the other echidna. "If she's the one passing out sandwiches, yes, she's been through here, though I can't say where she went after that."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Jul 29, 2008 13:15:22 GMT -5
Zachary didn't immediately respond. His eyes drifted briefly over the guardian's face before making a quick beeline for his chest. There his eyebrows reached skyward and he paused for a long moment. Then he looked between Knuckles' face and chest several times before melting his face into subtle, though strongly felt, scowl. "... I see." he said with a sudden coldness in his voice. "Thank you."
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Post by Leda on Jul 29, 2008 13:16:42 GMT -5
And around then, yet another visitor arrived. Princess Sally strode onto the bridge with a pleasant expression on her face. She'd been trailing after Zachary for some time -- at a distance, of course. She wasn't going to follow RIGHT after him. That's just weird. "Hello everyone," the ground squirrel greeted, resting her right elbow against the rail. Glancing specifically at the doctor, Sally's smile widened.
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Post by Lans on Jul 29, 2008 22:36:30 GMT -5
"Hey Sal!" Sonic said with a smile before gulping down the last of the sandwhich. He noticed the sudden attitude change between the partially robo'd echidna and Knux. "...Geez, what was that about?" he asked the red echidna.
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Post by DB on Jul 29, 2008 23:33:22 GMT -5
Zachary's coldness was not lost on Knuckles, as he stared back at the elder with a somewhat morose expression- his gaze falling more on the mechanical parts that seemed to be haphazardly attached. Why, Antowas, have you allowed this? Or am I the one to blame?Needless to say, he was thankful for the arrival of Sally. "Hello, Princess."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Jul 30, 2008 0:03:52 GMT -5
Glancing over toward Sally, Zachary both noticed the particular interest she seemed to put into her expression toward him, as well as heard Sonic's comment behind his back. Choosing to ignore the latter he turned toward Sally, placing his mechanical arm over his chest and bowing slightly forward. "Hello, your majesty."
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Post by Leda on Jul 30, 2008 1:26:04 GMT -5
Awkwaaaaard. But she could deal with that odd feeling in her stomach for now. Rather than her usual reaction of looking embarrassed, Sally's composure remained bright and... kind of giddy, actually. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything," the princess began. "I was hoping I could borrow Dr. Zachary for a minute, if it's not a problem."
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Post by Lans on Jul 30, 2008 11:59:23 GMT -5
"S'okay with me," Sonic said, sucking the crumbs from his gloves.
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Post by Jamie Lee on Jul 30, 2008 16:33:48 GMT -5
"Of course," Zachary said, tossing a quick, subtle glare at Knuckle. "Lead the way."
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Post by Leda on Aug 4, 2008 11:57:58 GMT -5
Her glee clearly evidenced on her face, Sally nodded and continued on the journey over the bridge. She'd heard down the grapevine the gentleman had been interested in a forest bath, and a nice walk in the woods away from the village would probably serve him well. Nodding to Sonic and Knuckles as she passed, the princess smiled and said, "Excuse us."
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Post by Jamie Lee on Aug 5, 2008 16:50:23 GMT -5
Not too far away from the bridge Coconuts laid sprawled out on his back in the back seat of Griff's hover car, Coconuts stared up at the azure sky above. Hands held in front of him and occasionally using his tail for assistance, his fingers idly fumbled around with a piece of string, creating Cat's Cradle patterns. It had been ages since he had seen the sun, sky, or trees or just... been outside. He had been that way for awhile now. He hadn't seen Griff, Lilli or Zachary in ages. What were they up to, anyway, the primate thought. It sure was taking them an awfully long time. Had they even found Mighty or Honey yet? Coconuts was starting to get restless just sitting there. With a grunt he pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked around, stashing his string away for later. He debated whether or not it was worth trying to find the others. Whatever they were doing was probably at least marginally more interested than just sitting there. Plus he had never actually seen Knothole before... So, seemingly having made up his mind, the roboticized monkey hopped out of the car and wandered off toward the village.
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Post by Topaz Mutiny on Aug 5, 2008 18:20:55 GMT -5
Of course, one can't enter the village without somebody finding out beforehand. Otherwise any robots that happened to wander this way would discover the village and -POOF!- Bye bye Freedom Fighters. As such, it was Antoine's most honored duty to be on lookout for today's shift. The only problem was that, as the bumbling coyote glanced about, trying to spy something out of the ordinary (which wasn't that hard for him), Antoine was not on the lookout for where he was going. With that in place, it was completely expected of him to suddenly trip over a tree root, roll down a small hill, and crash into the unexpecting monkeybot with a serenade of girly French screaming.
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Post by Jamie Lee on Aug 5, 2008 18:21:43 GMT -5
Hitting him hadn't been enough to halt his momentum. Coconuts gave a startled yelp at the world suddenly began spinning wildly around him. "YEEP! LEMMEGOLEMMEGOLEMMEGOOHAURORAASWATBOT'SGOTME HELP!" the monkeybot began wailing, flailing about wildly as he rolled in the same ball as Antoine. Finally the two of them flew off the side of the riverbed and created a small tidal wave as they splashed into the river itself, showering both Sonic and Knuckles in the process. For the moment Coconuts laid face down under the water. Still flailing.
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Post by DB on Aug 5, 2008 21:49:31 GMT -5
Knuckle's disappointment over Zachary's reaction to him were mostly literally dampened by splash from the commotion. Shooting a glare towards the two in the river, he growled slightly before more or less stomping off to go on his own. He had things to think about, away from clowns.
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Post by Lans on Aug 6, 2008 9:57:20 GMT -5
"ACK!" Sonic exclaimed, holding his arms up in a futile attempt to ward off the incomming water. "Hey, I already had a shower this morning!" he complained, looking down at the two in the river.
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Post by Topaz Mutiny on Aug 7, 2008 19:32:03 GMT -5
Antoine woozily sat up, shaking the water out of his ears and fur. "Oooooh... I zeenk I ams getting a 'eadache." the coyote guard groaned, putting a hand to his forehead and looking around. Immediately he noticed Coconuts flailing about in the water, and at first he considered this rather strange. His views changed entirely when he realized that the monkey was, in fact, made of metal instead of flesh. With surprising agility for someone so clumsy, Antoine leaped out of the water and vaulted over the bridge's rails, all while screaming in terror. Cowering behind the dampened hedgehog, Antoine pointed at the monkeybot while screeching in some incoherent language -but whether that was because it was French or Antoine was nuts was anyone's guess-, apparrently terrified by the sight of a robian.
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Post by Jamie Lee on Aug 7, 2008 19:41:41 GMT -5
Finally clicking that he was in shallow water, the robo simian sat up and looked around at his surroundings. Spotting Sonic he jumped to his feet and flailed wildly. Complete with hopping from foot to foot. "DID YOU SEE THAT?!" he shrieked. "A SWATBOT JUST TRIED TO GRAB ME! SOUND THE ALARM! INTRUDER ALERT!"
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Post by Lans on Aug 11, 2008 14:24:57 GMT -5
"All right, all right, knock it off!" Sonic shouted, still shielding himself as Coconuts' flailing was causing him to splash water everywhere. "And the only bot I see around here is YOU, pal!"
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Post by Topaz Mutiny on Aug 13, 2008 16:51:07 GMT -5
Antoine stared at the monkeybot incredulously, his fear having disappated now that he was next to Sonic. "What? What!? You are to beings the intruder!" he shouted, still pointing dramatically at Coconuts. "You should to be leavings now fuelish robian! Or we shall to be ripping you sepreted weeth our King Fuu!"
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Post by Jamie Lee on Aug 13, 2008 17:12:45 GMT -5
"ME?! What'a youse, some kind of idiot?! Youse think I tackled myself into the river?! How's that even possible?!" He then paused, his anger and excitement suddenly fizzling and he looked down into the water he stood waist deep in. "... ANIMALS DO THEIR BUSINESS IN THIS WATER!"Faster than Sonic himself possibly could have Coconuts bolted over the river's railing with a huge splash that once again drenched the poor hedgehog and coyote. Once there he pulled out a rag and frantically began wiping himself off while shrieking in a way his species was known for.
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Post by Lans on Aug 19, 2008 22:03:59 GMT -5
After shaking himself off after yet another deluge of water, Sonic glared at the robian. "DON'T do that again!" He sighed. "Getting back on track, since I highly doubt Ant was the one to attack you, I'm betting that you were only in there because of your own fault, pal."
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Post by Topaz Mutiny on Aug 25, 2008 20:00:47 GMT -5
Speaking of which, Coconuts' sudden movement ONTO the very same bridge the fearful coyote was on drained him of any courage he had mustered. Antoine backed away with a shriek, and another one followed soon after as he backed up too much too fast, flipped over the railing, and landed in the water, splashing Sonic (and Coconuts) YET AGAIN. ... For some reason this day was making him feel ALL WET.
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Post by Jamie Lee on Aug 27, 2008 5:20:22 GMT -5
Coconuts ground his metallic teeth irritably, a raise of intensity in his eyes emphasizing this both at Sonic and now at the fact the rag he was dripping wet again. His hand clenched around his now soaked rag and shook before tossing it onto the ground. Why didn't anyone ever believe him?! "I'M TELLING YOU SOMETHING JUMPED ME!"
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