Props: Huge thanks, once again, go out to Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT and Oceanic Coral for the OCs and opinions. You're responsible for the life this shindig has, and I'm more than grateful for it! Oh, and additional thanks to Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT for next week's topic!
Oh, and… if you're allergic to twists, this chapter is a biohazard.
Another Friday for the road-gray hedgehog. Then again, it didn't sound right to think that; Friday's were what he lived for. Fridays were the soul to the week… the one thing that gave him the fuel to power through the other six days.
He never thought he'd smile so much while lifting a chair.
He never thought Rachel would walk in the door with a tweed jacket draped over her arm, either. But she did, and an odd feeling spawned in his gut.
"H-Hey!" he greeted her.
"Hi!" Rachel greeted back… in a voice shot down by an octave or two, distorted, and aired out. Like someone had shot a bullet through her vocal cords.
"…I know you said you were sick since last week," Elektor replied in awe. "But your voice sounds-"
"Terrible, I know," Rachel managed to say in response. "Not TV material."
"B-But why are we here, then?!" Elektor panicked a bit. "You can't do the show like that!"
"Sure, I can't," Rachel smirked.
She tossed the tweed jacket to the barely-functioning Elektor, who barely caught it. That gut feeling was suddenly an even more unexplainable mix of awe and fear.
"…Y-You can't be serious…" Elektor laughed in response, looking down at the jacket and realizing the proposition.
"More serious than I think I've been in days," Rachel smirked. "We're, in a sense, switching roles this week. How would you feel about talking with our guests about the shipping of Knuckles and Sonia?"
This suddenly went down as one of the best ideas ever.
"I'd…" Elektor responded, smiling at Rachel. "I'd be honored. This'd be a good test for my intern, too. Since he'll have to take over my role, that is."
"You think you've got this?" Rachel asked.
"We've been doing this for over half of a year now," Elektor nodded. "I think I've got it."
"Sweet-" Rachel managed to beam… before her voice caught on her throat, making her implode into a coughing fit.
"That'll all be gone and out of here by next week," Elektor assured her. "Can't wait until then. But… if Luke's got the whole producer thing, and I'm the host… what will you be doing?"
"Watching," Rachel replied.
A few seconds of silence.
"…I won't let you down," Elektor promised with a sure smile. "This'll be another amazing episode!"
At that, he walked away and toward the stage, where he'd be alerting everyone of the temporary role change.
And just half an hour later, the cameras were on, the lights were shining, the audience was trying to figure this out… and Elektor stood with the microphone, looking rather dang smooth in that tweed jacket.
"Hello, everybody! My name is Elektor, and welcome back to Thoughts of the Unknown!" he beamed.
Most of the audience saw him as a familiar face and exploded into applause. However, the difference was not to be scoffed at.
In a mocking tone, he asked "'But Elektor, aren't you a behind-the-scenes kid?' 'Where's that bright hostess, Rachel?!'"
The audience either chattered the same questions or nodded.
"Our poor Rachel was attacked with the flu this week," Elektor explained. "She feels better now… but her voice is practically a lost cause."
A lot of the audience nodded, and there were some murmurs of "Ah, that explains it."
"If all goes well, we'll have her pretty voice back next Friday," he stated. "It must rest at this moment, though. Hence… me!"
Meanwhile, backstage, such flattery-like adjectives were putting a right-ol' smile on Rachel's face.
"We're here tonight to discuss the shipping of Knuckles and Sonia," Elektor continued. "I… I mean, I totally see it. Didn't Sonia kiss him once? Didn't they hold hands once?! And their personalities seem like they'd go hand-in-hand, too. But let's get our guests out here to talk about this. Please welcome back to the stage… Mercury and Thorn!"
The audience molded back into its usual jubilant response as Mercury and Thorn waved and found their ways to their seats.
"Welcome back, guys!" Elektor smiled.
"Wait, this guy?" Mercury joked.
Some of the audience, joined by the three onstage and the one backstage, chuckled.
"But really, though, my condolences to Rachel," Mercury continued. "Hope she gets better soon."
"Me, too," Elektor nodded. "So… Knuckles and Sonia… Yay or nay?"
"Well…" said Mercury. "To my knowledge, they actually really liked each other. Knuckles had developed a crush on Sonia and she had the same thing happen toward him. Heck, when Knuckles disappeared, Sonia got so upset that she nearly cried. And if that's not kawaii enough, she even kissed him on the cheek… and they held hands! Aww! But… I'll admit… Sonic is one of Knux's closest allies. Sonic, Sonia's brother. Wouldn't it be a bit weird if your closest ally liked you sister? I think so, too. Even still, they're a cute couple!"
Backstage, Rachel was smiling and nodding in total agreement.
"That does sound rather convincing," Elektor nodded. "Thorn? Your thoughts?"
"Well, they're both in the same color spectrum, to a certain degree!" Thorn responded. "So… I don't have much of a speech for this one, but I think the chance is rare of this working out. I have a gut feeling that this wouldn't go too well, based off of what I've seen."
A few seconds of silence.
"So… half and half, huh?" Elektor marveled. "Huh."
He stood.
"I guess not everyone sees it as a rainbow and lollipop fest," he shrugged. "Next week… wait… Oh, yeah! We discuss the shipping of Shadow and Sonia! Sonia hasn't quite left the picture yet! Hopefully, Rachel will be the one on this stage next week! We'll see you then!"
Reader's casual discussion: Thank you again, Oceanic Coral! The questions this week are as follows: Who do you think is the most underrated Sonic character? And overrated? I'd say the most underrated character is actually Silver. A lot of people laugh at him because of his supposed "pot-hair." I think I read that it's actually based off of a Japanese flower of some sort, by the way! That, and people usually mock him pretty bad… Overrated, I think, would have to go to… Rouge. I dunno, I just really don't like her, and other people do. She's kinda like a sex icon or whatever you'd call it, and I don't think enough people realize that.
Author's casual discussion: I have something that I've always wondered, too: How did you readers figure out your usernames? As for me… Heh, this is an interesting story… Back when Quizilla was existent, my username was PrincessPeace, which I think was conceptualized for another site before that. I thought of it when my fictional crush was actually Super Mario, and I loved him so much that I thought of myself as Princess Peach. However, I didn't want to make my username that, so I changed one letter, removed the space, and saw that it came out to something cool. The 15 part didn't come about until I signed up for Fanfiction, and I think it was because PrincessPeace itself was already taken… and I was 15 at the time. There's my name's backstory!