lightremains | SEASONS

We have room for you in our home if you want somewhere to stay.

Your room will have a skylight. We can provide furniture that you would like. Perhaps pillows for a fort.

[ok there's several false starts here. Forgive him, this is all new.

The first recording is about 2 minutes of silence, save for some scuffling noises.

The second is Shadow talking about something, and his voice gets more distant, like he's walking away from his phone.

The third is actually a video post, just a few seconds, of Shadow's face from a very low angle, and he's Not Happy. He clearly doesn't know it's recording.] --ust tell me how this stupid thing wor--

[finally, there's a voice message that sounds deliberate]

Hello? Is this the other Shadow?

[Shadow is patient. The younger Shadow didn't seem to know what a phone even was. He can be patient. Though he does raise an eyebrow at the username.]

Hello. Yes, it is me.

[usernames were not a thing in the 70s, Shadow!!! Well, they were, but he didn't have one. He wasn't allowed near the computers.]

Living with you? I... um. Wait. Skylights? Pillow forts? How do you....

[a pause, and then his voice takes on a darker tone]

... The Sonic from my dimension has been running his fool mouth, hasn't he.

[He doesn't think that maybe, perhaps, the other Shadow is pulling from his own experiences. Instead, he assumes that Sonic had chronic word diarrhea to people who may as well be strangers]

Yes.

[That is all Shadow says at first. Because it does answer both questions and this is Shadow we're talking about.]

[a low, dangerous growl]

Let me get back to you.

Think it over. That's all I ask.

[a few hours later, Shadow calls back. He sounds like he's in a better mood, at least]

Hello?

Hello.

[He sounds like he is a better mood. He wonders if Sonic and he talked or if he punched Sonic in the face. Both help him feel better.]

[A little of column A, a lot of column B.]

I have decided to take you up on your offer. But you need not worry about setting the room up. The only thing I require is a door that locks.

[Both lead to catharsis. The Shadows get it.]

Hm. I will refrain from setting your room up. Good luck with the Sonics and Maria not wanting to help.

And all of the bedrooms have locks. [For reasons.] And they are soundproofed.

[For more reasons.]

[shadow handshake shadow
beating up and yelling at sonics]

They're free to try, but that's what the lock is for. [soundproofed too? Nice. He's not going to question it. His little sad meow meow brain doesn't even go to those thoughts] ... And you said something about a skylight?

[Shadow will find set just outside his door is a package.]

[Its two books, along with a packet of those glow in the dark stars one can stick on the walls and ceiling, tied together with a red ribbon and black bow, with a tag that says 'For: Shadow, From: *A blue star*']

[Its his own personal dictionary! As well as a book on the stars of Ellipsa.]

Edited 2025-02-07 20:46 (UTC)

Yes. For natural light. They are all in the ceiling to see the sky while inside. Sonic, your Sonic, seems to enjoy them. We added some to many of the rooms as they are functional.

We can remove it, if you want.

[glow in the dark stars.... he loves these. HOW DID HE KNOW???

Sonic may be able to find Shadow on the roof of the house the night after, with a red light illuminating the book (to save his night vision), looking for constellations]

[ENVIRONMENTAL STORYTELLING. Also like he likes stars, but the fort did point to the fact that just star shaped stuff was still probably cool.]

[Sonic is...not necessarily a fan of the soundproofing of the rooms, but at the very least, he can hear the faint sounds of movement on the roof. Which usually says something on the roof, which he's fairly used to.]

[When ones little brother flies and Knuckles likes the high guard, there is a lot of time just spent on the roof.]

[And also Sonic absolutely opted into the skylight. He likes the sky, so he will investigate, peaking out and]

[Oh, Shadow.]

[Hmmmm.]

[After a few moments, he'll climb out and move over to sit near him. Just enough to see the pictures in the book and look up at the sky himself to see what he can spot.]

I know what a skylight is. [huff] Of course he would. ... No, it's fine. It can stay. I like natural light.

[Stars were cool. Clouds, trees, natural stuff. Maria had liked all of that, since the base had no windows. Shadow didn't have anything to compare it to, and wide open spaces were still a little intimidating.

Shadow says nothing when Sonic joins him, but gives him a small nod before going back to squinting at his book. He's quiet for a long moment, then frowns]

Nothing is familiar... we must be so far from Earth.

[He hums.] Maybe. Though it could also be the angle.

All the stars are in really different places, they just all hit us from the same angle. So....when you were in the same Solar system....the constellations mostly stayed the same. Because that's how far the all those distances were working. A Solar system is close enough together to make it all look the same.

But when you got to another solar system, even the next one over, that's enough of a change for stuff to start looking really different.

[He's keeping his volume low at least, as he studied the sky.]

Earth's constellations looked really different from the planets I was on before. A few....a few were the same, but some got really different.

[Ah Sonic. He can always rely on the blue guy to fill every available ounce of space with talking. As he goes on, Shadow sets the book aside and looks up at the sky, hands folded across his chest.

Angle, huh? Well. That made sense. For all that it looked like a big two dimensional painting, space was vast and three dimensional. ]

How many other planets have you been to?

Edited 2025-02-16 02:33 (UTC)

About...fourteen, I think.

A few were...safety planets. Places I should have been able to go if Earth didn't work out. But when I checked them out when I was just...going too stir crazy, there were people who had moved in too close to where I could picture.

There's this planet just full of Mushrooms, that one didn't have people even after I checked around for days. Some weird bitey mushrooms, but otherwise pretty empty. That was going to be my next one.

But most were when I was with Longclaw. Just...fragments. Different skies, grass with different colors, weird trees, stuff like that. New patterns in the stars. We'd move from place to place whenever someone tracked me down, until we got to a planet where most societies chose to live more by fang and claw so people didn't want to visit and there wasn't a lot scanners picking me up. As long as no one physically saw us, we were fine. That was....two solid years, I think.

Though I think I liked that one best. Besides Earth.

Edited 2025-02-16 02:59 (UTC)

Fourteen...? [how many habitable planets were there out there? It's mind-blowing to think about. He'd only ever known a single planet But... wait...] How did you travel? [Ah. Nope. He never saw warp rings in use!]

How did we-

[He paused. Thinks about it.]

Oh, you never saw the rings.

There are these rings from those worlds that allow travel. It's how we got away from the black hole and how Tails and Knuckles got onto the cannon. Also a lot of our traveling.

You just need a picture of where you want to go. Toss up, gateway opens. There's a whole network of planets that use them. I was born on one of them. I dunno which one. Longclaw found me really young.

I actually have some here.

Unfortunately they freak out if I try to make a gateway to anything that ISN'T on Ellipsa.

They're also part of why I got G.U.N to not throw me in a lab. Knuckles and Tails knows where to get them and how much barter needs to be offered up, so we get them rings as part of our truce. [Because where else did G.U.N get rings and in such steady supply to weaponize them.]

Edited 2025-02-16 05:15 (UTC)

... I was wondering how you escaped that alive.

[because it was a fucking black hole. Not even light is fast enough to get out of those, bro.

The rings don't work here? That's strange. Why wouldn't they? What made this planet different than countless others...? He wants to ask, but--

But what Sonic says next makes Shadow sit up to glare]

You gave G.U.N. access to instant interplanetary travel?!

Trick shots saves lives. [Chuckles.]

No. [He meets Shadow's eyes.]

I gave them access to instant planetary travel.

If you don't have a picture of where you're going, you can't get there. The only way for them to get interplanetary travel is to see another world and I'm absolutely not letting G.U.N see one of the habitable and populated worlds. Anytime we go on a ring getting trip, we make sure there's no way they're getting a visual to make the trip themselves.

[He looks up at the sky.]

Because if we did, then our cooperation wouldn't be an absolute necessity.

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