#a looming presense because they were always supposed to be a looming presense in the minds of the machines they created. fuck.

[piddle-puddle]

Some Old Tikal Drabbles

SO SOMETIME A GOOD 4000 YEARS AGO IN THE RP VERSE, EVERYONE WAS DOING THIS ONE DRABBLE ASK GAME AND I TOOK FOREVER TO DO ANY OF THEM. of course ol Tikal mun sent a few and I did these a while ago but just to have them somewhere I figure i’d post em just cuz. so yeh.

Enjoy some old writing of the two. here yall go.

Leave a “Quiet Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about my character trying to calm yours down [be it from crying, from lashing out, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Unbind Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about your character freeing mine, or the other way around, or something among the lines [be it freeing them from jail, from handcuffs, from a trap, from a curse, feel free to specify.]

Leave a “Remember Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about my character trying to get yours to remember them [be it from an accident, meeting them after years apart, feel free to specify.]

Unbind me:

It was almost nightfall, Tikal didn’t usually take this long to come home. Chaos was getting a little worried, but she’d been gone much longer then this before and been okay. He was originally waiting for the little orange mammal to return to the shrine as his indication feed the Chao dinner. Perhaps this would be one of her more lengthy walks. 

Considering the possibly she might not arrive until much later, the aquatic form decided now would be as good a time as ever to go check on that weird area over yonder on the opposing side of the island. He picked up a faint energy signal while experimenting with exactly how much energy he could drain from the Master Emerald without causing any change in the island’s altitude (his results were rather depressing). It didn’t appear to be a threat and leaving the Chao after just messing with the Master Emerald didn’t seem like a good idea, So he’d put investigation off until someone else was available to watch the Chao while he was away. 

It’d been a while since then, and he finally convinced himself they’d be fine for the few minutes he was out. Proceeding to the nearest chao-fruit-tree to him, knocking down some of its produce, and instructing the three eldest Chao to distribute them to the others; Chaos warped himself near the source of the signal.

aaaaaand found himself in a mess of jungle, vines, and vegetation all around. This was a pretty dense forest, the person emitting the energy must have gotten lost in the middle of it. The poor fool… 

Not much time had passed before the deity found himself within range to sense the origin point himself, though at this point he didnt really need to sense it to determine the location. Whatever it was was doing a huge amount of moving. Enough to the point he could hear it over the rest of the jungle. That is, until the noise suddenly stopped.

Chaos followed suit, did the target sense his presense? He thought he was being pretty quiet, much more then they were anyway. His question was answered as a burst of chaos energy shot into the air. Chaos stood still shocked for but a mere moment before beating feet toward its origin.

What he found though, left him speechless 

A small, orange young girl hung tangled in numerous tree vines and was clearly frustrated. Chaos, holding in a laugh, surveyed the mess the poor echidna had got herself into. How that even happened was not something he planned to ask, as he himself would have been far too embarrased to answer that question. Not that the question he finally did end up asking was any better. No not by a long shot

“Are you in need of assistance?”

Tikal stopped her squirming for a while, letting a dead silence set in. 

“No of course not! Just thought spending an entire day struggling to get out of these vines would be a great way to spend my time~!” Her voice was delightfully snide. For a moment Chaos considered returning the favor, but she already looked miffed enough for one day.

“A-apologies, Tikal. Here, cease movement while I cut you out.” With that, Chaos dissolved into a puddle and began to encircle the floor right below the girl. In one simple, swift movement, a wave shot up from the very edge, slicing straight through the vines. Traveling the circumference of the circle, Chaos cut each cord in such a sudden fashion that Tikal didn’t have time to angle herself, and she fell right to the ground with a little peep. the deity just sort of giggled, reforming a bit off to the side. “Shall we be off toward home?”

“Thanks..” The echidna remarked, not quite appreciating the sudden drop, but very thankful to be free. She attempted to get to her feet, struggling slightly. She’d been stuck there for quite a while. The girl nodded to her friend though, “I wouldn’t guess you already have food prepared there?”

“It shouldn’t take long to fix up something. Wouldst you I carry you back until your feet regain their fullness?” He smiled. Or at least attempted to.

“I’ll be fine… Thank you again. That was really unpleasant.”

“Not to worry dear. I only wish I arrived sooner.”

Quiet me:

Had this sort of circumstance happened to anyone else, she might have managed to chuckle a bit at it. However, Tikal knew how much the deity loved gardening; she knew that next to caring for Chao, that was the thing that brought him the most joy.

The sheer scale of the issue also took a large hit on the humor value. Gigantic, towering fungi loomed over the whole zone, it was a wonder none of them were harmful to anything but the vegetation. This whole place was somewhat of a natural miracle.

Chaos had another word for it however. Several in fact, “Disaster”.. “monstrosity”.. “abomination”… Those seemed to sum up pretty fairly the sort of feelings Chaos was emitting through the energy he naturally produced. Often times, he took great care to keep his energy from reflecting his emotions, as this would allow those able to sense Chaos energy, like Tikal, from knowing how he felt. However, this time he was far to focused on being demoralized to bother with that.

“Knuckles said they call this place Mushroom Hill Zone now..” The girl remarked, recalling how he had just a mere few moments ago been so enthusiastic about taking her to his private garden. many times when she was younger seeing her friend appear at the shrine from this direction every now and then. He couldn’t speak clearly during that time, but he had seemed to have a sense of pride about him when returning home. At this moment, she could tell even without his aura actively communicating it, that he was filled mostly with despair at the sight of what had happened. That prooooooooobably meant the gargantuan mushrooms weren’t supposed to be here. “I’m sorry Chaos.” She said, attempting to place a comforting hand on his shoulder.

Aaaand it went right through him. He apparently wasn’t even mentally present enough to focus his body into a semi-solid state. The comfort hugs would have to wait a while then.

In the meantime, Chaos continued his whimpering. There had been outbreaks of the spores before, but he was always there to cut them down before they had the chance. He’d been tending to that garden for what felt like ever sense he adopted the Chao. In fact they actually used to live there until the shrine was built for him and the emerald. It’s beauty was awe-inspiring; lush, green, glimmering and filled to the brim with life, blooming flowers and fruit the hundreds. It was his pride and joy, second to only the children he cared for. But… this was all that work had resulted too..

After what seemed like half an hour, he managed to whimper out a “h-h-…how..??” That was almost rhetorical though. His energy had a bizarre strengthening effect of living things, which was mostly how he managed to get so much verity in his garden all in one place. The area was always plagued by some kind of fungus infestation, an issue he realized a little too late. But as long as he kept them under control it was fine. The problem, was that they were allowed about 4,000 or so years to grow without his constant maintenance. That was something both he and Tikal managed to piece together a little while after the fact. Of course, unaware he had been able to guess at that, Tikal explained the whole theory to him outloud, and being rewarded with a severely upset groan. Chaos then proceeded to flop on the ground and continue his moping until the poor girl couldn’t take it anymore. 

She stayed there until sundown, trying to think and say and do things that would cheer him up, although it appeared to accomplish nothing. She eventually gave up and had to drag him back to the shrine using a water basket; where he continued to sit and mope and the foot of the stairs with all the Chao sitting with him, trying to be of some comfort.

Needless to say, Chaos never went to that half of the island ever again.

Remember me:

Dust clouds filled the air, pile upon pile of rocks falling to the ground after each earth-shattering blow struck the ground. She’d arrived late, and had missed whatever was causing the creature to begin his rampage once again, but it hardly mattered. Chaos’ mood was easily effect by surrounding forces, and it certainly seemed someone around here had been putting out a lot of negative chaos energy. Even without the concentrated pool radiating off the elemental himself, Tikal could sense someone else had been here before, most likely driving the poor being over the edge.

Perhaps Chaos’ sluggishness was a blessing in disguise, because he was having one heck of a time landing a hit on the girl. This was a new experience for the both of them, never before had Chaos ever attempted to harm Tikal throughout all the time he’d been acquainted with her. It was… frightening.. to see him like this. Not just because he himself was quite dangerous, but because of how caring she knew he was underneath. She’d only been able to witness his drastic shift of personalities from a far, but up close and directed at her was a whole nother story..

And to think, it was yet another blessing he only took one emerald with him, she could only imagine how her family felt facing him at the shrine was all those years ago. On his face was a cold, dead expression. His aura radiated hate and rage, being near him was sickening.

Another three jabs struck the ground with no contact. Chaos had never been exceptional at one on one combat. His aim was atrocious. Easily dashing backward, the echidnan girl called out to her friend once again in hopes of reaching his conscience, but to no avail. Just once she’d like for that to work. To not have to put herself and her friends at potential risk of being hurt by getting up close and personal. One blow to his brain ought to keep him still enough to try and transfer some positive energy to him, but that meant hurting him. And while hurting him was a much better option then wait for him to get lucky and land a hit, not only did that mean she’d have to fight him, but he had a horribly bad guilt-inducing cry. It was like kicking a puppy to her, you just can’t do it and remain happy afterwards.

She spent too much time in thought this round, Chaos was already right above her with his next attack, charged and ready to break more earth. She acted quick, leaping of the ground at the enraged deity. If Chaos was rearing to punch, he’d have to solidize his fist in order for it to have much an impact. She’d seen this technique of his a number of times, Nicknaming it Chaos Impact, after the large shock-wave it produced. Mid-way through Chaos’ strike, Tikal reached her arm out, placing her palm on what equated to his wrist. She pushed off right when his punch struck ground, the impact aiding the girl in her flip over her friend. This would have provided the perfect opportunity to return fire, but still feeling conflicted over the situation, Tikal failed to take advantage of this. 

This proved to be a bad decision, as Chaos had anticipated this. Hearing a loud smack, the orange girl found herself spinning uncontrollably through the air, a sharp pain in her side. Her vision blurred, unable to identify anything she caught a glimpse of. Chaos however, having just swatted his opponent upward with his tail, aimed to make the most of his upper hand. 

Not that he had any specific idea what he was doing. Thinking was exactly something he was capable of at the moment. He was fighting something before and it… did something and now there’s this other something and everything just kind of meshed into one indistinguishable mess. All that was functioning properly in him was pure instinct, and that was telling him very clearly that whatever was making him feel so horrid would go away if he kept fighting. That was usually the only thing his instinct ever told him and it was usually a load of bull. Chaos often wondered why he ever listened to bit, but again, thinking was a bit out of the question at the moment. Anger dulled his senses, and he behaved according to any impulse he had.

Liquid planted itself firmly in the ground, the rest of the tail trailing back to its origin on the deity’s body. In one simple, swift movement, Chaos flicked himself up into the air. The arm that had once held the charge for his first attack now swung out, and the liquid form flipped himself upward. Tikal, who had finally begun slowing down enough to see what was going on, found herself being caught rather comfortably by the god. The spinning finally stopped, and it was strangely reassuring Chaos didn’t punch her when he could have. Although she knew it wouldn’t last long.

Chaos flipped their positions on the decent, pushing his friend to the ground and landing on his feat. The arm he used to catch her was now pressed down on her stomach, pinning her to the ground. He realized he couldn’t keep up with her, so he knew he had to stop her movement completely. Succeeding in doing so, Chaos raised the one arm he hadn’t used, containing yet another charged chaos impact, shooting a cold, cruel glare at his opponent.

This situation was extremely bleak; breathing was getting increasingly harder, and Tikal knew what was going to happen next. Yet.. somehow she didn’t feel scared. She stared Chaos straight back; and not with a face of anger but one with compassion. She didn’t feel mad, just sorry. All at once, every action in the aquatic being’s body halted. Instinct told him to attack, but he could not force himself to drop his fist. Neither moved a muscle, and silence fell over the battle field.

Seeing the confusion in the others eyes, Tikal spoke. “…Chaos.. c-can you see me now?”

There was no response. The beast just continued to stare, eyes big and bright with bewilderment. His ability to think seemed to have returned, but nothing he was seeing was being understood.

“You tend.. to forget yourself at times..” Her voice was calm and quiet. “That’s.. that’s okay Chaos, really.. you j-.. just need a reminder sometimes..!”

The hand raised only a little from her abdomen, allowing her to breath easy again. Silence fell once again while the echidna gathered her breath. Chaos had frozen completely still, paralyzed in shock and fear. Thoughts were now running wild through his head and he was unable to grasp a one.

“You’re.. you’re a kind and gentle guardian. A-and you protect those who cannot defend themselves.” She rested her hands on his, softly patting it in a reassuring manner. Gone was the anger that pulsed from his being, replaced by fright, regret, and panic. Tikal slowly began concentrating her own positive energy into her palms, hoping to channel them to him.

“You’re not a monster Chaos, no matter what you or anyone else say… Don’t ever think that, because it’s wrong.” It seemed that Chaos finally regained most of his consciousness. Tikal smiled at him in her friendly way, although she was beginning to feel faint. Reaching up, she shut her eyes, hugged his arm and said the last bit she wanted to add.

“You’re my friend Chaos, and I can’t think of anything that will change that.”

…

 When the little orange girl next opened her eyes, she found herself in a familiar location. Chirping was heard a moment later from a Chao sitting next to her, apparently waiting for her to wake up. She soon realized that she was back at the shrine, resting on an incredibly shoddily made bed composed of leafs. Chaos lay curled up on top of the master emerald, obviously attempting to take up as little space as possible. 

She’d have to smooth things over with him later, but for now, she was just happy to be back home.