Recursion Error
Episode 43- The wedding
The door closed behind Sorun with a small click noise. He stepped back away from it, and with a deep sigh he looked up at the home he just exited.
For four odd months he'd lived inside this house with the family of hedgehogs that'd been generous enough to give him a place to stay. He'd never admitted it to them, nor did he plan on doing so, but he'd enjoyed his time living in this home. Living among so many people had been... unexpectedly nice. Sonic's family had been nice. Sonic himself had been nice, even if he had been a bit obnoxious at times.
But, he had a job to do. Sorun didn't know if this would be the last time he would see this house, but the possibility of that being true existed. So he decided to take in the sight one last time before finally turning around. He started to walk away from the home, and then began fishing in his pocket until he found what he was looking for. He brought it out of his pocket, staring down at the small device in his hand with a blank expression.
"So this is it, huh...?"
The device given to him by Tails was a curious thing. A small, little metal box with a screen near the top that looked a bit like a radar. It was light, too, though strangely Sorun felt it was almost heavier than it ought to have been. He wasn't too surprised at the sensation, seeing as what this thing he was holding in his hand represented. The crux to his plan- and also the thing that would accelerate his death if it worked.
He looked up from the device and at Tails. "So what's the range on it?"
"Around... a thousand-ish miles? I wasn't able to test it out to get an exact number, but if you're around that range of one it should be able to pick up a Chaos Emerald," Tails explained to him. "It was actually pretty easy to figure out once I- Sorun, your hand!"
The older teen flinched a bit at Tails' sudden increase in volume, and then turned his right hand holding the device around so he could see the back of his appendage. He hummed a bit in acknowledgement, realizing that Tails had only just now seen the large amount of deep gashes cutting through his entire hand. Wounds he'd obtained yesterday, when he'd been practicing with Yamato. Wounds that made it look like he'd stuck his hand into a blender.
Considering what he'd been trying to do, that wasn't an entirely inaccurate statement. At least he still had all his fingers.
"Oh, yeah. I was practicing something," Sorun nonchalantly explained, looking up at Tails' incredibly worried face. "Sonic told you about my Judgement Cuts, right? Well, it's... like that. I finally managed to figure it out." And not a moment too soon, either. Especially with what he was going out to do.
"But-but your hand, it's..." Tails had stepped forwards a bit and reached out towards Sorun's hand. Sorun had been a bit too surprised at the act to move his hand away, and could only stare as Tails took his wrist, carefully cradling it in his own hands as he inspected Sorun's wounded hand with a saddened expression. "Sorun, you should go see a doctor about this."
"... It doesn't hurt. It's fine," Sorun denied, gently pulling his hand from Tails' grip. "I cleaned the wounds. They're not deep enough that they need stitches or bandages. I'm fine."
"Y-yeah, but..."
Sorun's eyes had widened a bit. Tails looked like he was on the verge of tears just from looking at Sorun's wounded hand. From the way he was acting it almost looked like it was his hand that had been wounded. But, Sorun wasn't all that surprised at the reaction Tails was showing. Most Mobians were just caring like that, and Tails wasn't an exception there. It was a very charming attribute Sorun found in them. But Sorun didn't like that face Tails was making.
He reached out with his open left hand and placed it on top of Tails' head. The fox froze a bit in surprise at the contact, and Sorun's expression remained blank as he continued to stare at his face.
"You're a good person, Tails. Maybe a bit too good," he told him. "Hey, I... I forgive you for the... the portal thing. You know that, right?"
If he was being completely honest with himself, Sorun didn't even know if that was entirely true or not. He didn't know what to feel anymore, but he wanted to leave Tails with at least that much. So he didn't have so much guilt in his heart. He felt it was the best he could do.
Tails has opened his eyes wide enough that they may as well have been dinner plates. He didn't even react when Sorun began to lightly ruffle the fur on top of his head. "U-um, Sorun, that's... that's great to hear, but where-where is this coming from?"
"... The wedding coming up, I guess," Sorun blandly answered as he removed his hand. "It's making me irrationally emotional." He pocketed the device given to him by Tails and turned around. "Thanks for making what I asked for, Tails. I'll see you around."
And that was that. He didn't wait to hear what else Tails had to say to him. Sorun had just turned around and walked out of the lab, making sure to softly close the door behind him. He'd gotten what he came for, after all, and had left a bit more than he'd planned on leaving. All that was left was to finish it.
"So this is it..." Sorun ran a thumb over the small, metal box, breathing out another sigh at the sight of it. He wasn't given too much time to think on it, however, as an approaching sound tore his attention away from it. Rapid footfalls accompanied by a loud zipping sound that he associated with Sonic's running. He looked up just in time to see a blurring figure stop right in front of him.
"Hey, Sorun! There you are!" Sonic brightly exclaimed, giving him a wide smile. "What are you doing standing outside the house? We gotta get going!"
Sorun had blinked at the blue hedgehog. He'd done something Sorun had never seen Sonic do before- he wore clothes. A tuxedo, in preparation for the upcoming wedding. At least that's what Sorun thought until he looked down, and then proceeded to perform a mental facepalm when he saw the hedgehog's bare blue legs.
"... You're the only person I know that will wear a tuxedo but go out of his way to not wear pants," Sorun said as he looked back up at Sonic's face. "You really dressed up for Antoine and Bunnie's wedding?"
"Of course I did. Why wouldn't I dress up for the happiest day of their lives? They only get one of those," Sonic said, making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world. "Now come on," he continued, turning around so his back was to Sorun. "We're running a bit behind but I talked with Honey since she has your measurements, and she said she could whip you up a suit before-"
"I'm not going to the wedding."
Sonic completely froze when he heard that.
"... Don't think I heard you right." Sonic slowly turned around to face Sorun yet again. His eyes were a bit narrowed, and the smile on his face became extremely strained. "What did you just say, Sorun?"
"I said I'm not going to the wedding," he repeated, completely straight-faced.
The forced smile Sonic wore dropped into a heavy frown. "Can I ask why?"
Sorun answered him by holding up the device Tails had made for him. "Tails made me this. It's a radar that can detect Chaos Emeralds," he explained. "Since I can use Yamato to make portals to any location on the planet, I plan on teleporting around the whole world using this to locate the last two Emeralds. The range is a bit short, but with the portals, it shouldn't matter that much." He held the radar closer to himself and looked down on it. "Best case scenario is that I find them within a few hours. At worst it'll take me a few days, maybe a week. Two at max. But not matter what it'll end with me getting the last of the Emeralds."
"Okay..." Taking a deep breath, Sonic clapped his hands together and pointed his fingers at Sorun. "Then why don't you just save that until after the wedding is done with?"
Why, indeed? It wasn't as if Sorun couldn't, and in fact he truly did want to go to that wedding. He was fond enough of Antoine and Bunnie that he actually regretted planning on missing their wedding just so he could amass more power. But that was precisely the reason why he was choosing to miss the wedding. He was too fond of them.
He was already dying as-is. He didn't want to die leaving happy memories like that with them, with anybody. He was already pushing it with that party he'd went to with everyone. He didn't want to leave too many moments for them to look back on him with. Memories that would just hurt them. And beyond that, Sorun wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. He didn't want to stall anymore, and he didn't want the wedding distracting him, to erode his willpower down even further and make this that much harder for him. He didn't want to be bogged down by any more happy memories than was necessary. He just wanted to get this over with already.
"I don't want to waste time going to a useless wedding," was the only answer Sorun had provided Sonic to his question. He wasn't sure that had been the right thing to say, as Sonic didn't look pleased at all by it.
"Waste ti- what do you mean waste time!?" Sonic shouted at him. "It's their wedding! They're expecting you! For crying out loud, Antoine even reserved a seat in the front row for you!"
Sorun flinched. He didn't want to hear that. "That's their problem," he said, voice cold as he began walking forwards. "I have better things to do. So get lost."
"Are you being serious right now?" Even as Sorun passed him, Sonic had turned around to stare towards Sorun's back. The angry, hurt tone in the Mobian's voice had made Sorun stop in his tracks. "You actually think a couple of Chaos Emeralds are more important than going to their wedding?"
Sorun sharply exhaled. This was hurting more than he'd expected it to. "Evidently." Yamato materialized in his grasp after he'd pocketed the radar. "Why do you even care? Weddings are for friends and family. And I'm neither of those." He grabbed Yamato's handle and unsheathed it. "I explained all of this to you. Get it through your thick skull already."
"That's not what they think. It's not what I think, either." Sorun had just risen the blade up in preparation to cut a portal in front of him when Sonic's voice had stayed his hand. "How can you even say that? After everything you've done with us, all that time, the whole party, now is when you decide to pull this again? You know better than this!"
He'd hesitated for a few seconds after Sonic asked him the question. Afterwards, Sorun answered by slashing downwards, and then sideways, making a portal appear in front of him. "You don't know a thing about me," he said as he lowered the sword. "Just go to the stupid wedding and try to forget about me, would you?"
Sorun began moving towards the portal. He only got one foot in before he heard Sonic speak again, stopping him once more.
"Fine. Be that way," Sonic said. The bitter tone in his voice made Sorun grimace, and he was thankful he was turned away so Sonic didn't have to see his face. "If you seriously care more about getting powers than showing your feelings in front of everybody, then go. Run away."
Sorun didn't deign to give Sonic another word. He stepped fully through the portal, the environment around him warping into an endless void of blacks and blues. He exited through the other side of the portal, swiftly slashing behind him to close it before then sheathing the sword. With the katana held in his left hand, Sorun then reached into his right pocket to pull out the radar.
"Shouldn't have waited so long before leaving," Sorun thought to himself. He'd hoped to have left without encountering anybody like that, knowing full-well how it would have turned out, but there wasn't anything to do about it now.
He briefly glanced up to look at his surroundings. Some random part of the forest on the other side of the continent. He figured he'd use the radar here, and if it didn't pick anything up he'd keep using portals to go further and further out until he finally picked up a reading. Of course, when he looked down at the radar in his hands, he didn't see so much as a blip on it.
Nowhere nearby here, then.
"Okay." The radar was pocketed, and the Yamato was unsheathed yet again. "This is gonna take a while..."
He couldn't remember the last time he felt this upset. Really, he couldn't.
Sonic knew that this wasn't a time to feel this way, but no matter hard he tried he just couldn't get his mind off of it. What made him even more upset was that all around him were his friends and family, all celebrating the fact that two of his best friends were finally getting married. He should have been as jubilant as they all were and laughing and smiling along with them.
But he wasn't. He was over here sitting in a chair like a sad sack. All because of him.
"You know, I've never known you to sulk like this. Especially at something as important as a wedding."
A listless chuckle left Sonic as he looked up at Sally. She'd donned a long, maroon dress for the occasion. Like everybody else she'd dressed up.
Everybody but him. He hadn't even shown up.
"Even his Chao showed up to the wedding," Sonic mumbled, looking off to the side. He saw Virgil sitting off on the side of the confectionary table, eating a strawberry he'd plucked off the wedding cake. "I can't believe Sorun flaked on their wedding, Sally," Sonic continued, looking back at the chipmunk. "I really thought he changed after all this time, but he... he just left like that."
Sally's face formed into a frown. "I know. I haven't had the heart to tell either Antoine or Bunnie yet that he's not showing up. I know Antoine was really looking forwards to him being there," she said. The frown deepened as she looked off to the side. "We're having words when he comes back..."
Sonic found himself wincing at that. He didn't envy whatever the princess had planned for Sorun. He'd been on the other end of her verbal lashings more than enough times to know he didn't wanna be anywhere nearby when that happened.
He didn't know whether to pity Sorun or be mad at him for creating this situation in the first place.
"I just don't know what's going on in his head," Sonic mumbled out, his head rolling upwards as he gazed up at the early afternoon sky. "It's like Sorun acts one way and then does a totally opposite... huh?"
There was something in the sky. Multiple somethings, actually. Dark shapes so far up in the sky Sonic couldn't rightly make them out. The sun shining in his eyes wasn't helping matters, either, and he was forced to shield his eyes with his hand just so he could have a better view at whatever was up there that he was looking at. Even then he could barely make them all out.
"What the... what the heck is that...?"
"Where the hell are these fucking things?"
Sorun realized going into this that he wasn't going to be finding these Emerald immediately. He was essentially looking for two needles in a world-sized haystack, and his only advantage was that he had a way of instantly eliminating search areas while at the same instantaneously transporting to new search locations with the Yamato. The radar Tails had built for him was less for actually finding the things and more for narrowing down where in the world they could possible be at.
But that was still a world's worth of land, and narrowing it down by roughly a thousand miles every time he teleported somewhere wasn't exactly that significant. It was progress - for sure it was progress - but it was slow going. Slow going to the point that he was wondering if he hadn't actually highballed it when he told Sonic this could take a couple of weeks. Because he was hours into this and he had come up with zilch.
"Ugh, this is going nowhere..." Sorun grumbled to himself. He didn't even know where he was. At the edge of some lake in Soumerca by his estimate, but he didn't know the exact location. It wasn't like he brought a map with him. Something he realized probably hadn't been his best idea.
With a frustrated grunt, Sorun kicked at some of the low grass he was standing on as he gazed out into the lake. At the very least, it was a nice lake. Wide, nestled right in the middle of a large glade, crystal clear water and- who was that?
Sorun blinked heavily in surprise when he realized he wasn't alone. There was another sitting at a small wooden dock near the edge of the lake. A... cat Mobian, from the looks of it. A purple and white one. And probably the hugest one Sorun had ever seen, too- the guy looked so big that the teen was surprised the dock he was sitting on wasn't collapsing in under his weight. Sorun couldn't help but wonder what he was doing until he looked closer, upon which he recognized the long item being held in the giant cat's hands.
A fishing rod.
The Mobian was fishing.
"... Curious." Sorun's shoulders relaxed a bit. It was just some strange-looking Mobian out here fishing. He'd probably accidentally wandered into his fishing spot or something like that while searching for the Chaos Emeralds. He scoffed at the sight, turned around to leave, and then stopped.
He didn't think it was a good idea to talk to him. But, after hours of searching around for these Emeralds, Sorun's patience was already beginning to wane on this endeavor. He wanted a break, and he couldn't just go on back to Knothole or the HQ to get some sleep in. Not when likely literally everybody there would be disgruntled about him intentionally missing out on Antoine and Bunnie's wedding. He wasn't even sure he wanted to show his face there ever again if getting these Emeralds took so long. He just wanted to get them, go kill Eggman, and die in peace.
But he needed to rest a bit to mentally recuperate, and he figured he might as well do it with some company. And it wasn't like this Mobian would know who he was or ever see him again once he left. So, while making a small sigh at his decision, Sorun performed a Trick and teleported right behind the purple Mobian.
To Sorun's surprise, he wasn't even sure the cat had noticed he'd Tricked right behind him. He just kept on fishing, not having even moved an inch. Furrowing his eyebrows a bit, Sorun decided to slowly step towards the end of the dock to where he was sitting.
The large, triangular ears on top of the cat's head flicked, likely from hearing his footsteps. So Sorun knew that he knew that he was there. But he didn't make any action in response to this. He just reeled in his fishing line and recast it back out into the lake, almost like he was ignoring Sorun's presence entirely.
"Very curious..." Sorun had finally made it to the edge of the dock, and stood right besides the large cat. He noticed the large Mobian's yellow eyes had briefly flicked down to Sorun before looking back up at the lake, but even after physically seeing him the cat still seemed to ignore Sorun's presence. He seemed more focused on fishing than anything else.
"Er... hi," Sorun awkwardly greeted, not entirely sure how he was supposed to go about this.
"Hello," the cat greeted back. Sorun was a bit off-put by the overly-friendly, almost goofy voice he heard from the Mobian, but at the same time relaxed a bit when he didn't perceive any ill intentions from him.
"..." Sorun looked off to the side, towards the lake. "So what are you doing?"
"Fishing."
Such a simple answer for what was probably a stupid question. "I see." Sorun looked back to the Mobian. "I'm Sorun."
"Hello, Sorun. Nice to meet you. I'm Big."
"... Sometimes I really wonder about these names." Sorun sighed as he sat down on the dock next to Big. "So how's the fishing life treating you, Big?"
"It's great," he answered, eyes continually locked onto the lake. "Do you like fishing, Sorun?"
Sorun shook his head. "No, I... I don't really fish."
"If you didn't come here to fish, then how come you came to this fishing spot?"
"Ahh... I don't know," Sorun admitted. "I just kind of wandered over here." He looked up at the Mobian. "How about you, Big? How come you're out here fishing?"
Big shrugged. "Because I like fishing. Fishing's fun," he answered simply. "Me and Froggy like to fish all the time."
"Froggy? Oh, I see." He saw the small, green head of a frog peek over from Big's head. It must have been sitting on the other side of the cat on his shoulder. "So you and your pet like to fish, huh?"
"Mmhm. Fishing's fun. Me and Froggy like to fish all the time."
"... Oh boy." Sorun repressed a sigh and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "I think he specced too many points into his strength stat from the looks of him. Then again, for some reason the simplest people are always the wisest. Somehow. For all I know this dude's probably the wisest guy on the planet. Screw it. Let's go for it."
"I got a pet, you know," Sorun said, turning to face the lake along with Big. "He's a Chao named Virgil."
The tip of Big's fishing line began to jerk. "That's a pretty name," he commented as he began reeling in the line.
"Yeah, I named him after somebody I know. Well, not know know, just, uh... it's complicated," Sorun explained. "He's not with me, though. I left him behind in a place called Knothole."
"Knothole? Hey, I've been there before!" Big happily stated as he reeled in a fish. "All my friends the Freedom Fighters live there!"
Sorun's ears perked up, and he turned back to Big. "Oh, you know them?" he asked.
"Mmhm!" Big nodded as he removed the caught fish from the hook and tossed it back into the lake. "Everybody there is really nice. I even helped them with a play for the children once when I visited." He cast his line back out into the lake. "Are they your friends, Sorun?"
A small sigh left Sorun. "They aren't... yeah, I guess they are," he admitted. "But I don't really act like it."
"You don't?"
"No, I... not really, no." Sorun looked back to the lake and slumped forwards a bit. "I never act happy around them. I've been overly antagonistic at times. I've been a jerk," he bluntly stated. "I even skipped out on one of my best friend's wedding."
"How come?" Sorun was a bit amazed at how Big's friendly, carefree voice hadn't changed in the slightest throughout the entire duration of the conversation.
"'Cause... well..." Sorun's head dipped downwards, enough that he could see his own reflection in the water. "Because pretty soon I'm gonna... I'm gonna have to go somewhere far away. I'll never be able to see any of my friends once I leave, and they'll never be able to visit me. We'll all be separated forever." He sighed. "It's not that I don't like them. I do. I really do. I... really like one in particular. But I always pretended I didn't like any of them because I didn't want to leave them with good memories of me," he admitted. "I figured if I acted like some antisocial jerk that none of them liked then when I finally left they'd be glad and could move on with their lives without ever looking back at me. I didn't want to be somebody they liked, because that would mean they'd feel sad whenever they remembered me. I didn't go to the wedding because... because I didn't want that to be their last memory of me. Of me being there at their happiest moment before I finally left. Or maybe I just couldn't bear having to see the sight, since that'd be the last I'd ever see of them." He looked back upwards. "So I lied. I lied to them at every opportunity. Kept saying we weren't friends. Hurt them. Distanced myself. All so I could try to spare them as much pain as possible for when I finally left. And what I just pulled with the wedding was probably the worst thing I've done yet. A once-in-a-lifetime event that the best friend I mentioned earlier was expecting me to show up to, because we grew really close. I've probably tarnished the image he had of me forever with what I did. Which, I suppose... is what I wanted all along. But it doesn't feel like I did the right thing." He looked back up at Big. "Tell me... was this fool before you right?"
"Mmmm... nope."
"Geh!" He hadn't been expecting such a blunt answer from Big. It'd been so unexpected that Sorun had visibly recoiled, as if he'd been struck from Big's words alone. Amazing, really, especially as they'd been said with such a friendly voice. "You... think I was wrong?" Sorun asked.
"Yup."
"... Can you tell me why?"
"You lied to your friends," Big said, as friendly and carefree as the moment they met. "Lying isn't good."
Sorun heavily blinked at the cat. "I... realize this," he said, "but I only did it so they wouldn't be hurt."
"But wouldn't lying to them hurt them, too?"
The world felt like it paused for Sorun.
Such a simple sentence that made Sorun realize so much. He kept flashing back to Sonic, to that face he made, to all the different occasions where'd been disappointed when Sorun had turned down his hand of friendship at every single turn. He couldn't even imagine the disappointment that would be on Antoine's face for what he'd done. Or Bunnie's. Everybody's, really, for missing out on that wedding.
What was the point of lying to them all the time to save from hurting them if the process of him lying just hurt them in the end anyways?
"But... I still have to go," Sorun weakly argued. "That's not going to change no matter what. People'll be upset. I wanted to avoid that."
"They'll still remember you, won't they?" The tip of Big's fishing pole twitched, but then stilled. "Sure people are sad when people they know leave, but as long as they remember them they're not really gone."
Sorun shook his head. "Don't give me that cheesy nonsense-"
"And don't they already like you lots if they invited you to a wedding?"
"They..." Sorun couldn't refute that. It wasn't like he'd tried very hard to keep his distance from everyone. If anything, he went into it knowing he probably wouldn't have the resolve to see it through to the end. He hadn't saw it through to the end. The fact of the matter was, despite what he thought and what he did, he couldn't change what people thought about him. And his actions had done too many things to earn everybody's favor and make them call him a friend, even if he actively refused to acknowledge it.
There was no getting out of them being affected by his death. The best he could hope for was that they would mourn and move on to live happy lives. At this point it was unavoidable.
"Tch. Heh." Sorun let out something between a sigh and a laugh as he leaned back on the dock, flattening his palms against the wood as he looked up into the sky. "You know, I've seen a lot of stories where the main bad guy always had their own reasons for doing all the bad stuff they did," he said. "It was always this ends-justify-the-means thing like that, or they'd admit that they knew what they were doing was bad but that the long-term payoffs made it worth it, whatever it was. But they always seemed to make the same mistake. They got so focused on reaching the end that they never noticed all the people they were hurting along the way. Some self-invalidating thing like that. I tried not to be like them, but... I guess, in the end, I wasn't so different. I've been an idiot." He made a long sigh, and then hopped up to his feet. "Well, then again... a man oughta be a little stupid. A blonde guy with a cool tattoo said that.
"I know what I gotta do now," Sorun said as he turned towards the cat, so fired up he hadn't even noticed that Big was just blankly staring out onto the lake. "Thanks a lot for everything you've done, Big. You know, I didn't think it at first, but you're the smartest guy I've ever met." Yamato appeared in Sorun's hands. "I got a wedding to go catch. Seeya... mm, well, never again, I guess, but nice meeting ya anyways!"
After he was finished speaking, Sorun turned around and ran down the dock. The sound of a portal opening was briefly heard, though Big didn't react to this in the slightest, his focus solely on the lake in front of him. It was only after the portal was long-since closed did the cat blink and begin to look around.
"Huh? Where'd he go?"
"Alright, so by now I've probably missed the ceremony, but if I hurry I can probably catch the end of the wedding," Sorun thought to himself as he travelled through the black and blue space towards the other end of the portal. "Probably gonna have to get down on my hands and knees just to apologize to Antoine and Bunnie for missing most of their wedding. Maaaan... that's gonna be super embarrassing."
He'd do it, of course, if only because he felt so bad about what he'd done. He imagined that it'd probably turn into an awkward mess, where they'd grow all flustered and ask him to stop going so hard into the apology. He didn't know where it'd go from there. Sorun supposed he'd just play it by ear.
"Did I waste all this time trying to be all distant only for it to end like this? Probably. Kinda wish Sonic woulda been a pal and smacked some sense into me before it carried on long enough that I had to get some wisdom from the mystic cat back there, but I guess he's too nice a guy to do something like that. Oh, wait, Sonic... I'm gonna have to apologize to him too for everything I did. Don't even know how I'm supposed to go about doing that without revealing too much." Sorun walked through the other end of the portal leading into Knothole and closed it behind him. "Eh, well, I guess I'll just get into it and see what- Jesus FUCK."
What Sorun expected to come back to was Knothole. And, indeed, he arrived in the approximate location Knothole was situated in. He'd lived here for so long that it was virtually impossible for him to mistakenly have Yamato cut a portal leading to somewhere else. Not when he was so familiar with this location, more familiar here than anywhere else on the planet aside from the HQ. So he'd walked through the portal expecting to see all of Knothole around him.
What he walked out into was a Knothole that was completely burned to the ground.
