ruffle ruffle

Tails shuffled through several papers with his fingers as he pulled open a dresser drawer and placed the items inside. Carefully he closed it and glanced outside a nearby window to the high tech city just outside. It was morning, and it was bright out. The shades were only halfway down in his apartment window and the cars were flying fast outside. Tails squinted at the pale colors painting the interior of his room. It was white with a few, green, or other colored metallic, hexagonal themed devices. A table, a chair, a dresser and a bed. All things that held his possessions securely. He shook his head melancholy as he began to contemplate the day.

*Sigh* The breath slowly slipped from his lips. "So much to get done. He muttered. "I guess I better get started. Better not waste a day." The Fox concluded neutrally. His head turned to see a picture of two orange rabbits and himself standing on his bedside table. One of the rabbits was shorter than the other. She was sixteen years of age, and a friend he had known since his childhood. The older, taller rabbit was her mother, her age of which Tails did not know. He smiled as he looked upon the both girl's simple dresses and saw his own face beaming with happiness in the picture. Tails almost let out a simple chuckle. He had forgotten how much he had grown. Now he was eighteen years old, and an impeccable scientist. Just a few more days and his studies may finally bear juicy fruit. It was only a matter of time before the fox knew if his choice long ago had paid off. Taking one more glance at his bedroom, Tails prepared to head out for the day.

*ring! ring! ring!* His phone began to jingle against his fur. The fox jumped back severely startled. Reaching into his white lab coat's pocket, the scientist pulled out the rectangular shaped device.

Amy It read in pink lettering. The ten digit long number showing clearly across the bottom of the screen.

Amy. . . I don't have time. . . He thought angstily before roughly touching the answer button with a swipe of his covered paws. I know you don't call me often but. . . now's not the best time. He thought a bit more easily. Remorse overcoming his mind for thinking of his friend in a selfish manner.

"Hello? Amy?" He spoke, trying to sound somewhat eager since the last time he had seen or spoke to Amy was a close to five days ago. Amy may have been annoying in her younger years, but now she was pretty okay. Like himself, she had done a lot of maturing, and didn't view life so incredibly simply. "I'm about to head for the lab! Can you make it quick for me cause-"

"Hey buddy! How's it going!" The indistinguishable voice of Sonic beamed from the other side. "Amy left her phone out, and I noticed she had your number, so I couldn't resist giving you a call!" The enthusiasm Sonic was so commonly associated struck Tails deep into the core. A sour feeling in his stomach began to churn as his one time mentor had again found a way contact him.

"Sonic. . . . !?!?!?!" Tails voice floundered with disbelief. . . "Sonic. . . is that really you!?!?" He spoke grudgingly. The words slipping of his tongue as his lower lip began to drop in an expression of anger.

"Well. . .yeah! Who else would it be!? Do you know anyone else who's as cool as me?" Sonic answered in a fake laugh. He sounded a little worried. . . as if he knew he had made a mistake by contacting the young fox entering adulthood.

"Sonic. . . I don't want to talk with you!" Tails raged into the receptor. "Don't you get it when people don't want to be contacted!?!? Ugh. . . SONIC!!!!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. . . Tails! I'm sorry, if you need to be left alone, I can. . ."

"No Sonic! I've had enough! You didn't get it the first time, so I'm going to explain it again! I don't want to be contacted, okay Sonic!?!? I am not interesting in helping you with any more adventures. . . or coming over to visit. . .I can't stand it okay!?! I can't stand spending time with you, and I have my own things I need to take care of. . . !"

The silence between both past heroes seemed encompassed them like a deep shadow. Tails had cast a bitter string of words down the other line, and Sonic had heard every word of it. Still obstinate in his optimism and disbelief that he could grow so distant, Sonic tried to coax his once- little brother back from the edges of emotional calamity.

"But. . . Tails! Why? Why do you not like me so much! Tails. . . it doesn't make sense! We were heroes. . . we didn't need anything when we were together!"

"WRONG Sonic! You couldn't be more wrong!" The Fox growled into his phone. "You keep thinking that somehow running around is going to fix all of life's problems, but you're dead WRONG Sonic! You may not realize it, but in life there's something called growing up! You might be able to stop Eggman from terrorizing this planet, but you've never put a real stop to him. You always let him get away! I'm tired of it Sonic! I'm tired of helping you with a quest that'll never end well and prolonging the agony when we need a real solution! The only reason Eggman can be beat is because he is as childish as you. Meanwhile the world suffers in a different kind of a mess. A mess you'll never recognize or take the time to do anything about! You're just too damn oblivious Sonic!" Tail's breath began to ease out from his voice box heavily. He looked over at a calender's handing promptly over the head of his bed.

Vote third party. Don't be fooled by the puppeteers of our political system. They don't know how strong we are till we finally stand up It read in his head with an optimistic sounding voice. A picture of a black fox stood prominently upon the front cover. He was wearing a white tux, with a red emblem clipped on the right hand side of his shirt. It was Uwatam Holse. One of three third party candidates running in the current election, and what people thought of as the people's only hope to evade another sequence of mediocrity mixed with deeply ridden corruption within their country.

"I don't get it! We beat Eggman every time, now is that prolonging the agony!? Tails! How are we not heroes!"

"BECAUSE SONIC!". . . Tails gasped as he pulled in another large breathe of air. "I'ts because you're oblivious and don't realize the real threats where they are. You think so simply. You think that following your heart and just doing whatever is going to save everything. Well guess what Sonic? You'll have to think again! Goodbye, and don't waste my time. If Eggman tries to fire another mind control beam into the city, I'm sure you'll be able to handle it!"

*beep Tails forcefully pressed the End Call Button his phone and placed it back into his pocket. "He just doesn't understand. All these years. . . running, not thinking. . . being chased by Amy, and now that Amy has matured, he's chasing her? Goodness!" The teen was so upset and stressed about his projects. I don't know how he can live with himself! Why won't he just grow up!?! Tails mumbled as he grabbed some small batteries form his top drawer and inserted them into his pockets. Sonic. . .you're twenty five! Mature already! He hit the part of his desk as his eyes caught hold of another picture. It was of Tails hanging out with two Shadow's and Omega.

The android project. Yes. . . when he was fifteen. That was when Tails agreed to help G.U.N. and other Mobian forces hunt down rampaging or even hiding Androids from Neo Metal Sonic's conquest and even the Black Arm's siege upon the earth.

Omega. . . Shadow Andriod 01279A. . . you guys look up to me. . . even Shadow appreciates me for what I'm trying to do. . . Professor Gerald. . .

Black and white images of Gerald's photograph and even video feed raced through Tail's mind. He had tried to do good for the world. He had tried to cure Maria. . . he had tried to bring better life to entire race of humanity. Eggman had wanted to be just like him at one point in time. But now Tails was finding himself feeling the same thing.

Project Maria will let me create a cure for any deformity or disease if I keep studying Shadow. If I keep working with the Earth and Mobian scientists. . . if I keep studying Black Arm's DNA. . .just maybe I can break though, and no one will ever have to be disabled or hurting again! Tails dreamed. Hoping that HE could bring hope to vast population of Mobious, and Earth's humanity.

There are more effective ways to fix things Sonic. Waiting around for Eggman to make a move and then stopping him won't bring healing, it just keeps Eggman from winning while other kind of villians remain concealed in the dark! We all have each other's and our own futures to dream of. In fact, sometimes, I think you're just too obsessed with yourself to really care!

His eyes faltered. Had Tails really said all this about his "big brother?"

It was true, but he didn't now how else to deal with it.

"Sonic. . ." He faltered in a smaller voice. "I don't hate you. . . but I need space as I figure all these things out. The world is big, and wide. . . you and me are only a small part of it. And people could use our help! It's not like we're just destined to succeed at things, we need to make choices! And choosing to keep following you. . . it was holding me back. I had to go my own way if I was going to do everything I intend to do for the world- and that's that!" His eyes returned to meaner looking spirits.

"I'm sorry that I hurt you. . . but I have to move on. . ." He spoke, slowly walking to the apartment door. His head hanging slightly lower and his eyelids beginning to close. "But I need to do this for more people than just me. . ." He glanced over at the picture of him and Cream one more time. "Not that you understand responsibility. . . it. . . it's whatever!"

*Wooom* The door flew open and closed tightly. Tails was well on his way in life. For better or for worse. He was making his own decisions for the better of everyone. Whether Sonic understood that or not.

He would have to watch him fly.

Honestly...I see where Tails is coming from here but I disagree with him on so many things. When one turns to their mentors and decides they know more and their mentors are wrong when they say it should be done differently... I've been burned before by doing this. Granted mentors can and will be wrong at times, more often than not a good mentor says and does what they do for a reason, a reason the pupil can't understand yet but will one day.

It's a delicate balance, but when you reach the point of disdain for mentors you've probably gone too far.


Also the poor deluded fox thinks a third party vote could be wise. Electoral votes are what wins it (case in point Obama's second term when he lost popular vote. Same with Bill Clinton I believe) and those guys are never casting a vote for third party because they're too unpredictable and well...not puppets. But that's not the point here.


Interesting story. Is this in any way related to story in-game or is it all your own scenario?

Eirinn :

It's related to all the games really. I wanted to take a more critical look at where all of the Sonic characters were headed and guess were some of them might be in a few years. Sonic is not exactly responsible and I kindof wanted to experiment here.

Experiment- that should be the keyword.

As video game characters, I've looked at Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and lots of others hoping to find out why some characters impact and stick with us more- while others do not.

It's generally agreed that Sonic and Knuckles tend to be undeveloped Characters while Shadow and Silver could be quite deep- if Shadow already isn't.

Once I removed some of the immunity that these characters got to being erroneous over somethings, and I thought about their emotional/physical/community based needs, I found them to be lot's deeper.

Take lonliness for example. Humans need to feel love and companionship as much as any other species as well as reproduce to a degree. These are strong desires God gave us, and I feel that the USA in particular focuses on independence far too greatly. To the very point our own identity is a matter of such said independence, and far replaced from reality.

I do not think that either Sonic or Tails would take this path and have a long lasting rift gaping their relationship for a large period of years, but as of now, I am experimenting and piecing things. Writing real human characters has taught me a thing or two and allowed me to look at fanfiction much differently. Since I'm making a Comic about Knuckles and his Legacy here shortly, I thought it would be neat and helpful to reanalyze things.

http://fav.me/daldrr6

I've pinpointed just about all the places that characters lack realistic depth in the official Sega depictions, and I'm ready to erase most of these as our comic series begins.

Once that's out of the way, I would actually kindof like to redeem Sonic in the eyes of my viewers, so I might write another one-piece depicting an alternate reality where SONIC grows up as well as Tails, and isn't quite as. . . unrealistically happy?

The trials of life bring power to a story when emulated properly, and I intend to do just that. The rest of this stories meat is merely a realistic look at the assets we've seen introduced in several Sonic games. (Such as SA2, Sonic Heroes and of course Shadow the Hedgehog.) What you seen said here and project Maria heavily relates to the plot parts discussed in the three of these games I just mentioned.

So that's pretty much it.

I can respect you disagreeing with Tails here, and honestly, I don't really agree with him either, but I did make Sonic make naive decisions. Decisions that. . . honestly other viewers of mine do see as a possibility for him in the future. But it's unlikely. Either way, this was an experiment regarding Tails, not Sonic, and I intend to portray Sonic better in the future with my next shot.

So I'm just taking steps. Trying to sort things out. I like how this turned out for the most part though. ^^

Wow. I can't even understand half of that, so kudos. Lol No, seriously though I've never really been that invested in any single series, though I could probably come up with some interesting angles on the Harvest Moon characters from 64 through Back to Nature/Friends of Mineral Town.

And I see what you mean. I do see that Sonic is a bit underdeveloped in the few games that I've played in that he never really has even seemed to get a personality beyond pretty much how you portrayed him. Also might I say that I did love how you said he ran from Amy until Amy grew up and pretty much quit caring and then he chased her. Some depth there. I'd definitely be interested in seeing how you handle these characters in your comics of them.

Finally seeing as how you disagree with Tails in ways here as well, it's nice to see that you can write outside of yourself. Too many people get stuck seeing the world through their own eyes and all of the characters feel flat for it. Nice job thinking outside of your own little box so to speak.