Sonic was shocked to see Knuckles as the vice president of SEGA. He remembered Knuckles as a good-natured meathead from the days when they were friends. Knuckles wearing a business suit and inhabiting the world of corporate politics was in Sonic’s mind the furthest thing from what Knuckles could be. What in the world happened to Knuckles to end up here is the question that rang in Sonic’s head.
Polanzo had left the room with his bodyguards and now the two old friends were left alone. Knuckles began to speak to Sonic about his new job. He explained to Sonic the work was supposed to do for this mobile game. The work he would do would require him to spend a few hours in the SEGA studio, provide his face for the game and record a few voice lines. The amount of money offered wasn’t even a fraction of what Sonic used to make in his heyday, but now considering how much he made at Smile Burger, it was a huge amount of money. Especially with how few hours he would have to work to get it.
Knuckles did not offer Sonic a ‘hello’ or a ‘how’ve you been doing’, he spoke to Sonic with a coldness. He talked as if he would talk with any client or employee he talks with during the day. Sonic’s first impression was that Knuckles wasn’t happy at all to see him but he wasn’t resentful either. Knuckles looked like he was above all, indifferent.
Knuckles’ demeanor didn’t bother Sonic. He too shared the indifference Knuckles radiated. While the two of them were great friends, that was ancient history. Their relationship had broken as soon as Knuckles entered the realm of video games. Unlike with Tails who stuck with Sonic through the worst of Sonic’s egoism, Knuckles and Sonic had mutually ended their friendship over during the development of ‘Sonic 3 and Knuckles(1994)’.
There was of course never a formal word that their friendship was over but both had turned hostile to one another after completing that game. Sonic had regretted ever bringing Knuckles into the video game world and Knuckles had always felt it was unfair that Sonic got all of the credit. Both had no particular reason to be glad to see the other. Their friendship was nothing but a distant and fading memory at this point.
For Sonic, he had lost his status in the video game world and he no longer saw Knuckles as a threat to him as he had nothing to lose. Knuckles was just some guy to him now and so he was indifferent to him. For Knuckles, the indifference was merely a façade. He was still resentful towards Sonic and had been wishing for them to encounter like this. His thoughts were filled with various things he had wanted to tell Sonic now that he was finally above him in terms of power.
Sonic’s thoughts were about the offer he had received. The staring in the mobile game. That was the pressing matter to Sonic. What was to become of him as a video game mascot? Should I accept this embarrassing and degrading job? On one hand, if I do I might get ridiculed by people even more now that after all this time this is my comeback and first appearance in any game in years. On the other hand, it’s the only offer I will probably ever get, If I don’t accept this I might never be in any game.
“When do I need to give my answer?” Sonic said.
“What kind of answer?”
“If I want to star in this ‘Super cooking run 4: diamond deluxe wild ride’ game or not”
Knuckles scoffed and said, “You don’t need to agree right now but tomorrow is supposed to be the day we get this done. You should email SEGA offices if you want this job by the evening and if you do end up agreeing show up tomorrow at the same time as today.”
“Okay”
“That’s it? No snarky comment or witty remark?” Knuckles lost his cool, “Where is the arrogance, did the money finally stop coming your way? Where do you live now, I hear you had to sell your penthouse, is it true you live in that shithole Kowareta Yume?”
Knuckles’ façade of indifference fell off. He tried to contain himself at first but he wanted to bask in the satisfaction of finally being on top of Sonic. For most of his life, he had spent in Sonic’s shadow. Sonic got all of the glory, wealth, status, and video games. Finally, Knuckles was more successful and he wanted to savor this moment. He began to brag to Sonic about how much money he was making, what car he owned, the expensive apartment he lived in, successful he had become, and ridiculed Sonic for living in Kowareta Yume, losing his driver’s license and working in Smile Burger.
Knuckles had hoped Sonic would be angered, insulted, and humiliated by his show-off. He wanted Sonic to have a look of defeat and to be jealous of his success. Unfortunately for Knuckles, Sonic wasn’t at all fazed or moved by where Knuckles is in life. Sure Knuckles is making more money now than Sonic, but at least for Sonic it was never about the money. It was about the video games and the status that came with them.
The fact that Knuckles was vice president of SEGA was a very unenviable position for Sonic. He might as well have said he was the vice president of x company and it wouldn’t have made a difference. His job has nothing to do with the creation of video games or the art that goes into it. Not only that but he wasn’t even the president, he held no real power as vice president. He was only but a lackey of Polanzo.
To Sonic, he found Knuckles’ ‘flexing’ to be annoying. He rolled his eyes and responded to Knuckles with an uninterested:
“There isn’t a single molecule in me that cares how much money you make or what you bought with it. I have things to think about. Tell your boss I’ll send him an email later today about whether or not I accept this mobile game offer.” He had then left the room, he wanted to discuss with Tails what does he think about the offer and wanted a quiet place to think. Knuckles was left alone in the president’s office feeling dumbfounded and frustrated.
Knuckles had envisioned this encounter very differently. What was supposed to be a triumphant victory ended up feeling hollow. He expected to feel cathartic when he encountered Sonic, to be able to put him in his place when their places in society were switched. There was no feeling of satisfaction, only disappointment, and emptiness. Maybe if Sonic reacted in the way Knuckles would have expected he would have felt happy. Knuckles continued sitting in the office alone with his thoughts.
Sonic made his way to the café where Tails was waiting for him. Tails was comfortably sitting in a chair, studying and sipping his coffee. The café had a very low-key atmosphere, the music wasn’t very loud and there weren’t many people around. One could easily lose themselves in whatever they were reading.
Tails became worried once he saw Sonic wearing a sad expression on his face, clearly the meeting did not go as planned. Sonic told him everything that had happened, Polanzo is still president, the offer to cameo in a mobile, and Knuckles’ new position of vice president of SEGA.
Sonic despite realizing how silly it was to think the email meant a new video game he was going to direct, was still heartbroken that his dreams were shattered. He was so full of positivity and optimism in the morning and now he was depressed again.
“Not only is it not a new Sonic game but a goddamn mobile game. It feels so degrading to have to work on a mobile game after being what I was before,” said Sonic while his hands were on his head in despair.
“Sonic, as bad as it may look at first I don’t think this a bad thing necessarily,” said Tails.
“What do you mean?”
“The offer is not what you wanted, a new ‘Sonic game’ for you to direct, but I still think the offer you got is a good deal. You will only work for a few hours and you will get paid a large sum of money for so little of your time. Think about what possibilities that open for you”
Sonic squinted his eyes, he wasn’t sure what Tails was talking about and looked at him to elaborate more. Tails continued:
“The amount of money you would get from this mobile game cameo is equivalent to what you would get working 12 months at Smile Burger. This is not exactly a Jackie Brown heist turnaround but this gives you so many new opportunities. You can take months off, you don’t need to work for some time until you figure things out.
“If you live like you’ve been living up until now you could stay away from work for a whole year. During that time you have the freedom to do soul searching to find a type of work that makes you happy, you could try out different jobs for the heck of it to see how they are without having to worry about food in your mouth. This job like I already said isn’t the dream job you wanted but it does offer you a degree of financial freedom to relax and think. You should accept the offer”
Sonic had an epiphany. The depression he was feeling almost instantly vanished and a kind of euphoria took over him. Tails is right, he thought, this is a great thing. This isn’t exactly what he wanted but it is a great opportunity.
“Thank you Tails” Sonic grinned. “I feel a lot better. I am going to send them an email right now and tell them I am accepting the job.” Sonic took his phone and started to type his email to SEGA.
“Did not expect your mood to shift so quickly,” Tails laughed. “I am glad I was able to help. By the way, I want to talk about the other things that happened at SEGA. How is Polanzo still president? That is concerning. Did he abolish term limits? Why does the board of directors still keep him there? Something is very wrong there.”
“Who cares” Sonic waved his hand dismissing the subject, “It's not important, Polanzo can be president for life for all I care. Some other guy would be the same as him. The more interesting part in Knuckles”
“I honestly can’t imagine Knuckles at meetings, making graphs, shaking hands… I guess you never know where life takes you. He probably would be shocked if he heard I was in college now. You should’ve asked him for his business card, you know how yuppies are obsessed with those”
“I wonder if his has a watermark,” Sonic said and they both laughed.
Sonic and Tails continued their chit-chat for a little while and they decided to head home. They left the café and went to the parking lot where Tails parked his red Saab.
At the parking lot, they saw a familiar face. It was Vector the crocodile, he was walking around the parking lot as if he was searching for something.
“Where the hell did those two go” Vector grumbled to himself.
Sonic and Tails approached him and said hello. Vector was happy to see them and they began talking to each other. Team Chaotix was never that close with Sonic, they were more acquaintances rather than friends. They were never resentful towards Sonic and they never had a large role in the video games apart from ‘Sonic Heroes(2003)’ and ‘Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)’.
Team Chaotix participated in the renegotiation strike mostly because they wanted to sever their ties with SEGA and move on to other things. Because of all that Vector didn’t mind giving Sonic a friendly greeting and talking to him.
“I lost Charmy and Espio, I can’t find them,” Vector said.
“What are you guys up to these days,” Sonic said.
“We work as private investigators. Right now we are looking into a very important case I can’t tell you anything about it. It’s top secret.”
“Do you have a business card?” Tails said jokingly.
“Of course we do!” To the great surprise of Tails, Vector pulled out a card and gave it to them. Tails was looking to make a joke about yuppies and Paul Allen but they did have a card and it had a watermark.
Tails read the text on the business card, it said ‘Team Chaotix, they’re detectives you want on your side, the truth can run but not hide’, it sounded very familiar but he couldn’t quite put his finger on from where.
“Anyways I would love to stay and chat,” Vector said, “but I have to find these two. We have an important job to do. If you guys want to, we can see each other some other time over a cup of coffee. Also, call us if need any private investigating done.”
Vector gave them a wave and left to search for his friends. Sonic and Tails went to their car and drove home. They started chatting in the car on their way home.
“I’ve run into so many of our past friends these last couple of days,” Sonic said.
“Yeah, I am surprised how many of them showed up in random places. Knuckles is probably the strangest encounter. I wonder if he is happy doing the work he does.” Tails said.
“He didn’t look happy to me.”
“I’d take up on Vector’s offer. I would like to see team Chaotix at some point.”
Sonic nodded. “I agree we should call them and catch up and see how they’re doing.” Sonic closed his eyes trying to remember something. “Vector said they are private detectives now, weren’t they always private detectives or was that only their role in the games?”
“I think I remember reading an article a long time ago that they were using their image they had from ‘Sonic Heroes(2003)’ as marketing for launching their agency. There was some legal trouble with SEGA but they settled it. This may be totally a fake memory by the way, I may be mixing this whole thing up with something else.”
They continued talking, jumping to various topics until they reached home.
***
The rest of the day the two spent separately. Tails was alone in his room, drinking more coffee and working hard to prepare for his upcoming exam. Sonic spent the day on his phone, surfing the internet and reading articles in the hope that he would get some ideas on what to do next. He called Smile Burger and told them he won't be coming back, he felt a great sense of relief that he would probably never have to spend another hour of his life working there.
The evening had arrived and the two met in the living room. They usually spent evenings doing something together.
“Do you want to watch a movie together, I downloaded a bunch of them but I am not sure which one to watch” said Tails.
Tails showed Sonic the films he had downloaded, all of them were old films from foreign countries, their titles in languages Sonic couldn’t understand. To Sonic it didn’t matter which one they would watch because he knew nothing about the films and since Tails was the one to recommend ‘Jackie Brown(1997)’ he would let him decide what they were going to watch.
Choosing what film to watch should be a simple and easy decision. However, Sonic noticed Tails was abnormally stressing over this. The decision was causing Tails mental anguish, at least that’s what one would conclude by looking at his facial expression.
“What’s wrong?” Sonic said.
“It’s nothing. It’s a dilemma I have often but it's not important, I don’t want to bore you” Tails tried to shrug off the issue but he was still visibly bothered.
“You can tell me”, Sonic came closer to Tails with compassion in his voice. “You have listened to me go on and on about video games, directing, my existential angst, and so on. I want to be there for you the same way you’ve been there for me. You can tell me all about it.”
Sonic thought a lot about everything he had done because of the meeting at SEGA. He realized that he hasn’t been that great of a friend to Tails, he wasn’t mean or awful but as he turned back time to when they started living together, it's always been Tails supporting him and listening to his problems.
He had made a promise to himself that he was going to be more mindful of Tails’ problems and try to reciprocate the same support he has been getting from Tails in the best way he can. Friendships and relationships in general are never 1:1 but some amount of reciprocity is necessary. A lesson he had learned the hard way and a mistake he wasn’t going to allow himself to repeat.
“Are you sure you want to listen”, Tails sighed and continued, “This is going to be a long one.”
“I’m all ears” Sonic sat comfortably on the couch, preparing himself to listen.
“Okay. I am terrified of the idea of wasting time. Since I stopped actively participating in making games with you after ‘Sonic 06’ I look back at everything I had done from then up until now and this whole period seems like a giant blur. Nothing I have done can I truly say that I am proud of. The business I’ve started failed and I am a college student when I should already have had my life put together and a career.
“It’s been so long since ‘Sonic 06’ and I feel like I haven’t moved an inch. More than a decade and what have I got to show for it? Nothing, only a failed business, and an incomplete degree. What have I been doing then if I have nothing to show for it? At least when we made games I could look at them and think, that’s something I can feel was worth the effort. You can visually and physically see the labor you put into it and there are fans that admire your work.
“I think that after ‘Sonic 06’ I have just been wasting time. Life is finite, there is no endless supply of time, one day you die. I wasted a decade of my life, a decade I will never get back. I can't waste any more time like that. I can't allow myself to wake up, look back and think well there goes another decade. I want to think that when my time is up that I have truly done something with it that was worthwhile.”
Sonic stopped to think about everything Tails had said to him. He didn’t know how to respond, after all, he was never the listener. It surprised him how Tails had never mentioned it before, although he never asked. Sonic thought about what to say but the only thing that came to mind was:
“I am not sure how this is related to choosing what movie we were going to watch?”
“I don’t want to waste my time,” Tails said while gesturing with his arms to try to explain. “I have the option to choose what I am going to watch, I won't like every film I see. I don’t want to watch something I am going to dislike or worst of all, something that I think is mediocre. You don’t have the time in the world to see everything and I don’t want to spend time watching mediocre things.”
“Okay,” Sonic was getting a better understanding. “Why not read reviews before choosing what to watch?”
“Reviews are good pointers for what to avoid however they are also not the end all be all. I’ve watched plenty of bad films that had rave reviews, and horribly reviewed movies that I liked. Usually, when most reviewers say something sucks it probably sucks and the opposite is the case. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, sometimes you have to gamble, and I don’t like that. I don’t want to gamble, I don’t want to waste my time. Death will come to us all and I want to make the most of life before it's over”
“Hmmmmm” Sonic didn’t have an answer for Tails. “I do understand on some level what the issue is. Death is something I am also afraid of. You still have your life ahead of you though. You are not old yet. So don’t worry.”
Tails didn’t calm down at all. Sonic seeing his first attempt fail tried again and said:
“Listen if you keep stressing about wasting time, you are inadvertently wasting time”
“oh my god, you are right” Tails sunk into even deeper despair. Sonic grabbed his head and thought to himself what the hell am I doing, I am making things worse.
“Listen to me,” Sonic said authoritatively. “Sit down on the couch, take deep breaths. You have more life ahead of you, no one goes through life with everything figured out. You are not wasting time.” Sonic went to the refrigerator and brought Tails a can of beer. “Take some beer, I am going to choose what film we are watching. Even if it ends up being bad, we will have a funny memory out of it.”
“A funny memory?” Tails opened his can of beer and took a sip. He became slightly calmer.
“Remember when we watched ‘Le Samourai(1967)’, the movie everyone says is amazing?”
Tails nodded “I remember”
“We were bored out of our fucking minds with that film, but we had a good joke out of it. We laughed at how slow it was and how nonsensical parts of it were. We also constantly used that idiotic phrase the protagonist says ‘I never lose, not completely’. Remember how much we used that quote in the most random situations?”
“That was such a funny film for all of the wrong reasons,” Tails said and laughed
“Exactly. Was it so bad to watch it? I don’t think so. There is value in the time you spend that isn’t spent perfectly.”
Tails had cheered up immensely from Sonic’s pep talk, there was no longer a face of dread and anguish on Tails. Sonic was surprised at how successful he was and how he had accidentally arrived at a sort of wisdom about life that he wasn’t even aware of. He felt very proud of himself.
In the end, they both sat on the couch with cans of beer on the table in front of them and watched a film that Sonic picked at random. It was a foreign film from a country Sonic knew nothing about. The film was depressing and gloomy. The sky in the film was always gray, with barely any sunlight, the characters were all depressed and everything looked run down. It was one of those stories where almost nothing ever good happens to any of the characters. It of course had a sad ending.
What was supposed to be a night that was going to end on a happy note, ended with a film that filled the room with a suffocating and hopeless atmosphere. There was one scene in particular that stuck out. A father was teaching his son English, the son knew very little English and had asked his father:
“Daddy, what does ‘Happy ending’ mean?”
“That’s something that doesn’t exist in life,” said the father in a deadpan and cold voice.
After the film ended Sonic and Tails looked at each other and Sonic said:
“Well, that was unbelievably depressing. I am sorry for choosing this one I wanted to cheer you up.”
“You chose randomly so don’t worry. You didn’t know what type of film it was going to be.” Tails started laughing. “I do find it hilarious though that out of all the films I downloaded I think this one is the most depressing by far.”
“That’s my luck for ya.” Sonic also started laughing. “Well, we will have a memory to look back on in a couple of months. We are going to laugh at this situation and be like ‘Remember when I wanted to cheer you up and chose the most depressing film imaginable'.”
“You’re right, this is something funny to me right now,” Tails said.“You mentioned ‘Le Samourai(1967)’, do you think would the main character from that film be able to defeat Lupin the 3rd?”
Sonic smirked, “You have to be kidding me, you know my answer. Lupin the 3rd!”
“But the le Samourai guy never loses, not completely”
“He would completely lose to Lupin though”
Sonic and Tails continued laughing and talking into the night and they went to sleep.
***
The next day Tails drove Sonic to SEGA HQ to complete his cameo appearance in the mobile game. It was an easy job, mostly recording a few voice lines, grunts, and reaction noises.
Knuckles oversaw the job and he instructed Sonic on what he was supposed to do. There was an awkward and tense atmosphere in the air. Knuckles used a few opportunities to gloat and threw jabs at Sonic about how Knuckles is now in charge of him and not the other way around like before.
Sonic wasn’t too bothered by this. His job at Smile Burger had made him get used to being berated by someone above him in the workplace hierarchy and he mostly felt bad for Knuckles. He thought God was I like this when I was his boss? No wonder everyone ended up hating me. I must’ve been unbearable to work with. I feel sorry that Knuckles is now like this, I wish I could say something to him but from the experience of my own life, he will have to have a realization by himself. There is nothing anyone can tell you to make you come to your senses.
Once the work was complete, Sonic received his payment right away. It had been such a large sum of money, he hadn’t seen so much money in quite some time. He returned home with Tails and he had a feeling of liberation in him. He was now for a year if he spends his money wisely free to find work.
However, as happy as Sonic was he also felt lost. He was free from work but he also had no idea where to go next. The rest of the day he spent walking around the house, smoking cigarettes, and surfing the internet. Tails was immersed in his studies and would study until the evening like most days.
For the next couple of days, Sonic would wander aimlessly. He would take long walks around the neighborhood and drink coffee on the balcony looking at the Tokyo skyline trying to find answers for himself.
Sonic found a way to keep himself busy for the time being. Apart from his regular responsibility of fixing the toilet whenever it would have its problems, he took it upon himself to take care of cocking duties. Tails was always too preoccupied with studying that during the weekdays he would just mash up some whatever food. He wanted to eat as quickly as possible in order to get back to studying.
Now that Sonic had so much free time on his hands, he thought he should prepare lunch. He bought a cookbook and would start to learn. He found the process very relaxing and rewarding.
Sonic had tried to cook before but it always ended in disaster. He didn’t have any experience or knowledge, but now with time on his hands, he was determined to get good.
These relatively uneventful couple of days had gone by quickly. Sonic and Tails would watch the morning show together, after that Tails would study, and Sonic would learn about cocking and make lunch. He still had no idea about the future. In the evening they would watch a movie together and this routine would repeat until Friday.
Friday was the day Rick Ravette’s show would air. Even though the show airs a day later in Japan, the two always made sure to avoid any details about the episode on the internet. They usually wanted to not know who would be the guest and what would be the topic. Sometimes they would look it up but they enjoyed the element of surprise.
This week they had known what the topic was going to be, Rick Ravette’s upcoming film he was going to direct. They were excitedly waiting that Friday to hear more details about it from the man himself. They had no idea what they were about to hear.
It was Friday evening and Sonic and Tails sat next to each other on the couch, prepared for the new episode. The show started and the one on the screen was not Rick but some middle-aged woman and she looked terribly sad. She held a piece of paper and said:
“Most of you watching have probably already heard the news. However, we at the studio felt that it was necessary to air an episode. Rick Ravette has died of a heart attack at age 58.”
