A/N- Yeah, a windstorm knocking out the power to your block for a week ain't fun.


Recursion Error

Episode 86- Just beat up the elderly


Something to be said about potato chips from alternate dimensions. They were actually fairly decent by Sorun's standards. Either that or his tastebuds got resensitized to them after all this time, but he didn't really care about the details. Right now they were pretty good.

Though, maybe it wasn't the safest idea to be eating them here. Sitting at the edge of the cosmic road he and Silver had been walking on for a week, with his feet dangling over the side and above the infinite precipice of whatever the hell was at the bottom of this place. Forever, probably. Just forever down there. Forever of what Sorun didn't know. Made him wonder why the dumbasses that built this rode didn't install safety rails.

Didn't matter, though. He had his chips. He was happy.

"Agh, it's no use!"

Silver wasn't so happy.

He was stomping around behind Sorun, pacing back and forth on the road while running his hands through his quills. Sorun just continued kicking his feet while munching on chips from the bag he held, though he did note that Silver had been becoming more and more irritable as of late.

"You know, you keep saying that phrase," Sorun said, not even turning around to look at Silver. "You've been using it a lot lately."

"Because it's no use, Sorun!"

Another chip popped into Sorun's mouth. "Yeah?"

"We've been out here for a week, going from zone to zone hoping we can find a way back to Mobius Prime, but not a single person knows the way!" Silver fumed as he continued to angrily stomp around behind Sorun.

"I keep telling you the problem isn't the way back, the problem-"

"Is that it's too far away, yeah, I know, Sorun, but nobody can help us with that, either! It's no use!"

"What is that, the third time you've said that in the last minute?"

"Don't- don't you..." Silver whirled towards Sorun and pointed at his back, "don't you start with me. Why aren't you more worried about this!?"

"Silver, I try not to worry about things outside of my control."

"And that really helps calm you down?"

"No, never, I'm as worried about this as you are. I'm just so used to this it isn't showing," Sorun said as he ate another chip. "Won't stop me from trying, though. Even if our world is potentially doomed because we had to take a really long road trip."

That was the crux of the matter, really: unless Sorun and Silver, mainly Silver because Sorun didn't really want to get that involved with the whole "save the world" thing again, did something to intervene with whatever it was that caused the apocalypse that Silver's future fell to, it was fated to happen again. Due to using the Time Stone he and Silver were the only ones that could do that, but if they were stuck outside the Prime Zone they wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

Silver's main worry was that they wouldn't make it back to Mobius Prime fast enough to save it. They didn't even know who was behind the catastrophe, after all, nor did they even know when exactly it all went down, which meant there was a large chance that if they really did spend years hoofing it back to the Prime Zone they'd miss their window to save the world. Which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact they only had one shot at this.

Admittedly Sorun was worried about it, too, but he wasn't as outward about it as Silver was, who'd practically been pacing himself into a rut for the past week after they left that black and white detective zone. They'd been going in the general direction Sorun felt the Prime Zone was in, occasionally dipping into any passing zones they encountered in hopes of finding somebody that could help them. Or at the very least find somebody that could lend them a car or something.

But no. Nobody ever knew what they were talking about when they asked about zones. The most they could do was find a hotel or something to sleep at whenever they got tired. Sometimes while Silver was sleeping Sorun would have to go out to procure more funds for supplies. That'd been their life for the past week. Walk the road, dip into a zone, find a place to sleep, get food. It was admittedly fun for a while but after five days Sorun was starting to get sick of it.

"I just don't know what we're gonna do, Sorun," Silver mumbled out in a despair-filled voice. "You know what happens if we take too long to get back?"

"It's impossible for me not to know. You see fit to remind me every single hour on this trip, Silver." Sorun's fingers were scraping the bottom of the bag. Chips were almost out. Damn. "I know this is real bad, but hey, we at least keep seeing some pretty cool sights out here, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess," Silver agreed. "For as terrible as all this is we've seen some pretty neat things. That world full of the giant lizard things, the dino-whatevers you called them, the future-looking place with the people half made of metal, all the other sights. If we weren't so pressed for time I'd love to explore all these places. I don't think I can ever stop getting surprised by all the things we're seeing."

"I saw Shadow in a Hooters shirt in that last zone, Silver. Nothing can surprise me anymore."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask. What was that place, by the way? You took five steps in there then turned around and dragged me out of that zone."

A place Sorun really wanted to forget about. "I'll tell you when you're older."

"But... we're the same age...?" a confused Silver voiced.

"When you're older. Until then please stop talking about it," Sorun requested as he finished off the last chip. "Still trying to get the image of Antoinette out of my head. Guy's one of my best friends on Mobius Prime, I didn't need to see that."

With the bag thoroughly finished off, Sorun tossed the plastic bag into the vast unknown that stretched out before him. He watched it lazily float down until it fell too far for it to remain in his sight, after which he grabbed the nearby blue Emerald, transmuted it into the Yamato, and began to stand up.

"Um, hey, Sorun?" When the human turned to look at him he saw Silver had an uncomfortable look on his face. "I don't think we're supposed to throw our trash around like that," he said.

Sorun scoffed. "Or what? The interdimensional cops from Alpha Centauri are gonna come arrest me for littering?"

"I don't know. Maybe there are interdimensional police people. Somebody built this giant road and made all the signs."

"Yeah, but we've been out here for a week, man," Sorun reminded him, spreading his arms out to gesture to the road all around them. "You don't think if there were someone else on this road besides us we woulda found them by now?"

"... I mean, to be fair this road spans the whole multiverse," Silver reasoned. "That's a lot of ground to cover."

"Maybe, man, but I don't care enough to find out." With Sorun leading the way the pair began once again walking down the road. "And hey, listen, hypothetically speaking. The Time Stones in the future are gone, but the ones in this time period are theoretically still intact, right? If we do screw up and fail to save the world can't we just use one of the Time Stones from this time's set?"

"We could, but I don't know where they are," Silver informed him. "Master's the one that gave the one to me, and he'd only found it a few years ago. They could be anywhere on that planet."

Sorun frowned. That nixed that plan. "Well, we'll just have to do it in one, then."

"Assuming we actually make it back in time to save everyone," Silver sighed out. "Man, I feel like such a failure."

"Don't worry, Silver, I always feel like a failure. You get numb to it after a while."

Silver only seemed to wither further at that comment. "Maybe we should try some positive thinking here, Sorun."

"Maybe." There was another highway sign jutting out of the side of the road that the pair of teens had just walked past. Sorun craned his neck to read it as they passed, and then shifted his attention to Silver. "Hey, maybe this upcoming zone will have something for us. Wanna take a look?"

"Unless we find someone willing to give us a jet or something for free, Sorun, I don't think we'll find much help," a glum Silver replied.

"I keep telling you we should just steal one. From past experience I can tell you flying a real plane is nothing like flying planes in games, but I'm good enough to fly in a semi-straight line."

"No." The word was punctuated by Silver stopping his movement on the road. Sorun had stopped, too, sighing while turning to see Silver giving him a stern glare. "I already told you we can't do something like that. It's not right."

"Yeah, no, fate of the whole world for someone's jet. Totally seems equitable," Sorun dryly replied.

"We'll find another way." There was a firmness in Silver's voice that had Sorun a bit surprised. Enough that he wasn't able to immediately respond as Silver walked past him. "Single jet wouldn't even carry us the whole way anyways before it ran out of fuel."

"... Could have just stolen another one on the way, but sure." Pocketing his right hand while the left still held Yamato, Sorun turned and began following Silver. "You know, there's gotta be a point where we gotta put our own needs over relying on the kindness of strangers from other worlds, Silver."

"We've gotten this far, haven't we? Every zone we've been to nice people keep giving you money so we can buy food and hotel rooms."

"... Mhm, yeah."

"Exactly. So we'll just have to keep doing what we're doing and hope something good comes out of it."

It was frustrating moments like this that made Sorun want to hit something. Part of him almost wished Mogul hadn't chilled out over the centuries and raised Silver to be a opportunistic douche just so they wouldn't have this kind of problem. He was admittedly glad Silver turned out this way, better overall, but Silver possessing good morals like most Mobians Sorun had met was proving to have its own problems. Like this. If it was just Sorun on his own he probably would have made it back to Mobius Prime by now. Would've left a trail of chaos in his wake, but hell, it wasn't like he would have killed anybody, and this was too important.

If only he could get the Yamato to transport them to the Prime Zone. He still couldn't figure out what was wrong, despite trying for a week now to fiddle around with the thing. As far as he could tell it was still functioning fully as always, so the only conclusion he could come to was that his previous assessment was right: there were more layers to traveling between zones than simply teleporting through universe-local locations. The Cosmic Interstate Highway seemed to be an exception to that, but maybe that was due to where it was. Not a "universe", per se, but the space between them.

He was missing something. What, he didn't know, but there was something missing in the formula that would allow the Yamato to transport them between zones. Simply having been there in person wasn't enough; it was a component, but not the whole picture. And until Sorun figured out what that was they were stuck with going it the long way.

Which wasn't ideal seeing as it would take them years to get back to Mobius Prime the long way.

"You know what, fine, why not? Let's visit that zone you mentioned," Silver tiredly flopped his arm behind him, in the general direction of the road sign they passed earlier. "Maybe this'll be the one that'll get us back."

"Maybe." Sorun doubted it, but kept his mouth shut as he grabbed Yamato's handle. The doubt hadn't faded even as he pulled the sword free, but neither of them knew what else to do at this point.


As he used his katana to cut through the bundle of leaves in their way, Sorun came to the conclusion that he hated this new zone.

It was a jungle that the entranceway cut into this zone had spit Sorun and Silver out into. A jungle Sorun came to quickly despise as the pair of teens trudged through it. Not that there was anything explicitly wrong with it; the air was clean, the sky was clear and full of sun, and altogether everything was peaceful. There was even a large, naturally-paved path running through the brush that the two were following.

The heat, though, was a different matter. Sorun just wasn't built to handle a tropical climate, and he was cutting his way through a jungle with an afternoon sun beating down on him, not to mention he had a long coat on. He couldn't understand how Silver wasn't bursting into flames considering he was covered in fur, but for all intents and purposes he seemed to be doing fine.

Could have been worse, granted. At least there weren't any mosquitoes eating them alive. And the humidity was somehow bearable. But between the heat, the knowledge that they were potentially years away from getting back to Mobius Prime, and the fact Sorun's patience had been wearing down over the course of this week-long trip, the human was in a particularly foul mood.

Silver, by comparison, was ecstatic.

"Wow, just look at all this! I've never seen so much color in one place!" Silver marveled, his eyes sweeping over everything in front of them. He'd become momentarily distracted when a beetle with a shining blue-green shell buzzed past him. "This place is great!"

Sorun didn't comment.

"And hey, look at that up ahead! Maybe one of those people can help us out!"

That heavy sense of doubt that had been weighing itself inside of Sorun stirred when he saw what Silver was talking about. "I heavily doubt that assertion of yours, Silver."

The term "rustic" was the only word that came to Sorun's mind to describe the village they'd come across while traversing the jungle. It seemed reasonably sized enough, even though it seemed to be entirely comprised of wooden huts that used palm leaves for roofs. Even the people were dressed in little more than grass sandals, loincloths, and skirts.

More than a few eyes tracked the pair as they entered the village. They were clearly Mobians from what Sorun could see, but he couldn't tell exactly what they were. Bizarrely they all had varying shades of an off-white, light grayish shade of fur, and he would have called them rabbits if it weren't for the fact they were lacking the large, floppy ears he normally accustomed rabbits to. And they were all unusually skinny.

And they all looked... he wouldn't say vapid, but there was something off with their expressions. Maybe it was because two strangers of very different species just walked into their village unannounced, but between that and the fact it barely looked like these people were past the stone age, Sorun was quickly coming to the realization that he didn't want to be here.

"Silver, these guys don't even look like they know what a toaster is, let alone zones," Sorun said. "Let's just bail already."

"Without even talking to any of them? We just got here, Sorun."

"You seriously wanna waste time talking to a bunch of-"

"Hello there!"

Silver had jumped up in fright at the sudden new voice greeting them. Sorun had remained rooted to the ground, though his arms had twitched out of the urge to pull the sword from his side and swing at the source of the noise. He managed to hold off on acting on the reflex, breathing out slowly as both he and Silver turned towards their greeter.

He was one of the native gray Mobians in this village. Visually indistinguishable from the rest save for the weird headdress made of leaves and wood he had on. Probably an important person if that and his voice said anything, but Sorun honestly couldn't tell if he was old enough to have that voice or if he just sounded like that. White beard may have been a hint.

Somethin' was off about his expression, though, and Sorun couldn't tell what. Different and yet similar to all the others here. Not that it seemed too malicious or happy. It was blank, but not even on a disturbing level. Like somebody figured out how to turn resting bitch face friendly. An unholy fusion.

It was with dawning horror Sorun realized that was the same expression he wore all the time.

"Oh, hi!" Silver offered the stranger a smile and a friendly wave while Sorun regarded him with suspicion. "My name is Silver, and this is Sorun. Sorun, say hi."

"..."

"I think he gets shy around new people," Silver said, causing Sorun to give him an indignant glare. "We're new here and kind of lost. Think you could help us?"

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem, now. You just happened to walk into the friendlies village on the whole island." The old man shifted the green cane he was holding to the other hand while giving the two of them a kind smile. "Welcome to Gogoba village."

Sorun chose to speak up. "Gogoba village," he deadpanned.

"Yep. Gogoba village. Friendliest village on the whole island," the old Mobian repeated. "Usually I'm in charge of the going-ons here, being the chief and all. Say, you two seem like you've been traveling through the woods for a while now. You must be incredibly thirsty."

"Actually now that you mention it we ran out of water a while ago and-" Silver was interrupted when a pair of villagers walked up right next to them. They each had a wooden cup of water that was handed to the both of them. Silver had accepted it gratefully while Sorun had slowly and cautiously taken the cup. "Oh, wow, thanks a bunch!" Silver said as he began to drink from the cup.

Sorun, on the other hand, did nothing but stare down into the cup. It looked clean enough. He still didn't want to drink it.

"Yeah, that's the last thing I need. Fucking otherworldly salmonella from whatever hole these backwoods hicks drew this out from." Silver seemed to have the polar opposite of Sorun's thoughts, since he was still drinking greedily from his cup. It was enough that Sorun wanted to smack him in the back of the head, but he thought against it. If his own stomach killed him later that would be his problem.

The village chief seemed to notice Sorun wasn't drinking and spoke up. "Something the matter?"

"You know, believe it or not I'm not all that thirsty despite cutting my way through the jungle back there," Sorun told him. "I mean thanks anyways, but yeah, I'm good."

"Oh no, no, that's quite alright," the chief assured him with a small nod. "It's not as if it's an act of back-breaking labor to get whatever water we can back to this village from the source. Who could possibly be cruel enough to judge someone for not partaking in a gift we so generously took from our limited supply of life-giving drinking water we would all die without?"

"Sounds like a you problem. I didn't ask for the water."

Apparently that hadn't been the response the chief was expecting, which caused Sorun's eyes to narrow. He didn't like that tone he'd used. That overly-friendly tone that was just on the edge of being patronizing. He didn't like the way he ordered those words around, either. It just sounded inherently scummy to Sorun's ears.

"Come to think about it, how had those other two guys been so ready with the water so quickly when we've only been here for barely three minutes?"

"Er, Sorun?" Silver's voice sounded apprehensive. When Sorun turned to look at him, he was caught giving Sorun an uncomfortable look. "Do you really have to be that way? They went out of their way to get us this. The least you could do is say thank you."

A spike of irritation and anger rose in Sorun. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and against his better judgement he drank the water. If need be he could just swap out Yamato for Devil's Body later if it really did make him sick. What happened afterwards would depend on his mood and how close Silver was in direct proximity to the village.

At least he didn't feel like dying of thirst anymore.

"Yeah, alright, thanks," Sorun quickly said after finishing off the water. "Anyways, Mobius Prime. Ever heard of it?"

The dithering, confused look the village chief gave him was not comforting. "Nope, afraid I've never heard the term. Mobius?"

"Yeah. Mobius. Home of Mobians." Sorun gestured to the chief with the hand holding the empty cut. "You know... Mobians?"

The chief shook his head. "Never heard of that, either."

"Christ, they don't even call themselves Mobians here," Sorun mentally sighed out. Well, at the very least it confirmed Sorun was, in fact, right all along and this was a giant waste of time. With how he felt, though, he wasn't even in the mood to gloat about it. He just wanted to leave. "Alright, Silver, you heard him. Let's bounce."

His shoulders hanging in disappointment, Silver nodded. "Yeah, coming." He handed the wooden cup back to the chief. Sorun had thrown his own over his shoulder as he departed, though it'd been surrounded by a teal glow and hovered in place before hitting the ground. Silver shot an irritated look at Sorun's back, and then used his powers to slot the cup into the one the chief was already holding. "I'm sorry about him. He's usually not like this," Silver apologized as he began backing up. The chief was looking down at the cups with a contemplative expression while Silver began backing up towards Sorun. "Thanks for the drinks! Love to stay, but we really gotta go!"

"I realize Silver has a point in that walking all the way back to the Prime Zone is gonna take too long," Sorun thought to himself as he walked away, "but for fuck's sake, we're not gonna find any help in places like this. Maybe I should just steal a hover car or something like that the next time he run into some futuristic zone. Silver'll give me hell for it if he finds out I stole it, but damn, at this point-"

"Well, actually, before you go there is one thing."

Sorun's mind had come to a screeching halt at the same moment his body froze. Silver had merely slowed down to a stop, a stark contrast to Sorun just abruptly freezing mid-stride, but while the hedgehog looked curious Sorun's frustration just grew.

It was the old, frail voice of that village chief they'd just tried to walk away from. Still talking. Why was he still talking when all Sorun wanted to do was walk away from him? He would have figured him throwing the cup would have been a good enough message that he wanted to get the hell out of here.

"Yeah?" Sorun asked, miraculously keeping his voice level as he turned around. The old timer was standing right behind him. "What do you want?"

"Well, it's just... I noticed your friend there could move things. You know, with his mind," the chief pointed out.

Sorun's eyes snapped to Silver. Surprisingly Silver was giving Sorun an admonishing look. "You threw the cup. I didn't want it to get dirty from the ground. It's his cup."

"You serious right now, man?"

"Sorun, I get you're really crabby right now, but that's not an excuse to be acting like this!"

"I am not...!" He couldn't even finish the sentence. Even just uttering the word "crabby" felt like silent admittance that he was, and his pride wouldn't allow it. Instead Sorun just sighed out loudly, and ran a hand over his face as he turned to the chief. "Question still stands. What do you want?"

The chief put his cane in front of him while resting his two hands above it. "Well, the reason water is kind of hard to come by right now is because the old well recently dried up," he explained. "We're working on digging a new one, but for the time being we have to settle with carrying it all the way back from a local source."

"Make an irrigation system. Or use a wagon." The way Sorun said it, it didn't even sound like a suggestion. The words came out too harshly and clipped. With how frayed Sorun's nerves were it wasn't hard to see why. "The wheel was invented for a reason."

"Well, we've been making do with what we have, but, well, a lot of the people here in Gogoba Village are just too exhausted to do it now."

"Mhm."

"So," the village chief continued, "the water is somewhat lacking right now. I'm sure it's alright, though. It's not as if the hot summer sun beating down on all the children and elderly living here is drying them out even faster. Dehydration is treatable anyways."

A few seconds passed of the village chief and Sorun silently staring at each other. "Sounds like you have it handled," Sorun finally said.

The village chief was a bit too quick on the draw for his response to Sorun's liking. "Oh, yeah, true enough, true enough. I mean, why would the back-breaking work of lugging all that water from there to here dehydrate all the villagers even faster? I'm sure nothing disastrous like the village consuming more water than it can bring in and causing a subsequent collapse of public health could ever happen."

"Yikes. That does sound bad," Sorun agreed.

Now the village chief's eyes were narrowing in the same way Sorun's eyes were narrowed at him. "Yes. Yes, of course it does," he said. "It would truly be a tragedy that of course could be completely avoidable."

"Oh, this motherfucker." Now it was becoming clear what this Gogoba-thing was trying to get out of them. Sorun had been around the block enough to know this particular hustle, at least back on Earth. It was common enough, though he hadn't thought the old man in front of him would be so brazen as to try one of the oldest tricks in the book from where Sorun was from. "Well, I'm from Detroit. You can't get me with this shit."

Two could play at this game. You couldn't out-lazy a lazy person.

"It sounds to me like with smart planning on your part a tragedy like that could never happen," Sorun said, plastering a faux smile on his face. The nice accent he'd adopted couldn't sound more fake, but he didn't care enough to try and fix it. "Good thing a responsible chief like you is all over that. People here should be grateful."

The hands gripping the chief's cane tightened. Conversely, he fixed Sorun with a warm smile. Unlike the human's his seemed genuine. "Oh, of course. I could never be so careless as to endanger my community here. We're all practically family, after all. We Gogobas are just that nice," he informed Sorun. "So nice, in fact, we'll even give precious resources we can't afford to squander to complete strangers just to show our hospitality, and I'm a firm believer in good karma being rewarded. I'm sure nothing terrible like my own child succumbing to dehydration due to our unwavering kindness towards you could never happen with such a belief."

"And you know what, chief? I believe you. Every single word, a hundred percent. Readily and completely," Sorun said to him.

"Well, thank you very much," the chief said with an appreciative nod. "I guess if worse comes to worse all the children can starting sucking on the morning dew leaves for moisture if things really do become that dire."

"See, look at you. With forward thinking like that this village'll last for generations." Before the village chief could get another word out, Sorun turned around, patting Silver on the shoulder as he passed him. "Alright, Silver, let's go. You heard the guy. All's well here."

"Sorun..."

"Sweet baby boy Silver no." He knew that tone of voice well. The sadness intermingled with an eagerness to help. That sympathetic voice was the last thing Sorun wanted to hear coming out of Silver's mouth, and his fears were confirmed when he turned and saw Silver's expression. He looked torn. "No, no you can't be this naïve, fuck he would be, why am I even asking?"

"Sorun, we have have to help these people," Silver decided. Sorun didn't like how assertive he sounded. "I know we're on a kind of time-sensitive mission here-"

"Never before has the time been so sensitive, in fact," Sorun agreed, "which is exactly why we need get going and forget these guys even exist."

"But-!"

"Silver, are we gonna stop and help every single person with a problem along the way? 'Cause we're gonna be on this trip a while if you say yes." He wanted Silver to see sense, since obviously he wasn't seeing what was going on, but maybe logic would win him over. That was Sorun's hope, at least, but the hard look Silver was giving Sorun wasn't looking positive.

"We can spare an hour or two to help out. It's not that big a deal." Before Sorun could argue any further Silver turned to the village chief. "If you guys really need help digging that new well I can just use my powers to lift all the dirt out of the way. If you give me all the tools and materials, too, I could probably build the thing way faster than you guys can. I'm really great at the fine-manipulation stuff my teacher kept drilling into me."

"That's just great!" Sorun wanted to scream out in frustration when two more, younger Gogobas just appeared next to Silver, having been standing nearby. Like they'd been waiting. Just like with the water. Sorun immediately saw it for what it was this time, but Silver was happy enough to just go with them as they lead the oblivious Mobian away. Presumably towards where that new well was they well they were making.

The village chief didn't go with them. With sheer audacity that even floored Sorun he turned towards the human with the plainest smug look he had ever seen in his entire life. "Well," he began, sounding much too pleased with himself, "what about you?"

It took a phenomenal amount of willpower on Sorun's part to not reach for the sword he was still holding. "Me?" Sorun repeated in complete disbelief.

"It's just that this drought we're going through has put a strain on me, and between being a loving family man and the chief of this village it's hard for me to manage my side business of running the village pawnshop."

"Wow, you run a pawnshop. Why am I not surprised?" Sorun asked in a dry voice. "That sure sounds like a lot of responsibility for one person."

"Oh, I do my best. It's the least this village of kind, caring folk just trying to peacefully live their lives deserves, you know." That tone of voice he had, that friendly, patronizing tone, was making Sorun grit his teeth behind his closed mouth. "And I was just thinking that while your friend is helping with the well you could come with me to the shop to help me unload a bunch of boxes of stuff we got from the bigger village down the way."

"..." His anger flatlining on a dime, Sorun tilted his head at the village chief. "There's nobody else at the pawnshop to help you?" he asked.

"Nope. Not a one." A sigh that even sounded genuine left the chief's lips as he averted his yellow eyes from Sorun's calculating blue. "Not that you have to, of course. I'm sure these old bones of mine won't give out while I'm moving something heavy, causing my family to have to take time out of their day to help take care of me. I've been at this for years just fine, and even if something were to happen surely the village wouldn't suffer for it."

"And I'm sure, without a doubt, all these terrible, hypothetical situations that are surely unlikely to happen could be completely avoided if I just went with you, and you alone, right now to the pawnshop to help out," Sorun summed up. "Sure. Why not? I'll help out. Let's go, right now. No strings attached."

For such man claiming to be a bit more brittle than he ought to, he sure could turn towards Sorun rather quickly. "I didn't want to ask since you and your friend seem so busy with something, but if you really insist. Are you sure?"

The smile that spread over Sorun's face was genuine. "Sure thing, buddy. Pal."


He'd seen the hustle before. Back in Detroit. Hell, Earth in general.

At the precipice of it was psychology. Genuine psychology, the kind somebody needed a doctorate to understand, the kind people dedicated a lifetime to study. The kind of thing that, if a person was experienced enough, they could use their knowledge to understand the person in front of them in just a few words and glances and have them do anything within reason with the right application of words. Having a fair amount of charisma certainly helped.

Before psychology was verbal sparring, the peak mode of debate practiced solely by philosophers and politicians. Understanding the enemy and navigating through a battlefield of words while dodging japes and barbs. Splitting your attention down the middle to defend your own viewpoint while dissecting your opponent's viewpoints and perspective while coming up with counters of your own. The kind of thing that bored most people to tears unless it was over something somebody actually cared about.

Before debate was gaslighting. Everything from little brothers lying and saying it was their bigger brother that broke the expensive vase while they were playing around in the house to assailants twisting words and making it out like it was the victim's fault in whatever crime. Juvenile if not effective, at least in some cases. Depended on the people using this method and who they were using it on, really, but more often than not anybody who'd mastered debate and/or psychology could deflect it well enough.

Before all that was the time-honored tradition of guilt tripping. The foundation for mental manipulation, practiced more often than not by children. Or really desperate adults if they were pathetic enough. Sorun would admit to being guilty to guilt tripping, mostly against his mother. Mothers were surprisingly pliable when it came to their kids, Sorun's especially when he put on a mopey face when he wanted a new video game. He figured out why she was so susceptible to the guilt tripping when he got older. Regretted it immensely and started doing it less and less, but the habit had been hard to shake no matter how hard he tried. Even into his teens he'd caught himself doing it to her, particularly around birthdays and Christmases.

And now she was dead and he couldn't say he was sorry, so now it was one of his more greater regrets.

But he'd seen it used in other ways. Girlfriends at school acting all sad at their boyfriends so they'd buy them something. Friends who'd obviously been tweaking begging money from their friends because they felt like they were gonna die without their fix. The more crafty teens holding so-called "friendship" up above the head of clueless but rich acquaintances.

Oh, yes. Sorun knew the hustle well. It was primarily the reason why this was shaping up to be the worst day ever in the life of the Gogoba village chief who thought he was leading Sorun by the nose.

The worst part was Sorun couldn't figure out if he was a gifted manipulator or if he'd simply been coasting on his guilt tripping strategy due to easy marks. Mostly because he was new to this zone, and due to a lack of meeting the other locals he had no way of knowing how in the know people were to this kind of thing here. They didn't even use the term "Mobian" in this world, after all, but he wasn't sure how much the name actually mattered seeing as they were still animal people. And Mobians were naturally good-natured to a fault, so Sorun honestly wouldn't be surprised to learn such a transparent attempt at guilt tripping would actually be effective towards the common Mobian. Probably the same with the other residents of this island regardless of what they called themselves.

And Silver, who seemed to be the recent victim of this chief's fuckery, was possible the best possible person he could have guilt tripped. Mostly because, in addition to having a good heart, he had close to zero experience dealing with people and would have never developed the kind of mental defenses necessary to protect against this kind of thing; he genuinely took the chief's words to heart. Sorun was the opposite. He'd seen through the bullshit immediately, but he couldn't well and go call him out on it, especially since it seemed Silver was actually worried about the people here. The problem with the chief's method of guilt tripping was he was putting truth and genuine reasons to be concerned in his words. That was the draw.

Well, he looked old enough, so Sorun would wager he had some experience in this. Lies were more believable the more truth was used, and this was an extreme variation of that. He could almost respect it if he weren't being affected by this. But he was. So it had to be rectified.

Fortunately it seemed that Sorun's theory that the chief had built his manipulating experience on easy marks was likely true, because otherwise he would never have dared to have lead Sorun to a secluded location with no witnesses. Would have had enough sense to at least notice something was wrong otherwise.

"So this is your pawnshop, huh?" Sorun mumbled out. He wasn't surprised to see it was one of the more furbished-looking structures in the village. Solid wood walls and all. Still smallish, about the size of one of the huts. Open window in the front with some shelves and just enough room for someone to stand in, though based on its size it seemed there was enough room for a second room in the back. Storage, maybe.

He equally wasn't surprised to see it was near the village entrance. Draw in visitors, no doubt. And it was a fair distance away from the homes and other businesses. How about that.

"Yup, indeed." The chief lead Sorun to the back of the shop. There were a number of boxes piled up behind it, near a backroom door that lead into the shop itself. "Let me just get the door open here."

Wordlessly, Sorun nodded as he ran a hand over the boxes. There were quite a few of them, piled up to near Sorun's height. Cardboard, too, and taped shut. Implied there was modern civility out there somewhere and the low-tech look of this village wasn't the norm. Not too different from Mobius Prime now that Sorun thought about it. Either that or the logic in this zone was a bit jank. Sorun and Silver had been to weirder zones.

"You know, if you two are willing there's actually a whole lot of stuff here in the village you could help out with," came the village chief's voice to Sorun's ears as he examined the box. "Not that I'm implying you two should spend a week or two here helping out."

"Yeah?" Sorun brought his sword out halfway and pressed its edge against the nearest box. Blue energy briefly coalesced over the edge's blade, and then the tape sealing the box shut popped off in a messy coil. He touched the sticky side with his fingers, and nodded in satisfaction. Felt like all the adhesive was there. "Are you absolutely sure about that?"

"Of, of course. Not that you have to." The chief appeared next to Sorun and grabbed one of the smaller boxes with the hand not carrying his cane. "But it's just I noticed you had the sword."

Sorun turned around to stare at the chief's back. He was approaching the opened door to the back room of the pawnshop. A quick look around revealed there was nobody in sight. "What about the sword?" he asked.

"Well, it's just that sometimes we get trouble from one source or another, like that crazy guy with the robots. And I don't mean to sound presumptuous, but between your friend with the powers and you looking very comfortable with the sword you seem like you know how to handle yourselves."

"Your point? We're not staying around a couple of weeks to protect you from some nebulous threat." A threat that Sorun wasn't even sure existed. The robot comment had him worried, but it was pushed to the back of his mind with what was in front of him right now.

"That's your choice, I guess. But it'll probably be fine. Nobody in this village can really defend themselves and we'll be left completely helpless should the worst happen, but barely anything ever happens anyways so I'm sure I'm worrying over nothing." The chief stopped to glance at Sorun over his shoulder. "But that Silver guy seemed like a nice enough person, so maybe he'll think different."

At that moment Sorun made up his mind. "Nah, I get you. Pests. Can't help but hate 'em. Always getting in your way, and you can't help but just eradicate all of them so they stop bothering you." He began approaching the Gogoba's back as he returned to walking towards the open doorway. "You know, it's situations like these that I'm reminded of the lessons I was taught on the streets of Detroit."

Not wasting a breath, Sorun pulled the scabbard off of his sword. He flipped the blunt covering around, and then swung it as hard as he could to bludgeon the back of the Gogoba chief's head.

A short, pained yelp left the old man's mouth, and he crumpled flat to the ground. The box and cane fell out of his hands, the latter being kicked away by Sorun, who was now sheathing the sword while shaking his head.

"You'd think I'd feel bad for attacking an elderly person, but fuck, man, you're just a special kind of person, aren't you?" He turned around to the pile of boxes. "Wait right there, huh?"

He heard a soft groan leave the chief when he went to grab the bundle of tape he'd separated from the boxes. When Sorun turned back around he saw the chief trying to rise up to his knees while fumbling around for the cane that was nowhere near him. When Sorun returned he kicked him in the stomach, dropping him once again while making him elicit an airy gasp of pain.

"It's your own fault, you know. You know full well what you were doing. You know full well I saw it immediately. But you kept going and goading, knowing Silver didn't, to what? Fucking taunt me? Or were you just that oblivious? I bet you really are a fucking amateur and got off on coasting on easy marks like Silver your whole life if you didn't see this coming."

The old chief tried struggling when Sorun began taping his mouth shut. A growl of frustration left the teen, causing him to momentarily drop the Yamato just to begin punching him in the face.

"Settle down, settle the fuck down! Fuck!" He stopped hitting at the same time he felt something crack, around the same time a stream of red began dribbling out of the stunned Gogoba's nose. After his mouth was successfully taped Sorun began working on binding his arms. "Thought about shattering your kneecaps, make you upgrade from a cane to a wheelchair, but I'm not gonna go and cripple somebody for life for trying to run a shitty con. But I still need to do something about you."

The arms were done. Sorun moved on to taping the legs. "It's Silver, he's- well, you saw him. He's a sweet guy. I honestly really like him. Bit- no, more than a bit, he is dangerously naïve. Nothing wrong with that. Everybody back home's kind of naïve like that. I had it my way they'd always be like that, but then pricks like you pop up out of the woodwork and I gotta deal with it."

By now the chief was successfully bound in tape. He was starting to struggle again, muffled sounds coming out of his taped mouth, but Sorun ignored the struggling as he picked up the taped body.

"Man, you're light," Sorun idly noted as he began carrying the taped chief into the pawnshop. He was even shorter than Sorun, about Tails' height, actually, but even so he hadn't expected the body to weigh so little that he had no difficulty whatsoever carrying him. Quirk of this zone, maybe. "You should honestly be ashamed of yourself. Old timer like you pulling juvenile hustles like this. You're old, you're responsible for all the people in this village, on your own words you're a father. You're supposed to be a fucking example people aspire to, not some guilt tripping moron."

Sorun tossed the bound Gogoba onto the pawnshop's floor. He landed with a muffled grunt and continued squirming as Sorun left to go retrieve the Emerald he'd dropped. A second later he returned, katana in hand, closing the door as he looked around. His previous assertion that this was some sort of storage room seemed to be true, because he couldn't see the open window counter in here he'd seen at the front. There was barely any light in here except for was little light was bleeding through gaps in the wall and through the partially-closed doorway.

He only needed to take a cursory glance around to see that there was a small closet nearby. Testing the handle found it was unlocked, and when Sorun opened it, he was pleased to find that it was empty save for a few hung clothing items. Good enough for his purposes.

"That's the heart of the matter, really. Your hustle," Sorun said, turning around and looking down at the bound chief. He'd stopped struggling and was staring up at Sorun with wide, fearful eyes. "Nobody likes being hustled, least of all me. Never did forgive the last guy that hustled me. But pulling that shit on Silver of all people?" Sorun shook his head. "He doesn't deserve to be taken advantage of like that. But that's not even the full issue, mister chief."

Crouching down next to the Gogoba's head, and staring down to meet his eyes, Sorun said, "The problem here is that this journey Silver and I are on? Hella important. Literally a matter of life and death, and we're pressed for time. So you can imagine why I take severe umbrage at you trying to guilt trip us, mainly Silver 'cause he's the only one buying your spiel, to stay here to help out with menial shit. There're lives depending on us. If those lives are lost 'cause you stalled us...?"

There was a soft, scraping sound. The chief's eyes shrunk to fearful pinpricks at the sight of a katana's tip hovering mere centimeters over his face, held there by Sorun who continued to regard the chief with an apathetic glare.

"That's on you," Sorun quietly continued. "As such you decided to make this a game of us versus you. I win games. And I could kill you really easily right now."

The chief's breathing began to pick up and become heavier. At least as heavy as he could make it due to breathing out of a broken nose, and he began struggling again as muffled, unintelligible pleas came out of his taped mouth. He stopped when Sorun pulled the sword away and sheathed it.

"... Problem with that is you're an unarmed old man that can't even defend himself right now. More than that you have family, and I'm daring to assume that just maybe you're actually a decent leader here. Even if I could get away with it, and I could get away with it pretty easily, I don't wanna ruin people's lives. That, uh... it wouldn't sit right with me." Not said was the paranoid voice in the back of Sorun's mind telling him what would happen if people he actually cared about ever found out he murdered a defenseless old man. He had no idea how they'd find out, but he didn't want to think about consequences like that. Easier and simpler for everyone if he just shoved the guy in a closet for somebody else to find once he and Silver were far away from this zone.

He wanted to stab him, though. He could do it right now with no effort. Nearly had before his conscience took hold and started whispering to Sorun on why he shouldn't go and kill an old man for something that barely even registered as a petty crime. So it was into the closet he went.

"Really, you're lucky that out of all the humans on Earth that got pulled into this situation it was me," Sorun grunted out as he positioned the chief's body in the closet. "There were some real psychos out there. All good in there?"

Muffled screams was the only answer given to Sorun after the bound chief was set in the closet. He was still struggling against the tape, sitting there in that admittedly cramped space, still looking towards the human as he grabbed hold of the closet doors.

"Just make a bunch of screaming and thrashing sounds and I'm sure somebody'll come around and get you out of here. Eventually. You know, by the time Silver and I are long gone from here." He began to close the doors, but then stopped halfway. "Oh, one more thing. Don't send people after me for this," Sorun warned him, making the chief freeze. "Revenge is a fool's game, but more than that you really won't like what happens if I have to come back to this dive."

Having said the final word, Sorun slammed the closet doors closed. It hadn't done all that much to muffle the sounds of struggle on the inside, but that was probably for the best. He stood up, making his way out of the backroom but deciding to leave the door behind him cracked open. Hopefully if the noise didn't clue anyone in then that would when somebody inevitably came around to investigate the missing chief.

"Why do people always feel the need to make my life harder? Sheesh." Taking one last look at the back of the pawnshop, Sorun shook his head and started walking away from it. "Alright, now where the hell is Silver?"


There was a sneaking suspicion Sorun had that some of, if not possibly all, and if that was seriously the case then Sorun worried for this place, the Gogoba villagers were in on the whole guilt trip thing the chief tried pulling on him before he shoved him in a closet. It was more than just how those two randos just happened to have been so close to he and Silver with that water so quickly when it'd been offered. Ones he passed had a similar look to that chief. Not the exact same, but close enough. Apathetic friendliness.

It was borderline shifty, and now that Sorun knew what to look for he really could see it on their faces. The chief hadn't nearly been as easy to read; maybe that was just age and experience, though Sorun didn't really know. It was almost enough to creep him out. He found his footsteps becoming quicker the longer it took to find Silver.

Fortunately enough he'd eventually found him. He was, thankfully, clear on the other end of the village from the pawnshop where he'd assaulted an old man. When he found him Sorun was shocked to find that the well, the entire well, seemed to already be built. The brick lining around the hole was even already done, with a rope, a bucket, and other miscellaneous parts to make a pulley sitting on the ground next to it.

Silver was nearby, too, looking no worse for wear, much to Sorun's surprise. He seemed to notice the human's baffled staring, causing him to wave and approach him.

"Sorun! Hey." He stopped right next to Sorun, smiling widely as he turned to look at the well. "It's pretty cool, huh?"

"... Silver, how deep is that well?" Sorun asked after a few moments of silent staring.

"Around forty meters. Why?"

With shocked eyes Sorun turned to Silver. "Dude I was gone for like twenty minutes. How'd you manage to build a well that deep that quickly?"

Shrugging, Silver said, "With my powers? It's not that hard when all I have to do is pick everything up and set everything in place with my mind. I had to dig a bunch of wells for Master and I back in the future whenever we ran out of water."

"... Wow, that's pretty good, man." Credit where credit was due, it was pretty impressive. Especially to Sorun, who doubted he could do such a feet even if he had all of his powers to work with. Said a lot about Silver, too. Sorun didn't know how much forty meters of dirt weighed, but it was probably a lot. "Anyways, seeing as the well's all built and everything, can we leave now?"

"Huh?" Silver glanced back at the well, and then looked back at Sorun. He had an unsure look on his face. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I mean, I'm pretty sure the people here can handle the rest now that the well's there, but are you sure there isn't something else that chief guy wanted us to-?"

"Nope, just got done talking with him," Sorun quickly interrupted. He slinked right besides Silver, draping his arm over his shoulders while giving him a wide grin. "Silver, you should have seen it. That guy was so blown away by your generosity to help that I was worried he'd have a heart attack on the spot, bless his old heart. I think he even felt kind of bad he asked us to do this much. In fact I'd bet my boots he'd absolutely refuse to allow us to do a single other chore around this village he was so overcome with gratitude."

"W-whoa, really?" Stars were practically dancing in Silver's eyes. He looked awestruck. "Well, golly, Sorun, I didn't know he'd appreciate it so much-"

"The appreciation was out of this world. So much so I can guarantee you he will never ask us to do a single thing ever again." The arm around Silver's shoulder shook the white hedgehog a bit, after which Sorun disengaged and walked away a few steps. "But hey, now that this is all settled we should really get going. Got our own problems to worry about and all that. These guys should be fine now that the well's here."

For a second Sorun was worried Silver would disagree, and that for some inane reason or another Silver would want to stay for a bit. He'd already began brainstorming as many excuses as Sorun could think of in order to draw Silver out of this village so they could just get going already. He visibly sagged in relief when Silver nodded and began walking.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. This should be more than enough to help the people here out," Silver agreed as he walked alongside Sorun. "Maybe we should find that chief guy, though? Say goodbye or-"

"Nah, he said he'd taken enough of our time and not to worry about it," Sorun said with a wave of his hand. "Dude was really understanding of our situation and felt bad enough as it was. I think we should just go."

"Alright."

The silent cheers Sorun's mind made were nearly audible as they left the village.


"Chalk up another place I can never again visit in my entire life."

This kind of thing seemed to keep happening the further and further along this trip went for Sorun. On the upside the sight of that accursed village slowly disappearing behind them as they left was a welcome sight; of all the locations he'd had to blacklist this was one of the ones he was more than happy to ignore forever. If not for the monumental waste of time than because of the people that lived there.

Could have been worse, Sorun supposed. At least Silver looked really happy with himself as they walked along the jungle trail. The well did some good for his morale, so at the very least there was that.

Sorun couldn't say he was in quite as high of spirits as him. Not because of the experience he'd had there - though in no small part did it contribute to Sorun's dour mood -, but because of something that chief said before Sorun wrapped him in tape. The "crazy guy with the robots" he had mentioned that Sorun had been thinking about in the back of his head.

He didn't want to think there was an Eggman in this world, but the problem with that was that Silver and him had run into alternate versions of Mobians Sorun knew in practically every zone they'd visited. At the very least almost all of them had a Sonic, and that was hard enough for Sorun to cope with. He didn't know why he of all people was so important to be virtually ubiquitous throughout the whole multiverse, but he was. This weird, annoying blue constant Sorun had to deal with no matter where he went.

It was probably sheer luck the traveling pair had encountered so many Sonics or other alternate versions of Sorun's friends without encountering an Eggman yet, but that luck was bound to run out at some point. Sorun was tempted to just make them a portal right now so they could leave the zone and just move on. He nearly did, but an idea had been brewing in Sorun's mind.

"The fact is we're making no progress at this rate. Just walking back to the Prime Zone isn't feasible. It's doable, but it's gonna take too long," Sorun thought to himself as he walked alongside Silver. "We need some way of speeding this along. A really fast ship or car or plane. A machine that can just make us a portal to the Prime Zone. Something. 'Cause at this rate... nah, it's just not working. And we'd need nothing short of a genius who can make technologically miraculous machinery in a shockingly small amount of time to get us something like that. Eggman fits, but, well... if he's anything like the one I know I can't just flat out ask the guy for help."

Sorun's eyes trailed down. He was holding the Yamato with both hands, his fingers running along the dark scabbard holding his blade. A contemplative frown held his features.

"I wonder... do I really have to ask?"


"For example. If I stabbed you with the Yamato, I could use it to separate you from your ability to speak. I'm not saying that like it'd take your vocal cords or carve your speaking knowledge out of your brain or something like that; the idea, the simple concept of speaking, would be taken from you. Even if you were physically able to speak, and had full knowledge of speaking, you wouldn't be able to ever talk again. Because the Yamato separated out your ability to talk from you.

"Or I could separate other things. Separate out your intelligence, rob you of your genius status. Take certain memories away. Memories of your children, your family, but leave the intelligence. Separate out your inhibitions so you couldn't say no. I could wipe away your entire personality and lobotomize you into being a little genius slave. That's pretty gross, huh?"


Back then he really had been messing around with Tails when he'd said all that. Not that he couldn't do it, because his Yamato really was capable of that kind of thing, but because he'd been truthful when he said he wasn't someone like Eggman and would never use its powers for something like that.

It was more than principle; more than not wanting to stoop down to the same level as someone Sorun hated more than anyone else in the whole multiverse, which was saying a lot. It was because the idea disgusted him to no end. He couldn't help picturing himself in that position, some foreign power stripping him of aspects of his personality until he was nothing but a hollow slave. He felt even worse when he pictured it happening to people he cared about. It made him sick to think something similar along those lines happened to Mobians who'd been roboticized by Robotnik back on Mobius Prime; from what he'd heard people retained their memories of the experience and were fully aware during that time without being able to control themselves. Stuff of nightmares, really. Sorun himself couldn't imagine.

He didn't even know if doing something similar with the Yamato was worse or not since at least they probably wouldn't be aware of what he was doing if he did it right. Something as awful as this probably couldn't even be measured on a scale.

Simply rewriting someone like that, it was the ultimate violation of a person's dignity and individuality. The kind of thing that left permanent mental scars, assuming those alterations were ever undone. If it was permanent it was a fate worse than death; Sorun would go as far as to say, pragmatically speaking, it was death. Death of the original person to be replaced by whatever was left, especially if it couldn't be undone. A concept that was more and more applicable the more severe the changes.

Brainwashing, mental suggestions, possession, whatever the roboticization process could even be classified as, all of it. Sorun hated all of it. Hated the idea of it being done to him, and it was almost instinctual how he hated the idea of it happening to anyone else because of how revolting he found it. It's why he never wanted to do it, even if he technically could with Yamato. He'd rather just kill someone than subject them to that if there really was no better alternative. No sapient being deserved something like that happening to them. Not even someone as horrible as Eggman, as weird as the sentiment felt to Sorun. To say nothing less of what people he cared about would think if they knew he ever did something like that.

But the problem was he was desperate for a solution. And the prospect was becoming awfully tempting to Sorun.

"Am I seriously considering this?" He found it disturbing how inviting the idea sounded. It would be easy. Stab this zone's Eggman and separate a few mental aspects out here and there and he'd have a miracle worker of a slave. "I could just put him back to normal after, right? The separated aspects of his psyche'd have to go somewhere as physical manifestations, so I could probably put him back together- but that wouldn't change the fact I still fucking did it, would it? I'd still leave a man mentally scarred forever- fuck, what if this is the gateway to doing it again sometime down the line?"

Maybe this was why the Batman never killed anybody. It opened up a dangerous line of thinking. "If it was okay that one time then how come it isn't okay this time?" Sorun could see it, except instead of just killing people it was using his magic katana he stole from a video game to mind-rape people out of convenience. How it could easily slip into becoming an excuse to do it again on someone else later, and he didn't trust himself not to abuse it. It honestly scared him how easily he could see that slippery slope and how it could go so wrong so quickly.

He didn't want to consider it an option. He didn't even want to entertain the idea.

But Mobius Prime was potentially doomed if he and Silver didn't get back fast enough. To not have this zone's Eggman do something to get them there quicker was gambling on them finding a solution in some further zone. Gambling on lives. His friends' lives. All for the sake of a person who was probably as bad as his Prime variant.

"I mean, it's Eggman, would anybody really even care if I... that's not the problem, the problem is this is fucking wrong. If I just kill him after, maybe even just separate out the memories- no, that just justifies something than can't be justified. Does it matter if it means getting a way back? Does it matter if nobody ever finds out? But I'll know, and really that's what matters the most. Fucking fuck... maybe I can just threaten the guy at swordpoint?"

"Sorun? You okay there?"

Sorun's head shot up. He took a shuddering breath, and then looked to the side, where Silver was. The Mobian was giving him a concerned look.

"You looked really worried about something, Sorun," Silver continued. "Is everything alright?"

"... Yeah. Yeah, everything's good, Silver. Thanks," Sorun mumbled out. "Just thinking about something the chief said."

"Oh?" Silver's head perked up in interest. "What is it?"

"Hhhh... there might - I stress might - be someone here that can help us out with getting to Mobius Prime faster." Sorun's fingers ran along the sword's scabbard. "I'm thinking we should have a word with him."


A/N- Alright, fine, I'll admit it. I watched the cartoon. I Thought it was kind of good. We're spending a bit of time here before going back to Mobius Prime.