Space Colony Ark - The Odd Couple

[Jammerlee]

A dim light spilled into his eyes. Silver could feel his lungs expanding with a deep breath. Blearily he scanned over the room he was in, taking a moment for his mind to orient itself and remind him of where he was. Sterile white walls were the first thing that greeted him, but what followed that... Silver's eyes fixated on the window and its view of the earth down below. The previous day's events came rushing back into his mind. He bit his lip, then stifled a yawn and stretched. It felt so good to be laying in a nice soft bed. It was a luxury he seldom got to enjoy. He could spend all day laying there bundled in the soft comfort of--erp. Bathroom.

Silver's entire face seemed to scrunch together as he fought to free himself from his blankets and stumbled out of the room.

[Val]

A few doors down from Silver, Shadow wasn’t any better. The ultimate lifeform lay bundled up like a fluffy cotton burrito with only the top of his quills poking out. Sat on the floor nearby was what appeared to once have been a cat bed, piled with tiny pillows, some tossed aside idly in the night by a restless Chao who lay facedown, snoring much louder than a creature of her size should be capable of.

[Jammerlee]

An enormous yawn escaped Silver as he took to floating toward the door Shadow had indicated to be the bathroom the previous night (was it night? It was hard to tell in this place). The door whisked open and he entered to take care of his needs. Afterward, he stopped in front of the mirror and began to straighten out his crest, pausing to peer closely at his own reflection. His face seemed to look normal to him as he studied it from various angles. The difference seemed to be he had fewer quills, with fur mixing into his spikes. He frowned, looking down at his hands. He'd realized as he was preparing to sleep earlier that both his fingers and his toes now seemed to be partially webbed. Finally, he glanced behind him at his tail and gave it a wag. This was definitely going to take some getting used to. With an exasperated exhale, he grabbed a comb sitting on the side off the sink and took to brushing out his mane. The amount of time it was going to take to keep that tail brushed out was going to be a pain.

Finally satisfied with his appearance, he exited the bathroom and looked around. Neither Shadow or Sombra were anywhere to be seen. Was he the only one awake? Silver thinned his lips as he wondered what to do about this predicament. He was too awake now to go back to bed, but he also knew absolutely nothing about the objects that surrounded him. He could sit down and wait for whenever Shadow woke up, but who knew how long that would take? Clapping his hands against his thighs, his curiosity dragged him over toward the kitchen nook. The first thing to catch his attention had been the fridge. He'd seen many of these things, but never one that was operational before. As he listening to its soft hum, he grabbed the handle and pulled it open. The chill smacked him in the face, and he chuckled in amazement. It was so cold in there! And there was food! His stomach rumbled at the enticing sight and their scents, but Shadow had never said anything about the minkhog being welcome to his food, so with a heavy heart Silver ignored the pangs of hunger. That hardly stopped him from leaving the door wide open as he waved his hand around at the chill inside though, a goofy grin plastered on his face.

[Val]

The problem with being in space, alone is that you get used to there being no sounds other than ones you yourself make. Silver’s ghostly hovering about the corridors may have gone unnoticed but the whirring doors and gentle clatter of the refrigerator door opening were enough to give the ebony hedgehog’s ear a slight twitch. For a split second Shadow forgot –why- there was someone else in the ARK with him and he was overcome with a sudden panic that someone had somehow snuck aboard without him knowing.

Shadow sat bolt upright, his quills smooshed flat against his head down his left side. His eyes ached, longing to remain closed despite him forcing them part way open.
…Oh…Right. Silver.
Tossing aside the plain white bed covers with a sigh, the chimera’s feet touched the floor, a slight ticking as the boney nubs that were his toes met the cold metal floor.
Shivering at the icy sensation assaulting his previously warm feet, Shadow marched out of his door and left Sombra to her slumber. The doorway into the living area slid open again as he stepped inside and spied Silver at the fridge, giving him a blank stare.

[Jammerlee]

"Hm?" Silver's ear flicked at the sound of the door. He turned, spotting Shadow, and waved. "Oh, hey! Good morning! ... If it's even morning? I can't tell."

[Val]

He could already tell this unnatural enthusiasm would get grating. Shadow just slunk past Silver to the kettle and began filling it from the faucet. “We’re in orbit. Time is irrelevant.” He muttered as he passed the grey minkhog. Glancing back over his shoulder as he took out a packed of coffee beans from the cupboard above him. “If you’re hungry go ahead. I think we have some pizza left on the bottom shelf.”

[Jammerlee]

Silver blinked, looking at the bottom shelf and the number of items on it. "Uhh.. what's pizza?"

[Val]

This was going to be a long day. Probably the first of many long days. Silver obviously was quite…for lack of a better term, alien to this era so his reaction shouldn’t have been as surprising to Shadow as it was but that didn’t make it any less irritating as the hybrid realised he would most likely need to explain many, many very basic things to Silver.

Leaving the coffee maker whirring, Shadow walked over to the psychic minkhog’s side and leaned into the fridge and pulled out a glass plate with several slices of pizza on it covered in chunks of ham and pineapple. Not even looking at Silver, he shoved the plate at him before returning to his own task with a blunt “Heat that up.”

[Jammerlee]

"Umm..." Silver looked down at the plate of food now in his hands. Ignoring how weird it looked, he glanced aside and rubbed at the back of his neck, his face flickering through a number of pained and confused expressions. "... Heat it with... what?" he seemed to shrink a bit. "I don't see a fire pit anywhere."

[Val]

In the span of a second Shadow went from shock, believing Silver had to be doing this on purpose, irritation to finally settling on resigned acceptance. He was from a world where modern appliances were gone afterall…assuming he was from the future. That niggling doubt still plagued Shadow, sparking a new wash of anger. If it turned out he –was- just doing this as some kind of joke…

No. After Silver’s first night here it seemed he was genuine. Letting a gentle sigh pass his lips, Shadow slumped over to a stainless steel microwave and popped open the door. “Put it in here.” He said lazily, “Never put any metal in, just use the plates. Then press the buttons here.” He tapped his knuckle against a black number pad to the side, “To enter the time. A minute and a half should do it.”

[Jammerlee]

Silver let out a small and relieved exhale. He'd been sure he was about to get yelled at for failing to understand what he felt were probably such baseline things. Sure he had seen such appliances as the one Shadow was pointing out, but never had he seen one that was operational, much less understood what it was used for. He complied, walking over to the microwave and doing as he was told. As the machine hummed to life, the minkhog's eyes went wide.

"That's so cool!" Silver exclaimed in a way similar to an excited child. He looked back at Shadow. "Do you know how it works?"

[Val]

Shadow had to smile at least a little at Silver’s enthusiasm…but it was still too early and he was still without his coffee. “No. I don’t.” He replied bluntly. “I just know that it works and if you put metal inside it, it’ll explode.”

Fluttering in from the doorway a moment later came a drowsy looking Chao, flying with her eyes still closed. She slumped down on the sofa across the room, landing in a cushion.

[Jammerlee]

"Right.. no metal. Got it," Silver nodded, transfixing his eyes back onto the spinning plate through the microwave's window. Before it knew it the machine dinged as it finished, and Silver popped the door open. As steam rolled out the scent of the pizza gently caressed Silver's senses. It smelled weird. But not in a bad way. He carefully reached in and felt at the plate the pizza set on. It was, of course, too hot to handle with his hands just yet. So instead, he opted to levitate it out, pulling it under his nose and giving it a few good whiffs.

"This stuff smells really good," Silver commented, impatiently picking at a chunk of pineapple. "Hey Shadow?" he said. "Do you have any books or newspapers or anything else I could read? Pretty much everything I know about this era came from that, but books still in good enough shape to actually read were hard to come by..."

He paused, letting that hang in the air for a second. "Also it was sometimes hard to tell what was fictional and what wasn't."

[Val]

Noticing Sombra fly into the room, the ebony hybrid got out a second mug before pointing to the kettle and giving Silver a quizzical look. His way of asking if Silver wanted a drink too.

“I have some books but for what you want, you should just use the ARK’s central computer. It has a connection to the Earth’s Internet.”

[Jammerlee]

Silver returned the quizzical look, giving an unsure shrug and nodding.

"I've only ever seen one computer that actually worked. Mephiles showed it to me when he was telling me about Sonic..."

[Val]

Shadow blinked. Mephiles was the one Silver claimed has sent him to kill Sonic. Using a computer must’ve made manipulating him much easier, considering his naïve nature.
The hedgehog took down a third mug as the coffee maker dinged. “I’ll watch and make sure you don’t break anything.” Shadow said dryly. “With all the information stores on this colony, I can’t risk any of it being damaged.”

[Jammerlee]

"You may not want me messing with it then. I have a talent for breaking things," Silver sheepishly scratched at his cheek. He looked down at his still-floating plate of pizza and levitated a slice up from it. He gave it a sniff before cautiously taking a nibble. His entire body seemed to melt and he took a bigger bite. "Thish ith really good!"

As he nommed happily he looked Shadow over; the other hybrid's unusual looking claws catching his attention. He swallowed. "Say, umm. I was curious to ask.. are you part mole or something?"

[Val]

Wait WHAT?! Shadow’s fur bristled as he straightened up, looking like he was about to hurl the coffee mug in his hand at the minkhog. Part MOLE?! A Mole? Of all things? Was it not obvious that he was a hedgehog? How dense was this kid if he-…

Shadow noticed his bare ungloved hands. Glancing down he saw his feet too were uncovered, showing off the dark bonelike stubs at the end of each digit and the claws at the ends of his toes, even the single protrusions on his heels.
He shot Silver a glare before sighing and returning to making the drinks. His eyes narrowed as he tried to swallow the disgust at remembering Black Doom and the invading Black Arms, when he finally understood what he was. Reaching for the cutlery drawer he saw his hand again and balled it into a fist. “I’m part alien.” He muttered almost too quietly to be heard, knowing this would just lead to more questions from the psychic youth.

[Jammerlee]

"Part alien?" Silver echoed, furrowing his brow. He almost looked hurt. "You have a hard time believing I'm a time traveler but you want me to believe that? You could have just said you didn't want to tell me. I mean geez, I'm not that naive.." he muttered out the last part, frowning as he went in for another bite of pizza.

[Val]

The chimera bared his teeth and fought back the urge to yell at Silver for his attitude. “You’re levitating pizza with your mind while on a space colony miles above the earth.” Shadow spat out. He was living with Shadow, eating his food after being taken in with nowhere else to go and he has the audacity to act like that?
Shadow ran a hand over his forehead and strokes down his middle quill. He was beginning to question if he could do this. He didn’t have the patience to put up with living with someone like this, he just wanted to…Her voice echoed inside his head again, reminding him to try. Letting out another sigh Shadow finished making the coffees and slid one down the counter to the time traveler.

[Jammerlee]

"Tho thith ithn't normal?" Silver spoke with his mouth full, looking at the pizza slice. Shadow's sharp tone had put him on edge, though he wasn't entirely sure why. "Umm.. sorry if I upset you? I'm not.. I'm not used to talking to other people. You know, other than Blaze." He awkwardly rubbed his arm, his eyes trailing down to the floor. "Should I just go?"

[Val]

“Go where?” Shadow replied bluntly as he placed a steaming coffee mug down on the table beside the sleeping Chao on the sofa. “Where exactly would you go?”

[Jammerlee]

The platinum hybrid shrugged. "I dunno. I'm not familiar with the geography. A forest maybe? I've always wanted to see a forest."

[Val]

At that Shadow perked a brow. He’d never really considered a forest to be all that important...but then he’d never had to live in a world where they were most likely all gone.
Taking a small sip of his own drink he moved to the door as it slid open, calling over his shoulder. “Come with me.” Shadow had an idea.

[Jammerlee]

"Umm.. okay," Silver said, scurrying after Shadow.

[Val]

The alien hybrid led Silver through several corridors of the ARK. Room after room of silver walls and green bleeping monitor screens. Soon coming to a large service elevator. Shadow stepped aboard and hovered his hand over the console, waiting for Silver to get on.

[Jammerlee]

As the two walked Silver was lost in thought, trying to figure out what it was he'd said to upset Shadow. Shadow had to be joking about being part alien, right? Aliens weren't real after all. Weren't they? But then, Shadow didn't seem like the joking type. So what if he really meant it? Silver had just brushed him off the same way Shadow had brushed off his being a time traveler. A shiver crawled its way around the minkhog's neck and shoulders.

"Hey, Shadow?" Silver asked with a pensive look as he followed the other hybrid into the elevator. "You weren't kidding, were you? About being part alien?"

[Val]

Shadow let the question hang in the air as an awkward silence. He pressed the button and the elevator shunted to life to begin rumbling down level after level. “No. I wasn’t.” He finally answered, not even looking at Silver as he typed in the floor number to go to.

[Jammerlee]

Silver jumped at the sensation of the elevator beginning to move its way down. He exhaled to steel himself and rubbed at his arm sheepishly. "Umm. Yeah um.." he glanced down at the floor. "Sorry. For being a jerk."

[Val]

Shadow’s only response was one of his trademarked “Hmph”s as they slowly descended into the deeper levels of the ARK. Shadow knew these well. The upper levels were living quarters and simpler laboratory work while the bottom half was where the actual development of the weaponry designed aboard the colony happened…He recalled briefly his encounter with his Prototype far below in the deepest core of the colony and wondered to himself what he might’ve become had Black Doom not “benevolently” bestowed his blood to the Professor.

A thought then hit the ebony chimera and he was forced to let out a small chuckle. “You really must be from the future.” He said as the elevator finally shuddered to a halt infront of a huge pair of blast doors, “Otherwise you’d remember the alien invasion a few years ago.”