HOW .... BASIC !!

— Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

the silence was strangling. felt like it had a vice grip on his throat, threatening to close up his windpipe. great job being quiet, julius, you stupid piece of shit⸻ say something. SAY SOMETHING, FUCKING TALK⸻

"......i'm," his fingers shift, and he moves to rub a hand along the side of his own neck, not looking at stone as he says this, "i'm sorry you never got to tell ivo," that felt strange to say, "the things you wanted to." he felt jealousy nip in his chest and knew that was irrational and stupid. he barely knew stone after all. & clearly they were both lonely from, everything either of them had gone through. but julius wanted to throw caution to the wind and let himself feel jealous, want stone, want, want⸻ he always wanted but never knew how or if he should sate that wanting. if he had the right to.

what had stone called it? marinating? just marinating, coasting through life, he supposed. doing what he felt he had to. a death without dying.

he exhaled, not sure he had it in him to explain more. there was so much more he felt he wanted to say, it was conflicting. he was scared that if he didn't now, the opportunity might never present itself again. he wondered if that itself was irrational, or maybe stupid, or naive. too emotional, too sensitive. he also couldn't stand the silence. wanted to speak with stone, but didn't know how. was he afraid of judgment? rejection? stone recoiling?

was he scared more, maybe, of stone stepping forward to meet him, and accepting it? what would that mean? to be seen, accepted, wanted not in spite of his ugliness or his horrors or his darkness but because of it.

"...i want," he swallowed, inhaled shortly, exhaled, and finally looked at stone again, "i want to tell you. i do. i just... i don't know how. no one's, ever bothered to ask, before. to want to know," he isn't sure how to express that, so he, he just lays a palm against his own chest. as if to silently say 'to know me', all of him.

stone knew by the silence that seemingly yet again he'd said the wrong thing, and a small part of him was starting to grow irritated at that fact. he tries to do his best to listen and be reassuring but it's perceived as anything but, and he practically has to stop himself from letting out a frustrated sigh at the entire scenario.

he knew very well when to pick and choose his battles, and right now his annoyance was not needed nor welcomed.

so instead of speaking and potentially further souring things between them he just stands there, arms resting loosely over his chest as he watches julius stand up. there really wasn't much in the way of anything that he could say to the man, it seemed.

indie julius ivo robotnik. a villain, well, depending on who you ask. neither games nor movie canon, but a secret third thing (my own). 21+. heavily mature themes inside. studied by wilhelm. carrd.

i love taking things too far. best distance to take anything to be honest

"you're the one taking offense and acting all defensive over a simple topic."

("why are you so damned sensitive.")

he stilled, hand twitching and stopping in his hair. his arm slacked, falling away from his own skull.

"⸻you just marinate, it's no wonder you feel how you do."

an explosion rattled and echoed in his own mind; sight of bodies, pieces of limbs, once organs, bits of hair and skull, lay strewn before him. he remembered shaking ⸻ unable to process what his eyes were seeing, his squadron, dead⸻

blood rained down on his face, scientists strewn along once white now red stained marble flooring⸻ his mother's distant, muffled screams, blood coating his own hands, arms. such a small child to be covered in so much blood⸻

years, days, months as a child and a teenager of begging, pleading, ASKING what he had done wrong to his parents and never being told why⸻ being treated like he were this horrible monster, this terrible blight of existence despite NOT REMEMBERING⸻

AND IT WAS HIS OWN FAULT? MARINATING?

"julius," stone's voice, his stone, cupping his face, "look at me. it's going to be okay."

any anger julius might've been feeling dissipated. he couldn't. not to him. never. and yet part of him could, would. julius smiled, but the expression looked bitter, a mix between genuinely hurt and confused, a touch lost,

".....clearly, you've waste your time."

the glare does nothing to him, and if anything it just makes the former agent shrug in response as he crosses his arms over his chest. "I merely asked. you are the one taking offense and acting all defensive over a simple topic."

really could the man not realize that? surely he had to know how odd that reaction was.

"because, from what it seems, you don't do hardly anything aside from challenging sonic when you get the chance. you just marinate, for lack of a better word. it is no wonder you feel how you do." the more he spoke with the man the more he regretted showing up, as whatever hope he had of aligning himself with another supposed like-minded individual kept slipping further and further away with every passing minute.

though that was mainly on stone for assuming, of course.

stone was staring up at julius like julius had grown seven extra heads. he supposed that made sense, if this was stone's first time experiencing flight via chaos energy. though, julius was instinctively aware of stone's gaze lingering on his eyes. ah, great.

"i, uh, i was looking for you. it worked." ⸻ w h A t ⸻ his brain short-circuited. in fact he was so shocked by this that julius' grip on stone's arm slipped and stone started falling away.

he scrambled, diving down after him and catching stone properly this time, by grabbing him and lifting him so that way julius was holding him flush against him. he exhaled, mumbling, "if you say so." he's avoiding looking directly at stone, a light flush coating his face. "let's get you to the ground." & julius starts to descent then, before landing and letting stone go, stepping back from him.

"there. no risk of you falling and becoming a splat on the ground." an ungloved hand moves to run through his hair. julius exhales, boot shifting along the dirt beneath him. "⸻i sensed chaos energy, earlier. that was you?"

well it definitely had worked, as when stone reappeared he was in a different place entirely but also... wait. he was falling?? he in fact was falling and could feel himself plummeting towards the ground at an almost alarming rate. why had he been brought to the literal sky and not the ground??

as he fell however he swore for a brief moment he saw robotnik, flying in the air like some damn bird might but that wasn't possible... right? people just didn't fly, but his brief thought was only confirmed when he feels something grab him and a sharp pain erupt in the upper part of his arm right after.

though he soon forgot about the pain when he realized he was no longer free falling, as the only thing he could focus on was how he had been saved by him, and... no way. his eyes were glowing? not only was this man flying, but his eyes were glowing an intense crimson that made stone feel very small beneath the man's gaze. then he hears the man speak, and his voice was just the same as it was all those years ago. in fact, he hadn't changed at all, it seemed.

fucking speak, stone!

"I uh, I was looking for you," he finally says as the initial shock wore off, and he managed to catch his breath despite the pain from being only held by the arm soon coming back into his mind. "it worked."

⸻how easy it was, put the GUN to his head.

a lifetime of FUCKING things up.

➯indie rp blog for JULIUS IVO ROBOTNIK. ➯cursed by MARKER (34 | he/they). ➯est on tumblr in 2025, written privately for years. ➯novella, asks, headcanons & meta galore. ➯↻ if interested in interaction! please read carrd (🔗 above).

🎶 ACTUAL CANNIBAL JULIUS ROBOTNIK!!!!! 🎶

You're walking in the woods There's no one around and your phone is dead Out of the corner of your eye, you spot him (Julius Robotnik )

@drrobctnik

MAKE YOUR MUSE AS A COCKTAIL.

don't stare at his arms, don't stare at his chest, don't stare at his arms, look at his face,

"oh, er, ha, no. no, i've been stationed here for...." how long had it been again? it takes him a second - the days here blur, so easily. day after day, the same exact routine. he liked the consistency of it, the order, but it always felt like he could be doing more. "nearly a year, i believe."

he straightens his posture ( is he wanting to make a good first impression on the shorter, buffer male? ), flashing a little fleeting, awkward smile, "i'm," he was about to say julius but catches himself. G.U.N was a stickler for last names only, never first names. something about 'it sounding better' and 'being the principle of the tradition', or whatever. never liked that, felt too distancing, to julius. he hadn't heard his first name spoken since he'd been recruited.

"robotnik." he holds a hand out, for the other to shake. usually they didn't do this either, but julius' old polite habits died hard. it didn't even register to julius that they were currently stood in the middle of the door into the room, thus blocking anyone from trying to enter or exit the breakroom.

Johnny was not having a good time right now.

When he was first recruited at G.U.N, he had expected it to be more fun than this. Perhaps he would meet some like-minded guys that he could bond with—and hey, chicks dig the military-type guys, right? So he'd thought joining would fulfill him in some way...

That is, until he'd had to get his head buzzed. His beloved hair, his pride and glory, was now gone... All that remained was the sorry excuse of length he'd been left with. He certainly had the army man look now, but at what cost?

The man had been pouting ever since, moping about the break room. He was so miserable that he hadn't even brought himself to talk to anybody yet, aside from the occasional higher-up barking various demands at him. He'd decided he may as well sleep the grief of his lost hair away, and had stood up to walk to the sleep quarters—until he nearly ran straight into somebody, promptly taking a step back.

"Oh! Uh... Yeah. Yeah, sure am." He gave an awkward chuckle. "...You?"