[Open] Dead flowers for the torn apart

[pricklybloom]

🧙 WHO: Amy Rose and YOU
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-all for October. Recent events have brought up some bad memories for Amy, so she's keeping herself busy to try and keep her mind off things. It only kind of works.
🕒 WHEN: Throughout October
🗺️ WHERE: Ruins of Celliwig and Camelot
⚠️ WARNINGS: Possible mentions of death, war, and (robot) zombies. Because this is a children's franchise.

A. Task: Don’t Lose Your Head

[ She knows that she should be paying attention to her task, but Amy Rose can't keep her eyes from wandering over what's left of Celliwig. She could argue that she's keeping a look out for the Headless Horseman, to protect the volunteers in case he tries to attack again. Yet as she looks at the city's ruins - seeing the leftover destruction, watching as the survivors have to retrieve their dead - all she can think of is the diaster around them. How they failed.

She failed. It keeps happening.

Gripping the handle of her hammer, she shakes her head and releases a shaky breath. Can't focus on the past. Pick yourself up, and move on.

She's failed before. But she won't fail now. She'll keep these people safe.

What's left of them. ]

B. Not Quite a Puppy Parade

[ She'd hoped that the Pet Adoption Fair would be a little less intense, and it does help to a degree. It's hard not to smile when you're surrounded by cute animals, especially the capybaras that are so friendly.

Yet somehow it's the fae frogs that she finds herself drawn to. She isn't really much a frog person herself, honestly, and with her room at the inn already so cramped with her new roomate, she can't imagine having much room for any pet. But despite their attitude, she keeps coming back to the frogs and chatting with them a bit.

Because she can't help thinking back to a certain frog back home, wondering if he might sound like this if he could talk. Perhaps to others...but certainly not his best friend.

The friend always in constant search of him...traveling everywhere just to find him.

She hadn't known...she never even realized. She thought she'd seen him at HQ once, but she hadn't been paying attention. He was her friend too, but she hadn't even thought to think about him. She had no idea, until... ]

C. Training

[ Even with her busy schedule - taking on a quest, volunteer work, helping with the survivors, on top of her classes and her job - Amy still has time, makes time, for training.

She attacks the wooden dummies with some combination of using her hammer, hand-to-hand combat, and her dark magic. Her shadow seems to ripple with each strike against her immobile opponents, each hit somehow landing harder than the last, despite her strength obviously waning.

But she doesn't let up. She can't.

She strikes the dummy in front of her again, her hammer laying forgotten on the ground for the moment as her boxercising instincts kick in. She punches and kicks the training dummy, and her shadow moves out of sync from her, merging with the dummy's and choking it.

It's not enough. It's never enough!

Her shadow spikes through the dummy as she punches it, sending splintered wood flying everywhere. Stepping back, she takes a few ragged breaths as she looks at the destroyed object in front of her, then down at her hand. Some of the wood had ripped the material of her glove, revealing patches of the torn skin underneath.

She winces as she clenches her injured hand into a fist, but a moment later her hand is surrounded by light. It glows for a long moment, and when it fades she checks to make sure the injury is gone. Then she wipes her brow and reaches down to pick up her hammer. ]

D. Wildcard

((Feel free to catch Amy elsewhere! She'll be out around Camelot, or at the inn helping the survivors, or working her job at the Helleste Café. Or hit me up at usamichan13 to plot something else if you'd like!))

Comments

[pricklybloom]

Maybe.

[ She doesn't sound too hopeful, especially since the Horseman seems attracted to all the death and destruction. But it's nice to think that. ]

[ringsthatbind]

[True, but having hope is something he kind of expects from Amy. So her maybe gets a frown from him. Of course, that could just be written off by Shadow is just the frowning type.]

Well, if it has any sense it won't show up.

[pricklybloom]

[ It's such a typical answer from Shadow, but it manages to get a little laugh from her. ] I mean, it's headless, so...it probably doesn't.

[ringsthatbind]

Heh, true I didn't consider that. [He's just so used to fighting things with a head that the idea never crossed his mind.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She smiles, though it fades as she looks back to the group of volunteers she's watching over, seeing that they'd found another body. ]

I wish there's more that we can do for them.

[ringsthatbind]

[His own gaze follows Amy's, as he also watches the volunteers.]

And yet this is all we can do now, even after failure.

[It was hard for him to say that, since he had tried his best against the dragon.]

[pricklybloom]

[ Amy nods in understanding, having gone up against the golem and not even so much as making a dent in it. ]

I know.

[ It's clear that she's feeling more than a little guilty about it, though. ]

[ringsthatbind]

[She's not alone in feeling guilty, but Shadow is trying his best to not dwell on it. Which is hard, he is a dweller. And also with another thing added to the pile which he feels he should mention to Amy but is unsure how to.

So after a moment or two of silence he finally says something.]

Rouge is gone.

[Because that is important, at least he feels like Amy should know that someone from their world isn't here anymore.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She turns to him with wide eyes, her breath catching in her throat. ]

What? She's...How do you know?

[ringsthatbind]

I've checked.

[Shadow likes to think he's pretty good at finding Rouge when he needs to, so the fact he can't find her is proof enough that she's no longer here.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She'll definitely take his word for it. She only ever really hears from either of them when they wanted to get in touch with her. But it would make sense then that they would be able to locate each other. ]

Oh no...I'm sorry. Are you okay?

[ringsthatbind]

I'm fine.

[He's not, but he doesn't feel like it's something he needs to burden Amy (or anyone else) with. He turns his attention back towards the volunteers, as if that's the end of the conversation.]

[pricklybloom]

[ Normally she would just leave it at that, because she knows that Shadow doesn't really like to be pushed. But this...feels different somehow, and she can't just let it go. ]

Shadow, wait.

[ringsthatbind]

[He was just about to go join the volunteers and help them out when Amy spoke up. Which causes him to pause and turn to pay attention to her.]

Yes?

[pricklybloom]

[ She hesitates just a moment, taking a breath as she walks up to him. ]

Listen. I know...you and I aren't really that close. But you can talk to me about things if you need to.

[ringsthatbind]

[His expression and body language are as stoic as ever as she approaches.]

Good thing I don't need to do that. I should get back to helping.

[For him it works to just stay busy with things, so he can't dwell on the bad stuff.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She just barely manages to keep herself from pouting, tempting as it is. But that would definitely not help her seem serious. ]

Are you sure? Rouge is like your best friend, isn't she? I can't imagine losing her is easy, even for you.

[ringsthatbind]

She's my teammate. And... If I wish to see her again then helping these people is one of the quicker ways to have that happen.

[Shadow's tone has a finality to it, as if to say to Amy that he is done with this line of conversation. And he is also going to start heading back towards the volunteers, so he can go help them.]

[pricklybloom]

[ Amy breathes out a sigh, slightly frustrated, and takes a step to follow him. ]

...Shadow, if-

[ Those words are out of her mouth before she can stop them, but she manages to swallow the rest of them back down. Because while the question is just on the tip of her tongue, she realizes that she's actually scared of the answer. ]

[ringsthatbind]

[He stops at Amy's words, because he has a feeling she means to say more. And from what he does know of Amy is she isn't one to not say everything, so her stopping?

Makes him stop, and turn to face her once again. Red eyes just giving her a flat stare.]

If what, Amy?

[Can't be scared of something if it's not answered, after all.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She shakes her head, avoiding meeting Shadow's eyes. ] No, it...It doesn't matter. You're right, we should...get back to helping the others.

[ She moves to walk past him, quickly swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand as she goes. ]

[ringsthatbind]

[Amy had better be hoping that Shadow doesn't notice that eye swiping, which he, unfortunately, does notice.

He's not one to pry, but this seems like it may be important to the other hedgehog, so as she walks by he reaches out to grab her by the arm.]

Apparently, it does matter to you, so what is it?

[pricklybloom]

[ Him catching her by the arm does force her to stop, but she still avoids looking at him, already feeling a bit foolish and embarrassed. ]

It's...nothing. I'm just...being dumb.

[ringsthatbind]

[Shadow won't be letting go of her anytime soon either, or at least not until he gets an answer.]

That's for me to decide, which I can't do so until you tell me.

[He means it too, he won't consider whatever it is as dumb until he knows what is bothering her.]

[pricklybloom]

[ She sighs, finally turning to look at him. Even as she turns the words around in her mind, it just sounds really stupid. ]

If...If Rouge and I had been switched, and I had ended up leaving and she was still here...would you have talked to her about me disappearing?