Recursion Error
Episode 71- The best gift ever
Winter on Mobius was about the same that it was on Earth: cold. Which was surprising to Sorun, because he'd half expected winter to entail deadly frost storms so severe they'd tear his skin off if he didn't huddle safely in his home. Or weather so cold he'd instantly freeze solid and die in about thirty-two milliseconds if he was caught exposed.
But no. Winter was about as normal as winter on Earth was. Freezing weather, cloudy skies, and snow. That was about the sight that greeted Sorun as he stepped out of his home. It was such a normal sight that he wasn't even feeling all that annoyed by the cold and snow around him.
"Well, seven-odd months on this planet. Had to see winter eventually," Sorun reasoned to himself. He tugged on the black turtleneck shirt he wore beneath the navy blue vest - he'd finally been able to afford more clothes, thank goodness - and trudged on out from his home's walkway and onto the sidewalk. Hands covered in black, cotton gloves were tucked into his pockets as he calmly walked down the sidewalk. He nodded at one Mobian, one of his neighbors if he recalled, that waved at him as he passed by. Another thing he'd started doing: being more acknowledging towards people now that things in his life had calmed down and he didn't feel like he was dying on the inside. Well, at least not as much as he used to.
Life had been a significant improvement for Sorun. Things were stable, and quite honestly he didn't have much to worry about anymore. The Freedom Fighters' crusade against Eggman was still an ongoing thing, but from what he'd heard things there had quieted down. Again. Sorun wasn't privy to many details since he wasn't one anymore, and he didn't particularly care enough to search those details out. They had their things going on, and he had his. Admittedly he didn't have much of anything going on these days, but maybe that was an upside. Calm and quiet had its own appeal.
Things with Nicole were... well, the exact same. To Sorun's credit he did try saying something to her every time she visited. Of course he always failed, but he felt confident he'd be able to get something out. One of these days. Most likely.
Well, at any rate things were going great.
"I guess the seasons here don't align with Earth's since we're only getting winter now. If this was still Earth it would have passed already." Sorun found himself going all the way to the park. The sight that greeted him was a small field of pure white as opposed to the green that normally greeted him whenever he came here. Nicole even went through the effort of removing the leaves off of all the trees to give it that authentic winter feel. "Few more months and it'll have been a whole year since comin' here. Crazy to think how much has changed."
From fighting robots to the death and gaining poisonous powers he stole from a video game character to this. Domestic life. Wasn't the worst fate in the world, he supposed. Didn't replace his life on Earth, but the peace was still nice. He still longed for that Chaos Emerald they held in the castle vault if only because he wanted Yamato back, but people were still adamant on keeping that from him. He scoffed every time, but conceded that their reasons valid.
It was a very begrudging concession.
He felt the slight, cold wind blowing through his hair, though he didn't lift a hand to do anything about it. More content to just stare out into the white field. And it was because of all that white Sorun was barely able to perceive the object rapidly sailing towards him. A spherical, white object that spun through the air heading right towards Sorun's chest, comprised entirely of snow. In laymen's terms, a snowball. One Sorun almost hadn't caught flying right towards him, and then tried to dodge out of the way.
Unfortunately the snowball came too fast and he ended up getting nailed in the chest regardless, resulting in him falling onto his back right into the snow. This resulted in Sorun up staring at the gray skies for a whole five seconds before he took a deep breath.
"Someone's gonna die." He rose his upper half straight upwards and stared ahead towards where he'd seen the snowball come from. The blue, spike-backed Mobian in the distance was the only sight he needed to see. "He specifically shall die."
"Ha! Gotcha, Sorun!" Sonic crowed out from the other side of the snowy field.
"Tch..." Brushing the loose snow off from his vest, Sorun slowly stood up to his feet while scooping up a handful of snow for himself. "We'll just see..." He muttered out, balling the snow in his hands as he shot an indignant glare out towards the hedgehog. Without even a word of warning he'd thrown the snowball out towards Sonic.
Aside from it not being particularly the best throw, the frozen projectile was easily dodged by Sonic, who'd sidestepped it in a burst of super speed. The irritation spreading through Sorun was magnified tenfold when he sent a cocky smirk over in Sorun's direction.
"How am I supposed to hit somebody who can run faster than sound...?"
These thoughts, and the slow realization that Sorun may have been out of his depth here, were abruptly cut off when a hail of snowballs were sent towards Sorun's way. Snowballs thrown by a hedgehog who'd gathered up the snow to form them and then throw them so fast that Sorun's eyes hadn't even been able to keep up with the movements. Movements that, to him, looked like little more than blurry shapes moving around followed by dozens of snowballs heading towards him. He may very well have been buried alive if something hadn't tackled him down to the snowy floor.
He'd actually heard the snowballs whistle overhead when he'd been thrown to the ground. When Sorun looked up, he saw a yellow body staring down at him with large, blue eyes. And for some reason he had thick, black lines drawn on his cheek fur. It only added to the confusion Sorun was feeling.
"Er, Sorun?" Tails voiced out, looking and sounding equally confused. "What are you doing in the middle of the battlefield?"
"The what? Huh?" He reached up towards Tails' face. "The heck's on your face?"
The hand was swatted away before Sorun could touch one of the lines. "Hey, quit it! You'll smear it- look out!"
Before Sorun could inquire any further he was dragged upwards by the young fox and thrown against a nearby... snow wall. A small, chest-high barrier comprised completely out of snow. The second they'd both taken cover behind it dozens of snowballs sailed overhead, with Sorun hearing some thump against the other side of the barrier they were behind.
Sorun was just about to ask what the hell was going on when he took a closer look at their surroundings. He hadn't noticed it before, since everything around them was white and made of snow, but there were all sorts of makeshift snow structures around them. Barriers for cover, bunkers, the hell, there were even trenches dug into the ground. The place really did look like a warzone.
"Jesus, how hard has it been snowing? And how the hell'd they set this all up so quick?" Sorun thought to himself as he turned to Tails. "So did I just walk into the snowbattle of the ages, or what?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah." Taking a brief moment to peek over their cover, Tails crouched back down and looked to Sorun with a smile. "We're all having a snowball fight. Hey, you wanna join in?"
Did he? If he was being honest, kind of. If only because he was off today and didn't have anything else planned. And dare Sorun say it, but it almost sounded fun. Something he was in short supply of whenever Nicole wasn't around.
"Hey, I hear you!" Sonic yelled out from the other side of the field. "Sorun can't join you! It'll make the teams uneven!"
"You have super speed, you count for five people on your own!" Sorun yelled back over the cover. The response he earned from this was another snowball flying over them. He turned back to Tails and asked, "Can I throw a snowball at Sonic's face if I join you?"
"... I guess?"
Good enough for him. "I'm in, let's go."
"Day two-hundred and eighty six. It's been a long tour here in these ice-lined trenches. The enemy continues to pelt us with mortar fire every single night. Sleep escapes me between the constant bombardment, my bunk shaking, and the constant snow debris falling on my face. Every day I fear that one snowball that will be the one to break the camel's back and collapse the trenches on top of all of us when we least expect it.
"There's no hope for any of us. All entrances and exits are cut off by enemy fire and to try and leave is folly. Amy's already been lost to the no-man's land, claimed by an icy barrage from which there could be no recovery from. The last I saw of her was when Tails was dragging her frozen form off somewhere. I fear the same fate awaits us all and that we're struggling in vain to eke out what is simply the inevitable. Moral is at an all-time low. Hope is nonexistent. I can already hear the trumpets blaring as the darkness encroaches upon us.
"This may very well be my last letter to be sent out back home. I can only hope my dearest receives my final-"
"Sorun, what are you doing?"
Sorun looked away from the message he was carving into the snow wall. Ahead of him he saw Sally giving him an odd look. Justified, maybe, considering he'd been muttering under his breath while writing on a snow wall with his finger, but he'd had important reasons for doing that. Mainly him trying to get into the mood.
The two of them were holed up in a dugout carved into the side of one of the snow trenches. Sorun still struggled to understand how they all managed to construct all of this in a mere morning just for a snowball fight, but he hadn't really cared enough to look too far into it. Too nice a distraction to detract his attention. Would have been nicer if he'd manage to fully roleplay a war-torn soldier, but Sally had to go and ruin that.
"I don't have my war games anymore, Sally. Just let me have this," Sorun said to her.
"Your war... what?" She shook her head and then ducked her body out from the square indent in the trench wall. "Whatever, come on."
"Sure." He ducked out of the dugout along with her and followed her towards the other side of the trench. "I'm surprised you're not wearing any winter clothes or anything," Sorun continued when they reached the trench wall. "Still, uh... still just going with boots and the vest and nothing else, huh?"
When Sorun looked to his left at Sally, he saw her giving him a pointed look. "Fur," was the one-worded explanation she gave him.
"You know, you use that excuse a lot." Sorun turned away from her to look up past the trench and into no-man's land. "'Why no winter stuff?' Fur. 'How come nobody wears pants?' Fur. 'How come I don't wear a shirt?' Wouldn't you know it, the answer's fur."
"Why do you always seem to fixate on me not wearing a shirt?" Sally asked him. "You don't do that with anybody else."
Well there was an awkward answer he didn't wanna give. "I'm usually too busy complaining about the pants thing," he evasively answered.
"If you say so." Sounding like she didn't altogether really understand, she looked ahead towards the seemingly-vacant battlefield along with Sorun. "I'm more surprised you're just wearing what you normally wear out here," she voiced upon seeing nothing.
"I got a new shirt."
"Yeah, but I would have expected a jacket or something."
Sorun scoffed at that. "I'm from Michigan, Sally. Place is practically a frozen wasteland during the winter. I'm used to it. Everybody there was. There were people where I'm from that went out in t-shirts and shorts during the winter." Admittedly he was one of those people on occasion, too, when he was too lazy to throw much else on. Living through one brutal winter after another had a way of making one hardy to cold weather.
"I thought you came from a place called Detroit?" When Sorun turned his head back to the left, he caught Sally giving him a questioning look. "The city you said you grew up in," she clarified.
"Yeah, Detroit was in Michigan," he explained.
Her confusion didn't go away. "But... you said that was in a place called America-"
"America was the country."
"It's not the same thing?"
"Not really." That was the problem with living in a post-post apocalyptic world. Things like states weren't even a concept. There were the countries, the settlements inside those countries, and in the rare cases of the republic they lived in or the U.F. across the ocean on the Overlander side of the world or over in Station Square, a government. For better or worse the world never seemed to grow much more complex than that. "Anyways, don't worry about it," Sorun continued. "Snowfights were a whole thing back where I'm from back when there wasn't school because half the building was buried in snow."
"Oh, really?" Sally leaned her shoulder against the trench, arms crossed and still maintaining that lighthearted, challenging look. "So what did that entail that we can use here?"
"Well, that's the problem." Sorun turned back out to the pure white no-man's land. "Nobody on the enemy opposition wears pants, nullifying my ability to snow-pants people. So that's seventy-five percent of my strategy gone right there." When he turned back to Sally she'd gone back to giving him an odd, puzzled look. "So I'll leave the strategery side of things to you."
"Stop saying strategery. It's not a word."
"Ahhhh, but think about it, Sally. It might be a word where I'm from." Sorun turned back to the white field. "You know how much stuff I can get away with by claiming it's common practice back on Earth?"
"... You haven't actually been doing that, have you?"
"No, because I just came up with the idea now and you all know me too well for me to use it effectively anymore." He could probably find some way of using that excuse and making a lie up if he really needed to, but Sorun couldn't think of any situation he could get himself into that would warrant such a lie. More than that he plain wasn't interested in putting in that kind of effort. "More to the point, what are the actual rules we're playing with here?"
There was a moment of silence before Sally responded. "What do you- we've been doing this for twenty minutes!" she shouted into his ear, making him wince in annoyance. "I thought you already had an idea!"
"And that's on you for assuming things about me, so are we using a point-based system or-" Sorun cut himself off when he saw something in the distance, near the edge of the snow-laden field they were all fighting in. "Oh, hold that thought, Sally, I just thought up something nutty."
It was a hill. An unusually large hill of snow, practically a small mountain. Sorun couldn't even figure out how something like that managed to form in the park, but it did give him an idea. A devilish idea.
"Does the trench extend all the way to that giant hill over there?" Sorun asked.
"Thereabouts, yeah." Sally answered. "Why? What're you thinking?"
"I'm thinking a childhood of Saturday morning cartoons is about to pay off."
The Snowball Effect was a common enough metaphor that even people on Mobius used it. On Earth it was even more commonplace. But the metaphor itself had to come from somewhere, and as it happened Sorun happened to know the metaphor's origin. That is, it came from a literal snowball that rolled downhill, collecting snow and growing bigger.
Well that was pretty much Sorun's idea in essence.
"Sorun, you can't be serious."
Sally didn't have as much faith in it as he did.
"Sh-sh-sh, relax, relax, it's gonna work." Sorun waved his hand behind him at Sally, who shook her head and leaned up against the large ball of snow sitting besides her. Sorun, in turn, was looking down from the top of the hill towards the far side of the snow field, in a trench on the opposite side of the one he and Sally left. He saw them down there. The enemy. The shock of cobalt blue that was Sonic's fur and spines contrasted sharply enough with the white snow that he was easy to see. Antoine and Bunnie slightly less so, but he could still see the three of them all grouped up in that trench. Plotting. Blissfully unaware of what was about to befall them.
It'd been easy enough for Sorun and Sally to get to the top of this hill. Their yellow and pink comrades were keeping the enemy pinned by chucking snowballs at their position, giving them the opening they needed. Sally had been extremely skeptical of the concept as a whole, even as she helped Sorun roll the giant thing together. Sorun tried assuring her it was a sound plan, but even now she wasn't very convinced.
"They're all lined up like dominoes." Sorun stepped away from the edge and turned to Sally and the snowball. "Alright. Help me push this thing over."
"This is a bit extreme, isn't it?" Sally didn't budge from her spot on the snowball, and was still looking hard at Sorun's face. "This was all just supposed to be in good fun."
"Sally, if I don't walk away from this having nailed Sonic in the face with a snowball, I'll have failed as a man."
"... What does any of that have to do with what I just said?"
"It's for my own personal enjoyment." Sorun walked behind the snowball, with Sally turning her head to maintain eye contact with him. "And I mean, come on, the guy's so fast that it's literally impossible for any of us to hit him anyways. Besides. He takes missiles to the face. He'll prolly walk away from this alright."
"I'm not worried about hurting him, I just don't want this to seem underhanded- you know what, fine." She shrugged her body off the snowball and stepped to the side. "Do what you want, but I'm not helping you push the thing."
"You're really gonna rag on me about cheating?" Rolling his eyes, Sorun began pushing the snowball forwards as the chipmunk watched. "I think you're too harsh. This isn't cheating. It's... creative winning." He looked over his shoulder at her as he continued pushing. "Besides, if you really thought that you wouldn't have helped me make this thing."
Sally shook her head. "I didn't say it was cheating. I just don't like playing dirty."
"Even against a guy fast enough to dodge bullets, let alone a snowball?"
"Yes, because it's Sonic. It's a game, Sorun."
"Yeah. And I win games." The snowball was pushed to the edge of the hill. Sorun halted it right there, and then turned around, crossed his arms, and leaned his back against it to face Sally. "Little fact about Earthlings, Sally. Nobody over there ever had enhanced physical abilities or overly-advanced technology or Chaos powers. When it comes to che- creative winning I'm not special in that regard. Everybody does it. Why do you have to get on my case about it?" He knew Sally had an overly large honor bone on her, most Mobians did, but hers was especially apparent. Sorun didn't know if it was because she was a literal princess or if that was just how she was. Both, probably. And while he could appreciate that, he appreciated winning more.
Honestly, it was the same reason she never let him use a gun, negative symbolism aside. He understood the reason behind it, and in the end Summoned Swords and the other powers had negated their need anyways. And he supposed it was an endearing quality of hers, in some respect.
"And yet," Sally said as a challenging smirk began forming on her lips, "never once do you ever cheat when you play your games with Nicole."
"That's different," Sorun defended, quickly finding his eyes darting away from the Mobian in front of him. "Those are fair games. The fairness is what makes it fun. Fighting Sonic isn't fair." His eyes narrowed as the grip on his elbows tightened. "It's never fair with him."
He hadn't played it fair when he challenged Sorun to that foot race.
"I don't think you're giving him enough credit," Sally said. "Speaking of which, how have you and Nicole been doing?"
"... Fine?" With genuine confusion written over his face, Sorun looked back up towards Sally. "Why are you- oops."
When he'd looked up Sorun had inadvertently leaned back a bit harder on his shoulder. This had the effect of nudging the snowball just enough over the hill's edge to tip it over. It rolled over with barely a sound reaching Sorun's ears as both he and Sally approached the edge to watch it roll down. At one point Sally had affixed Sorun with a deadpan stare, though the human remained looking completely unapologetic as he watched the snowball roll downhill.
Predictably, the snowball rapidly began to increase in size as it rolled further and further down the hill. From where Sorun was standing it was quite obvious, even from the large distance separating them, that Antoine and Bunnie saw the snowball approaching them. Sorun had snickered out loud at realizing he could see their eyes from here due to how wide they'd opened them. Sonic so far hadn't seen it coming, as his back was turned to the snowball. To further Sorun's amusement Bunnie had grabbed Antoine and then extended her mechanical legs far enough that she'd simply walked the two of them out of danger.
As the snowball neared, Sorun took delight in seeing that Sonic's back was still turned to the snowball. He seemed to watch the panicked couple depart out of confusion, and by then he'd either had the sense to turn around or just plainly heard the snowball rolling towards him. He'd turned around right when the snowball was mere inches away from hitting him, and by then Sorun had figured it was all but certain he'd be hit.
Except it wasn't. The moment Sonic saw the snowball his form was replaced by a blue speed line in his place. The snowball rolled past his previous position and sunk right into the trench he'd occupied previously, collapsing the structure entirely. Sorun felt his arms go limp and his back hunch forwards as he stared at the wreck and the noticeable lack of a buried hedgehog, while Sally seemed nonplussed at the whole situation.
"Wow, kinda a low blow, don't you think, Sorun?" Sonic's voice came at the same time Sorun heard him stop besides him. He looked to his left to see the Mobian standing next to him, all smug and smiling as he looked at the human from the sides of his eyes. "I'll grant you that it was a neat trick, but c'mon. You really thought you'd hit me with that?" He closed his eyes and had the gall to turn his nose up at Sorun. "Doesn't matter how big you make it. I'm just too fast-"
A snowball impacted Sonic in the face mid-sentence. He spluttered out in surprise and fell onto his backside, right into the snow. He shook the loose, white material off from his face, and glared up at Sorun who was tossing a second snowball up and down in his hand.
"Yeah, all that speed doesn't do you much good when your eyes are closed, huh?" the human snidely asked. "My actual plan was for you to dodge the snowball so you'd drop your guard while gloating in front of me."
Sonic's eyes narrowed disbelievingly at Sorun. "Was it really?"
"Pfft. Not a chance. You think I'm good enough a planner to think that far ahead?" He tossed the second snowball at Sonic. Predictably, he'd dodged and stood back up to his full height before the snowball even hit the ground. "We still technically win since I destroyed your entrenchment, though."
"That's not really how it works," Sonic grumbled as he looked to the side and downwards, towards the collapsed trench. "But yeah, you got a point. Don't really feel like digging that thing out again, so I'll call it here." He turned back to Sorun and Sally. "So what do you guys wanna do now?"
"..." Sorun and Sally turned their heads at each other. Sorun shrugged, causing Sally to roll her eyes and turn back to Sonic. "How about..."
"My greatest work yet. A masterpiece. Utterly stunning."
Words simply weren't enough to describe what laid before Sorun. A creation of his own making. Practically a wonder of the world in its construction, in its magnificence. He nearly shed a tear looking at the sculpture that sat in front of him. Or it may have been the sunlight reflecting off all the white around him.
It was a snow sculpture that stood just a head shorter than himself. A cylindrical body with a perfectly spherical head. Two large circles were carved into the head by his finger to simulate eyes, with no other features being added. Twin sticks were implanted into it for arms.
As far as Sorun was concerned it was a thing of beauty only one other thing in this world could compare to, but she wasn't around right now so he'd have to settle for admiring this.
"Hey, Sorun, you finished...?" The question trailed off as Sorun heard a crunching set of footsteps stop next to him. He turned around to see Sonic stopped next to Sorun, mouth frozen open in confusion as he gazed at the marvelous sculpture in near Sorun. "The heck is that?" he asked.
Sorun nearly bristled at the sign of disrespect. "It's a snow replica of a stubby machine from 'Automata'," Sorun answered.
"... Half of those words mean nothing to me."
"It was a game lauded for its creative gameplay mechanics and thought-provoking narrative. One of the best in its generation," Sorun succinctly answered, just a bit of pride detected in his voice. "And some very 'thought provoking' androids with very 'thought provoking' features."
"Ahh, I'm beginning to see." Sonic crossed his arms, a lopsided smirk on his mouth when he caught Sorun's meaning. "You know, I'm really starting to think you have a thing for robots, Sorun."
"What, just because one of my favorite games was full of hot android women? Blame the creator. Guy had weird taste." Sorun turned his head to the snow-stubby. "I mean, great taste, but weird, too," he continued. "Then again Yoko Taro always had- and I just realized he's dead, too, goddammit."
"Ah-huh. Suuuure..." The smirk Sonic had grew. "That's totally the reason."
Frowning, Sorun turned to Sonic, saying, "I don't know what you're insinuating, but you'd have to see 2B to know what I'm talking about, Sonic. Then you'd understand."
Scoffing, Sonic nodded his head to the snow-stubby. "If she looks anything like the ball-on-a-can you made, then I think I'll pass."
"It's art, you philistine," Sorun hissed out.
"It's lazy!" Sonic argued. He uncrossed his arms and stomped towards the snow-stubby as a very heated Sorun watched from the side. "It's a snowman competition, Sorun, not a... snowcan!"
"Alright, Michelangelo, then what's your big art piece?" At Sorun's question Sonic pointed his whole arm out to the side, towards the center of the snowfield. Sorun followed the arm's direction, seeing the others nearby working on their own snowmen. Some... very basic and bog standard-looking snowmen, three balls for a body and everything. He noted there was one snowman that was radically different, and then found himself wincing when he realized it was a replica of Sonic. Right down to the spines on the back of its head. "Very narcissistic of you, Sonic."
"Huh?" Sonic turned around and squinted towards where Sorun was looking. "Oh, no, that's Amy's."
"Oh." Should have figured that one, Sorun had felt. "Then yours is... the plainest-looking snowman I've ever seen right next to it?"
Somehow it looked even more ordinary than the ones the rest were making. Even worse was that Sonic only put in enough effort that it had two snowballs for a body. Barbarian hadn't even given it arms. Or a face.
"It's a work in progress," Sonic claimed. "And anyway, I gotta get back to it. Good luck with this thing."
Sorun huffed and crossed his arms as he heard Sonic stomp away and back towards that inferior thing he called a snowman. So what if his looked so simplistic? It had character. As far as Sorun was concerned that's all that really mattered, and at least he decided to do something different as opposed to stacking oversized snowballs on top of one-another.
"Erm... hello, Sorun. What is that supposed to be?"
"Urk!" Sorun heavily flinched and felt his anger begin to rapidly drain when he heard the familiar voice speak out to him. When he looked back, he saw Nicole standing behind him. There were hints of green lights around her that were rapidly fading away, a sign of her just now teleporting to his position, though her focus was mainly on the snow-stubby besides Sorun. "It's, um... contemporary art," he provided.
"I see..." She didn't look overly convinced, making Sorun's heart sink a bit. "It's... shapely. Both the body and head." She turned to him, and there was no hiding Sorun's despair when he saw the obviously forced smile. "I assume the correct word to use here is 'cute'?"
If it were anybody else he would have snapped at them for being so patronizing. But it was Nicole, so instead he just sighed out loudly and swiped his hand to the side. The spherical head fell off from the cylindrical body and collided with the ground, destroying the head completely and rending it little more than cold, white fluff.
And thus the world grew that much dimmer.
"It was more a placeholder for a larger project idea," Sorun lied as he turned back to Nicole. "What brings you here?"
"Ah, right." The lynx turned to the side a bit, towards where the others and their snowmen were. "The new year is coming up, and the others usually gather to celebrate the occasion at this time of year. It's a holiday of sorts. Since things with the Freedom Fighters has been incredibly hectic and this was the only predictable time they all had to spend in the city they decided to celebrate earlier this year than normal." She turned back to Sorun, smiling a bit. "I suspect they somewhat lost track of time. Sally told me to remind them all in case such a thing happened."
"Oh. Early New Year's party, huh?" As far as holidays went that was probably the first one Sorun had even heard of. He didn't know what Mobian holidays were like. Or even what they were to begin with. He doubted things like Christmas managed to survive the literal apocalypse that engulfed the world thousands of years ago. Maybe it survived in Station Square, and maybe it was something the Overlanders still had. He doubted Mobians had an equivalent. Or maybe this was the equivalent for them.
Well, it sounded nice enough. Sucked that they had to do it early since this was the only foreseeable "day off" they all had, but he could understand the logic. Couldn't fault them for working around their responsibilities.
"Yeah, Sally wanted to do a snowman building contest. I think at this point it's less a competition and more them just making whatever they want for the fun of it." Which is what he'd been doing until it was revealed to him nobody here had real taste in art. Ignorant savages. "I kind of lost the motivation to continue when some people, Sonic, I mean Sonic, couldn't appreciate the finer things."
"Fine. Yes. Of course." Nicole's green eyes had glanced down at the destroyed stubby head, and then looked back up at Sorun. "Well, perhaps I could join in. I still owe you that statue, do I not?"
For reasons other than the cold Sorun's face began to redden. "Huh-what?"
"It would only take me a few moments with the nanites." Even as she began to talk swirls of snow mixed in with green light began to swirl around her open palm. "It wouldn't be too difficult at all to make a perfect replica-"
"Ababa! It's fine!" Sorun shouted out, holding his palms up to Nicole. He really had been kidding back then with the statue; he wasn't nearly vain enough to have such a thing made in his image. He'd be too embarrassed. Especially if Nicole made it and people saw. "I really don't need... oh."
She made the statue. Granted it was only a few inches tall and easily fit into her palm, but a miniature statue was still a statue. A little mini-Sorun made of snow and standing on a pedestal also made of snow. Sorun found himself laughing out in relief and the sight of it, glad it wasn't something as noticeable as a ten-meter statue or something ridiculous.
And it was a pretty good-looking statue, too.
"I believe this is sufficient," Nicole said, gently handing off the statue to Sorun. "I would have made something bigger, but I know you're somewhat sensitive to such things and didn't want to cause any embarrassment on your part."
"T-that's not true," Sorun denied, eyes darting down to the statue in his hand. Even though it had only been in his gloved hand for a few moments it was already beginning to deform. "It'll only last a few minutes before melting."
"Yes, well, most thing in life are temporary." After speaking, Nicole looked back down at her hand. There was some leftover snow on her palm from the quickly-melting statue she'd made. "It's... cold," she observed.
Sorun looked up from the statue. "The snow?" He saw her staring at the snow on her hand, causing him to blink. "Yeah, it's... it's snow. Cold is kind of its defining feature."
"I realize this." She grasped the loose snow and began rolling it between her fingers. It spilled out between her fingers, causing her to shake the remaining material off. "It's been somewhat of a chore ensuring the city isn't too overburdened with snow. There's automatic measures in place I created to prevent flooding and the like, but the winter weather is providing its own challenge. I have to continually de-ice the sidewalks to ensure nobody falls on accident."
"Oh, right. I guess this would be your first winter without being stuck in that box, huh?" Sorun realized. He bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, rolled it into a snowball, and tossed it to Nicole. "You don't sound too impressed."
Nicole shook her head as she caught the snowball. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that," she denied, looking down and examining the snowball. She ran her hand over the ball to feel its texture, though she'd evidently pressed down too hard as the snowball completely crumbled in her hands. "The sensation of cold is a unique feeling," she admitted, "but I prefer nanites to snow. They're easier to shape and mold and don't melt. Still, though..."
She looked off to the side, towards the snow-covered field. The even blanket of white covering the ground and the artificial trees scattered around. Her smile broadened at the sight of it, after which she turned back to Sorun.
"... It's rather pretty to look at," she finished. While Sorun had gotten lost staring at her smile, Nicole's eyes had turned back to the headless snow-stubby next to him. And then the smile instantly dropped when she saw the sticks it had for arms. "Sorun. Did you snap branches off of the artificial trees to make those arms?"
The statue in Sorun's hand chose that time to fall off its pedestal and into the snow. At the same time Sorun had nervously gulped and darted his eyes away from Nicole when she sent him an accusing glare. "No," he lied.
"Sorun, I have to manually reattach those. They don't grow like organic trees."
"Oh, come on, it's two branches," he whined out. "It can't be that much of a bother."
Worryingly, her glare hardened. "Yes, because I have so many other pertinent matters to deal with. Between continually de-icing the ground to keep the populace safe to maintaining the city's systems and keeping an eye on meteorological reports to properly prepare the city in the event of potential storms. What's repairing trees you vandalized added to the list of tasks I must perform, Sorun?"
If it wasn't for the shame he felt Sorun would have been impressed with how admonishing Nicole sounded. There wasn't a hint of sarcasm to be found in her voice. And yet, somehow, he still felt like he'd been yelled at by his mother for doing something bad. Only somehow it felt worse. "I... I'm sorry?"
"We're all meeting at Antoine and Bunnie's domicile. Please be present with everyone else." Nicole turned her back to Sorun while the human began blinking rapidly in surprise. "I'm going to inform the others now."
With that, she'd teleported a short distance away to the others. Sorun visibly deflated at her departing words, and then made a sad, frustrated sigh as he pocketed his hands and turned around himself. Right in front of him laid the headless snow-stubby he'd been so proud of minutes prior.
He made a small grunt and gave it a solid kick, reducing the thing to powder in nearly an instant. The snow-stubby was already nearly forgotten by the time Sorun left the pile behind to depart the park. The memory of Nicole scolding him was less-easily forgotten.
The nice thing about hanging around in somebody else's house was that he didn't have to clean up after people. Granted, whenever people did visit his house they were often very good about not leaving a mess.
Except for the dishes. Nobody ever did those.
But here in Antoine's house it was nice for Sorun to relax and not have to worry about doing a chore because of somebody else for once. It also gave him a scope for how barren his house was compared to Antoine's, 'cause he and Bunnie decorated the house so much Sorun didn't even know if there was any house beneath it all. Lots of furniture, rugs and carpets, ornamental knickknacks and photos, tables. Creative-looking throw pillows. A plant!
And then there was Sorun's place, which was probably the most dismal house in the whole city now that he thought about it. He figured maybe he should do something about that one day. Maybe. If he ever felt like it. Sometime this year. Or next year, technically.
Then again, with all these decorations it was rather cramped accommodations, especially for eight people as opposed to the normal two. And then Rotor had come to celebrate with everyone as well, and with his size he practically counted for two and a half people.
Wasn't a lot of room for noise to travel, either, so the whole house was full of the talking and laughter of everyone present. Enough white noise that in another life Sorun probably would have been irritated at it all, but in this setting, with these people, it was different. Comforting, in a way. Much like the cup of hot chocolate he had in his hand.
"Rotor, my first ever experience with hot chocolate isn't for the faint of heart," Sorun had warned the purple Mobian sitting next to him on Antoine's couch as he swirled the mug around in his hands. "It's a daring story that leaves lesser men weak in the knees."
The walrus looked more exhausted than excited. "Why can't you just be normal, man? I asked how you were doing and now you're about to go on a rant on how hot chocolate traumatized you as a kid."
"It wasn't that serious," Sorun rebuked, looking up into the walrus' eyes. He noted how tired and baggy they seemed. "Politics really seem to be wearing you down," he noted.
"Eh, it ain't that bad," he denied. "Long hours of sitting in the same chair. I fully recommend it."
"... Can't tell if you're being serious." Sorun looked back down into the cup. "Anyways, when I was a kid I figured hot chocolate was literal chocolate melted in a liquid form, not, you know, cocoa powder mixed with water and milk and stuff. I mean, come on, it was in the name. So I took a bunch of chocolate bars, broke them up, put them in a mug and threw it into the microwave. Set it on full blast thinking I'd get a cup of melted chocolate so I could see what all the fuss was about." His expression darkened. "What I got was a charred rock of burnt chocolate surrounded by a pool of molten chocolate. I didn't even know you could burn chocolate until that day. Suffice it to say I was kind of turned off on the whole idea of hot chocolate ever since then." He took a drink of the hot chocolate. "But this is alright."
"Wow, Sorun, that's... that's something." Sounding half-asleep, Rotor turned his head off towards further into the living room, where he saw Sally and Tails talking about something. "Nice catching up with you and all, but I'm gonna go socialize with the others."
"Alright, man. Take care." At the same time he felt the couch decompress Sorun looked down into the cup of dark liquid in his hand. "I seriously gotta ask what Antoine puts in this stuff to make it so good. Guy's, like, some kinda chef savant."
When he felt the couch compress next to him again as somebody sat down next to him, he didn't even need to look up from his cup to see who it was. Mostly because he saw hints of the purple wrapping dress Nicole always wore. He waited a few moments for her to say something, but when no sound came out he decided to start speaking.
"So how are you finding things?" he asked, looking up and to the left at her. She looked happy enough, which made Sorun happy. And he figured that warranted another celebratory drink of the hot chocolate.
"Things are fine," she answered him. "You don't seem to be enjoying yourself as much, though."
Was that how it looked? "Nah, I am. Just, you know, on the inside," he assured her. "Christmas was never really my thing. Or, uh, Christmas-equivalent. Or whatever this is."
"I... am unfamiliar with the term." Nicole tilted her head a bit to the side. "Is this a holiday from your zone?"
"Mhm, yeah. It was, um... hm..."
How was he supposed to go about explaining Christmas? A time-honored tradition celebrating love, friendship, and family through the act of meaningful gifts and lots of food. Sorun didn't really know how to go about explaining that. Hell, he didn't even know the history of Christmas. Or why it was even called Christmas. He felt like something in the name should have made it a bit obvious, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was.
"... Eh, it was a holiday everybody used as an excuse to get free stuff," he settled on, taking another drink. "Lots of get-togethers and celebrating and Christmas specials about Santa Claus."
"Santa Claus?"
"An evil and vile man who would commit millions of acts of home intrusion once a night every year."
"That's appalling!" Nicole exclaimed. "And... also statistically impossible. How did he accomplish such a feat?"
"Time manipulation? I dunno." Sorun shrugged. "But nah, he'd break into people's homes to leave gifts for good children. Unless you were bad." Sorun's face soured and he turned his face away from Nicole. "Guess I was never 'good enough', 'cause he never visited me. My mom tried getting gifts every Christmas claiming they were from Santa, but I knew. I always knew." Fat bastard didn't even have the decency to leave Sorun any coal. Like he wasn't even worth visiting.
Well, now he was in another world and sacrificed his life sort-of to help save said world, so who was the good boy now?
"Ah, I... believe I see." When Sorun looked back at Nicole he saw that her smile was just a tad bit more forced. "How long did you say this Mr. Claus was running this strange business?"
Sorun shrugged. "Few hundred years or somethin', I dunno. Long time." He took another drink. "He's prolly dead now like everyone else over there."
The smile became significantly more forced while Nicole reached over to give Sorun a few comforting pats on his shoulder. "Were there any other holiday traditions your people celebrated?" she asked.
Looking up in thought, Sorun answered with, "Not really. Everybody kind of did their own thing. There was this one thing called Secret Santa I heard about and wanted to do, but I was never able to get enough people to do it properly."
Nicole smile grew much more genuine as interest flashed in her eyes. "And what did this entail?"
"You got a group of friends together and wrote your names down on a bunch of paper things. You put the names in a hat to jumble them up and everybody picks out a random name. Whoever's name you picked you have to get a gift, and nobody knows who's getting what from who until everybody gathers back around to give each other the gifts." He took another drink of the hot chocolate. "Always sounded fun, but like I said, was never able to get enough people to do it proper."
He didn't get a response from Nicole. What he did get was the lynx thoughtfully looking at him before getting up off of and leaving the couch to go talk with Sally, based on how she was heading directly towards her. Sorun had thought it a bit strange, her leaving without a word like that, but then shrugged it off and looked back down into his cup.
To his dismay, he found that it was empty.
"Mh." Frowning a bit, he reached over and placed the empty mug down on the lamp table next to the couch. On top of the cloth coaster Antoine had very heavily insisted they use so they didn't "ruin the furniture". An explanation that caused Bunnie visible exhaustion throughout the entire discussion. Sorun also couldn't have helped but notice it was mostly directed towards Sonic.
Well, he'd asked nicely, so Sorun had gone out of his way to get a coaster.
Even so, it was a very relaxing environment Sorun found himself in. Overly relaxing, even, because he was starting to feel drowsy from it all. Surrounded by friends he implicitly trusted. Their voices going through the air. The strange warmth of it all mixed with the actual warmth from the heating system. It was nice. Cozy. Sorun liked it.
He didn't know when he'd accidentally dozed off, just that he found it much easier than he likely should have. The overwhelming amount of comfort and safety he felt was likely a contributing factor. He didn't mind too much in the end, even if it did mean a little less time socializing with the others. It was still a nice feeling regardless until somebody decided to shake him awake.
"Sorun... Sorun?"
"Mhf? Huh?" The feeling of somebody gently rocking his shoulder had been what woke him up. He'd been forced to blink his eyes a few times to clear out the blurriness, after which he saw Sally standing in front of him. And she had an upturned hat in her hand for some reason. "Ah, sorry, I wasn't out for long, was I?" Sorun mumbled out as he sat up straighter in the couch.
Fortunately, Sally shook her head. "No, only a few minutes," she answered. "So... you want in on this?"
"In on what?" When his vision cleared further, Sorun looked past Sally's shoulder. Oddly enough he saw that everyone with the exception of her and himself were sitting in a circle on the floor, all looking towards the two of them. He blinked at the sight, and then focused back on Sally. "Wha's goin' on?"
"Well... it was Nicole's idea," Sally explained. "She said you had this funny Earth custom for the holidays and wanted to help you feel more included since it's your first New Year's here. And it sounded fun, so we decided to go with it."
"O-oh. Really?" He glanced past Sally's shoulder again, and caught Nicole staring right at him from the circle of Mobians she was sitting around with. The faintest hint of red dusted against his face as he averted his eyes from both her and Sally. "That was nice of you all," Sorun mumbled out. "You really didn't have to-"
"Oh, it's nothing! It sounded really fun actually!" Sally assured him. "In fact, Sonic overheard the idea and wanted to do it just because it sounded interesting."
The statement surprised Sorun somewhat, and when he glanced back at the circle, he caught the blue hedgehog giving him a thumbs-up and a smile from where he sat. Sorun blinked a bit in surprise as a response, and then quickly rose up out of the couch.
"Alright, alright. I'm in. Kind of obligated to since it was my idea anyways," Sorun muttered as he approached the circle. Despite how he sounded, mostly due to embarrassment, he actually was a bit excited. He'd been genuine when he'd told Nicole he'd always wanted to do something like this but never had the opportunity to, even back on Earth. It was nice of them to do something like this for him.
When he finally made it to the circle, he saw that Sally had beat him and taken the only vacant spot next to Nicole. He huffed out a bit and sat across from them, in the empty space right next to Sonic, who for some reason wouldn't quit grinning. "Why didn't you tell us your zone had fun holiday stuff like this, Sorun?" he asked as the human sat down next to him. "Every year it's the same gift-giving shtick."
"It's nice to know you think getting friends presents is getting old," Rotor sarcastically called out from the side of the circle.
"Hey, I didn't mean it like that," Sonic denied, holding up his palms in defense. "It's a fresh idea, that's all I'm sayin'."
"Sure, Sonic." This came from Sally, who'd rolled her eyes while holding out the hat to Sorun. The black-haired human had already written his name out on a paper slip provided to him by Antoine, who was sitting on Sorun's other side. He'd deposited it in the hat, prompting Sally to pull it back to herself and look down into it. "Well, that's everyone's names," she announced. "So we just pull out a random name and get that person a gift, right, Sorun?"
"Mhm, yeah," he confirmed with a nod. "And it's important you keep it secret 'til we give the gifts. That's what makes it a 'Secret' Santa."
"Huh. Alright, seems simple enough." Sally reached into the bag and pulled out a name. She regarded it for a few seconds, and then passed off the hat to the person next to her without showing much reaction. Amy's reaction to her name hadn't been nearly as subdued as Sally's seeing as she'd made an outraged cry and continued to sulk even after the hat was passed along.
"Who's name she'd get to make her react like that?" Sorun wondered.
Sonic snorted. "Can tell ya who's name she didn't get." He nudged Sorun with his elbow. "Hey, you're up."
And so he was. The hat had been passed to Sorun with around half of the names still inside of it. He'd pursed his lips and looked up while his hand rifled around inside of the hat.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon..." There was really only one name he was hoping to pull. He needed some surreptitious way of providing Nicole with a gift without seeming too obvious, and this presented him the perfect opportunity. Odds weren't the greatest, but considering everything else he'd pulled off in life, this seemed far easier. "And," his thoughts continued as he pulled up a name, "we got..."
πππππΎππ
"God fucking dammit." With a look that could have killed he less handed off and more thrusted the hat into Sonic's midsection. Based on the amusement on the hedgehog's face he seemed to catch Sorun's dissatisfaction. "Ugh, he's one of those people that writes in a font so fancy you can barely even read it," Sorun observed as he stared down at the name. "Well, whatever, roll the dice and come up snake eyes. Or whatever the saying is."
Disappointing, immensely so, but he'd follow the rules and get him a gift. To not do so would ruin the whole fun of the game, and he wasn't about to tarnish a game of his own design technically. His standards were too high to do such a thing.
"So do you guys want to come back tomorrow for this?" Sally's voice drew back Sorun's attention, causing him to look up. The hat finally got passed to Nicole, who'd gotten the last name. She must have liked her name, too, from the way her ears were standing straight up, Sorun had saw. "Give us all a day to get something together for anyone?"
"If we're gonna do that, can we go a bit early?" Tails asked. "My parents wanted to do a special dinner tomorrow to celebrate the new year," he explained.
"Yeah, same here," Sonic said.
"Sure, I don't see why not. Now..."
"Wonder what I'm supposed to get him?" Sorun thought to himself, the surrounding conversations mainly being tuned out from his ears as he stared down at the name. "Something that appeals to something he likes, I guess. So what does he like? Swords? Can't get him that. Cooking? I feel like a guy as good at food as him already has everything he could ever need, and I don't know where I'd ever get some kinda rare, exotic spice or something like that. Or even if I could afford it." He made a hum as he pocketed the paper slip. "He loves his wife, but I dunno what- wait. Oh-ho-ho, yeah, that's perfect. And I know just the girl to make it."
A small smirk formed across Sorun's face as the perfect idea came to him. Maybe the holiday wasn't ruined after all.
"I'd just like to put it out there that this thing is an abomination."
The passive insult flew right over Sorun's head, who was lying on a table with one leg over the other, hands behind his head as he looked up at the ceiling. He'd lazily turned his head to the side, where he saw a yellow cat in a red dress hard at work at a sewing machine.
"I can't believe you'd go and insult some of your own work like that," he said. "I'm shocked."
"It's because I'm making it it's as good as an abomination," Honey shot back. "Honesty, I don't know what possessed you to give someone a gift like this. It's more a weapon than a gift."
"Hmph. And where's your gift to me, huh?" Sorun asked her, head facing back towards the ceiling. "I thought this was a festive time."
"Your gift is me putting a priority on this stupid thing in front of all my other clients." There was a hint of ire in Honey's voice. "You know how busy I am this time of year?"
"Well, no, mostly because I would have thought this was your first year after becoming a world-wide name." There was a small, indignant growl from Honey, prompting Sorun to continue. "'Sides, I'm paying you for this, aren't I?"
"You're so lucky I let you keep that discount." The sewing machine quieted down, and then turned off completely. Sorun sat up at the sound and swung his legs off the table as Honey approached him, holding out the thing she just made like it was some kind of contagious biohazard. "Here, take it before I throw up and give it character."
Rolling his eyes, Sorun took the item and held it up to examine it. He nodded in satisfaction, and then proceeded to fold it up. "You're the best, Honey," he said. "So, uh, 'bout my gift-"
"You can let me watch in amusement as you fail to giftwrap that sorry excuse for a gift and we'll call it even."
The folding was interrupted midway as Sorun clenched his hands reflexively. "I tape your boxes shut, don't I?" he asked, voice a bit slower and more cautious. "I could be great at wrapping gifts and you'd never know it."
A large, cheshire grin, the grin Honey always wore when she knew she was right about something, grew on her face. "So are you?"
At hearing that, Sorun sighed. Sighed knowing she was, in fact, right and he couldn't wrap a gift to save his life since he'd never done such a thing before. And after trying to prove it to her he could and failing miserably he'd have to ask her for help. Which, he supposed, was its own reward. For her. "You plan this in advance or was it just a spur-of-the-moment thing?"
"I wasn't gonna 'til you had the cheek to ask me for a gift." She sauntered past Sorun, her tail brushing over his face in the process. He sputtered out and swatted it aside, eliciting a small giggle from the cat. "Alright, hurry up. I wanna see you fail miserably at this and then overcharge you for wrapping paper."
Sorun had to really wonder to himself if it was really worth going so far just for a gift.
The next day
Well, in the end it turned out Sorun's Secret Santa idea had gone, all things considered, extremely well. There'd been a lot of light laughter and happy surprises throughout the entire thing, enough that everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. Even Sorun, oddly enough, had felt happy over the sight.
It was enough to make him forget his disappointment over not having pulled Nicole's name so he had a solid excuse to give her a gift.
Tails and Rotor had drawn each other's names and had made some technical doodads Sorun wasn't able to identify. Sonic, the lucky bastard who'd drawn Nicole's name, hadn't known what to give her and instead offered a service of using the friction of his super speed to de-ice the sidewalks for the next month to give her a break from doing it. She'd been grateful for the offer, and Sorun silently figured it was nice enough to pass. Amy'd gotten Sally's name and made her a batch of cookies, Antoine had gotten Amy and had given her a book of some sorts that she'd seem appreciative over when she'd read the cover, and Bunnie had went and knit Sonic socks.
He at least tried to appear appreciative over the socks.
"Boy, uh... yeah, these are great!" In Sonic's defense he sounded genuine, but he'd failed to pull it together in that the smile he wore as he held up the blue socks stylized to look somewhat like him looked marginally fake. Sorun, who sat besides Sonic as everyone chose to sit in the same places in the circle as the day before, couldn't find himself blaming the hedgehog too much on the gift.
When Bunnie shot Sonic a small glare, Sorun had felt a bit of sympathy go through him at Sonic's expense. "Sugah-hog, ya don't seem very appreciative. Why, it's almost as if-"
"Whaaa!? Nah, no way, this is the most genuine I've been in my entire life!" Sonic denied, the thing that was supposed to be a smile growing brighter as he held the socks up. "I'm gonna put 'em on first thing in the morning tomorrow! Promise!"
"Knowing you they're just gonna end up being lost under your bed like the rest of your socks," Sorun said, drawing Sonic's glare towards him. "What? Am I wrong?"
"I'll have you know that my mom's really been on my case about leaving clothes around everywhere 'cause someone that bunked with me for a few months had to go and set an example of cleanliness." Sonic turned away from Sorun and began rolling his new socks up. "My home life's ruined 'cause of you."
"Yes, I showed you the world of clean rooms. What a monster I am," Sorun deadpanned. There were grins and snickers from the others all around, making Sonic's shoulders sag and his small ears flatten against his head. "Well, in any event, I think mine's next."
Everybody turned towards him in interest as Sorun pulled out the thin box wrapped in pink gift paper that'd been sitting at his side. He held it up to examine it for a moment, and then looked to Antoine, who blinked in surprise. For some odd reason Sally seemed even more surprised than Antoine, which Sorun caught as he handed the coyote the gift.
"What's with that look? There's only two people left. It was a fifty-fifty chance of who it was," Sorun said to the chipmunk after giving Antoine the box.
"Yeah, but, you... you made it pink," Sally said. "I sort of figured... eh, never mind."
There was significant confusion on Sorun's part as he failed to catch her meaning. "You figured what?" He'd only gotten pink because it'd been the cheapest wrapping paper Honey had at the time. Even then he was sure she gouged him for it just for giggles.
"It's nothing." Quickly clearing her throat, Sally quickly gained her composure and turned to Antoine. "So! Antoine, what did Sorun get you?"
"We are discovering zis very mystery at ze moment..." Antoine mumbled out as he began... he wasn't tearing into it at all, he was carefully removing the tape and unfolding the paper wrapping the gift. "Mon dieu, Sorun, zis style of wrapping iz superb! I had no idea you possessed such talent in ze field!"
"Uh... yeah, totally." Sorun was too mystified by the act of how Antoine unwrapped gifts to even try and sound genuine. Fortunately, the coyote was too distracted by the gift he'd just opened to pay attention. "What kind of psychopath opens a gift like that?"
With the wrapping paper and box carefully set aside in such a meticulous manner that Sorun felt sick seeing it, Antoine held up the gift he'd been given to examine. He seemed incredibly puzzled by it at first, and then turned it over to the other side. "What..." he asked, "iz it excacataly?"
On the surface, it looked little more than a pink sweater. The names "Antoine" and "Bunnie" were skillfully sewn into the sweater overtop one another, with a white, silk-sewn heart separating the two names. The sweater itself, however, was far wider than Antoine was, and even more bizarrely there were two neck holes on top of the sweater.
"It's a two-person sweater," Sorun explained upon seeing Antoine's befuddlement. "It's designed so that both you and Bunnie can wear it. At the same time." He shrugged. "I dunno, seemed like a good gift to get a couple."
He knew it was supposed to technically be an Antoine gift and not a Antoine-plus-Bunnie gift, but at that point Sorun felt it was nitpicking and didn't matter all that much. Besides, horrible-looking sweaters were a tradition where he was from. It only seemed fitting he get Antoine one, especially since he'd had no other ideas at the time.
Utter genius, as far as Sorun was concerned.
"Aw, it's adorable!" Bunnie's reaction towards the sweater compared to Antoine's initial reaction was night and day. She'd snatched the sweater right out of her husband's hands as was positively gushing at it, to the point that Sorun practically saw hearts in the rabbit's eyes. "Look, hon! It's somethin' we can both wear on those nights when yer complainin' it's too cold or some nonsense like that!"
Antoine wasn't even looking towards his wife or the sweater, intent instead on giving Sorun a strange look. A what-have-you-done-to-me look that Sorun was somewhat acquainted with, but still found some amusement in it regardless. In some ways it made it worth all the hassles Sorun went through to get the thing.
"Oui, eet iz... a very magnifique gift," Antoine ground out.
"You sound about as enthusiastic as Sonic did about the socks," Sorun noted with a raised eyebrow.
"I am certainly not holding any ill will for you at ze moment for what you have done, Sorun."
Bunnie tore her attention away from the sweater to frown at her husband. "Hush, you." She lightly swatted him behind his head, making him wince slightly and hold the spot his wife hit. Meanwhile, Bunnie turned her head to Sorun. "He don't mean what he said, Sorun. It's a lovely gift." She rather harshly elbowed Antoine's midsection. "Ain't it, darlin'?"
"Would you quit assaulting moi!?" After clearing his throat with one hand while nursing his sore side with the other, Antoine took a deep breath before saying to Sorun, "Oui. Eet iz. Merci, mon ami."
"I'm really not feeling the love here." Despite his feelings Sorun chose not to say this, figuring the satisfaction of seeing the entire exchange was more than worth it. "Well," he announced, clapping his hands together, "that does it for everyone, right?"
"Actually, there's one more gift to give." Sorun's head snapped to the person sitting completely opposite of him in the circle when he heard the person's voice. Nicole's voice, to be specific. And she was staring directly at Sorun. "I believe, seeing as I'm last, that it's fairly obvious whose gift this is."
Just to make sure, Sorun began to mentally count off names in his head while simultaneously looking down to finger-count off his hands. In a short amount of time he'd come to a startling conclusion, and then just to make sure he'd restarted the count to make sure he hadn't made a mistake. He only made it through halfway the second count before Sonic cleared his throat.
"Uh, Sorun, buddy?" he called out. "You're the only one who hasn't gotten something, dude, come on."
"... Right. Of course." Clearing his throat, Sorun looked up from his hands. Nicole was already holding a box out towards him. It was wrapped in paper colored with green and purple stripes. "Thank you, Nicole," he shyly muttered as he gently took the offered box from her. She folded her hands back into her lap and patiently awaited as Sorun began to open the gift.
He wasn't so much of a neat freak like Antoine that'd he'd meticulously deconstructed the very essence of the wrapping paper, but since it was Nicole's gift Sorun had still taken great care in tearing the paper in such a way that it came off as a single, torn strip held together by the tape. He'd quickly wadded it up and placed it to his side as the stared down at the small, modest box he held in his hands. Gingerly, and with hands slightly shaking, he opened the lid of the box to peer down inside of it.
It was with a equal mixture of surprise and confusion he found the same game controller he always used when playing on the game console at home. A bit... sleeker in appearance than he was accustomed to, however. He picked it up out of the box to give it an appraising look, and then shifted his gaze to Nicole with a questioning look in his eyes.
The AI, at seeing the look he was giving her, decided to elaborate on it. "I notice you always complain about the cord connecting the controller to the console, so I took the liberty of taking it while you weren't looking to modify it somewhat," she explained. "It's wireless and should sync up well enough with the console. I went ahead with retrofitting the second one as well, and even fixed the stick drift issue on the one so you can't use it as an excuse whenever I beat you even though I know you learned to compensate for it."
"Oh." Well, as far as gifts went, it was probably the most thoughtful thing Sorun could think of. He always hated the wires on the controllers because he'd lived in a world of wireless game pads, but now that he had this it felt... it felt a bit closer to home. Sorun had nearly felt his heart stop when Nicole explained just what it was he was holding, and when he looked back up at her he was nearly speechless. Nearly. "Oh my god, Nicole, I love y- THIS CONTROLLER. I-it's, it's really good, yeah, extremely thoughtful of you, thank you, love it, we can try it out later, yeah."
And now he was quite literally biting his tongue because he'd nearly said something that would have damned him. A slip of the tongue he couldn't help but make because he'd been so stunned by how thoughtful a gift Nicole had given him. It seemed he managed to catch himself in time, though, because Nicole and a majority of everybody else around were giving him puzzled looks. Except for Sonic, who was sniggering away at something from besides Sorun. What it was he didn't know, nor did Sorun care. Mostly because he was feeling an intense amount of heat rise in his face and he suddenly couldn't stand sitting here anymore.
"Well! It's, uh, it's been fun, guys, real great. We should do it again next year." Quicker than he thought possible Sorun shot up to his feet from his sitting position, controller and its box safely tucked under his arm. "We should probably end it here, though, 'cause Tails had that dinner thing he said he had to go to, yeah?" His head snapped towards the sitting fox. "Yeah!?"
Flinching back a bit from the sudden outburst, Tails hesitantly nodded. "Y-yeah, I guess I should be going pretty soon-"
"You heard the man!" With acute awareness that all eyes were on Sorun, he began to step around the circle of Mobians. "Antoine, Bunnie, thanks for hosting us, it's been real great, guys, but there's something at home I need to go attend to so yeah, we should all do this again sometime, bye!"
"Er, uh, bye-?" That had been Sally, who tried to say goodbye to Sorun on behalf of everyone else, but by then Sorun had already bolted out from the home's front door and rapidly closed it behind him, just short of slamming the thing. And then he'd collapsed against the door, loudly exhaling to try and calm his heart that was beating so rapidly it was almost uncomfortable. The sudden, biting chill he'd exited out into didn't even register with Sorun due to all the heat he was feeling. It took nearly a minute for him to release a slow, calming exhale as he thumped the back of his head against the door he was against.
"Smooth," he thought to himself, peeling his body off from the doorway. The gift had been too much. Both in that it probably took more effort to modify the thing than Sorun was worth spending over, and that he'd felt like he had a heart attack while holding the thing. Even just carrying it under his arm felt like he was carrying a hundred-pound weight. All because it came from her. Nicole's gift to him.
A gift so incredibly sweet he had absolutely no way of ever topping it. How the hell was he supposed to reciprocate something this thoughtful? He loved the gift, he'd been sincere in that assertion, but still... she really didn't make it easy for him.
"Sorun?"
Once more Sorun nearly felt his heart stop when he heard Nicole's voice sound off right next to him. He'd been startled enough to jump up a few inches right as the AI finished materializing right next to him, though he was quick to regain his composure while trying not to look too flustered. He imagined he probably didn't too good a job in this aspect.
"M-mm, yeah?" he asked, blinking rapidly a few times at her. "You leaving just now?"
"The others are preparing to leave, yes. I'm just the first one out," she confirmed. "Mainly because I wanted to make sure you were alright. You reacted rather oddly in there." Nicole looked down to the gift tucked under his arm. "Was the gift not-?"
"No! It's great," Sorun assured her, and he noticed some part of Nicole's composure relaxed the smallest bit. "I... I just didn't expect you to get me something, you know, so thoughtful. Everybody else just got clothes and cookies and stuff, so I didn't expect something, you know, so high-quality." He swallowed the lump in his throat and turned away from her. "You really didn't have to go through so much trouble for me."
"It truly wasn't that difficult to splice the parts needed into the controller and reconfigure it for proper use. Especially with the nanites. I managed it in a single night while you were sleeping," she said. "Truly, it's harmful to think you regard my abilities so little, Sorun."
Instantly panicking on the inside, Sorun's head snapped back to her. "I didn't mean-!" he tried to explain in a quiet voice, though he trailed off when he saw the smile on Nicole face.
"Merely teasing," she said, causing Sorun to pout. "But back to my previous point. You sincerely were acting odd, Sorun." She took a step closer to him. "Are you sure you're alright?"
The small amount of concern Sorun heard in her voice only caused Sorun's heartrate to spike even further. "I, um... I was just flustered a bit. Is all. I'm not used to this kind of thing." His eyes traveled down Nicole's body when he found the will to look back at her. Oddly enough, he saw she was holding one more wrapped gift under her arm. A slightly larger box wrapped with blue wrapping paper. "What's that?" he asked her.
Nicole looked down to what Sorun was looking at. She remained completely still for a moment, and then looked back up to Sorun's face. For some reason she looked nervous now. "Well... it's your gift."
"..." It took a few seconds for Sorun's brain to process the sentence. Even then, he was sure he misheard. "But you already got me a gift."
"Right, about that..." Nicole reached under her arm to grip the present with both hands. "In truth, I'd been preparing this gift for you in advance, in preparation of the holiday. I'd already wanted to give this to you, but then you sprung that gift-giving event on us all..." Nicole glanced back at the house. "It was undoubtedly fun, but I'd drawn your name and didn't want to... well, this seemed too personal. So I decided to give you two gifts instead." She held the box out to him. "Here."
"I could have just given her something in private outside of the Secret Santa thing? What the hell, of course I could have. Idiot." Admittedly he wouldn't have had the excuse it would have provided, but still... a large part of Sorun was beginning to feel awful. One amazing gift was bad enough. But two? And one that Nicole was planning in advance at that? "Christ, and I didn't even get her anything... why the... why the hell is she doing so much for me...?"
Of course he'd still taken the blue-wrapped gift from her, albeit with extreme reluctance. Nicole had taken the box containing the controller from him while Sorun, with borderline reverence, opened the gift up. He hadn't gone as far as to tear it, instead just unfolding one side of the gift and allowing the cardboard box inside of it to slip out. He flattened the paper against the box and then opened it up so he could peer at the contents inside of it.
When Sorun saw what was inside of the box, he'd nearly dropped it out of shock. No, he'd nearly fallen over entirely when he saw what was inside of it. Something that should have been impossible to exist in reality, but there it was, folded up neatly right there in the box. A coat. A blue coat. An extremely familiar, tri-tailed blue coat. A coat that Sorun inherently recognized, down to the light, thorny, helical patterns running down each side of the coat's breasts and arms to even the shade of blue it held.
"How did... where in the world did she get Vergil's coat from...?" Utterly confused and baffled, he looked up from the folded coat up to Nicole, who was staring at Sorun expectantly. "How is this possible?" he whispered out in awe, still in disbelief over the thing he was holding. "I... I don't understand..."
Whether it be his reaction to the coat, or Sorun's sheer disbelief over it, Nicole seemed amused by how Sorun was acting. "Your digital avatar constructed that exact coat for yourself. Back during our adventure in the digital world," she explained, making Sorun's eyes widen in realization. "You kept thumbing and looking it over the entire time there and expressed a great amount of fondness for it. You even seemed disappointed when you learned you couldn't bring it to the real world. So I committed the design to memory for later use." She glanced down at the coat. "Before you ask, I went to that tailor you work for and told her you'd likely be wearing this from now on regardless of how she thought you should dress. Fortunately, she saw no issue with it." Nicole frowned. "She also had numerous opinions of my own attire. I dismissed them all."
In spite of everything Sorun managed to grow the smallest smirk. It still wavered heavily as he stared down at the blue coat and the raw amount of nostalgia he felt looking at it. "You really didn't have to... you... you really made this for me...?"
"It's made from my nanites. It has a self-repair feature. And self-cleaning. I... wanted to make something that would last," she explained at seeing Sorun's wide-eyed look.
"But wouldn't that mean..." He reached his hand forwards and lifted the coat up. For all intents and purposes it felt like a coat. The softest coat he'd ever felt in his entire life to boot. "This is a part of you?"
"I suppose, technically. You could look at it like that. It's an insignificant amount I donated towards making it."
It was becoming too much for Sorun. A coat was one thing, a coat this significant was another, but she'd even went and poured her nanites into it? He knew how precious those things were to Nicole. They were an extension of her very being. That she was giving some to Sorun to keep as a coat of all things was... he didn't know what he'd done to garner that kind of trust. What he'd done that she'd go so far for him for what amounted to a Christmas gift.
"Nicole, this is too much. It's really too much," Sorun mumbled out. "I-I can't take something like... I didn't even get you anything."
"I don't want you worrying about that." Nicole looked off to the side, a bit shyly. "You already saw how much difficulty Sonic had finding something for me. There's nothing materialistic I want for to begin with." She looked back to Sorun, a smile appearing. "I wanted to show you how appreciative I've been for the companionship you've given me. That's what I really want. So please, take the coat. I made it for you after all."
Wordless, and with great hesitancy, Sorun removed the coat that may as well have been more valuable than his own life from the box and gave it and the wrapping paper to Nicole. He unfurled it completely and held it out to examine it, noting, with shock, just how accurate it was. Down to every last detail he could remember, just like how it'd been in the virtual world. He slipped the blue coat on, pulling his hands through the long sleeves and pulling it snug against him while leaving it open.
It was a coat so comfortable Sorun could barely even notice he was wearing it. Somehow he wasn't too surprised at the fact.
"It's... warm..."
"... I really don't have the words, Nicole." Sorun looked down at the coat, and then back up at her. "It's perfect, so I can't... I can't really give any better praise than perfect." He looked back down. "You don't know how much this thing means to me..."
It was a reminder of home. A connection. A symbol of a significant part of his life that didn't exist anymore. Something he didn't have anymore when he'd lost all his possessions he'd originally brought to this world. But the coat felt different. A piece of Earth he could carry around with him now wherever he went. And... a piece of Nicole, too. He wasn't so sure how he was supposed to feel about that. About any of this.
What had he done to deserve so great a gift?
A sudden weight pressing against Sorun's torso halted all his thoughts. His mind was nothing more than a complete blank playing white noise and static when he saw Nicole and the hug she'd wrapped him in. He didn't even know how long she'd maintained it, as the ability to keep track of time had momentarily escaped him as he stared in muted silence, arms completely slack at his sides. He just knew that eventually, in a time that could have been seconds or hours, she pulled away and still had that smile on.
"Thank you for spending New Year's with all of us, Sorun. It was fun. I'm glad I could share my first time experiencing it in a body with you and the rest of our friends." She took a few steps back and glanced down at the items in her hands. "I'll dispose of the leftovers and drop the controller off at your home when I can. Maybe we could try them out then?"
"Y-yeah..." Sorun numbly mumbled out, still barely able to process any of what was happening. "Yeah, I... sure. We can do that."
"That's excellent to hear, Sorun. You're a truly wonderful friend." Parts of Nicole's body began to dissipate into green pixels. "I'm sorry to say, but there's some matters I need to attend to now." She managed one last wave. "I'll see you later, Sorun."
She left before Sorun could even open his mouth to try and say anything. Even if he had, the words never even formed in his head. There was a strong gust of frigid wind that blew past him, blowing his three coattails far behind him, though he hadn't even felt the cold. He was too distracted raising his hand up to his chest, around where his heart was.
"It's... still warm..."
A/N- I don't care what the comic lore says or doesn't say, it doesn't make sense that Mobians would celebrate Christmas. It's a bombed-out post-apocalyptic setting thousands of years in the future after the fall and erasure of human culture, it shouldn't exist. For the Station Square humans, probably, the Overlanders maybe, but I don't see why Mobians should have it when they should be using a new culture unique to them. I'm willing to waive things like everybody speaking the same language since English is the universal language everybody uses for zany comic reasons, but I'm drawing a line in the sand at Christmas.