Recursion Error
Episode 63- The hustle
He was back in that ship once again. Cutting through so many robots in his attempt at trying to get at Eggman. Sprinting through the dark corridors, cutting down everything in front of him. Wielding a sword with supernatural reflexes and skill no normal human could ever possess. It'd felt so natural, swinging that sword through everything the way he had. The style, the technique, it'd come to Sorun so easily, so instinctually, like he was meant to hold that sword for the sole purpose of slicing through everything in his path. An effect of the Emerald and Devil's Body, maybe, or his knowledge on the proper way of using that sword, a combination of the two, perhaps, he hadn't known and hadn't asked questions. He didn't care. He just wanted to keep going.
There'd been hundreds of Badniks he'd sliced apart on that ship. Always moving forwards, never stopping or resting. They had no resistances to the katana capable of cutting through space, no defense whatsoever, and they weren't nearly fast enough to avoid Sorun. All they had was offense, but with his own powers and regenerative abilities, not even that could stop him.
They'd shot him, stabbed him, smashed him with hammers, tried blowing him up, but no matter what they tried he never stopped moving, never stopped going forwards to cut them all down. Any damage inflicted on him healed in the blink of an eye. He'd be riddled with so many scars he wouldn't look human otherwise.
Hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds. Dozens in seconds. His clothes were stained in oil, his blade practically black as it dripped with the fluid as he stood above a lone Egg Pawn, cowering on the ground and holding its hands out to Sorun, like it was begging for its life. And Sorun, coldly looking down at it, black oil splattered all over his face, didn't bat an eye as he swiped his sword in front of him to cut the robot in two and kill it. And then he'd move on to the rest.
But it always ended the same, no matter how fast he went, no matter how efficient he was in dispatching everything in his way. He'd die before he'd get a chance at killing Eggman. He'd only get far enough to see him before he'd feel his heart stop, and then his body would refuse to move, and then Sorun would die right there. Sometimes Eggman would leave immediately, too terrified of Sorun to stick around even though he was dying. Other times he'd have the cheek to stay and gloat over Sorun, and the last thing his ears would hear is his mocking voice ridiculing Sorun before he'd die.
And when he'd die, he'd never go back to that void again. It was always his home city he'd wake up in. Sometimes in his home, or at his high school, even just somewhere in the street sometimes. But it always ended the same regardless of where he woke up. There'd be a white flash, and oddly enough, the sound of a shotgun going off as opposed to a booming, distant explosion. The clear, blue skies would turn red, and in the distance Sorun would see a mushroom cloud rise up as a fiery shockwave engulfed the city.
Windows would explode as buildings would buckle, with some falling down. Streets would crack and blow apart, cars would overturn, and the screaming, always so much screaming. Sometimes he'd see people he knew, his friends, his mother, and he couldn't do anything but watch as their bodies were completely obliterated by the shockwave from the nuclear blast, and then he'd have to feel his own skin get torn away, his organs rupture and his bones shatter as he was completely scorched by nuclear fire-
The sunlight hitting his face woke Sorun up. His eyes cracked open to the window next to his bed, with the morning sunlight shining through it. He made a short sigh, and then turned onto his back.
The bedsheets that had been covering him were lazily thrown off his body. The teen sat up in his bed, groggily blinking his eyes as he looked around. Still his same room that contained nothing but a bed and a closet. The same room he'd been waking up in for a week now ever since he'd moved into his new home.
"That same dream again..." He reached his hand up to run a hand over his face, choosing to brush away some of his disheveled hair. The nightmares were a frequent thing. Happened every night at this point. He didn't bother telling anybody about them, and he didn't care enough to do anything about them. So he simply endured and ignored them, and then moved on with his day.
Swinging his feet off the edge of the bed, Sorun slid off it and let his feet touch down with the floor. He turned towards the closet, moving towards it with languid motions and then reached out to open it as he gazed at the articles of clothing inside of it. A pair of black boots, some socks. Blue pants and a black shirt. The dark blue vest Honey had made for him. His only clothes.
He quickly threw them on and left the bedroom. The same blank, off-white walls that decorated his entire house greeted Sorun as he walked his way towards the kitchen, form slumped forwards and arms hanging limp, a blank look on his tired face. In the exact same ritual he'd been performing every single morning since he began living here he made it to the fridge and then opened it to see what food was inside so he could calm down the dull ache in his stomach.
"... Running out of food," he realized when he looked into the sparsely-populated fridge. He was mildly surprised he was already running low considering he only ate once a day, sometimes twice if the hunger was especially bad. But at the moment just seeing the contents of his fridge, or lack thereof, sapped away any motivation Sorun had of eating, so he closed the fridge and went to sit down in one of the chairs next to the kitchen table. "What a pain..."
Sitting down in the chair, Sorun briefly went over his options. Running out of food was a problem. He could only go so long without eating before Nicole noticed something, and if she figured out he didn't have any food and wasn't doing anything about it, Sorun didn't imagine it would end well. And she would eventually figure it out. She made it a point to visit him every single day here. The other Freedom Fighters made visits to him, too, brief ones to ensure Sorun was doing well, but from what he heard things with Eggman were picking up again, so they were back to doing that. Nicole was the only one that found the time to see him every single day, sometimes multiple visits in the same day. But either way it was a constant.
Normally for Sorun her visiting him was the brightest part of his day, since the rest of it usually composed of him sitting on the couch in the living room and staring up at the ceiling all day before he got tired and walked to the bedroom so he could go to sleep. It was the only thing he had to look forwards to. The only spot of color in his day. But now he had to worry about her fretting over him because of the food situation. He didn't want to burden her with that and make life that much harder for her.
It was something he'd have to rectify before she noticed.
"Maybe I can just steal food from the food storage site," Sorun internally mused. "No, wouldn't work. Nicole would catch me on the security systems. Steal from the market at night? Same problem: Nicole. It's pretty much impossible to do any kind of crime in this city without her catching you. Illegal actions aren't viable. So... the only course of action I have is legal action. So how do I legally obtain food?"
Growing his own food was an option, but that presented multiple problems. He'd need pots and soil for that, since fruits and vegetables couldn't grow in the faux-nanite soil this entire city rested on. He didn't know how to acquire those. Even if he did, Sorun didn't know the first thing about gardening. Even worse was that it was too slow to solve his very immediate problems. Above all that, though, he just didn't want to.
Beg for food? Eh, an option. Not a very appealing one, but certainly doable. Last resort. Except... that'd probably be very noticeable. No, on second thought, not an option, either.
Buy it? Probably the most pragmatic solution Sorun could find. He had some money, given to him by Sally to help with his "adjustment period" - he could have scoffed right in her face when she said that - to settling in to New Mobotropolis and his new home. She hadn't given him much, though. Just enough to get by for a little bit. He wouldn't be able to rely on that money for long, a few more days at best if he rationed the food. Long-term he'd have to find a way of generating his own income.
So... he needed a job, then.
"... Not like I'm doing anything better with my day." Maybe getting a job would be a good thing. Give him something to do and stop Nicole from worrying about him all the time. Every time she'd visit him there'd be this undertone to her entire demeanor. She kept trying to hide it, probably for Sorun's sake, but he could practically feel her concern for him. The way she kept asking if he was alright, the way she'd look at him like she was examining him, the frequent visits.
He was grateful for them, greatly so, but they kept making him feel bad for himself. Like he was some burden making her life and everybody else who was worried for him inconvenient just by existing. Maybe doing something productive would help fix it. Show he was doing something to move on and get some structure in his life, if such a thing was even possible for what happened to him. Either way he needed a way of getting money so he didn't starve.
"Guess I'll go get a job." Sorun lifted himself off the chair and made his way towards the front door of the house. Opening it caused Sorun to be assaulted by pure, unfiltered morning sunshine, causing him to squint and shield his face with his hand. He hadn't stepped foot outside this house ever since Nicole first showed it to him. He forgotten how bright daylight was.
Lowering his hand, Sorun looked out to the residential district. The sun was shining, the sky was clear, and overall things looked peaceful. His house was still surrounded by all the other houses in the neighborhood, though he had no idea who lived in those houses. He did see some Mobians walking up and down the sidewalks though, happily going along with their day while waving and smiling at each other. Sorun even got a few waves himself, and Sorun, not knowing at all how to respond, had merely just awkwardly waved back while keeping a nervous look on his face.
It was when he was waving his hand, and it'd moved near his face, that Sorun had accidentally smelled himself. He'd blinked in surprise, and then slowly lowered his arm while giving it, and his entire body, a contemplative look.
"... Shower first, then job," he decided, and then walked back into his house while closing the door behind him.
One shower later and Sorun was in the one place in the city he figured he was most likely to find a job: the marketplace.
Sorun didn't really know what the job market in New Mobotropolis was like. He knew there couldn't be any positions in infrastructure or construction since, well, Nicole and the nanites took care of pretty much all the city's needs. Most likely ditto for any electrical, plumbing, or any position falling under maintenance when it came to the city itself. Nicole was in charge of all that, as well as running the city's inner systems. So what was left after that?
Well, plenty, probably. There were all the guards and soldiers in the royal - or would it be republic now? - army, as small as it was, but with his distaste of fighting, or really just a lack of general ability, Sorun didn't see that going well for him. There were other specialized positions: educators and doctors and the such, but he didn't have the education for something like that. So he was unqualified for any of those.
He knew a sizeable part of the population worked in producing food for both trading and for maintaining the city's food reserves, which were all stored in a food storage site. Those were usually the people found in the marketplace, as well as other craftspeople that sold various things they crafted. Other than that there were people like Honey that ran their own independent businesses for a living. Even in a city that ran itself people found ways to make a living.
There had to be something out there for him.
"Alright, job hunt time. Never, uh... never really done anything like this, but it's gotta get done." Admittedly a great part of Sorun was nervous about undergoing this endeavor as he walked through the marketplace. What did this process even entail? Did he just go up to random people asking for a job? How was he supposed to act? Was there some kind of procedure or etiquette he had to follow? Were there weird rules that applied here but not on Earth that were in effect he wasn't aware of? "Speculatin' ain't gonna get me anywhere. Might was well just go for it and hope for the best."
He made a resolute nod to himself. No lack of ever working a single day in his life, work as a Freedom Fighter aside, was gonna stop him from at least trying this.
"Ya... want a job?"
Sorun quietly clicked his tongue, made a sharp inhale, and nodded his head while keeping his hands respectfully clasped behind his back. The pig Mobian in front of him was giving Sorun the once-over, looking him up and down with peculiar, questioning eyes.
The job hunt lead Sorun to a stall in the marketplace, which was connected to a small, house-sized structure. What drew him in was the "help wanted" sign out in the front window, and entering the small building lead Sorun to meeting the aforementioned pig Mobian he was asking a job from. Apparently he was a local distributor of produce that traded food to some of the other market vendors who then sold the food to the citizens paying for it. Hell if Sorun knew how that system worked, but it did, and the guy needed help while Sorun needed a job. Seemed like a good place to start to him.
"Yes, sir, that's correct," Sorun stiffly replied with a nod, having put on his most respectful face. "I, er, noticed the sign, so-"
"Ah, wait, I know you!" the pink-skinned pig Mobian suddenly exclaimed, causing Sorun to jump a bit in surprise. "Yer that one human Freedom Fighter, right? The one with the weird blue arms an' swords an' all that."
"I'm... still the only human living in New Mobotropolis, yes," Sorun confirmed, forcing himself not to twitch in any way. "And indeed was... that guy you saw fighting Eggman and the mech suit while you and everyone else were trapped in the Egg Grapes. I was there for the whole Enerjak thing, too."
How the fuck was he not more recognizable when he was the only human that lived in the city? Not even that he was with the Freedom Fighters, but lived in the city exclusively full of Mobians otherwise. And an AI. Sure, he'd... he'd never really gone out of his way to interact with many of the citizens, really, but goddamn. He stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everybody else. Even Nicole had a Mobian form for her body. He was the only one on the whole damn continent not rocking fur, for crying out loud.
... Well, him, Eggman, and Snively, with the latter two somewhere in the ruins of New Megaopolis, but the point still stood.
"Ah, yeah, yeah-yeah-yeah, I know you." Maybe he was being a bit too hasty with his judgement. It wasn't like this random Mobian didn't know him at all or forgot him, clearly. Sorun just... didn't really get around that much. That had to be it. "Aren't you doin' work with the Freedom Fighters? Why d'ya want a job from me?"
"I'm retired," Sorun explained. "Indefinitely. Permanently. Forever. I don't fight anymore."
The pig blinked. "Oh. Why not?"
"Come on, man, I came for a job, not to give my autobiography." What was he supposed to say? That he was too scared and traumatized to fight anymore? He wouldn't even bother his friends with his emotional baggage, let alone some complete stranger he was begging a job from. He decided to just go with the other ugly truth: he was too weak to be a Freedom Fighter. Or fighter of any kind, really. "I don't have my powers anymore, so I can't really fight. Hence my retirement and me seeking alternative employment, sir."
The change in the Mobian's demeanor was instantaneous, and not the good kind of change, which made Sorun grow concerned. He looked a lot more hesitant all of a sudden, blinking in surprise and growing a bit uncomfortable-looking. He winced and glanced behind him, at an open doorway. Sorun peered through that doorway and saw an empty room full of crates of food stacked up on one another. The pig Mobian made a small hiss, and then turned back to Sorun.
"Oh, uh... lost the powers, huh?" he asked. "So no, uh... no super strong arms or, uh, the-the weird clone thing?"
"No...?" Now Sorun was progressing from concern to full-blown worry. "Is that a problem?"
"Well, er, yeah, actually. It is," the Mobian admitted. "Look, Solder-"
"Sorun."
"Sorun, I got a lotta product I gotta be movin' on the daily. I'm a supplier of a lot of the vendors here and even some of those fancy-schmancy restaurants further inta town," the pig explained. "Thing is, uh... the boxes're heavy, see, an' humans like you ain't really, well... you're not known for bein', you know, very strong." He looked down to avoid Sorun's face while reaching a hand up to scratch the back of his head. "Thing is I already got a buncha other applicants, too, an' one of 'em was a tiger. So unless you can hold four pallets of food over your head with one hand like that guy can there's nothing I can do for you." He looked back up at Sorun. "Can ya?"
"... I could probably pick, like, one up. With both hands," Sorun answered in a quiet voice.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"... I don't have the job, do I?"
"N-no, no, you don't. Sorry."
Sighing in defeat, Sorun slumped his shoulders. Probably should have seen that one coming, he realized. What was he compared to a Mobian with borderline super strength? He could probably cross off any type of physical labor job if that was the case. Narrowed his search down, at least, but also closed off way more doors than he was comfortable with. This job hunt was looking less and less viable by the second.
The pig Mobian, seeing Sorun's distress, grimaced a bit and held his hand out to Sorun as he turned to leave. "Aw, geez, wait up a sec." The human did so, freezing mid-step and turning back to the pig. "Listen, I ain't got work for ya, but one of the restaurants I do supply for I mentioned earlier might have a position open. Waiter or somethin' like that. You could try there."
"Waiter? Huh, that's... actually a pretty decent idea, yeah. I mean, shit, waiter was a common job for high schoolers back in my world. I was friends with a guy that waited tables. Yeah, sure." After taking a few moments to think, Sorun nodded in thanks at the pig. "Alright. I'll go do that. Thanks."
"Yeah, no problem. Hey, good luck, kid." The pig waved to Sorun on his way out, with Sorun doing the same as he left. The door closed behind the teen, with the Mobian nodding to himself in satisfaction as he turned around to conduct the rest of his business for the day.
And then he was forced to turn back around when he heard the door open, only to then see Sorun poking his head back in.
"H-hey, uh, could, could you give me some directions to that restaurant, please?"
The restaurant Sorun had been pointed to was a place that went by the name of Crème De La Crème. Real fancy name for a real fancy eatery, the kind of place Sorun never dreamed of ever being able to afford going to. Fortunately he wasn't there looking to spend money. He was there looking to get paid.
Unfortunately it didn't seem like that was going to work out.
"So you're not hiring?"
"Afraid not, sir." Sorun never even made it to the manager of the restaurant. Or inside the place for that matter. He only made it as far as the damn greeter. An old orange fox Mobian, much to Sorun's consternation. "All of our waiting positions were recently filled. The proprietor of this establishment isn't seeking any additional help."
His shoulders slumping in defeat once again, Sorun looked off to the side. There were a few outside tables under an awning connected to the restaurant seated with guests. From what Sorun saw they were all being waited by a rooster Mobian. And on the actual inside of the restaurant were even more waiters tending to the guests.
Place was fully staffed, then.
"... You sure you don't need a dishwasher or something like that? Or a janitor?" Sorun tried. All he received from the fox was a raise of an eye ridge. "I'm... look, man, I'm really desperate here."
"No, sir, I assure you we do not." There was an edge to that aged, sophisticated tone the Mobian greeter was speaking in. A very annoyed one, directed right at Sorun. The piercing gaze he was giving the human wasn't helping his nerves at all. "Now if you don't have a reservation, I'm going to have to ask you to move along."
Sorun could take a hint. This one, at least. He wasn't wanted here, and frankly, he didn't want to be here right now. "Fine. I'm gone."
"Have a good day, sir," the greeter called out as Sorun turned away.
"Don't tell me what to do." He hadn't turned around to see the Mobian's reaction as Sorun left, but he didn't think he needed to seeing as he could practically feel him glaring a hole into the back of his head. He didn't care. He just wanted to put as much distance between him and that restaurant as soon as possible so he could put the place out of his mind.
"Fuckin' foxes. It's not just the Prower family. They're all out to get me." The teen shook his head as he rounded a corner, stopping to relax and lean his body up against a nearby wall as he looked up at the sky. "Well, that's that place out of the question. It's not really looking too good so far, but the day's still young. There's gotta be someone out there willing to hire me for everything."
The further this went on, the more Sorun was convinced there wasn't a single job available for him in the whole city.
He'd just now walked out of a bakery, back hunched forwards, his head bowed down, and his hands tucked into his pockets. This was the tenth place that had either turned him down or just didn't have any openings. Including that fancy restaurant he tried he'd been to three whole restaurants, and they all turned him down. The other seven places always had the same story: nobody wanted to hire him either because they were fully staffed, or because they didn't want him due to his status as a "weak, jelly-armed human that couldn't do a quarter of the work a Mobian could." He'd actually had that said right to his face by one person.
It was a cutthroat job market in New Mobotropolis apparently.
"Ugh... this is getting me nowhere." How was he supposed to support himself going at this rate? At the speed he was going he'd starve to death before he'd ever find anybody willing to hire him, if such an opportunity even existed here. And he was starting to see that as a preferred alternative to getting turned down over and over like the way he was. He felt emotionally beaten. Like every single turndown he got was a kick to his soul. That one incredibly rude Mobian that called him a weak, jelly-armed human especially.
Wasn't even that anybody forgot who he was, either. Not like anybody could seeing as he'd had his arm torn off in front of the entire city when he was busy saving all of their lives. Some Mobians profusely apologized to him that they couldn't hire him despite his service as a Freedom Fighter and all he did for them. Others weren't nearly as nice and didn't even acknowledge all he'd done, and instead just pointed right at the door after outright refusing to hire him right to his face. For the most part, though, people kept acting like they barely even knew who he was. Which was true, Sorun supposed, and he wasn't the kind of person to try and use everything he'd done as leverage to try and garner himself a job, left a bad taste in his mouth, but even if he did he wasn't even confident it would work.
Nobody wanted him, plain and simple. Nothing he could do to change that.
He'd briefly entertained the idea of going to one of his friends for advice, but Sorun decided against it after some debate. He didn't want to bug them with this. Didn't want to drag them down with his problems or make them worry further. Besides, they were all busy with the whole Freedom Fighter thing. They didn't have time to worry about someone like him. He had to figure this out himself.
Right. As if that was going well.
"Well, with how things are going, it seems like there's only one thing left to do."
"So how are you doing today, Sorun?"
"Ah, you know," Sorun calmly answered, not even looking at the lynx sitting besides him, his eyes staring right at the TV. "Fine."
He'd decided to give up looking for a job altogether and opted to just go home and wait for Nicole to visit so he could play video games with her. He didn't want to deal with the emotional duress that was getting turned down left and right. Didn't want to be reminded of his own inherent ineptitude due to being a human in a city full of Mobians.
At the very least, Nicole was there with him on another visit. He didn't know how he was going to resolve the food situation, but there was that. Her visiting let him ignore all of his problems for just a little bit, which was something he desperately craved at this point.
"That's good to hear." Thing was Nicole wasn't even looking at the TV. She was looking at Sorun. Her whole focus was solely on him. And he could tell, too, because she wasn't playing nearly as well as he knew she could since she was barely even paying attention to the game.
Somehow she was still better than everyone else, barring Sorun, at games even without focusing on it. At least enough to make him put effort in.
"I saw you leave the house today," Nicole continued. "What were you doing?"
Sorun won the round right as Nicole finished the question. A bit too easy for his taste, but he was too scared of upsetting Nicole to comment on it. He had enough sense to not complain to her for paying too much attention on him instead of a video game. "You were watching me on the security cameras again?" he questioned her.
"I simply just noticed you walking around through them," she said.
"Ah." He wasn't sure he believed her. He didn't care either way. "I... decided I should probably try and find something productive to do with my day. So I went looking for a job. You know, just something I can do to keep me busy."
"Oh! I see." There was a small chirp to Nicole's voice, and her ears straightened up as a smile broke out on her face. A real smile, and not that fake one she'd been wearing to mask all the worry she'd had over Sorun this past week every time she came to see him. Like him getting up to go do stuff was a sign he was getting better, which in turn made her happy. "And how has that been going?"
It was here that Sorun had to consciously refrain from sighing and sitting back in the couch. To give any sign that he was under duress. She didn't seem to know why it was he was walking around all day, just that he was, so that was good. He didn't want to tell her he was an utter failure at finding a job here. He liked seeing her legitimately happy instead of trying to fake it for his sake, and he didn't want her to start worrying again. But he also didn't want to lie to her on the moderate chance she figured out he couldn't find a job.
Eh, he'd just be evasive about it.
"Still exploring my options. Went to a bunch of different places, haven't made up my mind on what to do yet, it's still an ongoing process," Sorun vaguely answered her. When she kept staring at him expectantly, Sorun endeavored to change the topic. "How's everybody else doing?"
"As well as could be. Operations against Dr. Robotnik have been going without issue thus far," Nicole said to him. "There has been one development. Due to the events of your last mission as well as Enerjak's attack on his city, and due to us all having dismantled his production facilities beforehand, his autonomous forces are practically nonexistent. To compensate he's enlisted the help of the militant echidna organization Knuckles and his team often fought against on Angel Island."
"The Dark Something Or Other?" Sorun asked, prompting Nicole to nod. "I thought Enerjak eye-zapped all their cybernetics away? What're they doing working with Robotnik? And also why?"
"Evidently he restored their cybernetics on the condition they align themselves with him. We're not sure of the specifics." The lynx turned her face away from Sorun at the same time to corners of her mouth began to lower. "I find myself questioning what possessed those echidna to act in such a way. Why their attachment to technology is so strong they'd go to such lengths just to replace parts of themselves with mechanical enhancements." She rose her hand up to her face and flexed it closed, and then opened it again. "It's... confusing to me. How they could be so enamored with cybernetics when they have their own bodies."
Sorun silently stared at her hand, and then looked up into her eyes. "Because they're doing the exact opposite of what you wanted for yourself?" he asked.
"Perhaps," she confessed to him. "Some of them go as far as replacing their limbs with artificial replacements for no other reason than they're marginally more efficient than organic Mobian limbs. Limbs, eyes, internal implants and artificial organs and the such. Unfeeling metal replacements. Prosthetics for lost limbs is one thing, but they're voluntarily doing this to themselves. It just doesn't seem worth it to me to give things like touch up in exchange for a moderate boost in strength now that I've experienced touch for myself."
"I don't really get it, either," Sorun admitted. That delved into a territory Sorun didn't like going into- echidna history, and all the fuckery behind that. There were probably solid reasons why the Dark Legion were like this, but that would require asking Knuckles to go further into the history of things. Which Sorun absolutely refused to do due to his genuine dislike of their entire species with the exception of a few members. And he had better things to do than try to understand why a bunch of cybernetic fanatics were the way they were. Like stare at the ceiling.
But he could understand why Nicole would be so confused over them. For the longest time she wanted a body for herself, and this holographic form of hers was as close to a real body as an actual, physical body could get. A physical body that could move around and feel sensations like an organic body could, however... however that worked, Sorun wasn't sure of the science. He had to wonder if she was thinking those echidna were taking for granted what they had and were willingly giving up just for cybernetics. Maybe she was even insulted by the very notion of replacing organic parts with mechanical, which he wouldn't be surprised over.
"I wouldn't stress so much about it, Nicole. Those echidna are crazy," Sorun told her. "They gotta be screwed up in the head if they're working with Robotnik for no other reason than they want a shiny arm. The guy that wants to rule over the entire world and enslave everybody. The turbo dictator. Who cares what those nutjobs think at that point?"
Nicole smiled a tiny bit, and her shoulders briefly shook in subdued laughter. "You're right. Their reasons are their own, even if I think them wrong. Even if... everybody else thinks they're wrong in what they're doing. Robotnik has his own reasons for what he does, and he's clearly in the wrong." She placed her hands on the couch and stood up off of it. "I apologize if this wasn't a pleasant subject of conversation, Sorun. I know I shouldn't be concerning myself with their actions. I just can't help in trying to understand."
Sorun shook his hand and waved in her direction. "Nah, it's fine. I like talking with you." He paused and turned his head away from her. "Um, thanks for this. For... coming back to check on me all the time. I know I'm not really making things easy for you-"
"Nonsense. It hasn't been any trouble for me at all." He felt a hand lay down on his shoulder, causing Sorun to look up and see Nicole smiling down at him. "You're a very dear friend of mine. I'm just happy to see you're doing better." Her smile faltered a bit as she looked more directly into Sorun's eyes. "You are doing better, correct?"
"... As well as I can, I guess," he honestly answered. He didn't want to tell her about the nightmares. As far as he was concerned that was a secret he had to keep from everybody. That and, no, he wasn't really doing better and his thoughts kept going back to his home. She didn't deserve to be weighed down by concern over him. "It's... you know."
Nicole blinked. Her had slid off from his shoulder, and at the same time her ears lowered a bit as the smile left completely. "It'll be better, Sorun," she promised him. "I wish the others could visit as frequently as I do, but with how things are it isn't feasible at the moment. But I'll keep visiting," she assured him. "I really do think you're getting better, though. You're speaking much more than you have in the previous days!"
"As opposed to not at all?" Sorun numbly thought. "You don't have to keep doing this every day, you know," he reminded her, despite how much he wished she'd keep doing this.
"But I will. Because I want to," she said, brightening Sorun's mood a bit. "That said, I do need to leave now. But I'll see you again tomorrow, okay?"
"Alright." As he watched Nicole's body begin to disappear, Sorun managed to find the will to bid her a goodbye. "Er, bye."
"Goodbye for now, Sorun." She'd managed to give him one last smile and a wave before disappearing. And then she'd vanished, leaving Sorun alone on his couch in his living room.
And just like that, with Nicole's absence, it all began to slowly set back into Sorun. The emptiness of the house, the quietness, nothing but his own thoughts to occupy him. Thoughts of his home and everything that was gone now, which made him slump back in the couch and drop the controller on the floor. He tried thinking of something else to take his mind off of it. Usually that just entailed Nicole in some shape or form. But in this particular moment he couldn't help but focus on what she said about Eggman. Him and the echidna.
Those stupid, stupid echidna.
"Why do they always have to cause so much trouble? Garbage fucking species," he mumbled under his breath as he examined his right hand, feeling twinges of anger under his skin. "'Dark Legion', pfft. Probably did something lame and put 'Egg' somewhere in it now that they're with him. 'Dark Egg Legion'. Dumbass name." The hand dropped to his side. "I guess it's probably a good thing I lost my powers and dropped out of the Freedom Fighters when I did. I don't imagine the others would have reacted well if I started cutting through cyborg echidna. I know Knuckles wouldn't have liked me killing so many. There's not too much of his species left, thankfully."
Killing robots with mass produced basic AI was a whole different world than killing real people. Sorun would call himself a fool if he didn't realize this. And on the inside, he recognized it was more of his anger towards the entire echidna species in general talking. The more he thought about it, though, the more he had to wonder.
"... Would I even go as far as to kill them?" he asked himself. "If I still had all my powers incapacitating them would be easy. And everyone else, well... they don't even see it as an option. They'd probably never speak to me again it's such a taboo to them." Sorun sighed and turned his head up to the ceiling. "Alright, maybe on second thought I wouldn't have killed any of them. Eggman and Snively, sure, but... egh. I don't know." He rose his hand back up to rub at his head. "Could I even?"
He'd never taken a life, after all. When it came to Eggman and Snively it wasn't a question of if he could and live with it, because with them, Sorun could. Almost had some occasions. The anger made swinging the sword easy enough when he'd tried, and after all they'd done, he knew he wouldn't be losing sleep over their deaths if he ever succeeded. Random echidna grunts he didn't even know were another matter. He didn't know if he'd be able to do it or if he'd just freeze up trying. Or what would happen afterwards. Maybe incapacitating them would have been easier just so he didn't have to deal with these kinds of moral quandaries. Everybody else seemed to handle it well enough, anyway.
It wasn't like he ever wanted to actually kill anybody. And the more Sorun thought on it, the more he realized the prospect of killing people who weren't genocidal maniacs kept leading him to more and more uncomfortable thoughts, echidna or not. Killing Eggman was easy for him to justify. He couldn't put the same labels he had on those echidna. They weren't universally hated like that man was.
"... Egh, why am I even thinking about this? I'm never fighting again. I'm done with it," Sorun murmured to himself. "I kept my hands clean the whole time I was here and I don't see myself ever getting the opportunity to kill anyone ever again. Doesn't matter."
His out-loud musing were interrupted when Sorun heard a knock at his door. He sat up straight in his couch, and then turned his eyes over to the closed doorway. He once again heard knocks, making him tilt his head questioningly at it.
"A visitor?" He stood up off the couch. "Who?"
A short trip to the door later and Sorun found himself opening it. There were two figures of greatly varying size on the other side, though Sorun found himself focusing on the significantly smaller one that was floating right in front of him. A small floating creature with silver, cylindrical horns adorning his head.
"... Virgil?" Sorun blinked in surprise at the Chao. Virgil, in response, gave Sorun little more than a nod, though the human couldn't help but note the strange way his eyes looked. They were a bit wider than normal, more alert. Searching, particularly towards Sorun. He almost looked worried. Worried over Sorun, maybe.
Behind the Chao was a significantly tall Mobian. Taller than Sorun, at least, which made the human sigh out a bit at the sight. A light-furred rabbit with orange highlights here and there. "That's Cream's mother, isn't it? What was her name? V-something, something... Va, Varnish-? No, Vanilla. Yeah."
"Um... hello," Sorun greeted in his best polite tone. "Did you come to the wrong house?"
"No, I'm quite sure this is the right one," the tall rabbit said. "I came here for you specifically."
"... Vanilla, right?" When she nodded at his question, Sorun looked down at the Chao floating in front of him. "Don't tell me you made her take you all the way here just to see me."
"... Chao."
That small, affirmative noise was enough to confirm Sorun's suspicions. They were only confirmed further when Vanilla stepped a bit closer to gain Sorun's attention.
"Little Virgil has been upset since news of... well, what happened to you reached us," the woman gently explained to Sorun. "He's been restless, so my daughter assumed he wanted to see you. I had to ask around a bit to find where you live and wanted to bring him to see you. And also to check up on you."
"I barely know you," Sorun said in a blank tone. "This is the second conversation we've ever had. Why do you care?"
She straightened up a bit, a bit stricken. Like she'd been slapped right across the face. She gave Sorun an astonished look as a result. "I don't see how that would affect me caring about your wellbeing," Vanilla said to him. "More than that, my daughter is quite fond of you."
"I've also only talked with her twice."
"She took a liking to you since you used to take care of Virgil. There are not many that can care for a Chao like my daughter can, you see," Vanilla explained. "Beyond that she heard stories. Of you, I mean." She began twisting at her long skirt with her hands. "Of how you're this brave Freedom Fighter who goes out of his way to save everybody-"
"Overblown, really," Sorun interrupted, making the rabbit freeze. "Mobians..." his thoughts continued as a tired look overtook his features. Barely even knew these folks and even they were fretting over him, even if he'd just been using them as a convenient excuse to dump his Chao on them. They were a nice enough family. He just could barely understand why they'd care about him so much. "Please tell me you didn't tell your daughter what happened with me," Sorun asked Vanilla.
Much to his relief, she shook her head. "I just told her that you couldn't go on the trip you told her about after all," she informed him. "Why do you ask?"
"I don't think telling a little girl seven billion people died would be a good idea. So thanks for not doing that."
He started to regret saying that when Vanilla's entire demeanor changed completely. She looked positively horrified, having widened her eyes at Sorun while holding a hand to her mouth. Virgil's reaction was much more subdued, but even so Sorun could still see the worry in the Chao's face. The worry and sadness and the way his head was bowed a bit.
"Oh, my... Sorun, I had no idea..." The hand slowly lowered from the rabbit's mouth, though that sorrowful, pitying look was still present in her eyes. Sorun felt himself bristle from that look. "I-I knew they said your home was lost, but I hadn't realized that many..." She stopped herself, and then allowed her eyes to travel down lower to Sorun's body. He couldn't understand why, but for some reason her examining his body caused her to grow concern on top of everything else. "Pardon for me asking, Sorun, but I'm not very knowledgeable of your kind. Are... are you supposed to be this thin?"
"..." Sorun looked down at himself. He had grown a bit thinner as of late. Probably because of how little he'd been eating. It suddenly dawned on him why Nicole always kept looking at his body with worry every so often whenever she visited. He hadn't realized it'd grown so visible. "It's fine," he lied as he looked back up at Vanilla.
She didn't look convinced in the slightest. "Dear, have you been eating?"
"Damn mother's intuition," Sorun thought. "Some. Once, twice a day. Quit asking."
Her eyes widened. "S-Sorun-!"
"You wanted to check on me, and I'm fine. Nice seeing you two again, now leave me alone."
That should have been the end of it right there. He'd turned around back into his house and made to close the door behind him. But he'd only managed to close it halfway before a hand reached out and stopped Sorun before he'd managed to close it fully. He sighed, and then looked back. Of course Vanilla was there holding the door open with her hand, and she'd even gone as far as to push her foot in the doorway. She wasn't alone, either: Virgil was hovering in the doorway like he intended to use his entire body to block the door from being closed.
And neither one looked like they were willing to let the matter go.
"What are you-?"
"You are coming to my home for dinner right this instant."
And now Sorun's eyes were widened, only slightly so, as he shot the woman a bewildered look. But Vanilla, for her part, didn't at all look phased by the look. In fact, she looked... awfully serious at the moment, bewildering Sorun even further. And so did Virgil.
"Excuse me...?" He shook his head and refocused on Vanilla's face. "You want me to-"
"Yes. Right now," she demanded. Demanded, with that authoritative tone only a mother could have that made Sorun freeze and stiffen his back up. "I won't be taking no for an answer."
"Why?" Sorun bit out. He wanted to refuse. Desperately. But that tone she was using with him kept stopping his attempts. That motherly, authoritative tone. It gave him painful reminders of his own mother. He'd even heard Bernadette use it on her own son whenever she scolded Sonic.
It had to be some strange ability exclusively hidden among mothers. Sorun couldn't think of any other explanation otherwise. And her voice, that way she was looking at him, those eyes, everything about her kept him locked in place. And he felt so nervous he couldn't look away from her.
How the hell did they do that?
"I simply want to treat you to dinner is all. You're a friend of mine and Cream's, as well as Virgil's original owner," Vanilla calmly exclaimed in a firm voice that made Sorun's spine more rigid. "And afterwards we can have a talk. Just you and I."
"Say no," Sorun tried thinking to himself. "Refuse, close the door, she can't make you do anything you don't want, just say no and-"
Later
"How the fuck did it come to this?"
Well, here he was. At another home's dinner table, with food laid out before him. Food that he was awkwardly staring down at in an effort to avoid the eyes of everybody else sitting at the table. The rabbit child sitting on the left side of the table from Sorun's point of view, and her mother who was sitting on the other end opposite to him. Both of which were looking at him.
It was all her fault. Vanilla's. Her fault Sorun was sitting in her home practically being forced to have dinner with her family. It'd been in her eyes. That knowing look, the questions about his deteriorating weight. The fact he went and confirmed to her he'd been undereating in that moment of weakness. It wasn't even just that tone of hers that she'd used on Sorun that had frozen him to the spot. It was that hidden threat she'd had behind her eyes, her body language, the implications behind all of it.
Sorun was intensely worried she would go and tell the others what was going on with him. So of course he'd given in and followed her back home. Admittedly he was still worried she'd go and say something to them. He hoped to try and clear it up seeing as she wanted to have a talk with him after dinner. Whatever that entailed.
He didn't know what the hell he was supposed to clear up seeing as she was spot-on with whatever concerns she had over him, though.
How he was supposed to survive the dinner alone was another mystery Sorun couldn't unravel. It seemed like even the food was taunting him. The food he was staring down at to avoid everybody's eyes. A plate of steamed vegetables. Mainly carrots.
"I don't even like carrots."
"Thank you for-"
"Dammit, they're saying words."
"- coming to dinner with us, Mr. Sorun!" Inhaling deeply, Sorun looked up from his food and to the left side of the table. Cream was beaming up at him happily, face full of youthful and blissful innocence that Sorun desired to possess at the moment. Vanilla, over at the end of the table, at least seemed to be in a calm, easy mood. She still kept maintaining a level look with Sorun regardless. He couldn't tell if that warm look she had was just a front she was putting up for her daughter or if she was just that confident in cornering Sorun like this.
"Why do all mothers have to be like this?" Sorun blinked over at Vanilla once and then shifted his gaze to Cream. "Technically I should be the one thanking you," Sorun said to the young rabbit. He'd idly picked up a fork and began mindlessly stabbing at one of the steamed carrots, though he never endeavored to actually eat anything. "It, uh... it was very kind of your mother to invite me. I didn't expect it." He glanced at Vanilla. "Really, really didn't expect it..."
The warm look and level gaze wouldn't disappear off her face. She was doing this on purpose. Had to be.
"Mhm! Mother can be very kind like that!" Sorun found some small amusement in how Cream kept carrying on like she couldn't sense the tension between himself and her mother. Probably couldn't for how young she was. He wished he was as clueless so he didn't have to feel so awkward. "What happened with that trip you said you were going on, Mr. Sorun? I thought you said you weren't coming back once you left?"
"My trip. Right." How the hell was he supposed to go about this? He didn't want to tell her what happened with Earth. He wasn't even sure she knew he was from a whole other zone, if anybody ever told her. "It got cut short, unfortunately," he said. "I wasn't able to go on it after all, so I'm staying here in the city."
"Oh... that's too bad." Cream visibly deflated in her seat. "I hope your family is doing alright."
Sorun darted his eyes away from Cream's. "Yeah, we keep in touch. It's fine."
Vanilla cleared her throat. An attempt at trying to change the subject, Sorun had assumed. He sent her a thankful nod, causing Vanilla to nod back before speaking. "You know, Sorun, you're allowed to eat the food I made for you," the older rabbit pointed out.
He was suddenly a lot less thankful. "I realize this." He glanced down at the carrot he'd been stabbing with the fork, and then stuck it fully to bring it up to his mouth. "Alright, maybe if I try really hard I won't gag and- wow, what the hell, this is actually good."
Never did like vegetables. They were too bitter for Sorun, too tasteless. Fruits, sure. Vegetables? He steered clear away from them all the time his whole life. It was the reason he expected to be completely disgusted by a plate full of vegetables, but for some reason these ones actually had flavor. And decent flavor at that.
... He was also apparently hungrier than he thought he was, because after taking that first bite Sorun suddenly felt ten times hungrier.
When he started eating with a newfound fervor, a kind of eagerness that would have resulted in him practically attacking the plate if he didn't exercise an excruciating amount of self control to just appear to be eating quickly, Sorun noticed Vanilla's expression change just the slightest amount when she and her daughter began eating as well. She had just the slightest hint of smug on her face, the self-satisfied kind of smug. And beneath that her eyes relaxed a bit as the hidden worry that Sorun just now noticed in her eyes. A worry he only now noticed was there due to the fact it was absent now.
"This woman really scares me. She's also a great cook," Sorun thought to himself. "Now I just kinda feel like a jerk for trying to blow her off back at my house. She's just worried about me like everyone else."
Didn't surprise him that she'd be so caring despite the fact they barely knew each other. Mobians were just like that. A belief Sorun didn't believe in quite as much with today's events, but with all he'd seen that supported this point of view, it couldn't be denied. He was still concerned about her informing the others, which would lead to all sorts of awkward questions he didn't want to answer, but at this point there wasn't anything he could do but hope he could smooth it out with her.
"I, uh... wanted to thank you. Again. I mean I know I already did, but, uh... thanks, Vanilla. Y-you know, for the dinner," Sorun stammered out. "I don't really have a lot of food back at my home."
Vanilla's face shifted again. He knew the worry was back, but she was hiding it well, to the point Sorun didn't notice it. But he had noticed the change in her expression. And she was looking right at his eyes with a leveled gaze again. "And why is that, Sorun?" she asked.
Sorun placed his fork down on the plate. He made a sigh, and then leaned back in his chair. "I'm pretty financially challenged," he admitted to her. "I tried going out to look for a job, but it didn't go really well."
The worry was growing more apparent on Vanilla's face. By now Cream had stopped eating and was looking at him, too. "What went wrong?" Vanilla pressed.
"Well, the problem is that there isn't really a lot of positions open for me. I never even technically finished my high school education, so there aren't many options I have. And this is a pretty small self-sustaining city with a population that doesn't even break a thousand. There just aren't that many jobs period." He glanced away from the two rabbits in embarrassment. "Doesn't help I'm physically the weakest and slowest person in the whole city."
"So what is it you plan on doing?"
Sorun shrugged. "I dunno. Starve to death, I guess." When he looked back at the mother and daughter, Sorun felt himself internally wince when he saw them both giving him alarmed looks. "Why did I say that out loud?"
"Ahem!" Vanilla had quickly and loudly cleared her throat, and then rose up out of her seat. "Cream, dear," she began as she looked at her daughter, "I think it's time you went to bed, don't you?"
"Huh?" Cream looked down at her half-finished plate. "But mother-"
"I'll take care of it, dear, don't worry about it. Come along, now." Without further protest, Cream hopped off of her chair and walked towards her mother, who had already left the table. They grasped hands and began to move away towards another end of the house. Right before they left, though, Vanilla had turned hear head around so that her eyes met with Sorun's for a single second before both rabbits disappeared around a corner.
She didn't look too pleased with him.
After they left his sight, Sorun sighed loudly and sat back in his seat. He didn't have the willpower to eat anymore, with that look Vanilla gave him having wiped out his entire appetite. "One of the most wholesome people you've ever met that invited you to her own home for dinner because she was worried over you... and you manage to piss her off. Nice job, Sorun."
Some time passed after Vanilla left to go put Cream in bed. During that time Sorun had continually been alternating between states of self-pity and mortification, and it'd taken him whole minutes to finally find it in himself to get up off of the table. Half of him just wanted to leave right there and just go home so he could go to sleep and forget all this. The other half didn't really want to leave things as they were, and he still needed to have that talk with Vanilla.
Because of these conflicting desires, he'd only made it as far as leaning against the end of the wall separating the house's living room from the hallway that lead to, Sorun assumed, Cream's bedroom. He wasn't nearly brave enough to go as far as to approach the bedroom just to run into Vanilla faster. And from here he could see the front door, almost taunting him to just go and leave. He was tempted to bolt right out. In fact he almost did before he heard a soft pair of footsteps begin to approach him from down the hallway he was next to.
He might have accidentally startled Vanilla a bit when she finally reached the hallway corner he was leaning. She'd flinched and stepped back once in surprise when she noticed him leaning there, and then blinked a few times before she began to visible calm down. And then the worry began to show on her face. That and stern. A large amount of stern.
"I had to assure my daughter her friend wasn't going to starve to death," she told him in a dry tone. "She's very worried about you. I'm worried about you."
Sorun sighed and looked down away from her eyes. "Sorry," he mumbled.
"I didn't very much appreciate you lying to my daughter, either."
"What was I supposed to say, Vanilla? You actually want me to go and tell your daughter that a whole world of people died because... agh, I don't even know why."
Looking a bit hesitant at her answer, Vanilla shook her head. "No, but... you could have at least just tried to avoid it altogether. What do you think she'll say if she learns what really happened?"
"I'm not good with kids, alright?" Sorun pushed off the wall and turned around, towards a nearby couch. He walked towards it, with Vanilla following him and watching as he turned back around only to then lean on the arm of the couch with his arms crossed. "How's she doing otherwise?"
"She's doing well," Vanilla answered.
"Adjusting to the city alright? Gotten used to things, both of you?"
"Yes, yes." She folded her hands in front of her, and then looked off to the side, towards the hallway that lead to Cream's room. "She told me she wants to be a Freedom Fighter."
Sorun scoffed when he heard that. A quiet, sad-sounding scoff that caused Vanilla to look back at him. "I was a Freedom Fighter once. I wouldn't recommend it as a career choice. Pay's terrible," he said. When he saw her giving Sorun a disapproving look, the teen shook his head and tried again. "Why does she want to be a Freedom Fighter?" he asked.
Vanilla had to take a second to think of an answer. "Cream has always been a kind soul that thinks of others before herself. It's why Chao are so drawn to her, I suppose. She sees all these other heroes in the city, like the world-famous Sonic, and Amy who keeps visiting since she's good friends with my daughter, and you, and... well, she admires you all very much. Enough that she wants to help people like you all do."
A child wanting to emulate her heroes and be a hero herself. Common enough, Sorun guessed. Fit in with how caring Mobians could be, but the amount of care Cream had was a category all on its own from what he'd seen. Couldn't rightly blame her if that was the case.
"Do you think she should be one?" Vanilla continued in an apprehensive tone.
"Tch. No way," Sorun denied with a shake of his head. "Look, Cream, she's... I mean she's young. Like, young young, not... teenage like me. Developed. Mature," he said. "Still innocent. Too weak," another voice in his head hissed out in warning. "Besides," he added, "this whole Freedom Fighter thing is almost done with anyways. Robotnik's still hanging on for dear life, but that problem's almost taken care of and once it is they won't have a reason to keep being Freedom Fighters anymore. It's too late."
Vanilla had a mixed reaction. She looked mostly relieved, but a bit saddened at the same time. Glad her daughter didn't have to go risk her life but sad she couldn't get her dream fulfilled was Sorun's best guess. Probably a natural reaction for a mother, but he wouldn't know. "Well, that's... a logical way of looking at it. Admittedly I never did approve of the idea of my daughter throwing herself in the face of danger."
"You'd probably be a terrible mother if you did," Sorun said. "And no offense to your daughter, but, well... I know she's got a flight ability, but that's about it. That just doesn't cut it when it comes to those robots Robotnik keeps throwing at people. And nowadays I hear it's actual people instead of robots, and that's a whole host of other issues I don't wanna get into." He looked to the side, away from Vanilla. "It ain't a good idea. 'S all I'm saying."
Still worried him even speaking about it, the fact the Freedom Fighters were fighting actual people now instead of just robots. Those cyborg echidna. Real people had cunning the half-baked AI in those robots didn't. Planning. Cruelty. Considering the lengths they would go on their own bodies he didn't want to imagine how far that kind of cruelty stretched, and his imagination went quite a bit far from all the media he'd consumed on Earth. The only saving grace was that a large majority of Freedom Fighters had powers, and all of them had experience and the others backing them. Sorun had to believe that was enough to keep them safe. They made it this far, after all.
"Is that why you left?" Vanilla asked, drawing Sorun's attention back to her. "I understand you lost the abilities you used to have." She glanced at his right arm. "Though I'm glad you recovered from your injuries so you don't have to use them to compensate for, well... lost parts."
"..." Sorun rose his right hand up to his face. "Partly," he admitted. "Mobian children are stronger than me, after all." He re-crossed his arms. "That," he continued, "and because it was stressing me out too much. I don't know, Vanilla. I don't know how the others do it. Risking life and limb day in and day out, all the close calls, the brushes with death, it-it just washes off all the others. I don't know if it's because they're just used to it because they've been doing it since they were five or because a Mobian's mental constitution is just way higher than a human's or if I'm just that weak-willed, but I'm-I'm not like them, you know? It just keeps sticking with me. All of it. But them, they, they just... they're able to stay normal. Like they can keep doing this forever." He sighed and shook his head. "Well, I can't. Five months of Freedom Fighting was way too much for me. My limit was, like, two days. Christ, Vanilla, I'm only sixteen but I feel like I'm fifty."
He didn't even know if the concepts he was talking about was something all his friends in the Freedom Fighters could even understand. How could they when none of them ever acted like him? When they all acted like all these things that kept giving him nightmares was just an ordinary Tuesday for them. He was envious of them for that. That they all had such strong wills that all this stress Sorun had accumulated was probably incomprehensible to them since they always acted like they could never fall as low as Sorun had. He didn't think they could if they tried. For him it was the exact opposite.
Always had to be different from them in everything. His will, his species, his strength, all of it. Everything in this world was backwards to Sorun.
"And how are you feeling now, Sorun?" Vanilla's voice brought Sorun's attention back to the outside world, making him focus back on the rabbit's concerned face. "Now that you're not fighting anymore?"
"... Dealing with it," he answered.
"And... your home?"
"Dealing with it less successfully." He sighed and uncomfortably shuffled a bit under Vanilla's gaze. "Where's the kid's dad?" he suddenly asked in an attempt to change the subject.
It seemed to work, as Vanilla's demeanor shifted entirely. She looked surprised that he'd ask such a thing, though her face fell into another expression that caused some surprise on Sorun's part. It almost looked like contempt. "I try not to speak of him too much, for Cream's sake. She doesn't even know he exists, and I try to keep it that way just so she won't miss something that will never return."
The air between the two began to grow uncomfortable, causing Sorun to nervously tap his foot on the ground a few times. "So he's dead?" Sorun hedged out. He was surprised to see Vanilla shake her head.
"No. Maybe. Perhaps. I don't know," she said. "To put it simply, he... wanted me, but didn't want a child. So when I told him we were having one, and he protested, I gave him a choice. Either stay with his family or don't." Her hands, still folded in front of her, began grabbing at her long skirt, hard enough that Sorun could hear Vanilla twisting the fabric. Her shoulders were even shaking slightly. Whether in anger or sadness he didn't know. Maybe both. "I don't know what became of him. Perhaps he found a life somewhere else, or maybe he was captured by Dr. Robotnik's machines and was roboticized. Maybe he turned back along with everyone else, or maybe he perished in some mine somewhere. I don't know. And as harsh as this sounds, I don't find myself particularly caring seeing as he abandoned me and his daughter."
So that's what it was. Sorun understood immediately. "A father who didn't want their own child, huh?" Sorun looked to the side at a nearby window to look out into the dark night outside. "I know a lot about what that feels like."
He felt Vanilla's mood shift again, and from the corner of his vision he saw her looking at him with sympathy. "Ah. So, your father... left as well?"
"... In a manner of speaking." He looked back at Vanilla. "It's not a thing for Mobian ears to hear, so I won't speak of it."
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean, Sorun."
"Better you don't." It was the same reason he kept censoring himself in front of everybody he even remotely cared about. He'd seen enough to learn that Mobians in general were innocent in a lot of areas. He didn't want to tarnish that innocence in any way, even inadvertently.
Then again, what his father did wasn't nearly as terrible as his whole world dying. He'd keep quiet on it regardless.
"Listen, Vanilla... you're not going to tell the others, are you?" Sorun asked her. "That I'm... probably not doing as well as I say I am?"
The one topic he'd been dreading and stalling for as long as he could. He felt terrified just waiting for Vanilla's response to the question, and it didn't help his stress at all when she kept looking at him. A deep-in-thought look, like she was trying to make her mind up on something. He was so afraid she would go and tell them everything, and he didn't know how to deal with that. He didn't have any plans for that kind of contingency. He didn't know what to do at all.
Finally, Vanilla sighed out and began walking away. "Wait here," she'd all but demanded. Sorun did so, too scared to even budge from his spot for fear of whatever was about to happen. He didn't know what Vanilla was doing other than the fact he heard some rustling in the nearby kitchen. A few minutes later Vanilla had returned carrying something in her hands.
It was a basket full of food.
Sorun knew immediately what she was trying to do, and nearly recoiled away from the basket she was holding as a result. He didn't want it. He didn't want people pitying him, or people making sacrifices to give him handouts. He hated the very sight of that basket. He wasn't taking it.
"I won't accept that," Sorun grumbled out as he turned his head away from Vanilla.
"You will," Vanilla said with emphasis by forcing the basket into Sorun's hands, "or I'm marching right over to the nearest Freedom Fighter I know to tell them you're starving yourself."
Sorun blinked, and then looked down at the basket in his hands. He glared at it in confusion, and then looked up at Vanilla with even greater confusion. "This is the most backwards blackmail I've ever been subjected too," he informed her. "Why are you doing this?"
Vanilla's shoulders relaxed with a sigh as her eyes grew a bit more calm. "Sorun, I know a thing or two about loss and how painful it can be. But I can also understand wanting to hide it from those you care for. More than you probably think," she explained to him. "With how things are going for you right now, I really don't think you can keep carrying on like this. But I want to give you this so you have a chance of finding some way. And I think we both know that if you don't find one by the time you run out of food the others will find out. They care about you too much not to, and you know it."
That he did. And he was surprised Vanilla was reading him so easily like an open book. Maybe she really did understand a bit of what he was feeling if this was her reasoning. "You're trying to buy me time to find a way to get myself together so I won't worry the others?" he asked as he looked down at the basket. "Why?"
"It's less buying time and more helping you on your way. Whether you manage to do so or you finally swallow your pride and accept help from your friends, or they find out on their own and help you regardless of what you do, you'll be fine in the end, which is what matters the most. But I can sympathize with what you're trying to do. So I just want to help a bit. That's all." She looked over her shoulder. "But, just in case, I think you should take him back."
When Sorun looked back up at Vanilla, wondering what she was talking about, he felt his eyes widen a bit when he saw a small, blue and black creature with silver, metallic horns peaking over the tall rabbit's shoulder. Virgil floated up and away from Vanilla, only to then float towards a dumbstruck Sorun and land on his shoulder in a sitting position.
"Chao," came Virgil's unenthused greeting mixed with a bored expression on the Chao's face.
"..." Sorun looked from the Chao back to Vanilla. "Won't Cream be upset?" he asked.
Vanilla shook her head. "She actually wanted to give him back to you," she said, surprising Sorun further. "She knew how close you were and said she didn't want to keep you two apart anymore. And I'm confident little Virgil here will be keeping an eye on you to make sure matters regarding your health don't become too far out of hand. Isn't that right, Virgil?"
"Chao." Virgil made a nod.
Ah, so that was the play. She was counting on Virgil snitching to the Freedom Fighters if Sorun somehow managed to keep his deteriorating state from them. Which he doubted he could in the first place. But if Virgil was going to be staying with him now it'd be nigh impossible. Which meant he really did have to solve this food problem before the others found out. It was certain now. Except he had no confidence he'd be able to find some way of supporting himself before that inevitability arose.
Well, time to wait and do nothing and hope the best would happen, Sorun supposed. At least he got his pet back. He'd missed Virgil.
"You're a caring woman in a devious sort of way," Sorun told the Mobian woman. "Thanks, I guess. For giving me a shot." He looked back down at the basket. "Even though it ain't gonna be enough."
Vanilla made an accepting sigh. "Sorun, you know it would be easier for everybody if you just asked for help right now instead of making the others worry even more once they find out you're starving."
"Maybe. Don't wanna burden them," Sorun murmured. "I already feel like a leech taking just this from you."
"That isn't how they would see it. But I understand your thinking. I wouldn't be doing this otherwise." The rabbit stepped forwards a bit and placed a comforting hand on Sorun's shoulder. "Whatever happens, it'll work out for you in the end. I'm sure of it. Call it a mother's intuition."
Sorun released a dry chuckle. "We're onto that now?"
"Apparently so." Vanilla offered him a small half-smile. "I wish you luck and hope things get better for you sooner rather than later, Sorun. I really do. Now, I'm off to bed for the night. I highly suggest you and Virgil head home so you can do the same."
Giving him a final nod, Vanilla separated her hand from his shoulder and slowly took off back in the hallway she'd come out of previously. Sorun watched her leave, and then lifted up the basket to his eyes to scrutinize it. Enough to maybe last him another week in addition to the food he already had at home. He doubted it'd be enough to tide him over until he found a solution. There was no solution other than asking for help. Maybe this was Vanilla's way of secretly telling him that.
Well, he wasn't biting. He was eking this out for as long as possible if it meant even the slimmest chance of not alerting the others to how bad he was doing. Even if it was in vain.
... Who was he kidding? It was most definitely in vain. He didn't have a chance of hiding it from his friends. Nicole especially. Wouldn't stop him from trying.
"Tch." He looked to the side at his shoulder, where he saw Virgil looking at him from the side of his eyes. "Alright, warden, come on. Let's go home."
A/N- Everybody deadass just left Sorun to live alone thinking he'd be fine. It's extra screwed up when you realize Sorun's never lived alone before and doesn't know how to independently function in a society. Which is even worse because this particular society isn't built to accommodate him.
On another note, I have no idea what the in-universe economy is like in canon. The comics never really touch on it other then that there's an official currency, which is mobiums, and my best guess is that those equate to around the same value as US dollars since it's an American-published comic. Or at the very least because the kingdom/republic is located in the post-apocalyptic remnants of where America used to be. But again, they never really go into detail on it, so I'm flying blind in that regard and making it up as I go. The economy system, that is. Not the story itself. That's all planned out.