Send Me 🕯️to Hear My Character's Inner Thoughts About Your Character.

ian, really⸻? julius had to fight not make a face of disgust, kept his expression neutral, before smiling and giving a slight nod toward them all. he hated this already. how did any of them find this fun? the crowds were far too loud for julius' ears, that scent of oily greasy foods overwhelmed him.

"sonic do you mind asking him what brings him to station square?" amy's staring up at him, and julius can't tell if she's caught wise already or she's genuinely curious. he keeps that smile plastered on.

"ah, right! sure thing," sonic's turning towards him then, paused to consider before he spoke, "Ok, allora fai finta che ti stia chiedendo perché sei qui."

julius glanced at sonic, impressed. that was near perfect italian. "È un'assurdità, ve ne rendete conto?"

sonic's smiling, but his next words sound a tad sharper, "Dai, non è poi così male."

sonic's looking back toward the trio, smiling, "he says he's here to take in the sights, and try out some new food."

"heeeey, sonic!!" amy's voice sing-songed the second that she saw sonic's quills and saw him shuffling past a group of people walk-dancing across the street to some of the more jivy music playing over the loudspeakers strewn along the sidewalks. she paused then, noticing that sonic was leading someone closer to them. she blinked, hand lowering a touch as her fingers curled, "tails, did sonic mention anything about bringing someone?"

"it's news to me too, just indulge him amy. sonic likes to bring new people for us to meet."

"that's a big hat," knuckles sounded amused by it, not really caring either way who sonic did or didn't bring. wasn't any of his business anyway.

"hey guys, sorry it took a bit t'get here! had to go get my friend." sonic's letting go of his hand, and motions towards him, "this's ian, he's not from around here and can't speak english too much. so sorry if he's quiet."

'ian' gave a short, very brief smile, nodding toward the trio.

"julius, y'gotta sit still!"

"i am TRYING to," he winced at the way sonic's grabbed at his hair, moving and slapping the hedgehog upside the head, "YOU are the one who is yanking on my scalp hard enough to bald me." sonic's swift to boot julius in the side from where he's stood up on a nearby chair. sonic's helping pull the longer strands of julius' hair back away from his face to clip them down, in order for a ginger wig to settle on his skull,

"i've almost got it, stop whinin', y'big baby."

instantly, julius steps forward and clasps a hand onto colin's shoulders, both of them, in order to turn the shorter male's gaze up to look at him. & his voice is eclipsed by emotion, quivering in that held back rage - not at colin but at the moronic notion of what had just been told to julius. "if you are going to listen to me, once. if you are going to hear me clearly, then hear:

your mother's death WAS NOT your fault. do you understand. you were a baby for fuck's sake. you had zero control over what transpired that day."

there's a beat, as if julius needs a moment to compose himself. he releases colin's shoulders, takes a small step back from him. "you are worthy of much more than you give yourself credit for. your existence holds meaning. it always has." if to no one else, then at the very least, to me.

“I won’t judge you.”

My uncle said that too.

"I killed my mother. Just by existing. She died giving birth to me. No one has thought my life a worthwhile exchange for hers since."

The acceptance of his own dead mentor's doppleganger is a hot blade to the gut, over and over.

julius had just discovered about his own experimentations; those memories ⸻ of being injected, killing the scientists after he'd lost control ⸻ he had shackled away and compartmentalized. locked and buried deep within, yet always a nagging. a ghost of dreams, thinking them only bad nightmares, horrible intrusive thoughts that couldn't possibly⸻ but they were real. they were memories, and julius was not a human. hadn't been in decades, not since he'd been a young boy.

the rage he'd felt was indescribable. he couldn't stay with G.U.N any longer, knowing now what he did. & so julius sought to leave the base, but not before exacting some revenge. this organization had done nothing but take, take, take from julius. time he returned that favour.

before this though, he sought out agent stone. stone, julius had decided, was not part of the plan. stone was one julius couldn't bring harm to, no matter how annoyed and irritated he may be feeling. so, julius had told stone that they'd be parting ways, and stone was to leave the base. julius made up some small lie about stone being relocated to a different G.U.N base without him. convincing enough, julius decided. that done, he left, headed back to his own quarters.

& didn't exit from his 'room' for the next few days, planning.

of course, missing his duties meant that eventually the G.U.N base supervisor and some of his men were obligated to check in on robotnik. he could hear them now, knocking on the door and demanding that robotnik open the door, before they broke it down. he stood there, memories of those agonies ghosting along his ear.

he could feel it now, so easily: that power swelling within his chest, swirling and building, arcing down his arms and kissing his fingertips with warmth. he gathered that chaos energy into his palms, noting that bright red energy that gathered like a mist initially before transforming into a brighter plasma, a low bubbled laugh rolling out of julius' mouth at the sight. a grin split along his expression ⸻ HE WAS GOING TO ENJOY THIS ⸻, and he moved, hurling that sphere of chaos energy at the door the moment they breached; which caused an explosion to billow outward, engulfing the supervisor and the men behind him, causing the others to be blown off their feet.

alarms began to blare, explosions in another part of the base caused the lights to cut and for the emergency lights to kick in. washing the floor and the walls in a darker red. julius stepped out, over those bodies, barely paying them any mind. until his gaze landed on an unmoving person laying just a bit away from the main group.

stone.

julius stalled, staring. what⸻ he moved, scrambled, dropped to his knees and scooped that limp corpse body into his arms, eyes scanning and roaming stone's face for any signs of life. no, no- "y-you were supposed to leave," the words are hurried, hushed. julius had killed him⸻ NO, NO JULIUS COULDN'T HAVE⸻ NOT HIM

his shoulders twitched, hunching over stone's body, as though protecting him. useless. stupid. worthless. his breathing was quickened, as though gasping for air he couldn't suck in fast enough. he hadn't meant to- he couldn't- please, come back. "i'm sorry, i'm sorry!," the words were barely there, whispered, voice breaking, a choked catch of the last syllables. if he'd felt that energy building before, it was skyrocketing now. his entire body tensed up, a screamed wail of a noise that heightened into a louder angered sound: shrill and echoing and seemingly never-ending.

that energy burst outward, not in an explosion but a burning of fire, that energy arcing around julius' body. through tear-stained face, he watched as stone's body burned away in his arms. ash, slipping through his fingers, scattering along the floor only to blow away from that output of pressure. he had thought he'd lost everything before⸻ didn't realize until it was too late just how much more he had left yet to lose⸻

❛ do you remember when we first met? ❜

the question catches him off guard ⸻ trust it to sonic to be able to accomplish such a thing. his expression softens. "....of course i do. you're implying i'd forget?" he sounds almost offended. they had met countless times since, always fighting, nagging, 'catching up' as sonic liked to put it. julius never understood why they sought one another, but they did. for better or for worse ( no doubt the latter ).

grateful it were just he and sonic again. truthfully, he had only really come to this event because it was sonic that had asked him to. he never would've set foot at one of these shindigs, otherwise.

at sonic's laugh, julius scoffs a breath, "for someone panicked, you certainly kept your cool." naturally, julius thought, and based on sonic's little smirk he seemed to agree.

"yea, well, y'made it pretty easy. nice italian by the way."

"mmn," he hummed, not sure how to respond to that genuine compliment. his scalp itched but he couldn't do anything about that due to this damned wig. "why were you so insistent on dragging me here." he can't help the bluntness to his tone, all of that stimuli from the sounds, smells, let alone the massive crowd, was beginning to irk him more and more as the seconds passed.

amy's eyes were practically sparkling as she listened to ian & sonic's exchange, her attentions rapt on sonic in particular, "wow sonic, you sounded so good!" at that, sonic grinned over at her and flashed a thumbs up, "oh gosh, let's see if i remember any words..." turning to face ian, she smiled up at him and spoke, her cadence slowing down and sounding a tad broken up. "il tuo cappello è bello."

"Oh, grazie."

"that in mind, i'm gonna take ian to grab some grub." sonic didn't want make julius feel more pressured, and that meant getting him away from the trio. especially tails, if anyone of them might start pulling the ruse apart it'd be his little buddy. planning to meet up later, sonic 'ian' and the others all went their separate ways.

it wasn't until they were fully out of earshot and eyesight that sonic started speaking to julius normally again, "whew, i panicked there for a second!" he lets out a softer laugh, "i was torn between italian or russian, but i thought that italian would be the safer bet!"

"I think I'm losing myself again." //unlackeyed

well that was cryptic, and stupidly vague. that could mean many things: although if julius stopped to think for a moment. he supposed if he were a betting man, he'd bet on colin meaning 'losing himself' as in that sense of, belonging. or perhaps colin were finally growing bored of the do-goodery he kept trying to cling to. after all, from what little julius had gleamed of the man's past, he'd been into some right fucked up shit.

"are you wanting me to comfort you. to tell you that everything will be alright. you merely need to push through, keep trying. all of that." for as much as julius cared for colin (& care he did, because he wouldn't waste his efforts nor his time on anyone else if he didn't give a shit about them), he certainly hoped that colin hadn't mistaken that for julius being a righteous or a good-hearted person. he wasn't. his care extended to colin, to imad. on some small level, to sonic. that was it.

& yet even then, julius couldn't bring himself to simply tell colin that he could be good if he tried, he could continue to be kind if he tried. why? well. because julius himself wouldn't want to hear that as comfort; that would be the worst possible thing for julius to hear. after all, julius was not some 'hero', he was a terrible man who had murdered so many he'd stopped counting. would no doubt murder some more. if colin had come to him holding a gun and shakily confessing that he'd wanted to kill someone who wronged him, julius wouldn't take the gun from colin or tell him there was another way. he'd hold the target down so colin would have a clean shot and wouldn't waste a bullet.

"i gathered as much," comes his short reply when ivo ( hells that is still so strange to adjust to thinking, knowing ) mentions what the name of the device meant.

what julius does not expect, however, is for the little drone to have been given an actual name. as though it were a living breathing creature and not a hunk of metal and bits of wire. "...of course you named it." he supposed that he may have done the same thing had he gone down a similar lifepath.

julius doubted that.

"i'll refrain, in that case." he moves to stuff his hands into his coat pockets. "well. i have a, no doubt odd question to pose: what do we call one another? i suspect you'd feel strange calling me robotnik, and i am not particularly fond of referring to you as ivo.

in this case, i believe it's best to figure out," he can't think of another word for it, but the syllable feels like sand coming out of his mouth, "nicknames, for each other."

"yes, badniks," ivo replied with a wave of his hand, his expression neutral despite the twinge of aggravation he felt. "it is a play on my last name, obviously."

he pauses then, looking at how one of his little egg-drones seemed to have taken a liking to julius, which was hardly a surprise. on the outside they looked the same, so he couldn't fault the little badnik at all.

"arcturus likes you, it seems. if you continue to indulge him he won't ever leave you be."