To say the way Eggman wrote his notes is messy is an understatement. He writes his thoughts as they come to him word-for-word and very sloppily. Sometimes he spends hours just trying to organize his notes later. He keeps lying to himself that one day he will write a program that will sort out his thoughts.
SCHEPTILLAH DOSSIER [rough draft] started 12/18
5' 10'' female Overlander, 120ish lbs, 5,000+ years old, relies on magic for communication
I have a feeling I'm misspelling her name in Romanization. Too much white hair. Why is it white? Is it because she's so old? Skin is pale but not so pale as to be confused for a white person [would she be Persian by today's standards? Maybe get a dna test]
Overly affectionate, openly suicidal, reckless, what's going on here
Possibly BPD [?]
Maybe it's spelled Cheptilah?
Actually maybe not, online symptom checker suggests ptsd instead
She challenged all the eggbosses to a fight one after the other and nearly got us both killed but impressively enough she made it all the way to nepthys! She still can't fight for shit. What does that say about my bosses?!
/ IT SAYS THEY SUCK / - MARI
Despite the fact that when she bathes she doesn't use soap but doesn't smell bad. Doesn't smell like anything, actually. Runs the water too damn hot. Ever hear of boiled bananas?
I think that oracle stone or whatever is its own thing and isn't just an inanimate object
/ EXCUSE ME, I SUGGESTED THAT / - MARI
Phonetically it is Shep-til-ah, so maybe Sheptilah from now on. Some of the mobians call her Tilly so I will just use that
Purple eyes? Possibly blue-eyed but it's so pale it turns purple because of the blood vessels under the iris
Mari says she understands some of her language and is trying to compile a small dictionary but it looks like it's bits and pieces
Shadow the hedgehog is her familiar; not like a pet but like bound at the soul? They share powers, i think
Please stop crying you're an adult
Cannot use chaos emeralds. Touching them burns her severely.
So then maybe they can't share powers
We share nightmares sometimes. Looks like shadow connected too and tried to force her to wake up but no go
I found out today that we share sadness and happiness and pain, but nothing else. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. She also cannot dance well but that doesn't seem to stop her
Subconsciously shape=shifts fangs when she's trying to be threatening, doesn't work. She looks like a kitten trying to be scary
She made shadow sparkly for a while that made my week too bad the glamor didn't show up in photos or recorded video i could've used that kind of blackmail
SHE SPEAKS LATIN. WE HAVE A COMMON LANGUAGE. Maybe now we can get somewhere over digital lines
/ THIS IS GOOD NEWS FOR ME, TOO. / - MARI
I'm thinking about how I had to hold her leg closed at the ziggurat. That was some bullshit, honestly. How is she supposed to survive in this century with such a bad iron allergy? Everything is iron or steel. Maybe it's a good thing her people thought ahead to bond her with whomever found her. Then again, everything I do and have involves steel.
My robots, computers, my lair… no wonder she doesn't want to stick around me for too long. I thought it was my personality. She keeps wandering around the lair, her bare feet making a papping sound on the floor.
She dragged me into the pool - I was so grateful I had the foresight to put on my swimsuit first. If I find a massive amount of hair in the pool drain I'll know it was her.
/ WE BOTH KNOW IF YOU FIND ANY HAIR IN THE POOL IT'S HER FAULT. YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE EYEBROWS. ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE A MAMMAL? PROVE THE MUSTACHE ISN'T GLUED ON / - MARI
Sometimes she'll stop talking mid-sentence and forget what she was saying. I found her once crying in a closet. I don't think she knows I was outside of it, but i just walked away.
This whole situation is a mess. MARI says I should call it a 'shit-uation'.
/ I DO CALL IT A SHIT-UATION. HERE IS THE NANNAEIC-TO-ENGLISH GLOSSARY I PROMISED:
Nin: Queen, lady
Sheptilah: Banana
Pâdu: Prisoner
Khabu: To love
Anbar: Iron, steel
Eseru: To imprison
Wardum: Slave
Mušēzibu: Savior, hero [When she is happy she refers to you with this word. She's only said this once.]
Dominuz / Dominus: Slaver, slave owner [When she is angry she refers to you as this]
Hebat: Sky spirit, flying spirit
Asu / Azu: Doctor
Lapis Oraculi: Oracle Stone
Dammu: Blood
Nisiqtu: - Precious [Sometimes she refers to Shadow with this term]
Aabba: [no, not the MAMA MIA kind], Sea, ocean
Note: some of these words are Latin, Akkadian and Sumerian. I cannot identify Nannaeic as nobody has translated any of their very few cuneiform tablets that have been recovered over time. I suggest you take her to a museum to translate them for our purposes. / - MARI
"Amy! Just the hedgehog I wanted to see!" Sheptilah was still in her clubbing clothes when she ran up to her friend on the beach. Amy was picking up trash left along the shore and putting it into a garbage bag.
"Why are you wearing boots on the beach?" The pink hedgehog raised an eyebrow.
"What? Oh this is basically the only civilian clothes I have." She snapped her fingers and transformed back into her usual sarong. "Anyway, I was hoping to ask you for some advice. I want to build myself a little home around here but I have no idea what your local customs or laws are."
"You just need a permit from the mayor; but today is a holiday so nobody is in city hall." Amy smiled. "Want to help me clean up the beach?"
"Sure," Tilly huffed, "But stay away from the water. It's dangerous for now."
"The ocean is always dangerous. It can, at any point, come and swallow you whole and nobody would ever find you again. Undertows, rogue waves, tsunamis…" Amy shuffled the bag to make more room for trash. "Sharks."
"You kids are grim but you aren't wrong." With a flick of her wrist Sheptilah was able to pick up all the remaining trash she could see and directed it into the plastic bag Amy was holding. "If it's a holiday, why are you out here cleaning?"
"We're having our Christmas party out here. We stay up all night, weather permitting, and exchange gifts." Amy tied the bag shut. "Thanks for making the clean up easy."
"I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner."
"Why do you want to build a house out here?" Amy walked toward a nearby trashcan and motioned for the woman to follow her.
"I can't be too far away from the Doctor and making the staff takes a long time and I need to be able to sit and watch the pot boil, so to speak." The cold sand felt nice on her bare feet.
"I don't see why the mayor won't give you a plot of land," the pink hedgehog hesitated, "Do you think… you would need an apprentice to help you?"
"That's what my familiar is for." Sheptilah brushed her hair behind her ear.
"No, I mean like, a witch's apprentice." Amy's cheeks got pinker in color.
"I probably can use all the help I can find. Would... you like to be my apprentice?"
Amy gasped softly. "I would be honored! A real witch!" She bounced on the soles of her feet. "I know where to start, too!"
The Overlander couldn't help but smile. "Don't hurt yourself."
"You have five thousand years of magic to catch up on, first! There's Eurish alchemy and tarot cards, the Salem grimoires, Aleister Crowley, daemonologie, for starters!" Amy grabbed Sheptilah's hand and started jogging toward her house, "I think you even predate the Egyptian Book Of The Dead."
"I don't predate the Book Of The Dead." Sheptilah tried to keep up with the hedgehog but Amy was quite fast for someone so little. "It was sort of a new thing when I was born… wait, hold on."
Amy stopped in her tracks and looked back at the woman.
"I have to go with Eggman to get the giant pearl at the Aquarium Park ruins today. We're leaving whenever he summons me." She shrugged.
"Well… can I go with you? I can teach you stuff along the way!" Amy was very eager to get started on learning the old stuff after refreshing Sheptilah on the new stuff.
"I don't know," she scratched the back of her head, "I don't think Doctor Eggman likes you very much and it might be dangerous."
"Oh, please," Amy smirked and summoned her hammer, "I can protect myself."
"Oh, dear…" Tilly chuckled nervously. "I assume you never take no for an answer."
"Only rarely!" She effortlessly supported the hammer across her shoulders. "This is Piko Piko."
"What's it made of?" She sounded hesitant and fearful.
"Solid steel."
"Gods help me."
What the Hell are Mobians made of, anyway?
Sheptilah went back into the lair to see if Eggman was still napping or preparing to leave for the ruins of the Aquarium Park. Orbot and Cubot were preparing lunch for him in the kitchen.
"Where... Eggman?" She said in halting English.
Orbot turned to her and pointed downwards.
Ah, he is in the lab, she thought. She gave a thumbs up to the robots and meandered toward the stairwell. Her bare feet made little noise as she quietly checked each floor, which had its own lab, for the only other Overlander on the island.
A soft melody drifted up, echoing off of the metal walls. Sheptilah followed the sound and quickened her pace. The music was sad and slow as if the instrument was in pain.
It got louder as she got closer but soon a familiar voice followed behind the words like a ghost trailing the same path it traced for centuries- undisturbed by the objects in its path as it passed right through them.
Although Sheptilah couldn't understand the words from the distance, she understood that it was melancholic.
"I heard there was a secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord; but you don't really care for music, do you?"
She approached ever closer to the source gingerly as if her moving through the voice could break it.
"It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth,"
"The minor fall and the major lift,"
"The baffled king composing hallelujah…"
She exited the stairwell as silently as she could, closing the door behind her. The long, lonely hallway was like a gateway to a mausoleum.
Sheptilah was nervous as she walked the empty hallway to the room on the far end. It was a large, well-lit room that contained nothing but a large black piano.
"I used to live alone before I knew you…"
Eggman was hunched over the keys with his back to the open door. Sheptilah crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway simply listening and smiling. Now that she was near enough the stone could translate what he was saying and her smile gradually became a frown.
At first Ivo was gently tapping the keys but soon was forcefully bringing his fingers down on them.
" It's not a cry you can hear at night, it's not someone who's seen the light," he inhaled sharply as if he was hit with something, "It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah…" The words tumbled out over his tongue and past his lips like they were rats escaping a sinking vessel.
A song about love and loss, she understood, one that was every bit as painful to hear as it was to play. Her face grew warm and her eyes stung.
"Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah…"
Her lips parted and trembled as she struggled to fight back tears. She was feeling the full force of what he was feeling for once and it was a great deal of suffering.
"Halle-" He stopped abruptly. His hands hovered over the keys, hesitant to continue. He sensed her presence and knew she was watching.
"Sheptilah," he did not turn around, "What is it you need from me?"
Good question.
"I'm sorry," she rubbed her eye with her fist, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop." Her breath hitched, trying to kick the rock from her throat. "The kids wanted to invite you to their Christmas thing tonight."
"We're leaving for the Aquarium Park ruins tonight, aren't we?" He straightened up his posture.
"Well, that's up to you." She stepped into the room. "I understand if you don't want to go to the party."
He paused for a second and then sighed.
"Sit with me for a moment." He scooted over on the piano bench and began to play a slower, more plodding melody. The first few chords played as if it was someone working up the courage to say what they were truly feeling, each word harder to speak than the last.
"You might like this one. It's Clair De Lune, or Moonlight in French. It was composed to compliment a poem by the same name. I haven't had to recite it since high school but I remember most of it." He cleared his throat.
Sheptilah reluctantly approached him and sat beside him with her hands in her lap.
"Your soul is a delicate landscape," the stone translated literally, "Where charming rogues roam… something, something… " While Ivo forgot the entire poem he did not forget the notes. Soon his fingers were moving to meet the necessary allegri and adagio.
Sheptilah swayed back and forth to the tempo. He gave up trying to remember the words and focused on the music.
"I like this one much better than the other song you were playing," she sniffed, "Why were you feeling that bad?"
"Thinking about Lucinda." He said without looking up from the keys. "How did you find me?" He continued to play.
"I followed your voice down the stairwell."
"Funny, that's how I found you," he grinned, "Except it sounded like a ghoul wailing in pain."
"Was I not a ghoul wailing in pain?" She shrugged.
"I think I'm going to pass on the furries' Christmas special, Tilly." He finished the piece.
"What instrument is this?"
"It's a piano," he dragged his fingers across the keys, "An original Steinway."
"How does it work?" She was afraid if she stopped talking certain feelings would come back.
"There's metal strings on the inside that are hit by little felt hammers when I press the keys. The inside is hollow so the sound echoes a bit."
"So it's similar to a harp," she scratched her chin, "I played one, but it was a lot larger than the piano. It was taller than you, some notes you had to jump to hit."
"One of these days I'd like to hear you play. MARI would love to learn some ancient music, I'm sure."
Tilly blushed. "I'd love to at some point."
"Can you sing?"
"Not to save my life," she laughed, "Okay, I can mask it with a glamour but that's about it. I was told once by Tiamatu that I sound like a dying cat."
Eggman grinned, "I won't ask you to sing, then. I came down here to play because music calms me. When I have trouble building things or making blueprints I simply come back to the piano and play a little. Helps me clear my head."
Orbot and Cubot appeared with lunch for Eggman and some fruit for the woman.
"This may be cannibalism," Orbot handed her a banana, "But it's delicious cannibalism."
Sheptilah held up the fruit between her fingers. "This is cannibalism ," she shook the fruit at Eggman, "but I will gladly consume it, regardless."
Sonic and his friends had built a bonfire on the beach not far from Eggman's lair. They were singing and dancing around it and tossing balled-up wrapping paper into the flames. Sheptilah and Eggman were standing out at the door with supplies for the trip. It was going to be just the two of them.
Perhaps Amy wouldn't be too angry when Sheptilah got back, but she decided she didn't want to get the little girl in more danger than necessary.
"Look at them prancing around like Pagans at a feast." Eggman laughed.
"It's not too late to go down there." Tilly nudged the Overlander with her elbow.
"Uh, no," he adjusted the pack on his shoulder, "I'd rather spend ten hours in an airship with you and the bots than ten minutes with those kids."
"I'm so flattered," Tilly laughed, "Okay… I want to have a little fun with them first." She lifted a finger and traced a circle in the air. The fire extinguished on the logs, leaving the Mobians very confused.
Sonic re-lit the fire with a long match only to have it go out again.
Sheptilah was giggling. "See?"
Knuckles pushed Sonic back and yelled at the fire, demanding it come back. He believed he could do magic when the fire did light itself again and stayed lit.
"Well, you're not very good at pranking people are you?" Eggman grinned.
"I don't want to hurt them, they're just kids."
"They've been a pain in my ass for years." He huffed.
"And you've been a pain in my ass for days!" She couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, let's go. Gaul is waiting."