isleofavalon | [Open] Dead flowers for the torn apart

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[Open] Dead flowers for the torn apart

🧙 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!))

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[ She's silent for a while as they walk away from the rest of the crowd, but once they get to a relatively empty spot, she finally sighs. ]

Back in my world, there's an evil scientist called Dr. Eggman, who is constantly using his genius to try and take over the world. [ Amy shrugs a little, her eyes focused on the ground as she continues walking as she speaks. ] I know how cliché it sounds, but it's what he does. He builds robots, and invents all kinds of machines to try to take over the world. In the early days, he would kidnap animals - the non-talking kind, like Flicky birds [ She gestures to her familiar, who is suddenly flying nearby just over Amy's head. ] and sticks them in his robots as sort of a power source. I don't know the science behind it, and I don't...think he does that anymore, but he used to go around everywhere, capturing all sorts of animals to put in his robots, and build his machines to conquer the world. The only reason he hasn't is because of the only one who was brave enough to stop him the very first time: Sonic the Hedgehog.

[ The name is said almost dreamily, almost reverently as a smile - a real smile - flits across Amy's face for the first time since talking to Della. ]

Sonic is...a hero, plain and simple. He's known for his speed, and is the fastest thing alive. But even more than that, he's courageous, and loyal, and [ handsome ] a free spirit. I think you'd really like him, actually. He loves adventure, and is always traveling around looking for the next exciting time.

He was just a kid when he first stopped Eggman, and he didn't have to...but someone had to step up, so he did. And after that, it just kept happening. Eggman would show up, time and again, and Sonic would step in to stop him. He made some friends along the way; his best friend, Miles Prower, but we all Tails because he has two of them and can use them like a helicopter to fly. Tails is actually a genius himself, as smart or even smarter than Eggman, as well as a pilot. There's also Knuckles the Echidna, who is a guardian of a place called Angel Island, an island that floats high above the world's surface. I actually met Sonic on one of his adventures, and he had saved me from one of Eggman's robots, Metal Sonic.

That's how things went for years. Eggman had a plan, tried to take over the world, though occasionally there would be something that surprised even him...Sonic would thwart his plans, sometimes on his own, but usually with some of his friends. We met Big that way, on one adventure; and Shadow and another friend, Rouge, on another. We met a group of detectives called Team Chaotix, and their members, Vector, Espio, and Charmy; we met a girl named Cream the Rabbit, who became my best friend; we met a princess from another world, named Blaze the Cat; and a guy who had come from the future to prevent the destruction of his time, Silver the Hedgehog.

Usually we would also end up having to gather the Chaos Emeralds to stop Eggman, or whatever was threatening the world. The Chaos Emeralds are seven mystical gems with unlimited power. On their own, they can be used to generate a lot of energy, but with all seven combined they're impossible to beat. Sonic, and even Shadow and Silver, can harness all seven of them to achieve a Super form. There's also a Master Emerald, which can control the Chaos Emeralds and keep them from getting out of hand. It's actually located on Angel Island, and Knuckles guards it so it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

[ She pauses a moment, taking a breath. She knows it seems like a lot of backstory, but she knew she need to explain some things for what's coming up. ]

Everything was fine for a while, until...a while back, Eggman had found another gem, called the Phantom Ruby, which can manipulate a person's perception of reality. It can...make things seem real, or create physical illusions. Using the power of the Phantom Ruby, he... [ Her breath skips a bit, and she shakes her head. ] We thought he had killed Sonic. Tails was the only one there at the time, but he...that's what he said he saw.

Without Sonic, and with the power of the Phantom Ruby, Eggman was finally able to take over the world. His robot armies spread out everywhere, and it was so bad that Knuckles came down from Angel Island, and Silver came from the future, to help fight against Eggman. Those of us that were left formed the Resistance, with Knuckles as our commander, but we were never able to beat Eggman. Many people were dispirited by Sonic's death, and we were never able to quite raise up morale until we heard that Sonic was actually alive, and had been captured by Eggman.

We were able to rescue Sonic, and eventually Eggman was defeated. By all accounts, it had been a pretty short war, but... [ She folded her arms, as if to hold herself. ] It was still a war. We lost a lot of good people, and even though we were victorious in the end, it...left quite a mark.

Edited 2021-10-14 10:08 (UTC)

[ Hey, her world is full of clichés, this ain't nothin' new. So she nods along, rather interested in her world and all its zaniness. I mean, hot damn, that all sounds exciting and fun! She's even smiling brightly a few times, wanting more details.

But, oof, that got dark real quick. She winces, and then when it seems like Amy's exhausted herself, Della doesn't hesitate to put both arms around her and hold her close.

It's really sinking in now how young Amy is - or at least Della thinks she's young. Maybe in Amy's world, hedgehogs age differently. But right now, Della sees a young girl who's been through WAY too much. Does she even have any friends here from home, aside from Edgy Nudist, who probably isn't offering much in the way of comfort? ]

... I'm really sorry, Amy. I truly am.

[ It's not a situation where either of them has done anything wrong, but it's just the sort of thing one says in this situation. ]

[ The sudden embrace stops her from walking any further, and after a moment she leans into Della, returning the hug with a sigh. ]

…that’s not even the worst thing that happened.

[ What could be worse than a war? ]

[ An excellent question. Della sighs, then straightens up. ]

All right. Lay it on me. What's next?

[ She pauses for a moment, thinking. There was something else that came before The Worst Thing, but how much of that did she need to explain. ]

Okay, so...after Eggman was defeated during the war, he ended up someplace called Windmill Village with amnesia, and was referred to by the villagers as Mr. Tinker. We left him there, because we thought it would be safe, but while we were dealing with an issue on Angel Island with one of Eggman's robots, Metal Sonic but with an upgrade and calling himself Neo Metal Sonic, another scientists named Dr. Starline hired these two goons to kidnap Mr. Tinker so he could jog Eggman's memories.

We dealt with the issue on Angel Island and took care of Neo Metal Sonic, but Knuckles decided to remain there to resume guarding the Master Emerald, and disbanded the Resistance. But there was just...so much work still left to do...places to rebuild, allocating resources, and I just couldn't...couldn't leave things like that. So I took the leftover Resistance and created a new organization called Reformation so that we could continue rebuilding the world.

But we weren't...we weren't prepared for Eggman's return.

[ Her fingers curled into tight fists for a moment, before she released a heavy sigh. ]

Thanks to Starline, Eggman did get his memories back, and he developed a chemical with microscopic robots that would...change living matter: Plants that were affected became metal, and animals and people that came in contact with it became...robots.

[ Closing her eyes, she shudders a little. ]

Eggman started dumping cities and towns with what we started calling the Metal Virus, infecting hundreds of people at once. Anything doused with the chemical would change pretty immediately, but anyone who was touched by an infected also became infected, and their transformation was more...gradual.

When people or animals became robots, they completely lost all sense of what or who they are. They couldn't be talked to or reasoned with, and were super aggressive and prone to attack anyone still not affected. They were like...zombie, but robots. [ She folded her arms again, hugging herself as she smiled faintly, though it didn't reach her eyes. ] Sonic called them Zombots.

[ It would've been funny if the events hadn't been so stressful. ]

Huh...! That actually happened with one of my Uncle's enemies - the amnesia deal, and him being way nicer without his memories. But he got them back too, and he also just got worse than before. Though, uh, not your level of bad.

[ TBF, Glomgold would probably want to do robot sharks. or zombie sharks. dude loves his sharks.

She shakes her head, then nods at Amy. ]

What happened next?

To be honest, I never thought he could get to this level of bad until the war.

[ Eggman had never seemed like that much of a threat before, even with all the close calls they've had over the years. But ever since the war, he'd really been stepping up his game.

She's silent for another moment, running a hand down her face as the memories of the event jumble through her mind. Then she sighs, and actually starts to backtrack a bit. ]

When we'd first gotten word of Eggman coming back, Sonic and I went to an abandoned Eggman base to see if we could hack into his system and figure out what he was up to. We didn't get a chance to find out much before we were interrupted by the goons Starline had hired. These two guys named Rough and Tumble.

They weren't really much of a threat. They weren't too bright, and Sonic was literally running circles around them. [ She laughs faintly, though her expression still remained troubled. ] But they had these packs that Eggman had given them, called them their secret weapons...I don't think even they realized what it was exactly. Because when the tried to activate them, the packs broke and spilled the Metal Virus all over them. Of course, Sonic and I had no idea what it was at the time. All we could do was watch as the stuff spread over them, turning them into robots.

We kept fighting after that, but it was a lot different. Before, we could rile them up and get them to lose their cool, but after they changed they wouldn't say anything. They just kept coming at us. And I was okay, because I had my hammer, but Sonic... [ She squeezes her eyes shut. ] Sonic doesn't fight with any kind of weapons, and he...we didn't know until...

[ She swallows the lump in her throat, before forcing herself to continue. ]

Besides Rough and Tumble...Sonic was one of the first people to get infected with the Metal Virus.

[ Della's always been a hand-to-hand fighter herself - comes with the family territory. Sure, Scrooge often uses his cane, but most of the McDuck clan is proud of their fists.

Maybe she ought to rethink that strategy... at least if Metal Viruses ever get involved. ]

... Do you need a break? This... sounds like things got the worst they've ever been.

Honestly? Somehow it feels worse than the time Eggman had torn the world apart.

[ That...is probably a story for another time.

She doesn't continue on with this story yet, though, indicating that she could probably use a moment or two. ]

[ Yup, it's break time. ]

... Y'know, my roommies are probably out of the house by now. Drake does volunteer work, and Fenton's probably hitting up his sort-of-girlfriend, so we can chill there, grab some lunch, cry, whatever.

[ She glances up at Della for a moment uncertainly. ] I don't...wanna take up too much of your time.

[ It's bad enough that she's already said as much as she had. She should've been stronger than this...none of the others would have let it eat at them this way. ]

[ She offers a friendly smile. ]

I'm a mom. If someone younger than me needs to vent, then I have all the time in the world. C'mon, follow me.

[ A mom. She hasn't had one of those in...it feels like it's been forever. The closest thing she has now is Vanilla, but as much as she liked her friend's mother, she wasn't always around the older rabbit.

So, with a little smile, she nods and follows after Della. ]

[ At the house, Della swings the door open, stretching a bit. ]

Make yourself at home! Atom might be around... Fenton's dog, he's a good "pupper", as the kids say.

[ As if being summoned, Atom comes charging into the room, barking excitedly as he beelines for the two of them. Amy is a bit surprised when the dog jumps at her, but manages a laugh as he tries to lick her face. ]

Aww...he's so cute!

[ Della chuckles, giving Atom a scritch between the ears before gently trying to pull him off. ]

All right, buddy, down, down... give her some space to breathe!

[ Atom gives a bit of a whine as Della drags him off, but it's only briefly as Amy reaches down to scratch his head. So he doesn't try to jump on her again, but he does stick around. ]

He's so sweet. What'd you say his name was?

Atom! Fenton named him. If he was my dog, I probably would've named him something cooler like Cujo or... well, doesn't matter, people never like my names.

[ Still a little huffy that Donald changed her babies' names. Turbo was cool, dammit. ]

[ She laughs a little. ] Tails would probably give a dog a similar name. Although it'd be more like Sprocket or Ratchet or something.

[ Something more mechanical maybe. ]

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[Open] Dead flowers for the torn apart

Sorry for the wall of text, there might be a few of these

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