Your defeat of "Eggman" has come at a high cost, namely the Egg Fleet in the skies and the looming threat of Neo Metal Sonic. He gave you a week to prepare; best use it wisely.
THE CITY
The massive robot on the horizon is no more - it looks like Neo Metal Sonic truly did rip the whole thing up. If you head back out there, you'll find that there are still pieces of it, and plenty of scrap left behind, but not nearly as much as one would expect.
More pressingly, there are far more robots present than even before. While you recognize all of them at this point, they're all patrolling in larger groups and will once again drop everything to attack you. Definitely don't head into the city alone for any reason, and always be prepared for an ambush. These robots are absolutely determined to kill you.
It seems that the white chroma that has spread throughout the city has reached a standstill - there isn't any more of is present than there was last week, but it hasn't receded any either. Strangely enough, it seems like the animals in the city are feeling more lively than before, though not quite back to their usual levels of being.
THE BASE
The new base is coming along nicely, and should be more or less furnished as needed by now. Still, with more and more robots coming around, you may find groups of them straying toward the base. You can't let them find it and report back to Neo Metal Sonic, so please take care of them! This is also the perfect time to practice with your shardbond powers...
You may also want to start thinking of the future as well. While it certainly isn't a sure thing, Sonic and friends have made it clear that this should be the final battle, that taking out Neo Metal Sonic should be the end of it and that you all will get to go home soon. Or if not home, then to wherever - and whenever - you'd like! Your future is up to you, though you're certainly welcome to stay here in Chicago, if you have nowhere else you want to go. May as well start thinking about what you'd like to bring back with you, or where you'd like to go.
But maybe don't get too caught up on that, as you still do have a battle to win, after all.
SHARDS
Your shard powers are fully unlocked, and with them comes a mastery of your shardbond powers as well. You really have reached the end with what you can do with these bonds - so now it's time to put them to the test.
Knuckles wants you all to practice forming even larger shardbonds and maintaining them for as long as possible - ideally you'll be able to work up to a seven person bond, as that should grant you the full extent of your power. No one knows what exactly will happen when you can achieve that... So you'd better get to work, as it may be very helpful for the final fight.
Those of you with the same color shards have mostly been able to bolster each others' powers rather than actively forming a bond, but now that you're at the very end, that's changed - shards of the same color can now activate each others' powers as well as their own! So for example, Yeager can shoot water like Dorothy, or Dorothy can draw aggro and take reduced damage like Yeager. You can utilize the others' powers alongside your own just as long as the other shard is in the same vicinity!
TAILS' TASKS
As always, rings are incredibly important, and you should collect them, especially if you'd like to bring some home with you so you can travel back to Chicago at any point, or jump to your friends' worlds. Go forth and find those obnoxiously-placed rings!
There's also Knuckles' daily lessons on shardbonds; he'll be overseeing you all while you practice to make sure that everything's going well, though you don't really need his help at this point. Activating a bond with six other shards is the goal, but every single extra shard you can add to the mix is important.
Finally, Tails is working on a teleporter that will jump you guys right up onto the ships above... but he's still fine-tuning it. Turns out that finding the right ship is a bit easier said than done. If you want to help, you can take the jump to test it! You'll be given a ring so you can get back immediately - but if you get the wrong ship, you can stay to clear out the robots. Doing so will net you experience with your shards and bonds, as well as at minimum ten rings. So really, it's a win/win unless you hate fighting.
ENEMIES
The enemies you face this week are the same as the ones you've faced in previous weeks. There are no new robots to fight, though you'll start finding knock-offs of Mecha Sonic, Robo Knuckles, and Tails Doll hanging around in the city as well. Which yes, means you can (and will) get many more rocks at you. Have fun!
[And he's discussed it with Void Archives, which he does not realize he should maybe keep to himself but fortunately does not think to mention anyway!]
I hope that you know that I was...afraid, more than anything else. My reaction had very little to do with you, or my feelings towards you. I am not...well. I suppose you know what I am not.
[Anyway, More always protests when he becomes self-deprecating. Turo does not want to go down that road.]
We may die at the end of this week. I do not think that I have the time to make decisions based on fear. I cannot promise that I...know what I should do, or...how to be. [He turns his hands over in his lap, examining them. The Professor and Sada's relationship is not one he wishes to emulate. He sets his hand down next to More's - intending at first to take it, but not quite having the nerve.] But I do not wish to have regrets.
[ Though More keeps his expression very carefully neutral as Turo speaks, his heart is pounding in his chest with nervous energy. He can take being rejected - in fact, he thought he already had been! But it's the uncertainty that makes this nerve-wracking for a few long moments. And even after Turo is done...
More has to inhale deeply. When he speaks it's no longer with the voice-saving whisper. This is worth the normal volume. ]
I do not need you to be anything but yourself.
[ Turo may not have the nerve to take that hand, but More rests his own over Turo's with a decisive gesture. ]
And if... if you truly feel like not being with me this way is something you might come to regret, I could not be happier. But conversely... I do not require this of you. I may have... ideas... about what I desire, but none take the shape of conditions.
[ A beat. ]
You have my heart, in whatever form you want it.
[ It should feel like a betrayal of Allice, but the sentiment never arises. It's notable only by its absence. ]
[Turo smiles and turns his hand over so that he can interlace his fingers with More's.]
I would like to try. I believe that I could be happy traveling with you as friends, but ever since we had that discussion, I have continued thinking about it. About - being closer. I think that must indicate something. And - it is another sort of exploration, is it not?
[Maybe that sounds cold. He hopes not. He remembers, in the abstract, the heights of passion - love and hatred - that Turo reached in his relationship with Sada, but he is not built that way. It's not what he wants either. He wants something calmer and gentler than that.]
[ It's all the reassurance More needed. This whole time, he'd been feeling bad about pushing something onto Turo that is wholly selfish, about imposing his own desires on one who might go along with them just to please him.
But if Turo had been thinking about it, if he's curious then... Then there really is no reason to keep self-flagellating and deny himself. Curiosity is an emotion that is near-sacred to More. ]
It is. It's another road we walk together, hoping to find beautiful destinations yet unknown.
[ He shifts his upper body so he can face Turo, and raises the hand that isn't busy holding Turo's to brush over his cheek. Imitation skin, false hair that cannot grow, an iron skeleton beneath - all parts of a precious person, so alike and unlike himself. More has had many lovers over the course of the life that a man who is almost him had lived. But all that experience has given him is the perspective that every relationship is unique - that he'll find something different on this exploration, too, in many ways he might not yet be expecting.
[Turo tilts his head slightly. He understands what is happening - he has distant memories of his own, if far more distant than More's - but it's novel to be seeing it as a participant, for the first time.]
Yes, you may.
[He hasn't studied these memories closely, and is not inclined to, so it really is almost like the first time. He'll follow More's lead.]
[ At this junction, More had not expected anything but permission, but his heart still flutters at hearing it spoken out loud. It takes another moment for him to close his eyes and act - he needs to make this moment last, the way their eyes are meeting from up close. Out under the open sky, with a gentle breeze around them... They might die at the end of the week, but right now More is the happiest he's been in a long, long time.
When he kisses Turo, it's fairly chaste - there's no reason to overwhelm him when he'd like to think that have time, much time, to figure it all out - but it's no less loving for it. He does not want to break away any time soon. ]
[Turo leans back into the kiss, admittedly hesitant but growing less so when nothing horrible spontaneously happens. His lips are smooth and dry, and the short hairs of his beard a little scratchy. More, in return, is soft and warm.
He had not known what to expect, but this is nice - comforting, in a way. He hums thoughtfully and presses a little closer, though he isn't bold enough to do anything like part his lips.]
[ It's different from kissing a flesh and blood person, but not by much. It's certainly just as enjoyable. More drops his hand from Turo's face to wrap around his waist instead and then holds back from just climbing into his lap entirely because that seems... a little drastic for a first kiss. Even if it also seems very comfortable.
After what feels like a beautiful eternity, he breaks away from the kiss (but not the hug) without pushing the boundaries any further.]
Oh, my dearest...
[ And then he breaks into an amused little smile. ]
... I appear to have left my mark on you.
[ His current brand of black lipstick has failed the kiss test. ]
[Turo blinks at him for a moment without understanding. That was...nice. It wasn't quite like he remembers the Professor experiencing it, but he was still a little sorry to break it. His eyes catch on More's lips again, and then he notices the smeared lipstick.]
Oh! [He rubs his thumb over his bottom lip, pulling it away to see a slight black residue there.] That is one way of doing my makeup, I suppose.
[He doesn’t have any opinion on that, truth be told. He’s given up having opinions on his appearance. But that’s no matter; he leans against More contentedly.]
We can try another one some other time. I like this right now.
Mhm, well I cannot deny that that's a relief to hear.
[ Both in the facetious bantering about colors sense, and also more broadly speaking. It's good to know that this is the right direction for them to go into right now.
More leans in again, though this time it's for a simple kiss on the cheek. ]
[Turo holds still to accept it, pleased and a little excited. It's the first time that being the center of someone's attentions like this feels good, not potentially dangerous. He links his arm with More's, leaning closer to him than he would have otherwise.]
[ More feels a little giddy to hear it and be able to confirm it, both. ]
I was... really worried I had overstepped with you, but now I am grateful that I was so reckless. The only thing I'd do over is saying it all with far more poetic words.
Oh, don't worry - it was for the best. I never would have initiated anything myself.
[Part of that is because he probably would have been far, far slower at assessing and recognizing his own feelings, if someone else hadn't presented it in that light first. Part is just...well, even if he'd gotten there, he wouldn't have said anything. How could he?]
[ Well, you probably wouldn't want to list that out in public to random strangers, but that's neither here nor there. Their relationship, as newly defined now, is certainly intimate enough to not warrant that embarrassment. ]
All the ways in which you're you both because and despite of your body are beautiful, if you ask me.
Edited (finishing sentences sounds like a good idea) 2025-03-23 19:45 (UTC)
[ Oh no, that's an adorable expression... More's just going to kiss him again, very briefly. It's over-indulgent, but they may die soon and that makes More feel like maybe even he has earned it. ]
You are more than welcome, my... [ --it's not 'friend' now, is it? ] My dearest.
[Ah - the kiss flusters him a little, still very new, but he does still catch that shift in phrase. It gives him a bit of a pleased flutter; he's certainly never been addressed like that.]
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[And he's discussed it with Void Archives, which he does not realize he should maybe keep to himself but fortunately does not think to mention anyway!]
I hope that you know that I was...afraid, more than anything else. My reaction had very little to do with you, or my feelings towards you. I am not...well. I suppose you know what I am not.
[Anyway, More always protests when he becomes self-deprecating. Turo does not want to go down that road.]
We may die at the end of this week. I do not think that I have the time to make decisions based on fear. I cannot promise that I...know what I should do, or...how to be. [He turns his hands over in his lap, examining them. The Professor and Sada's relationship is not one he wishes to emulate. He sets his hand down next to More's - intending at first to take it, but not quite having the nerve.] But I do not wish to have regrets.
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More has to inhale deeply. When he speaks it's no longer with the voice-saving whisper. This is worth the normal volume. ]
I do not need you to be anything but yourself.
[ Turo may not have the nerve to take that hand, but More rests his own over Turo's with a decisive gesture. ]
And if... if you truly feel like not being with me this way is something you might come to regret, I could not be happier. But conversely... I do not require this of you. I may have... ideas... about what I desire, but none take the shape of conditions.
[ A beat. ]
You have my heart, in whatever form you want it.
[ It should feel like a betrayal of Allice, but the sentiment never arises. It's notable only by its absence. ]
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I would like to try. I believe that I could be happy traveling with you as friends, but ever since we had that discussion, I have continued thinking about it. About - being closer. I think that must indicate something. And - it is another sort of exploration, is it not?
[Maybe that sounds cold. He hopes not. He remembers, in the abstract, the heights of passion - love and hatred - that Turo reached in his relationship with Sada, but he is not built that way. It's not what he wants either. He wants something calmer and gentler than that.]
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But if Turo had been thinking about it, if he's curious then... Then there really is no reason to keep self-flagellating and deny himself. Curiosity is an emotion that is near-sacred to More. ]
It is. It's another road we walk together, hoping to find beautiful destinations yet unknown.
[ He shifts his upper body so he can face Turo, and raises the hand that isn't busy holding Turo's to brush over his cheek. Imitation skin, false hair that cannot grow, an iron skeleton beneath - all parts of a precious person, so alike and unlike himself. More has had many lovers over the course of the life that a man who is almost him had lived. But all that experience has given him is the perspective that every relationship is unique - that he'll find something different on this exploration, too, in many ways he might not yet be expecting.
He leans his head in a little closer. ]
May I...?
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Yes, you may.
[He hasn't studied these memories closely, and is not inclined to, so it really is almost like the first time. He'll follow More's lead.]
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When he kisses Turo, it's fairly chaste - there's no reason to overwhelm him when he'd like to think that have time, much time, to figure it all out - but it's no less loving for it. He does not want to break away any time soon. ]
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He had not known what to expect, but this is nice - comforting, in a way. He hums thoughtfully and presses a little closer, though he isn't bold enough to do anything like part his lips.]
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After what feels like a beautiful eternity, he breaks away from the kiss (but not the hug) without pushing the boundaries any further.]
Oh, my dearest...
[ And then he breaks into an amused little smile. ]
... I appear to have left my mark on you.
[ His current brand of black lipstick has failed the kiss test. ]
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[Turo blinks at him for a moment without understanding. That was...nice. It wasn't quite like he remembers the Professor experiencing it, but he was still a little sorry to break it. His eyes catch on More's lips again, and then he notices the smeared lipstick.]
Oh! [He rubs his thumb over his bottom lip, pulling it away to see a slight black residue there.] That is one way of doing my makeup, I suppose.
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A most pleasant way, too, if my humble opinion is asked. Though black might not quite be your color...
[ He has not forgotten the brightness of that outfit. There may have been room for improvement there, but happy colors suit him well. ]
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[He doesn’t have any opinion on that, truth be told. He’s given up having opinions on his appearance. But that’s no matter; he leans against More contentedly.]
We can try another one some other time. I like this right now.
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[ Both in the facetious bantering about colors sense, and also more broadly speaking. It's good to know that this is the right direction for them to go into right now.
More leans in again, though this time it's for a simple kiss on the cheek. ]
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This is nice.
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[ More feels a little giddy to hear it and be able to confirm it, both. ]
I was... really worried I had overstepped with you, but now I am grateful that I was so reckless. The only thing I'd do over is saying it all with far more poetic words.
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[Part of that is because he probably would have been far, far slower at assessing and recognizing his own feelings, if someone else hadn't presented it in that light first. Part is just...well, even if he'd gotten there, he wouldn't have said anything. How could he?]
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I still should not have led with "I think you are attractive and I do believe it perfectly possible for robots to engage in acts of intimacy."
[ It was... so cringe...
He leans back against Turo's shoulder, very very content in their little huddle. ]
That much had been true since we met, but... the sentiment has far deepened, making that alone ring rather shallow.
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[Though he has the memories of an adult man, he knows what More meant by working around it. Turo just.......thinks he should clarify?]
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Actually, thank goodness for that. The implications would be disturbing.
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It's for the best.
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[ He'll just nuzzle a little deeper into Turo at that. ]
It's another thing that sets you apart from your creator, too.
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Oh, no...well, I guess it is. That is a bit of an awkward one, though.
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[ Well, you probably wouldn't want to list that out in public to random strangers, but that's neither here nor there. Their relationship, as newly defined now, is certainly intimate enough to not warrant that embarrassment. ]
All the ways in which you're you both because and despite of your body are beautiful, if you ask me.
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[Turo doesn't blush, because of course he can't, but he sort of looks like he would be if there were blood in there.]
Oh. Well. Thank...you? [he has no idea how to respond to compliments]
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You are more than welcome, my... [ --it's not 'friend' now, is it? ] My dearest.
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Hm. I like that - my dear?
[He'll experiment with it a little, maybe.]
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