Recursion Error
Episode 90- Worth
Usually the hard choices required people that actually knew what they were doing within the context of these choices. Sorun wasn't one of those people, but at the same time he was the only person in the whole universe in a position to make this choice. It had to go down to him. But how could anybody reasonably make this kind of decision? The kind of choice that broke lesser men?
Sorun made a frustrated sigh and lowered the fan deck of paint colors he was looking at. He didn't know what the hell he was doing. How was he supposed to know which color out of the literal thousands on these things he was supposed to pick for his house? He tried narrowing it down to something blue, but that still left hundreds. The only one he was dead-set on not using was cobalt and its derivatives since it looked too much like Sonic but that still somehow left hundreds more. He didn't even know where the lady running the paint stall in the market was finding all these colors.
In the living room, Silver started screaming. Sorun ignored him and looked back at fan deck.
Eh, cerulean seemed enticing. Maybe too bold, though...
He noticed something materialize besides him. Normally he would have been jumping for joy on the inside and would have warmly greeted Nicole, but Sorun's focus on this task was so intense all he could do was note her presence as he stared at the fan deck.
"Hello, Sor... un?" The screaming drew Nicole's attention and caused her to look from him to the entrance to the living room. "Sorun, why is your houseguest screaming?" she asked.
"I think Virgil's attacking him again. They haven't been getting along," Sorun answered. He flipped through the fan deck.
"SORUN, GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!" came Silver's shrill scream from the living room.
She looked back at Sorun. "Should you go assist him?"
"Probably, yeah."
Nicole waited, patiently looking at Sorun.
Sorun did nothing and continued to look at the fan deck full of paint colors.
"Are you going to assist him?" Nicole finally asked.
"No. Cyan? No, no..."
After a few more moments of waiting, Nicole wordlessly turned around and walked towards the living room. Sorun, meanwhile, continued staring at colors.
"Turquoise? Nah, that's more of a green..."
She had a running hypothesis that the bond shared between Sorun and Virgil had caused something unnatural to form in the Chao's evolution. Humans and Overlanders weren't typically found in the same environment as Chao the way Mobians were, and in Sorun's case he wasn't even of the same world. There was no other explanation Nicole could see for why Sorun's Chao was so atypical compared to all other Chao. Generally speaking Chao were never prone to violence and otherwise friendly. Virgil was not. The new form a Chao took in its evolution was not supposed to detract too far from the Chao's original form. Virgil looked nothing like the Chao he used to be, though Sorun had never seemed surprised by his appearance for whatever reason.
There had to be some cause behind it, but frustratingly Nicole's own data about Chao was sparse. In fact, there were no Mobians in the city that were interested in pursuing research on the species. She would confess she was among them; too many other matters to attend to. So she supposed it would have to remain a mystery.
When she entered the living room, she was greeted to the sight of Silver sitting on the couch, thrashing around and reaching up to his head. Virgil was sitting there, pulling on those strange, standing strands of hair of his. He at least showed enough restraint not to use those blade appendages on his arms. The only person she'd ever witnessed him try to cut with those was Sonic, and she suspected that was just because he knew he couldn't actually hurt him.
Restraint or not, though, this was still unacceptable behavior.
"I would kindly ask you immediately cease this at once, Virgil." The words were gentle. Her tone was not, matching the scolding glare she was sending the Chao. He'd frozen, blue eyes disturbingly similar to Sorun's meeting her own, his demeanor shifting towards looking embarrassed and angered. He released the white hair strands and allowed Nicole to gently pick him up and nestle in the crook of her arm without so much as a struggle. He'd never once been violent with her.
Silver made a relieved sound at his newly-liberated and shook his head. "Ugh, glad that's over," he muttered, and then sent her a grateful look. "Hey, thanks a lot, uh..."
"Nicole."
"Nicole, right. Thanks." He made a small groan and held a hand to his forehead, wincing slightly. "I don't know what's wrong with that thing..."
"What did you do to provoke him?" she inquired.
"I didn't do anything!" Silver exclaimed. "All I did was sit down on the couch next to him, and suddenly he started growling at me! And when I said I was sorry he went ballistic! I don't know why Sorun keeps the little nightmare around, all it does is hiss at me and-"
"Virgil is Sorun's companion and has every right to be living here," Nicole cut in, making Silver freeze mid-sentence. "How long do you plan on staying in Sorun's home?"
A nervous expression grew on Silver's face. "Uh, is- there isn't a problem, is there?" he stuttered out. "Because if there is, um, I'm sorry if I did something-"
"There is no problem."
The nervous expression became somewhat mollified, though Silver didn't look like he completely believed her. "Um, alright. Sorun said I could stay with him for as long as I needed to help fix the future. Hey, speaking of which, what did everyone-?"
"Based on the extremely negligible amount of data you have provided to us, about a nebulous threat you cannot identify in any shape nor even name, set to arrive at a time you have absolutely no indication of, with absolutely no evidence to support your claims other than the words of both Sorun and yourself, of which only one is credible, the Freedom Fighters have elected to follow Sorun's advice and 'let you deal with the future problem' if and when it arrives. They will provide support if available," Nicole informed him. "But at the moment they're occupied handling real, tangible threats putting people's lives at risk."
The white hedgehog didn't seem surprised at the news, but he looked a bit crestfallen all the same. "That's... pretty fair, I guess," he sighed out. "You guys have your own problems, I get that. I just really don't want to mess this up, you know?"
She didn't. Not really. All of the Freedom Fighters were incredibly skeptical of Silver's claims of a desolate future caused by a threat he came back to the past with the explicit reason of stopping. They only remotely believed it because Sorun supported his claims, even if Sorun himself had been sparse on the details.
Green eyes flicked down to Virgil. The Chao decided on sleeping, resting soundly in the crook of the lynx's arm. She softly ran her fingers over the silver, cylindrical horns on his head and looked back up at Silver. "I apologize if I have caused any undue stress, Silver. It wasn't my intention to appear antagonistic to you," she said. "I simply find it odd Sorun would extend such courtesy towards you."
"Odd" was a strong word. Possibly. It was hard to say with Sorun. He had a kind heart, even if he bizarrely refused to admit it. But she'd seen him interact with others, and how he displayed clear biases. How he showed more open inclinations towards those he would consider friends over strangers and neighbors. How he treated her differently than everyone else, how he acted around her. So it simply seemed strange he offered so much to Silver, but many things about him had changed since his return. She had hopes it was a positive sign.
Silver seemed confused by the question. "Why? Sorun's a great guy," Silver said. "He, um, took care of me while we were on our way here. In bigger places full of people and stuff I didn't, er... well, deal with well," he nervously admitted. "We looked out for each other. He's done nothing but look out for me. He's my best friend and I, well, I can't say it to his face but honestly it kind of feels like he's doing too much for me. Even if, you know, he did have the empty room to spare." He grew a bit stiff at the unblinking gaze Nicole was giving him. "Er, ma'am."
"Nicole is fine," she assured him. "You needn't feel this way, Silver. Sorun wouldn't offer so much if he wasn't sure." She made a small pause. "And I feel I must thank you personally. For being there with him to help him find his way home. I'm glad he had someone like you there to help him."
Someone there to help him when she couldn't. Somebody to help guide him back when she hadn't even known where he was. Stuck in this city while he'd been off risking his life against his will just to save everyone once again. Events and variables she knew were outside of her scope of ability to help in any feasible way. Thousands of simulations being ran that told her the events that transpired was the best possible outcome. Entire nights spent reassuring herself it was the best possible conclusion even if it didn't feel like it.
But, of course, Sorun was here now and promised to stop endangering himself. And she believed him, because she knew he genuinely didn't want to be in danger and that he would never commit such an overt lie to her. Things would be fine. More than fine, with how... events between them were progressing. It would be perfect if Silver and his "future issue" weren't the small wrinkle in it all.
"I would just ask that, whatever danger is inherently threatening the future, Silver, that you would handle the brunt of it, whether or not the Freedom Fighters are able to assist," Nicole said. "You're uniquely equipped to deal with the issue, while Sorun is..." Healing. Recovering. Mentally worn. Didn't need to be doing this kind of thing anymore, "... less capable than you, admittedly."
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I know," Silver assured her. "I mean he told me stories about stuff he did and everything, but, uh... I know he's got the weird sword that makes me feel tingly whenever I'm near it, but I'm not even sure Sorun's even good at fighting. I mean, the guy's so nice. I can't see him hurting anyone."
Nicole felt Virgil rustle a bit in her grasp.
"Hey may surprise you," Nicole said, laying a calming hand on the Chao. She made a smile. "But thank you for understanding. Has Sorun told you what the purpose of that deck of colors is? He seems to be struggling on deciding something."
"Oh, yeah, Sorun said he wants to paint the house."
"... Paint?"
He was still looking at that fan deck when Nicole re-entered the kitchen, sleeping Chao in hand. Sorun looked up briefly as she approached and then waved at her. "I have good news, Nicole," he said. "I've narrowed it down between colors C#182 and C#187."
"That's nice." And baffling, because this made absolutely no sense. "Virgil showed hostile behavior towards Silver for sitting next to him. And then he attacked him for apologizing."
Sorun's face wrinkled. "He apologized?" he asked in a tone implying he thought Silver was foolish for doing something reasonable. "Ugh, that just made it ten times worse. Virgil isn't going to respect him if he keeps acting so timid. He picks on him 'cause he lets him."
"And what would you recommend he do to rectify this?"
"Dude can literally move stuff with his mind. All he has to do is float Virgil around so he can't touch 'im and they'll be chill in no time."
Interesting. He seemed well-versed in what had to be an aberrant mutation of Chao evolution. She filed the information away for later and shifted to a new topic. "Sorun, why are you consulting that fan deck for paint colors?"
"Because there's like a billion and a half choices. I went with cerulean after all but I still can't decide on which type-"
"Sorun, I can have the nanites composing your house change color at will. You don't need to paint it." It wasn't even that hard. It just involved shifting the external structure of the nanites slightly so the light bounced off of them at a different frequency. It'd take all of a second.
The human paused. She witnessed his face go through a series of micro expressions, but it was obvious he was struggling to keep some sort of outburst contained. It took nearly fifteen seconds for him to calm down and take a deep breath before speaking. "Well, uh... it's good to support local businesses, Nicole."
"You never considered I can just change the color." It wasn't a question. It was a factual statement. The way Sorun winced slightly proved it. "Sorun..."
"Alright, I didn't think, but look, I already told the paint stand lady I'd be doing this and I don't wanna flake out on her now that I'm committed. I gotta walk past her stand every time I go to the market to buy food," he said. "Besides! It could be relaxing."
"Relaxing."
"Yeah, you know, painting. The house. Silver said he'd help." Sorun shrunk in on himself slightly, something Nicole immediately picked up on. "I've just never done something like this so I thought hanging around and doing a fun project with a friend would be nice, but I'm sorry if you-"
All of her previous objections were instantly deleted. "No, Sorun, it's completely fine," she assured him with a smile. "I'm sure a small project such as this can be fun." Something relaxing. Something constructive and mentally healthy for him to do. And the house could do with some work, anyways, she'd always regretted never furnishing it beyond the bare essentials. "Though maybe you could at least let me just change the color of the interior? You've never mentioned having experience in this type of work."
Sorun shrugged. "I filled out a coloring book when I was a kid, so I don't imagine it's much different than that."
This wasn't a sentence that inspired confidence in Nicole on Sorun's ability to do this. And sadly, she completely expected it. "Have you at least considered what type of primer to use for the house?"
After shooting her a questioning look, a rather worrying sign, Sorun looked back at the fan deck. "What color is primer? I already told you I'm going with cerulean."
Of course. "I will explain it to you on the way to procure the paint," she promised him. If only because she'd forgone the consideration to just undo his work once he was asleep and just use the nanites for fear of accidentally demeaning him. Even if it would be simpler.
The sacrifices she made for him.
"Alright, if you say so." Sorun put the fan deck down and grabbed a nearby kitchen knife. "But I think this'll be great," Sorun continued, making his way towards a nearby light switch as Nicole watched in curiosity. "There's another person that runs a curio shop that's been trying to get rid of these rugs. Might buy them since he's selling them for super cheap. Thinking of getting some furniture, too."
He put the knife in one of the screws holding the light switch to the wall and began unscrewing it with the knife. Nicole did not know why he was dismantling the light switch. "I can simply create furniture for you," she offered, unable to look away from what Sorun was doing.
"Aw, that's sweet of you, Nicole. Thanks." She didn't know why she felt so delighted to hear Sorun speak to her like that. It almost distracted her from the fact he was pulling the light switch off the wall, letting it hang by its wires. It didn't manage to distract her. "Hey, Antoine still knits, right? He had these really nice coasters at his house and I'm wondering if he'd make me some."
He pulled a jingling bag of coins out of the wall from where he'd dismantled the light switch. She was sure something in her servers short circuited.
"... Sorun, why?" Really the only query she was able to formulate at the sight before her. What else was she supposed to ask? Why would any decent individual store money in their walls?
"Hm?" Sorun looked from the money to Nicole, and then caught her staring at the money. "Oh, it's a stash. I stash things. My mom taught me to in Detroit."
Every single time Sorun mentioned his home Nicole wondered why it was Sorun wished to return there. Beyond the obvious of it being the home of his friends, family, and culture. Because sometimes he would say things like this that would paint that city as some den of debauchery and crime with a worryingly low life expectancy, the kind of conditions that would not be unheard of in the western desert lands such as Sandblast City, and Nicole continued to count it fortunate that Sorun didn't have to live in such a terrible place anymore. Because he truly made it sound like an awful place to live in.
Oddly, that assessment came into conflict with Sorun's own opinion of Detroit, because according to him it had been a wonderful city to live in. Nicole couldn't see how since in that same conversation he'd mentioned a stray bullet had gone through his window during a New Year's Eve event at his home at one point. And that he'd been acquainted with an insane homeless man. The fact there were even homeless there to begin with seemed appalling to her, not to mention the repeated mentions of crimes he had personally witnessed. But somehow, despite all the evidence to the contrary, he always praised the city as a fine place to live in. She suspected a variation of Stockholm Syndrome was to blame.
"Sorun, we have a bank," Nicole informed him, wanting to focus on the important issue of him storing money in his walls like some form of deviant. "I would like for you to start using the bank like a responsible person."
"But-!" He looked like he wanted to protest the request. All Nicole had done in response was give him a small look, something that could barely be called pleading, and he'd shifted his expression completely. From looking like he wanted to deny her to a shy and submissive face. "I-I'll make an account there when I can," he mumbled, looking down. "I'll need to go through the fifty stashes I have around the house at some point."
Nicole's ears flicked. "Fifty?" she repeated, desperately hoping the audio receptors had incorrectly translated that despite knowing there was a near-zero chance of that.
Sorun nodded. "Yeah, behind the light switches, under the drawers, behind the freezer, under the bed, in the hollow spots in the frame of some of the chairs-"
"I think I see," Nicole interrupted. "Sorun, there are no criminals in this city. And even if there were my security countermeasures are more than enough to protect the people living here," she said. "You truly don't need to take measures like this. You know this." She gestured to the hanging light switch. "So why are you going through such ridiculous means of hiding your earnings?"
He nervously crumpled the bag in his hand. "I didn't mean to insult you, Nicole. It's just a habit. From my old home."
"You didn't insult me," she softly replied. "Were robberies something common where you're from?"
"Uh, well, n- I mean not my house personally," Sorun said. "Others, yeah. Neighbors a couple of times."
"And you enjoyed living there?"
"What? Yeah, of course. Detroit was a great place."
She didn't know why he kept saying that when it clearly wasn't true. "You repeatedly have told me that multiple times you witnessed grievous acts of crime being committed in your old city. You told me you saw police officers assaulting a man before arresting him."
"To be fair that guy was a pretty well-known local drug dealer. And he stabbed a cop with a piece of glass."
More conflicting information to his statements. "Did your mother not once ever think to move somewhere else?"
"Move where? Stuff like that was ubiquitous across the whole country. Besides, Detroit was home."
"... I see." Was he just so acclimatized to things of that nature it barely even registered with him? It was a concept Nicole had a difficult time processing, but it did line up with some of his more unusual quirks. How in the early days of being on this planet he'd never shown all that much outward reaction towards Dr. Robotnik's greater atrocities. There'd been disgust, over course, but the shock. He'd never overly displayed it. He'd simply "rolled with it," as Sorun himself would say. She'd wondered if all the various types of media he'd consumed in the past contributed. Now she had to wonder if simply his living conditions had... desensitized him, somehow.
There had to be something there. Perhaps relating to the reason Sorun very noticeably never went into much detail about the history of his planet whenever she inquired, just the broad aspects without specifics.
She cut off that line of thinking. Whatever the case, it was completely irrelevant. He was here now, in her city. Such things didn't need to be a concern for him anymore. But she could accommodate certain habits of his, if it was what he wanted. Within reason.
"I would still like for you to visit the bank," Nicole stated carefully. "But if you truly feel the need to, I will make a safe for you. To store a portion of your earnings. Because I refuse to have you continually dismantle the light switches." She made a small, displeased look. "And on the condition you stop calling it a 'stash'."
Sorun blinked. "Why?"
"I dislike how punkish it sounds."
Rolling his eyes, Sorun said, "Fine, emergency repository."
Nicole brightened up. "Yes, that will suffice wonderfully."
"If it makes you feel better, then sure. Ooh, but can we make it one of those wall safes behind the painting? Always wanted one of those."
She really did want to refuse what was clearly a childish request. But seeing the small twinkle in Sorun's eyes and the way he seemed so excited at the prospect forced Nicole to reluctantly agree. "You may have a concealed wall safe, yes," she assured him. Despite the fact such a thing was unnecessary since no thief would ever be able to get within even a hundred meters of this home. But if it was for Sorun's peace of mind, it was a small price to pay.
"Alright. Things are looking up. 'S this even enough? Never actually asked how much she charged for paint- eh, I'll work it out," Sorun muttered to himself as he put the bag of coins down. He then turned back towards the light switch, putting it back in place and re-screwing the screws with the knife while saying, "This'll all work out, you'll see. I don't see any way this can go wrong."
"No. Of course it won't." Nicole paused. "Perhaps you should allow me to change the interior of the house since you're so adamant on painting the outside."
"Hm?" Sorun turned away from the light switch. "Why?"
"You would have to move all the furniture around," she said, quickly. "This already seems like so much work and I wouldn't want you to overexert yourself." Nor did she want him to make a mess of the interior with what was glaringly obvious a lack of skill in this particular field. But she didn't have the heart to tell him she harbored doubts over his ability to do this, or to even correct what was clearly a misplaced sense of confidence. He had so little of it as it was she didn't want to make him dejected.
Thankfully, it seemed Sorun accepted the excuse she'd provided. "Ah. Alright, I guess that makes sense." He looked down a bit and pulled the fan deck closer to him. "I actually wanted to keep the ceiling white but was thinking about a not-quite-white, kinda lightish-gray color for the walls. So there's like forty options for that, so-"
"I can change it on a whim, Sorun."
"Well in that case I was thinking..."
"Okay this whole primer thing's kinda thrown a wrench in the plan, guys, but I think we can pull this together yet."
Apparently there was this whole thing Sorun didn't know about where you were supposed to coat whatever you were painting with this weird preparatory paint. Which meant they were going to have to go over this house an additional time more than he'd planned for, but it wasn't the biggest deal. The house fortunately wasn't all that big to begin with, at least, and the fact it didn't have any hard edges or corners... maybe helped. Sorun had never done this before so he didn't know.
He looked to his left. Silver didn't have nearly the amount of confidence Sorun had from the hesitant look on his face. Virgil just looked more bored than anything. It was Silver's obvious concern that had Sorun's interest at the moment.
"Sorun, are you really sure we should do this?" Silver asked. "I mean... I mean the house already looks fine the way it is, doesn't it?"
"The house looks the exact same from the outside as every other house around here," Sorun said. "I need to do something that sets it apart from everyone else so I know it's mine. And it'd be nice not to have to count the houses so I know which one's mine." He'd gotten lost on more than one occasion trying to navigate his way back to his own home in the past. Never messed up as much as to go to the wrong house, thankfully, but it'd be a nice improvement all the same.
"Yeah, sure," Silver continued, "but... but can't Nicole just, you know, chance the color? With the nanite stuff?" He looked around a bit. "Where even is she?"
"Oh, she said she'd just change the color of the nanites inside the house so we don't have to paint the inside."
Silver whipped his head back to Sorun, stuttering out, "W- then wh- why are we doing this, then!?"
"Because it's my day off, we're bored with nothing to do, and..." Sorun trailed off with a sigh and hung his shoulders. "Look, man, I don't know, I already bought the paint and everything and I just thought it'd be a fun thing for us to do."
"I... I guess." He seemed to accept the answer, if a bit reluctantly, and bent down to pick up one of the paintbrushes. "Why'd you buy ten paintbrushes, though?" he asked, gesturing to the other nine spread out on the ground in front of them.
Sorun looked up from the brushes at Silver, saying, "Well, I mean, I figured, you know... we could do this a lot faster if you floated a bunch of the brushes around." He rose his fingers up and wiggled them at Silver. "With your mind powers."
The hedgehog opened his mouth a bit and squinted at the gesture, and then shook his head and looked at the brush. "Well, sure, I can do that, but... doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of what we're doing?"
"I don't feel like spending all day on this." Because it's not like this would take more than a couple of hours. It was just coloring. Sounded easy.
"Well if you were gonna have me do that then why didn't you just buy a hundred brushes? We could have done this way faster."
Sorun blinked in surprise. "You can do that many?"
"Yeah? Why wouldn't I be able to?"
The human teen let out a light breath of surprise at hearing that. He'd underestimated Silver a bit there. "Alright, well I don't want to be the owner of a hundred paint brushes anyways," he muttered out. "'Sides, you know how much a hundred paint brushes cost?"
"No, but I get what you mean." Silver looked down at one of the paint cans. A teal aura appeared over the lid, and then the lid itself detached itself from the can and floated down onto the ground next to it. "How are we doing this?"
"I get a brush, Virgil gets a brush, you get the rest of the brushes."
Silver did a double-take on Sorun. "Your pet's helping with the painting? Why?"
"What, you thought I brought him out here just so he could watch the paint on the house dry?" Sorun asked. "He's got..." He stopped himself and looked at Virgil's arms. "He doesn't have fingers but he can still hold stuff. I dunno how but he can."
"Chao."
Looking back and forth between the two, Silver ended up sighing and shaking his head as eight paintbrushes were telekinetically risen up around him. "Alright, fine. So how do we go about doing this?"
"We take the brushes, we slather them in colorful gunk, and coat the house with the stuff. How hard can it be?"
30 minutes later
Half an hour into this project Sorun came to the sobering conclusion that he really should have just asked Nicole to change the color of the house. 'Cause this wasn't fun.
He'd thought there'd be at least an iota of enjoyment to be found in it. A nice day, good weather, small activity for him and his housemates to do. Chance to unwind for once, maybe clear his head a bit while getting the whole gotta-color-the-house thing out of the way. It was his one major hope because he hadn't gone into this actually thinking any of that. He'd only told Nicole all of that because he genuinely didn't consider the fact she could just change the color and made it up on the spot to try and claw back just a shred of his legitimacy. If this were actually an enjoyable process it would have been a flawless plan.
But he was starting to see why Tom Sawyer always foisted off painting a fence to some sucker. Because painting was boring.
By god it was boring.
And to think somehow people on Earth had made a living out of doing this. Madness.
"~Regrets, I've had a few...~ Yeah, I've had a few, alright. Few million's more like." After another brush stroke of this white stuff - the stuff you were supposed to cover whatever you were painting with before you actually painted it for some reason - he failed to repress a groan and looked to the left. Despite having the ability to use eight whole paintbrushes Silver wasn't making a whole lotta progress. Likely due to a lack of enthusiasm, Sorun reckoned, because he looked like he was halfway to falling asleep over there. Sorun couldn't really blame him.
Sorun looked to the right at the lone paintbrush sitting on the ground. Virgil got bored five minutes in and just left.
"Hey, Sorun?" Silver called out. "How much longer 'til we're done with this?"
An unenthused breath left Sorun. "'Til we're done, I guess."
"Well, how long's that gonna take? Because we're not even a quarter of the way done with this yet."
Sorun looked at the house. It honestly seemed like somehow they were making negative progress with how slow this was going. A few uneven streaks of white against the normal, off-white surface of the house. His estimate of this getting done by day's end wasn't looking optimistic. "I ain't gonna lie, Silver. I don't wanna do this anymore."
The white-furred Mobian looked incredibly relieved at that. "Oh, that's great. So we can stop now, right?"
"No, we're too committed. Gotta finish," Sorun mumbled as he slapped the brush back against the house.
"Agh, why!?" Silver cried out in dismay. So much dismay, in fact, the paintbrushes hovering around him dropped to the ground. "We're nowhere near even halfway done with this yet after all this time and you want us done before the sun even sets!? It's no use! So why are we doing this instead of just having Nicole take a single second to change the color!?"
"Because that'd be the easy way. And in any other circumstance I'd totally take the easy way, Silver, but this just happens to be the one where I can't."
"But why?" Silver groaned out. "Just why, Sorun?"
With a sigh, the arm holding the paintbrush dropped down to Sorun's side. "Because if I quit now and go to Nicole with this then I look like an idiot for not coming to her first with this. And it'll also mean I just bought all these painting supplies for nothing."
"So we're doing this just because of your ego!?"
He didn't even have it in him to refute that. "Look, Silver, it's hard enough dating someone who's superior to you in every conceivable, feasible way imaginable and probably has an IQ with four digits," Sorun said with a glum voice. "Like, what do I have compared to that? I got a magic sword I use to deliver mail. That's it. That's my thing. It's not a whole lot."
"We haven't technically gone on that date yet."
There was a loud yelp from Sorun, followed by him spinning around. The paintbrush had been accidentally released in the process and flew off somewhere. And of course the owner of the voice he heard was standing there behind him, with her arms crossed. And with his luck Nicole heard all the words she was never supposed to hear.
She didn't look overly upset, at least. Just standing there, giving him a critical glare. And then her head turned just a few millimeters towards Silver. "Silver, would you mind leaving us for just a bit?" she asked.
"Does that mean I get to stop painting the house?"
"Yes."
"Sorry, Sorun, but I don't want to do this anymore." And with those words said, Silver turned around and made his way towards the front door of the house. Sorun'd be more upset if he didn't know he'd do the exact same thing, but most of his focus was on Nicole right now.
A few tense seconds passed. Sorun nervously tugged at his shirt's collar. "Uh... what's up...?" he tried.
Before responding, Nicole peered over Sorun's shoulder at the mess of uneven streaks painting the wall behind him. And then she looked down at all the paintbrushes Silver had discarded. Finally, she looked at him. "You didn't plan this with fun in mind," she observed.
"... Nah, no, no sane man would. If I'd known ahead of time you could just change the color with a thought I wouldn't have bothered. That was just a lie I made up on the spot," he confessed. With some reluctance, but at this point there was no hiding it. He swore, she always somehow found out.
"But you went along with this anyways." She looked a bit sad and frustrated when Sorun's posture slumped even further. "Sorun, you don't have to try and prove anything to me. You're never not going to be good enough for me to hold you in high regard."
It was something that should have lifted Sorun's spirits right then and there, but he didn't quite believe her. "It's just... frustrating."
Nicole's ears lowered a bit. "You should stop holding yourself to such impossible standards," she said. "By our very own nature we're different. We have different limits and capabilities as a result. That doesn't detract from who you are as a person, Sorun."
"Yeah, but it's always kind of been like this," Sorun muttered, turning towards the streaked wall. "Like, with everyone. And I don't mean just the fact half my friends have cool powers," he admitted, turning back to Nicole. "... Okay, a bit of that, but because Mobians in general are..."
"More physically apt?" Nicole tried in an attempt to be gentle.
"Sure. Yeah. That. Geez, even in my old home it was a problem," Sorun said, trying and failing not to think of a time where his skill with video games was the only thing that'd set him apart in a world full of tall people. Being shunted onto a planet where everyone was physically stronger than him never changed the status quo all that much. "But there's nothing I can do about it, so eventually I stopped worrying about it, but now there's you, and us, and now the whole dynamic's... you know, different, and you're this amazing person that mastered nanite tech and built a whole city and transcribed all the books in the library and the textbooks and stuff and handle all the infrastructure and everything. And I deliver mail."
For better or worse, Nicole had given him an understanding look. "You're not satisfied with your position?"
"No, it's great, I'm just saying that the dichotomy between mail guy and what you do is substantially vast." He glanced over his shoulder at the wall. "So when I screw up something simple like this it... kind of just reminds me of that." The inequity of it. The difference of significance between them. How someone like him really had no business dating someone like her, but somehow that was happening despite the fact Sorun didn't feel like he measured up to an acceptable standard.
The ears on Nicole's head lowered further. "You're not an AI, Sorun. It'd be impossible for anyone not what I am to keep up with the things I do. Even other AI."
"I guess..."
"You 'guess' nothing. It's the simple truth," Nicole said. When Sorun's mood didn't visible improve she stepped closer to him. "None of that even matters, Sorun. All I care for is who you are as a person."
"... Thanks." He wasn't in complete agreement that the content of someone's character was the only sole thing that mattered, but maybe here in a place where most everyone looked different from one another it was different. A moot point. Either that or Sorun was too pragmatically shallow, he didn't really know. But he could drop the matter and just go along with it since the way he was acting was troubling Nicole a bit. The encouraging words helped that along.
The hug she gave him after helped a lot, too. He was almost surprised he wasn't fighting against it, what with being out in the open at the potential exposure of others seeing, but it was something Sorun was growing to care less about.
He tilted his head down a bit. Maybe she was right and it didn't matter. He had her. Somehow. That alone constituted as a win as far as he was concerned, and if him being on the bottom of the food chain didn't bother her in the slightest, then more power to him. He didn't need to be great, anyways. Not in this new life he was making. What he was right now was good enough. Good enough for her, at least. Good enough he managed to hold onto friends. Good enough he was living.
Did he really need to worry about being inadequate when he had all that? Did it even matter? Nicole said it didn't. Sorun... wanted to believe her. Was starting to. The hug was helping.
"I'm also going to shift the color of the house later," she told him. Right when Sorun had almost forgotten about this disaster of a project he'd undergone. He was grateful nevertheless.
"Alright." He peered past her shoulder and at the paint cans lying on the ground. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do with all this paint now."
"One of the teachers at the educational center opened an arts and crafts program for the children. I can simply donate it to them if you want."
"Yeah, sure, kids love blue paint." They broke away from the hug, with Sorun shyly looking down while rubbing at his arm. "So, uh, house is done being remodeled, I guess. Except the rugs. Still waiting on those."
"There's still the furniture," Nicole reminded him.
"Oh, right." Sorun's head perked up. "So are we going with the kind of furniture we have to build, or...?"
She gave him one of those looks, the kind that said he should know better. "I can just create the furniture, Sorun. In fact it would take me longer to design furniture intended to be assembled by hand than to just create the furniture itself."
"Right, yeah, that makes sense," Sorun amended. The brief burst of embarrassment he felt was quickly washed off when he nodded his head towards the house. "Go right now?"
"Yes, let's."
A small hum left Sorun as he stared at the space, fingers arranged into the shape of a rectangle as he considered. It was an empty place at the corner of the living room that wasn't used for anything at all in particular, like much of the house before he decided to furnish it. He never had plans for it originally, like ninety percent of the rest of the house, but now that he decided to fill it with stuff he was trying to decide what to fill it with.
He was considering a bookshelf.
At some point a thought came to Sorun: he was in a new - well, not exactly new at this point, at least relatively speaking - world. None of the literature of his world existed here, unless the Overlanders on the other side of the world had old world books that survived thousands of years in time capsules or something, and even then jury was out on if the material was the same because different worlds, but over here on the Mobian side there was a whole of books written by Mobians he'd never laid eyes on. With the exception of a quantum physics book and Chao book. And only one of those had ever been useful.
Hell, there was even a whole library here, still run by the dalmatian guy. It wasn't the exact same as the one in Knothole, though: Nicole had apparently read a lot of books and indexed them in her memory, so when a new library had to be made with the rest of the city she thankfully had archives to recreate them. Most of them were informational books, though, and she'd hardly had an archive on every book in that library. And he knew some Mobians had gone back after that whole mess to try and salvage what books they could from the library, and surprisingly a large majority of them had actually survived. By some miracle the library hadn't tanked a direct hit from the explosive shells.
There'd still been damage, though. And not every book had survived. And from what Sorun knew pretty much all those books had been copies taken from the original Mobotropolis, when the former kingdom had been a burgeoning society before the original Robotnik screwed it all up. That city was nuclear slag now, the Knothole library was gone, and no one knew if any other copies existed in the world, traded with other villages and such. And if said hypothetical villages were even around anymore outside of the ones people knew about.
But despite all that terribleness and yet another reason to hate Eggman, there was still a library here. Full of books Sorun had never, ever read. More than likely more in Station Square, and that was just a few footsteps away with Yamato. And if he ever got desperate enough for material, well, he doubted he'd have any problems visiting Overlander territory since he was human and looked enough like them. But that was a last resort.
The point was he had options. And before gaming had taken over his life in an attempt to "normalize" himself with his friends and peers, and he found out he was the best at it, books had been a hobby. And here, well... hanging out with friends was nice, but they had their own lives and weren't always available, especially with the Freedom Fighting. Video games with Nicole was always perfect, but even she wasn't free all the time and he couldn't coast on just a single hobby.
Books were... something he could do.
"Alright, that's it!"
Lethargically, Sorun turned his head around. He was greeted to the sight of Silver standing there, chairs in hand, staring forwards angrily at the floating Chao surrounded in a teal aura in front of him. "I've tried to be patient with you, but I've had it!" a frustrated-sounding Silver yelled. "No more!"
Virgil looked incredibly calm for being levitated off the ground against his will. He even seemed confused, blinking his eyes a few times and looking down at the ground. He struggled a bit in an attempt to try and get out of the field, but quickly gave up when he realized it was hopeless. And then he just went back to staring at Silver.
"Okay," the hedgehog slowly began, "now don't attack me again, alright? I'm letting you go now."
The teal aura dissipated. The v-shaped wings at the Chao's back kept him aloft in place, eyes still examining Silver, who seemed equally puzzled at the examination he was being given. And then the Chao moved forwards, startling Silver a bit, and then a lot when Virgil got close to him.
And then he froze in complete confusion when Virgil settled on the top of his head. And just stayed there.
"..." Sorun turned back to the empty corner. How big a bookshelf was he thinking about here?
"What just happened? What is this?" he heard Silver ask behind him. "Sorun, what is this?"
"You should have just floated him around with your powers way sooner so he'd respect you. Coulda solved this problem in five seconds," was the only response Sorun chose to give. Maybe something medium-sized? Or large? He had time and space. Hm...
"But why is he-!?"
"I dunno, he does what he wants." It wasn't like he was out to be some kind of book collector. Or maybe he would be eventually? Shit, if he ever got the nerve to figure out if Yamato really could get him to Earth and did so to scavenge for cool stuff he should probably bring some books back. Some Arthur Clarke, maybe some Jules Verne... he wondered if Mobius had any good science fiction lying around?
"I don't want him sleeping on me like this," Silver complained. Virgil didn't seem to care so much since his response was to roll over on Silver's head.
Sorun made a frustrated whine. "Silver, I don't know, chuck him through the window or something if you care that much."
"You had better not be considering breaking something!" a voice called out from the kitchen.
Sorun flinched at Nicole's voice and then whirled towards the white Mobian, bookshelf all but forgotten. "Silver, Silver don't break any windows, for god's sake don't break anything!" He didn't want to imagine what she'd do if that happened. Even imagining Nicole scowling at Sorun over a broken window was too much to contemplate. It was such a terrifying thought, in fact, that Sorun had rushed past Silver and towards the kitchen, ignoring the lost look the hedgehog had on his face as he looked up at the top of his head.
He'd rushed so fast he nearly stumbled into the kitchen. Nicole was there, staring at him, halfway done with putting down a candelabra of all things on the dining table. The table that had a cloth covering it now to give the room some color. A cloth that looked like it was worth more than Sorun's whole net worth in this town.
No, seriously, she didn't have to go so far out of her way on it. She embroidered the edge of the blue cloth with a spiraling green and purple helix pattern. And that candelabra looked too shiny for Sorun's comfort. Even the chairs he used to have that looked like they came straight out of a bulk warehouse somewhere were these elegant wooden things now, with filigree carvings and everything. He knew with the nanites it didn't really matter, at least in terms of raw resources, but there had to be some time investment on her part to make it look like this.
Ah, she was still giving him that warning glare of hers, and Sorun only now realized he should be standing really straight right now. Standing so straight at attention any drill sergeant would weep tears of pride. He did so.
"You had better not be planning on vandalizing your windows," Nicole said as she set the candelabra down, never taking her green eyes off him. She'd done it so softly there'd been no noise, and yet to Sorun's ears it still sounded like an explosion went off somehow, and he stood even straighter to the point his spine was protesting.
"I was not," he tried. "You must have heard wrong."
She didn't looked impressed with the attempt. "I don't mishear."
"Yet another shining example of why you're so perfect."
Instead of looking flattered at the compliment Nicole made a small, tired smile and turned to the candelabra to adjust it. "Just please don't do anything to damage your home. I worked very hard on it."
He could have pointed out a lot of things. How she almost definitely had archives of every single thing she'd ever made with the nanites and, if something did get damaged, she could just dissolve whatever was broke back into nanites and restructure it in an instant using the archives. Wasn't like the nanites were lost. Fixing damaged things was trivial for her. But Sorun had gone down this route before and it never ended well so instead he just nodded along.
"Of course, Nicole, I would never do anything to besmirch your hard work," Sorun assured her with as honest a voice he could muster. Maybe there was some nervousness tinged in it. She couldn't prove it.
She made a small, accepting hum. "I'll take your word for it. I trust everything is to your liking?"
It was actually too much for his middle-class Detroit city boy brain to comprehend. From the perfect paintjobs on the wall that perfectly mixed the whites and grays in a way that weren't too harsh on the eyes to the furnishings, while not looking like something that belonged in the castle at the center of the city, still looked like something out Sorun's purview, it really was too much. He was worried she'd start turning his utensils gold.
These were all concerns that would damn him if he actually spoke of them so he just nodded along. "They are, once more, perfect. Because you're a perfect person who likes to do everything perfectly like the perfect perfectionist you are."
Now she actually was looking abashed. "I would call it far from perfect, Sorun, but I do my best." She ran a finger along the top of the table. "And while I can substantially approve the aesthetics, it doesn't change the fact that this is still empty." She looked up and past the doorway. "Somewhat. Have those two finally gotten along? Silver isn't screaming anymore."
"Yeah, it's all great," Sorun assured her. "And, uh, well, the house is still kind of new, you know? You say it's empty, I say it's just a bunch of space for memories. Like photos or souvenirs or somethin', I dunno. But it won't be this way forever."
It was logic Sorun was pulling out of his ass because he didn't know what else to say to ease her worries. Apparently he couldn't have said a more right thing to her, because she looked satisfied with the answer. More than satisfied, even. Like she was completely at peace with the answer. He gave himself a mental pat on the back for saying such a right thing.
"Memories. Yes." Her smile grew wider. "You're right. There's time to fill the house out."
"Yeah, 'zactly. I was already thinking of putting a bookshelf up in the living room."
Nicole's ears perked up in interest. "A bookshelf?"
"Y-yeah. For readin'." He had to turn away from her, being unable to withstand that overly proud look she was giving him. Like staring into the sun, he swore. "Might take up reading just, you know, to do something in my off time."
"I'm glad." He didn't know why she had to sound so relieved over the fact on top of sounding so happy. It wasn't even that big a deal; in fact Sorun couldn't think of a smaller deal than he was thinking of getting books. "You were thinking of placing it in that empty corner of the living room, yes?" she continued, making to move past Sorun. "Allow me a moment to-"
A startled Sorun held up a hand to stop Nicole's advance. She sent him a puzzled look as he began to talk. "Nicole, you, you really don't gotta. Seriously. You've arguably done too much as it is." It was getting to a point where Sorun really was getting uncomfortable with how much she was helping out. He'd been okay with a few pieces of furniture, but now it was getting out of hand. He just didn't want to bother her, but she was practically jumping at the opportunity to just give him a bookshelf of all things. It was weird.
Stubbornly, she gently lowered Sorun's arm down. "Nonsense, Sorun, it's no issue."
"Nicole, seriously-"
"The bookshelf is already made, Sorun. My body doesn't physically need to be in the room."
Sorun blew out an exasperated sound at hearing that. "I mean... I was just gonna ask the carpenter guy in the market to make me one so I could buy it off him, but sure."
"..." Nicole tilted her head a bit. "That's the second time today you've mentioned wanting to support a local business."
"We all live in the same city, what, I'm not allowed to try and get people to like me?"
"No, of course not. But you never seemed to care too much about that."
"Not much, I guess." Well, maybe a little. Just a little.
"Then what is the issue?" Nicole asked him. "You wanted me to help furnish your house. That includes creating furniture. I would think a bookshelf constitutes as furniture, yet you're protesting now when you haven't previously on anything else. What changed?"
"It's just..." Not finding the words immediately, Sorun blew out a sigh, waved his hand, and let it fall and slap against his thigh. "You've just been doing an obscene amount for me. Like, a lot. This is a lot, Nicole," Sorun said to her. "Would you have put this much effort into remodeling a house if anyone else asked?"
It didn't even take Nicole a second to consider her answer. "Generally, no. It's one thing to ask for a small change or two, but otherwise I've my own duties managing the city occupying me. And more than that I don't want to interfere too much in the lives of others and have them grow too dependent on me, especially for trivialities such as what you're implying."
He rose an eyebrow up at her, already seeing the discrepancies with that statement. "But... you'll do exactly that for me. You are currently doing that for me, right now, as we speak." He pointed at the candelabra at the center of the dining room table. "I'm pretty sure that's silver, Nicole."
"Just because it has the same luster doesn't make it silver, it's merely shifting the nanites' structure to-"
"Okay, this is exactly what I'm talking about."
"It's not as if I'm extending special privileges to you," Nicole denied, much too quickly for Sorun to actually believe her. "If you made an outrageous request such as to make your home as big as the castle I would outright refuse. I made all the houses have the same sizes and dimensions to be fair."
"And yet you literally just made me a bookshelf. Like that. I wasn't even asking you to make me one, I just mentioned wanting one and you gave me one on the spot." This was one of those few rare occasions where it was Nicole looking away from Sorun, with a guilty expression of all things. Usually he was the one doing that. He would have taken a picture if he had a camera. Sorun doubted something as rare or magical would ever happen again. "Nicole..."
"... Maybe I am biased towards you some small amount," she hesitantly admitted. "I want to. It's not hurting anyone helping you more than I'd help most others."
"Hurts the carpenter," Sorun mumbled out. When Nicole looked back at him, he said, "I get it looks bad if you go too far, and I appreciate you going this far for me. And I'm not being facetious when I say that, like, seriously. Thank you for all this. And... well, I don't especially mind the extra attention since we're... y'know." He glanced away anc rubbed at the back of his neck. "But you really don't have to do everything for me. This's all enough."
It wasn't even the small hit to his pride for being showered with free stuff, because that was long since shot to oblivion. It was more people talked, and he didn't want her going too far for his sake due to Sorun worrying how people would react to that. Because Nicole was already something that pretty much had omnipotent ability within the city, and he felt like her coloring the house alone was toeing the line a bit. It was a lot of responsibility she had to shoulder, and he didn't envy her for that, even if she managed it all just fine.
Maybe he was just being a bit paranoid with it, though. More than likely people would acknowledge it for all of a second and move on with their lives without caring all that much. Because Mobians. And he respected her for wanting to keep things fair for everyone, and trusted her not to go too far, but that didn't stop Sorun from wondering how much of that bias towards him was skewing that mindset. Certainly not enough to be genuinely problematic; he gave her more than enough credit to do something like that.
But he still worried for her. Probably over nothing. Likely over nothing, actually. And it did feel a bit scummy getting this much free stuff from her when she likely wouldn't do this for anyone else if they asked.
Nicole looked like she came to the same conclusions he did when she looked back at him. "A few pieces of furniture and some color isn't an outright abuse of my privileges as the steward and administrator of the city, Sorun," she said. "Nonetheless... maybe you're right. I apologize if I overstepped, Sorun."
"No, no you didn't. And I get it's super complicated trying to balance all this for you, and I mean really it's not like you ever have to do anything after this anyway so a one-off doesn't seem like that big a deal-"
"And I suppose you're correct in that depriving a local business with work would be unfair, even as a favor to you," Nicole continued. Sorun froze on the spot, while the lynx had given him a grateful nod. "Thank you for sharing your concerns with me, Sorun. The bookshelf has already been disassembled."
No words. Just Sorun, standing there frozen, mouth slightly agape. Still as a statue. Even after Nicole walked up to him, gave him a brief hug, and walked away. He hadn't moved a muscle at all as he came to grips with the fact he just lost out on a free bookshelf for opening his mouth.
And then he fell to his knees, realizing he probably just deprived himself of getting free furniture for the rest of his life. Because he had to open his mouth and be a good person. Because he had to go and punch a gift horse in the mouth in the spirit of fairness. The will to scream in outrage was nonexistent as he collapsed entirely.
"Why am I so stupid...?" Sorun wondered to himself as he curled into a ball on the kitchen floor.
A/N- By now it's pretty obvious this is the "cool down and get settled" part of the story, and to be honest not a lot's really going on. I had this planned way back along with most everything else, but what I have planned now for this is admittedly a lot shorter than what I was initially going through in my notebook of ideas. Like, I was considering a chapter where Sorun goes back to school to try and get a formal education but decided to axe it since he seems pretty content with the mailman gig. A lot of it's due to length. Story's long enough and I'm not gonna lie to you guys, I just wanna get past this arc to get to the cool stuff later on. Like Earth. Full disclosure somewhere down the line there is going to be an "Earth arc" of sorts where it's revealed what actually happened over there, like I'm not shelving that and just leaving it unexplained, but we gotta get there first and there's a ton more between there and here.
It's also getting kind of hard to keep coming up with new titles for every chapter. With the exception of the really special chapters I plan out I don't really have a name prepared for these in advance and just make it up on the spot. Half the time it's right before I post a chapter and proofread it and everything and just come up with something at the last minute, and it's because of that I don't think I'll ever top "Air cancel the fat man". There is one chapter I'm dying to get out, one of the few I have titled in advance. It's simply called "Freedom".
But that's way down the line.
