Knuckles of the House of Edmund

Okay.

Birdbrain? I know you stole my faux emerald. I'm not gonna hunt you down like I would if you tried to touch the real Master Emerald, but I seriously don't see the point of stealing a fake shiny, especially one that I keep around solely to remind me of home.

So I'm going to calmly ask you to return it before I decide to take it back by force.

Glad to have this little heart to heart.

It's been... I don't know. My head isn't on straight any more, I can't think straight. Between going home and coming back here, it seems like I'm cursed to be totally confused as to what's right. As soon as I went home, Finitevus' hold on me was as strong as ever... and the only way it was broken... Dad... I'm sorry. I failed you, dad. After all you've done to make me stronger, to make me a good Guardian, I couldn't even protect the ones I love.

For that matter... who do I love? When I went home, I didn't remember a thing about this place, so back there, I was still mad about Julie-Su... but Sakura, here... she... I... It's like the Soultouch all over again. Plus, I think I might be going kooky, because I'd swear I've seen little glimpses of a girl who looks a lot like Sally Acorn.

Sally... you know, the longer I live, the more I feel like I understand her perfectly. Forced into a role she never wanted, wanting to live up to the legacy her father set forward for her... but at the same time thinking everything he thought was wrong... I don't know.

I have to be a guardian. I know that what others say is true - when you go back home, it's as if you never left, so... this can be a vacation for me. The curses are merely the price I have to pay for relaxation. The consequence of stopping my Guardianly duties.

It's a shame. Sakura... Sakura would be a phenomenal guardian, except she's not of Edmund's bloodline, and not even an echidna... Plus, there's no way she'd end up in my world. Not that I'd really wish it on her - if she was on Mobius, she'd be compared to Hunter and Robotnik almost constantly... reviled. Hated. Like I should b It's not a fate I'd wish on anyone. Then again, neither is being a Guardian...

I don't know. I'm confused. I don't know what to say, but... I feel like I need to keep writing.

[[Below this lie several aimless, shapeless doodles and scribbles, almost as if someone just needed to hear pencil on paper]]

...It was bad enough that I ended up back here. ...especially after what happened with... no, it's no good worrying about that.

It was bad enough that I left in the first place.

But I had to come back right into a bloody curse?! What the hell did I do to deserve this!

[[Strikes hackable]]

Sonic?

You maaaaay wanna get that shiner checked out. XD

( [Private to Sonic, Hackable] )

That curse was considerably more disturbing than the rest. Not because it turned me into a kid, no. That was... acceptable. No, what was so disturbing was that it temporarily messed with my memories so that I didn't remember being here. Or, really, anything past when I was six. Was it a blessing or not? I mean, on one hand, I didn't remember all that I had been through... but back then, I didn't have any friends, either. I think I met Sally around that age, but past that? I had no idea who Sonic, the Chaotix, Julie-Su, any of them were. And that's not even to mention the people I've met here... such as Blaze. Did I really tell her she looked naked when I was a kid? Guh, real smooth there. (....if it weren't for me still wishing Julie-Su was here, I'd fall for her in a heartbeat, I guess. She's a lot like me... and even more like Sally. I guess I can really relate to her.) Aside from the readiness that the ghosts have played with my memories, I guess I've gotten used to this place. It's kind of worrying. I'm not ready to go back to being Enerjak, and I especially don't want to be manipulated by Finitevus again, but... well, I still feel like I'm shirking my duties as a guardian. Not that my father has had any complaints about doing the job in my place and blaming me for it anyway...

I don't think, if Enerjak's power can't pierce this zone's barriers, that I'll get out of here without the ghosts' help... so I might as well just make the best of being here... right?

Sonic.

The sugar rush and the kiddiness have worn off, so... part of me was curious about if you still play video games. as annoying as I find technology, it was one of the few things you could ever kick my ass in

Cuz, I mean, heck. Now that I'm feeling more like myself? Just something quiet'd be a great way to celebrate.

TEHRE'S PEOPLE HERE! :O

dad says i'm supposed to not make friends cuz a guardian's lief is full of solitude

but hi! I'm Knuckles, who are all u?

Yuuko.

I have decided on my terms.

A wish. Anything I could possibly desire.

What would I do with such a thing? She wouldn't be able to bring Julie-Su here, I've tried to no avail. Either way, there's no telling if she'll for Enerjak's powers are every bit as potent as this woman's, meaning she can't do anything for me that I can't do myself. But if what Sakura says is true, then she cannot accept my help without giving me something in return.

What do you give to the person who's able to do anything but fix himself?


...fix... himself. I think I have my inspiration. Now the trick is just figuring out how to word it so that the wish doesn't backfire... I hear djinni are disgustingly tricky creatures like that.

[[Not a word is said; it appears that by now someone has picked up on the nature of the curse. Regardless, a soft, haunting - and perhaps familiar - tune is played gently through a flute... (Song can be found here, thanks Carrie)]]

While that last curse was less embarassing than the kissing one, it was far more worrying. I had briefly lost my powers, and they had been passed on to another. I must admit, maybe it was because of Finitevus' spell - why did I not notice the slight change in the chaos mantra after I became Enerjak? - but Sakura handled my powers far better than I have. Yes, she could not help but abuse Enerjak's abilities for her own convenience, but I suspect now that it is more a facet of such powers being so... natural for me. Even before I took up the mantle, I knew what it was like to practically be a living Chaos Emerald.

It was... nice to be without powers, however. I only wish I could do it again, but in circumstances where the rest of the world around me wasn't in utter disarray... it appears the power-switching had happened to many, including the hawk that had beaten up Sonic a few months back - which appears to have amplified his emotions and totally wrecked Sonic. If I could have stopped it, I would have. But I suspect the spirits here wouldn't allow me.

These... "ghosts", as everyone calls them... they remind me of the Ancient Walkers. Except they appear to have quite the sadistic sense of humor, judging by their... trials.

In addition, I do not know if it is their influence or my own regret at what I have done, but I find myself not minding if I stay here. It is a fitting punishment for what I have done as Enerjak, and it's not as if I've gone through more trying times before. I also feel a little more at peace than I did when I first came here. As if Mobius can go on without me. Or that I will simply return to find myself in Robotnik's grasp once more. ...That would actually be strangely comforting, amusingly enough.

I must think of a way to properly thank Sakura for how well she cared for my power. Such forces must have put a heavy tax on her....

Has it been almost a month already? Judging by the flow of days, at least. Who knows if time flows differently here than on Mobius. This place has all the workings of a Zone... in fact, in its own way it reminds me of Haven, except there's no way for me to see what's happening in the world. Still, trying to leave the town here results in me ending up right back in front of the hotel, and not even Enerjak's power is helping me escape. I'm pretty certain by this point that I'm being kept here - not by Robotnik, but by some sort of other power. I remember hearing voices when the curse first hit, which I can only assume were the ghosts that people talk about here in hushed whispers...

Ghosts that seem to have gathered us all up and are playing with us like dolls.

Oh, right, the curse. I should probably write that down here, even if I'd like to forget it. After all, learning from the past is the only way we can beat it next time. Apparently, after a brief stint of the hotel's technology acting up - half the people on the public journal system they have set up here were talking like total idiots - the real curse hit. I spent most of the duration locked up in my room, alone and meditating, because the first person I saw, I was drawn to. Like the first time that Julie-Su and I kissed.

...those were good times. She worries too damn much about me, though.

I wonder if she's worrying now, or if what I tried to do really hurt her enough that she hates me... I don't know why taking on Enerjak's power made me hate technology so much... I never had a problem with Julie-Su's cybernetics before - in fact, she made the cutest little squeal when you'd play with her dread-gear.

Speaking of Enerjak, I'm beginning to see why Sonic stopped me. The more time passes here, the more I begin to realize just how much control Finitevus had put on me when I had taken on the power of the emerald. I... can't really turn back now, though. Just like when I lost control of everything and the Chaos Force inside of me took over, I can't undo this. I am the new Enerjak. I have twice the Chaos Force inside me than I ever did; I'm basically a walking Master Emerald now. I need to find a way to use these powers better than I did back home, though...

It's been three days. I feel... strange. I still want to go home, to protect the Freedom Fighters and the echidnas that are left... but I don't know if I can. I still have all the powers of Enerjak, but the more I consider them, the more I realize that Finitevus was simply using me as a weapon, persuading me that working with him was furthering my own goals.

Fucking bastard.

It's... weird. A lot of things are weird. You'd think that I would miss Julie-Su more than I do, but... I guess both of us changed. We've still got the soultouch... but then again, so did my mom and dad, and I certainly didn't see them together when I rediscovered Echidnopolis. Maybe soulmates don't have to be lovers. Aurora knows Julie-Su's overprotectiveness was starting to get to me.

If I could just get a sign. A sign that Mobius would be fine without me. That it wouldn't fall in the hands of Robotnik, or someone even worse like Finitevus or Mogul... I could stand living here. It's not Angel Island, but you know what? After all I went through for my father? I'm sick of being a Guardian. If I could leave it behind, at least for a little while... I don't think I'd mind that. At all. So sick of being 'the chosen one'. I don't know how Sonic or Tails put up with it.

Met someone quite interesting on the roof tonight. His name is Mewtwo, and he appears to have led a very similar life to me... in some ways, of course. We both seem to have an appreciation for nature that I haven't seen elsewhere yet. I think he and I could be quite close friends... he's someone like I haven't talked to in ages. In a way he kind of reminds me of Espio, except... with a lot of the wisdom Archy has. Someone who really cares for the planet, as opposed to just living there.

....it's nights like this that really bug me. When I can feel the ebb and flow of the Chaos force in my veins, when it feels like nature itself is trying to speak with me... it's... an awe-inspiring feeling, but it really puts my sleep cycle through hell.

This is quite distressing. Finitevus told me that I had all the powers of my great-uncle when he was Enerjak, as well as possibly many of the powers I had when my Chaos Force went nuts...

So why can't I simply warp out of here? It was as simple as a thought to move myself from Angel Island to New Mobopolis instantly, and yet, I try to focus like that here, and all it does is causes the room to glow and the computer to explode. Blasted technology... merely a constant reminder of my failure. I am a god. I have the power to remake the entire world... and yet I can't leave this hotel building? Even simply walking outside and trying to leave town... ends me up back here.

I have to get home to Mobius. I have to find a way to make them understand that this is for their own good. The Sonic in this world states that there are ghosts keeping us here... but that makes no sense! Surely I would be able to best some meager spirits?

...

Or are they like the Ancient Walkers? Or, for that matter, Aurora? They could be gods in this world, and as I was brought here, I may well be playing by their rules versus mine. Sonic would probably tell me not to worry about it, to just try to make due with what I have here... and to be perfectly honest, it is nice. Far away from Finitevus.... I think the bastard was controlling me, too. I'll have to 'purify' him next. See if it makes him regret what he did to me. But I can't help but imagine that there's a reason I still bear the cursed mantle of my great-uncle... I must get back, or else I don't know what will happen to the world...

[OOC]

This is a refugee from the GreatestJournal collapse. Previous entries are here, and paper journal logs are reposted here for future archival.

[OOC]