smashrising | Pouty bat is pouty.

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Pouty bat is pouty.

Who: Rouge the Bat and Blaze the Cat (and maybe other peeps who see her around)
What: Rouge needs someone to talk to after Knux left. She's feeling a bit down.
Where: Out on the grounds.
When: March 17th, 10pm
Warnings: Rouge can be a bitch, but nothing tragic.

Rouge stood cross-armed on the edge of the island, staring out into the dark, smokey void in front of her. Knuckles had been gone for a while now and she'd finally stopped loathing him to her very core. She'd pleaded with him to stay, but still he left. Just up and took off without even blinking*. She might have followed him if she wasn't so proud. That, and she wanted him to stay for her.

So, she was mad. She was mad and lonely. He was the closest thing she had to a friend here in this dump of a mansion.

As much as she doesn't think she needs one, she could probably use a pep talk.

*Facts may or may not be skewed from the point of view of a very scorned and bitter bat.

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As foreign a thought as it was to either of them, Rouge DID have another friend at the mansion.

Rouge had been very stand-offish. More so than usual. She was sad to see Knuckles go, but she couldn't have anticipated how Rouge reacted. She knew they were close, but didn't realize they were THAT close. She was honestly a little worried about Rouge at this point, and she made a point of following her out when she left the mansion. Maybe she was worried she'd try to jump or fly off the edge, or maybe she was just concerned for her well-being, but for whatever reason, she was there, observing for a short while before deciding that maybe this required a more hands-on approach.

"Are you okay?" She asked, walking up to the bat.

Rouge jumped in surprise at the sound of Blaze's voice. A little disheveled and caught off guard, she turned to her and scowled.

"Ahem. I'm fine. I'm just..." Rouge turned back to the abyss in front of her. "...thinking about how we can get out of this dump without a Master Emerald."

A half truth. Good enough.

Blaze didn't buy it for a moment. She may not have been the best at being social, but she could read Rouge easily.

"I've thought the same thing," she said, approaching to stand next to her at the edge of the island. "...But that's not all it is, isn't it?" Blaze asked, hoping to cut the BS and get to the heart of the matter.

Bah. To vent or not to vent. Rouge wasn't entirely comfortable with spilling her guts to someone she didn't know that well, but at this point, it was spill it or explode. She was tired of angsting with no one to talk to.

"... Knuckles is gone."

Okay, so maybe not breaking the dam. Maybe letting the faucet run.

"...I see," Blaze said quietly. She wasn't entirely sure how to address this. She didn't understand Rouge's relationship with Knuckles. She stood by the bat's side quietly for a moment, holding her arm, before finally saying, "Sonic said you were close."

"Heh," Rouge scoffed. "He did, did he? Well... let's put it... not as close as I was hoping."

She stood silently after that, hoping that simple statement would sum things up enough so that she wouldn't need to go into more detail about such personal feelings.

"I see," Blaze replied with a nod. She understood well enough, having feelings for someone and fretting about whether they felt the same. She'd dealt with it at the Academy numerous times. Sonic, Silver... They'd both come and gone so often, until finally she confessed to Sonic how she felt. It was good to have that off her chest. But Rouge clearly never got that chance.

"Sonic also said that you weren't together. I didn't realize you wished you were..."

Rouge stretched and rubbed the back of her head, trying to hide the lump that'd materialized in her throat.

"There's nothing to be done about it now. He's gone. His duties took precedence over me. Gotta do whatcha gotta do. As soon as I'm able, I'll just go back to being a regular jewel thief. You can't change who you are," she said with an air of defeat in her voice.

"You don't know that," Blaze told her. "This place... It feels like a cruel joke at times. I was kept from my home, my duty, for so long. I would have given anything to be able to go back. But once I could, I could come to peace with being here. Now that I'm cut off from my world again, things are different, and... I'm more confused now than I ever was."

Blaze frowned and looked down. "He may be back, you know," she said. "I've seen so many friends come and go from here. Sometimes they remember me, and the things we did, sometimes they don't..." She looked at Rouge with earnestness. "When you first arrived, you prodded me about my relationship with Sonic. I've... I've loved him for a long time now. But I never would have told him if not for the fact that things here are so uncertain, that I had no idea how long we would have together. I didn't want to risk never getting the chance again..."

It was comforting for Rouge to hear that Knuckles could be back someday. She knew it was possible, but it felt different coming from someone else. It was almost reassuring.

But hearing about Sonic just made her more bitter.

"Psht, well, it's too late for that for me," she spat. "You and Sonic can go be happy little lovebirds while I stand here hating myself for not speaking up sooner."

Blaze felt her eyebrow twitch when she heard her attempt at a comforting gesture twisted around on her. "I'm TRYING to say that I understand what you're going through, because I went through it myself several times. He'll be back eventually, and when he is, you shouldn't let the chance pass you by again," she said, trying to hold a civil tongue in her mouth for now.

Soccer ball in hand, Rene was coming back to the grounds. There was enough starlight to see by, or otherwise she would be in big trouble.

Though that meant there was enough starlight to see someone standing around. "Hey!" she greeted. "It's getting a little cold. Need a buddy getting back?"

"I don't mind the cold," Rouge replied dismissively. "I'm fine right here."

She stood facing out into the smokey void, trying to appear disinterested. She recognized that while this interaction was inherently meaningless, it had taken her mind off her troubles for a moment, which was a welcome relief. If this stranger wasn't put off by her irritability, maybe she should keep a dialogue going...

"Are you sure? You look like you're shivering." Rene got a little closer.

"When you've spent hours staking out a ban... er, a potential threat in near-freezing weather, you sort of get used to it."

Rouge turned to face her acquaintance.

"What're you doing out here at this hour?"

Edited 2016-03-23 22:23 (UTC)

A ban? A bandit? A band? "A potential threat? Is there a threat to the community?"

"No, but there was. A long time ago. Eggman might have had something to do with it. But me and Knuc--"

She stopped mid-sentence and sighed, her voice sounding notably more morose.

"Me and Knuckles, we and a bunch of heroes saved the day. That madman almost obliterated us all. It's a wonder how he's stayed out of prison for this long."

Rene gasped. "Is there an enemy to our safety around? Point me in his direction!"

Rouge stared at her in disbelief.

"You mean you don't know about Eggman? Rotten robot-crafting despot?"

That was quite a name. "Eggman, really? Never heard of him."

Rouge shrugged.

"He's a menace. Go talk to Sonic the Hedgehog if you want to know more about him. If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone. I have a lot on my mind."

Any name that ended in "the hedgehog" was sure to be interesting. "Uh, all right. But I'm open to talk any time you need."

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Pouty bat is pouty.

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