paixaorpg | Awkward Moments [Active]

When you don't know much about a place you just... landed in, Terra had taken to wandering around slightly. Especially after her recent confrontations with Kefka over the... messaging devices. She was upset with herself. She didn't feel as though she had the right words to stand up to herself in front of him, even now. Even with everyone...

She frowned, and hugged hugged her arms around her stomach. A chill had overcome her, and suddenly, she was regretting not having something a little warmer to wear. Worse, as she looked up now, no longer distracted by her thoughts, she realized -- she had no idea where she was. None of it looked familiar.

Terra fumbled with the device quickly, looking for the map that was supposed to be built in. Unfortunately, as she began tapping buttons (to which she wasn't entirely sure was their purpose to begin with) the small machine suddenly turned itself off.

The girl sighed. It had done this before. It would probably just restart again in a little while... But in the meantime, she needed directions. Pressing her lips together, she walked into what seemed to be a park of sorts. Thinking that people would more than likely gather in a place like this, she walked on, feeling a little lighter.

It was then that she saw it. She stopped in her steps immediately and drew in a sharp breath. That red creature... an Esper?! "H-Hey!" she called out suddenly.

Knuckles, too, had spoken with Kefka over the journals. He'd been unafraid, of course; what was so scary about a clown? Besides, it wasn't as though the strange man was in Knuckles' way right now or anything, so Knuckles had no reason to be anything but neutral towards him. The bad mood he'd been in that day, however, had meant that the Guardian of the Master Emerald and Angel Island had been a tad more smart-mouthed than usual.

Oh, well. A little sarcasm never killed anybody. The clown could deal.

Knuckles wasn't really thinking about Kefka right now, though, and he wasn't particularly interested in his babblings about some girl named Terra. What the heck did Knuckles know about girls, anyway? He was just relieved that the damned bat hadn't shown up to ruin his day. Come to think of it, she hadn't been around lately...

The echidna was jolted out of his thoughts by a girl's voice, apparently calling out to him, so he turned and raised an eye-ridge at her. "Well?" he asked, his usual gruff manner apparent. "What is it?"

Terra's eyes swept over the other as he turned to face her, her mouth frozen in a silent gasp. He had to be! Excitedly, she was thinking the best way to word her question, but as she heard his gruff answer to her call, she retreated slightly. Maybe it was better if she didn't ask. Maybe if Kefka found out there were other Espers, this one would be in danger, too.

Her lips immediately dipped into a slight pout, as she shifted her eyes away from him guiltily. It may have been best just to leave him alone... "Um," she muttered quietly, "I just -- couldn't figure out the name of this place. And couldn't remember my way back, so... I didn't mean to bother you. Sorry -- I guess." And with that, she turned with the intention of walking in the other direction.

"Sorry," he responded, "I don't know the name of this place." He snorted a little to himself, calling after her despite his misgivings (she was a stranger, and worse than that, a girl - not that Knuckles was nervous around girls, oh, no. They were just weird). "Don't you have a map?" He thought everyone got one, at least in their journals. He made no move to stop her from leaving if she wanted, though; she wasn't his problem and it didn't particularly matter if she stayed or not, as long as she didn't bother him.

Knuckles was not the most social of creatures, even at the best of times.

Terra spun again on her heel, looking at the other over her shoulder. "I... couldn't find it in this thing..." she confessed, indicating the recording device in her hand. "I heard that there was supposed to be a map, but..." she shrugged. She wasn't that good with machines. The patry always had Edgar to rely on, she had never really had the need to learn.

There was a small voice that she couldn't ignore, still, as she studied him closer. Facing him now, she fidgeted slightly before asking her next question. "Um. I don't mean to be rude but... are you -- from here?"

Knuckles made a noise in his throat. If he were a sympathetic sort of person, he would have emphasized with Terra's situation; he didn't really get technology, either. As it was, he understood, but really wasn't in the mood to play teacher right now. He was already feeling awkward and uncomfortable as it was - especially with the strange girl (who seemed human, even) staring at him right now.

"Of course I'm not from here," he replied gruffly, staring at Terra. The echidna gestured around him. "Just these weirdos are." Something was off with the citizens, whoever (or whatever) they were - and Knuckles didn't like that.

"Oh," she frowned. Obviously, she was wearing on the nerves of this one. "Sorry, I should have introduced myself. I'm Terra..." she offered her hand out in greeting, unsure if the gesture would be well-met. But, she thought that at the very least, it was a show of good faith that she didn't mean any harm. "I haven't been here in," she hesitated, "Paixao very long... er, have you..?"

Terra's gaze fell to the ground again. Even she was beginning to feel slightly awkward, but thought that trying to make small talk was at least better than just bombarding him with the questions that she desparately wanted to ask.

Knuckles nodded at the girl and shook her hand quickly. "I'm Knuckles," he replied. Terra didn't seem like she meant any harm (unlike Rouge, who had teased and prodded and kissed him on the cheek). "I've been here for a while," he responded, somewhat vaguely. What had it been, two months already? He didn't care. This place annoyed the heck out of him, and all he wanted to do was get back to his island and his duty.

This girl obviously wanted something, that was for sure. Knuckles crossed his arms and stared at her. "WHat?"

"Um," Well, that was great. Now she had put herself in an even worse position. She seemed to argue with herself silently for a few minutes, as her eyes darted all over the place; towards Kunckles, towards the sky, Knuckles, the ground. Damn it, she just had to come out and say it. There was no way that she would know for sure, otherwise.

"Well. When I saw you... I wondered... if maybe -- " she hesitated, then broke free of it, looking him straight in the eye, "you were an Esper."

Would this weird girl just get on with it already? Knuckles wasn't an idiot, after all; he knew she wanted to talk to him. Why she wanted to talk to the Guardian escaped him; unless it concerned a good fight or trouble that interfered with him and his buddies, he generally didn't care one way or another. People could do what they want as long as they didn't bother Knuckles in the process.

A what? Knuckle's eye-ridge rose as he stared at the girl. "I don't even know what an esper is. I'm an echidna." Did no one know what an echidna was these days? Then again, Knuckles was the last of his kind - at least as far as he knew.

Immediately, her heart sank. She was sure that her disappointment shone through in her expression, even though deep down she knew that was probably... rude. She had obviously been hoping for another answer. She longed to know what it felt like not to be so... alone. Not to be one of the -- last ones. Of course, she had her friends, but... to meet another Esper?

"Oh. An Echidna. I see." She didn't want to give up on this, though. His appearance... there was still a chance that echidna could be another world's word for Esper, right?! She clung to this faint hope as she asked her next question. She only hoped that it didn't land her in trouble. If the people in Paixao were as foreign to the concept of magic as they were in her world...

"You can't by chance... use magic though, can you?"

What was this girl's problem? Was she an echidna-hater or something? No, that couldn't be it; Knuckles was the only echidna left in his world. What, then, did she want? He almost tapped his foot in impatience - but no. He wasn't Sonic, and impatience would get him nowhere (for now, at least - Knuckles could definitely be more than impatient, depending on the situation).

"Yeah," he replied. "Disappointed?" She sure looked it, at the least - but then again, she'd confused the Guardian for someone - or something - else. He shook his head at her question. "Not unless you count harnessing the power of the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald," was his reply. He was the only one who could control the Master Emerald, so maybe that counted.

It was when he started talking about 'Emeralds' that the last ember of hope she was relying on fizzled out. He wasn't an Esper. For a moment, she felt a sense of loss; feeling as though she had some so close to finding someone else that was like her... but then, a sensation of relief passed over her, as she studied him with renewed interest. "Sorry. Espers are... something from my world," she explained, now feeling a bit better about the situation. It was best for him, after all, "where I come from."

She paused before saying more, but now that she had troubled him with it all, felt as though she at least owed him the explanation. That was -- polite, wasn't it?

"And if you were an Esper, I wanted to warn you about a man named Kefka -- "

Was she still talking? Oh, well. Maybe she had something useful to say. Then again, Knuckles wasn't the most social of creatures, even at the best of times, and he wasn't exactly sure how to go about having a pleasant conversation - especially when the person he was speaking to happened to be a girl. While he wasn't afraid of girls, per se, he was never quite certain how to act around them, being that he'd lived on an island alone for most of his life.

He raised a brow at the mention of Kefka. "What do you mean?" he asked, drawing himself up a little. "Not that I can't handle it, but if you've confused me for an Esper, he might mistake me for one, too." If that was the case, then too bad for him.

Well, at least he was confident. Terra smiled sadly before she continued, silently wishing that she had that kind of faith in herself. "He's... really dangerous," she hated admitting it, and saying it aloud seemed to make it worse. "I saw him take the lives of many Espers myself..." her tone seemed to drop a level, "they didn't have a chance..."

She remained silent for a moment, as though mourning them. "It would -- probably be best if you just avoided him completely. He dresses like a clown so you wouldn't be able to miss him, but... it wouldn't be -- a good idea to try to go up against him alone..."

Hm. It sounded like this guy was definitely something to watch out for. But Knuckles was confident (sometimes overly so, which got him into trouble more often than not) regarding his abilities, and besides, he couldn't die just yet. He had a job to get back to. "Well," he replied with a smirk, "I'm not going down that easily." Besides, if he did go down, who'd keep Sonic from getting a bigger head than usual?

Knuckles shrugged. "I don't care about some freak," he replied. "I can handle myself."

"R-Right," she stammered, "I... didn't mean to say that you couldn't it's just -- Espers are really powerful too, and he was just able to..." she trailed off, casting her eyes away to the side, " -- just like they were nothing." She bit her lip as she looked towards Knuckles again.

She scoffed in disdain before sharing the next bit -- "There was a time when I thought that we'd beaten him, too. Er -- my friends and I." Friends? Yeah. Yeah, they were her friends. "We'd even taken the steps to try and make a truce between the Espers and the humans, but... even that turned out to be just another of his ploys... to get closer to them..."

Terra grew quiet again, blaming herself for the lives lost that day... If only they hadn't been duped into believing him... maybe then...

Knuckles' face was serious - more so than usual, that is - as he watched the girl's face. So this guy meant business, whoever he was. That could be a problem - but if Knuckles knew one thing, it was how to take care of those. He'd just have to keep an ear out for Kefka, and whether he was causing trouble or not. Normally, he didn't care about other people's problems, but this sounded serious.

The Guardian nodded. "That was a dirty trick to pull," he muttered. "I'll keep an eye out for the guy."

Terra sighed out of relief. It seemed like she had finally gotten through to Knuckles, even if just a little bit. "Just... be careful. I really don't want him to be able to hurt anyone else, but..." in her mind, she didn't believe that she alone possessed the power to stop him when he was on one of his tirades, "I'm sure that he's just going to keep going until he gets what he wants."

The girl frowned. She had been mulling over the decision to turn herself over to Kefka for awhile now. Maybe if he had her then... there wouldn't be anymore reason to harm the innocents in Paixao. She cringed thinking how many people were hurt in his quest to control the Espers. "I just wish that -- I knew how to stop him..."

"Hmph," Knuckles growled. "I can handle myself, lady." Still, something about this girl's demeanor troubled Knuckles, and he watched her closely. "And what does he want?" Knuckles questioned, already having a feeling about what it might be. The echidna frowned and went silent for a few moments, thinking. What exactly was he doing?

It would be easy enough to hit upon a solution to stop Kefka, as far as Knuckles knew; beat him up until he stopped whatever he was doing. Hey, it worked with Robotnik.

“I’m sure you can…” Terra frowned. Hell, she could handle herself too. Er, couldn’t she? But when it came to Kefka – something inside of her always seemed to freeze up at the most inconvenient of moments. “It’s just that he – “ she seemed to be becoming increasingly hesitant, perhaps even slightly agitated, as the conversation took this turn. While Knuckles seemed nice enough, unthreatening even, there was still no telling if she could trust him with that much information about herself.

“There’s… one Esper here, in Paixao.” She revealed, with a bit of a heavy heart. “He knows about her – er, I mean, it, too,” she quickly tried to cover her slip-up, and bit her bottom lip. “He’ll probably… hunt it down eventually…”

Knuckles raised a brow at Terra. What was the matter now? She was fearful, even secretive, and even Knuckles could tell when someone was trying to hide something like that. Terra was too frightened to do a proper job of it. "Get to the point," he told her. "If you're gonna tell me something, then do it already." Knuckles never was a patient person to begin with, anyway.

"An Esper?" he repeated, frowning. "What's he going to do about it?"

"Probably kill it," she said flatly, "by turning it into Magicite." There was no point in sugar-coating it, even for her own benefit. She had seen with her own eyes his murderous intent. That terrible laughter. The images that haunted her for years being under his control...

"But maybe..." because she had been considering this option since Kefka's last post over the devices -- "if the Esper turned itself in, then," Terra shrugged slightly, her eyes focused on the ground below, "he wouldn't attack innocent people anymore..."

"Kill it by turning it into what?" Knuckles responded, staring at Terra in shock. That somehow reminded him of Robotnik and (according to Sonic, and frankly Knuckles wouldn't put it past him) his penchant for turning small furry animals into cold-blooded killer robots. It wasn't pleasant, that was for certain.

"If the Esper turned itself in," Knuckles responded with a growl, "it'd just be a pointless sacrifice. Guys like that don't stop hurting people just because they get what they want, and anyone who thinks otherwise would be an idiot."

"M-Magicite," she was a little taken aback by his sudden response. It had seemed to her that what she had been saying to him -- wasn't really getting through. But after that reaction, maybe she was getting somewhere with him, after all. And really, he didn't seem that bad, anyway...

"Espers -- they're capable of magic, you see -- " Terra was trying to think of the easiest way to explain it all. "And magic... is rather rare where I come from. But there's a way that anyone can use it, and Kefka discovered it awhile ago... When Espers are -- killed, they can be turned into a substance called Magicite and then... almost anyone can use their powers."

She paused a moment. "For good or evil."

The green-haired girl thought over what he said next -- about the foolishness of turning herself in. Of course, thankfully, he didn't know it was her they were talking about, but... "But there has to be someway to stop him," she spoke suddenly, in a harsher tone, then drawing back her emotions. "I just -- don't know how yet... And I don't want it to be too late..."

Knuckles listened to the stranger girl, frowning. That sounded terrible, and to Knuckles, turning someone into something you could use (like Magicite) was sounding more and more like Robotnik - only worse, much worse. "It sounds like somebody needs to take Kefka down," he told Terra, shaking his head a little at what he was learning from her. Hardly anyone dared to come after the Master Emerald (at least when he was guarding it, and he fervently hoped the Chaotix was keeping it safe), but if anyone got ahold of it, it'd be the same situation, if not worse.

"Maybe you should stop standing around worrying over what to do and spend more time beating him into the ground," Knuckles replied. That was his usual manner of dealing with threats, and it had been working pretty well so far.

Well, she wasn't going to dispute that. Kefka did need to be taken down. But saying it and accomplishing it -- seemed about as different as night and day. "Beating him into the -- " she repeated, then shook her head, with a bit of a sarcastic "tch." She wished that she could. If Terra had the confidence that she could even land one blow against the maniacal general, she would have given it her all.

The only way she could think that would make this a reality was... "I need to train more." She said flatly, disappointed in herself. She knew very well that she needed to harness the power of her Esper form before even musing the idea of going against Kefka.

If the full-blooded Espers didn't stand a chance, then she, in her current form...

She looked down at her hands, focused to keep them from shaking, even though the conversation was stirring something inside of her. "I need to get my own abilities in check... then -- then I'm going after him myself."

"So train," Knuckles growled, albeit somewhat flatly. "Don't whine to me about it. Or were you looking for pointers?" Judging by Terra's physical state, there wasn't much help Knuckles could give her. Tch. Girls. Then again, when Rouge had been around, she'd proven more than capable of taking care of herself. Maybe there was more to Terra than met the eye.

"Are you crazy?" Knuckles asked Terra incredulously. "Going by what you've told me about that guy, it'd be better to have a team against him. You need more than just you to take him on."

Pointers? Was she? Terra hadn't even thought about the idea herself until he had just mentioned it. Looking Knuckles up and down -- yeah, he did seem the type. He could most certainly protect the things that he cared about. He looked rather strong, and if his confidence wasn't just boasting --

She didn't respond immediately, but brought her attention back to the palms of her hands, which she balled into fists, and cast down to her sides. "There's more than just me," she replied matter-of-factly. Her Esper was the key here -- it had to be. If she could just control it, then...

"I need to be the one to do this. I know... that I don't really know you, but if you know someone that would -- be able to help me..."

Knuckles was much stronger - and faster (though not as fast as Sonic) - than his diminutive stature suggested. Not only that, but a lifetime of guarding the Master Emerald had taught him a few things about taking down those who needed it.

"I'm not usually one for getting involved in other people's problems," Knuckles responded, "but my buddy Sonic would probably be willing to help with something like this. You can't miss him. He's blue, spiny, and his mouth is as fast as his feet." Sonic, Knuckles knew, could never walk away from someone in need.

It was probably easy to read her emotions. When he began by explaining that such things weren't exactly his cup of tea, the slight jolt of excitement she had so suddenly felt seemed to deflate. She brightened slightly again though as he suggested someone who was suited towards what she was looking for.

"Okay. I'll be on the lookout for him. Um," Terra seemed to hesitate slightly, "thanks, Knuckles. I know it -- doesn't really have anything to do with you, so... I appreciate it."

Knuckles was, though he was loathe to admit it, already far too awkward around strangers and girls. When meeting someone who was both a stranger and a girl, however, he was even more stiff and strange than usual. "No problem," he muttered, his usual gruffness in place. He was just glad he wasn't blushing (as he'd been wont to do so around Rouge, who had teased him endlessly).

If that freaky scumbag Terra had been describing did end up hurting people, he would have Knuckles to answer to, and then he'd regret ever getting out of bed that morning.

"Mm," she nodded, a small smile finding its way across her lips. "Well, I should get going... it's probably best if I find a place to stay before nightfall..." Terra mused aloud, now looking towards the sky. "It was good to meet you, Knuckles -- " she probably seemed rather awkward. It wasn't really a normal occurrence for her to meet and converse with others often -- besides the Returners that is. It hadn't really been all that long ago that she had had the slave crown removed...

"But I'm sure I'll see you again," she beamed a genuine smile in his direction this time, now finally feeling more at ease.

Knuckles nodded, although he frankly couldn't understand the need of humans to go indoors, even at night. What, they couldn't stand camping or something? Oh, well. The more of them that were inside, the less there were outside to bother him. Knuckles didn't really like being inside the city, anyway - he would much have preferred to remain on Destiny Islands, where he could fish and pick fruit and generally live as he did on Angel Island (minus the Master Emerald, of course, and its lack was always so terribly conspicuous to the echidna). So he nodded at the strange girl, not particularly caring one way or another.

"I'll be around," he said.

Awkward Moments [Active]

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WOW IM SO SORRY.

<333

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we can probably wrap this baby up? y/n? :D

Sounds good to me. :3