Drrobctnik

i'd like to know you ⸻ hearing those words felt, bizarre. as precious and as warm as sunlight, they felt & yet that ever present and nagging fear, numbness threatened julius at the mere notion. the mere fraction of a thought: until you won't. until julius said or did something that was too much, too confusing, too outlandish or too contradictory, or too selfish or too sensitive or too⸻ he was scared, at the thought of losing this. losing him.

& just how much of himself was he willing to give, could he give? could he give parts that stone would help him to understand? julius had always wondered that, how he was supposed to just KNOW things innately when no one ever bothered to teach him, to explain, to show him. to let him feel, not that he felt very often or for very long.

at the reassuring smile, julius gives a small, awkward, brief one in return. like he isn't used to smiling very often, never sincerely. at what is said next, julius blinks, his turn to be caught off guard. oh. right. he supposed they never introduced themselves, did they?

"julius," he steps forward, reaching a hand out and shaking imad's, "it's nice to meet you, imad. er, properly." julius' touch lingers, not wanting to let go of imad's hand. he's probably shaking it for too long. how long did one normally shake another's hand?? julius glanced down, cleared his throat, finally stopped shaking imad's hand after probably 30 seconds, rubbed at the side of his neck again.

considered, but then stepped back, wanting to give imad space. "....your name suits you, i like it."

the little apology caught him off guard, and he chooses to nod as he shifts his weight from one foot to the other, seeing yet another change in the man's demeanor. stone figured julius was likely pushing himself way out of his comfort zone, and he really did wonder just why that was. the man had shown he was very capable of deflecting, of being indifferent to what stone said and even expressed, so why the change of heart?

"I'd like to know you, as much as you feel comfortable telling me. In turn I will tell you about myself, that way it is an even exchange."

he offers him a reassuring smile, his previous look of annoyance fading away as he takes on a more friendly stance. "We could start with our first names, yeah? I am Imad, what is yours? I'd at least like to properly address the person I am speaking with."

his left hand jerked forward, gripping at stone's wrist. his fingers twitched, thumb roaming and pressing into his wrist, to feel his pulse. julius' fingers, his whole hand, was quivering, shaking subtly. was he checking for stone's pulse, to make sure that he was really there?

or was it just to hold onto him?

he hears the breathing, and does his best to match that rhythm. but then, that feeling, that sensation getting worse in his chest. the breathing helped, for a spell, but- stone would feel julius' palm heating up, warming, as though an element on a stove just beginning to heat and give off a light waft of temperature-

hurriedly, julius let go of stone's wrist, and stepped back from him. the breaths were quicker now, shallow, "n-no, no," it's murmured, to himself? his palms move, cupping and pressing and covering his own face. "enough. stop." that burning would get worse- stone would no doubt smell it; flesh, starting to sear, but julius wasn't moving his hands away from his own face.

he'd ducked down now, squatting, hunched forward slightly. low, barely there mumbles, something along the lines of 'please no more. not now.' / 'you want to' / 'no' / 'liar.'

stone offers him a smile, very happy that julius was actually listening to him for once. he only wished it was under better circumstances. seeing the man start to do the little exercise saw stone joining in with him, hoping it would help him further in the little goal of calming julius down.

"you're doing so well. just continue until you start to feel better," stone says softly, continuing to do the breathing exercise with him.

“these characters should be mentally healthy before they get together 😌” ummm no I actually think we should smash their mental illnesses together like clumps of play-doh and see what colors it makes

my beautiful manic princess

"these are...." his face scrunches just a touch, as though julius were discomforted by saying the word. how childish. " 'badniks', did you call them?" he stares at the little white droid that's floating, nudging at his hand curiously. julius and ivo were technically the same person albeit different lives & circumstances. so, to the little bad-drone, julius supposed he wasn't considered a threat or a target. he gives it a small pat on the bit he supposes is the top of it's 'head', the motion awkward. hoping that'll sate the thing enough to have it leave him be.

@robotn1k julius is visiting ivo!

⸻ ft. imad stone x julius robotnik ⸻

( "i can't lose you." )

crafted by iggy & marker.

grateful it were just he and sonic again. truthfully, he had only really come to this event because it was sonic that had asked him to. he never would've set foot at one of these shindigs, otherwise.

at sonic's laugh, julius scoffs a breath, "for someone panicked, you certainly kept your cool." naturally, julius thought, and based on sonic's little smirk he seemed to agree.

"yea, well, y'made it pretty easy. nice italian by the way."

"mmn," he hummed, not sure how to respond to that genuine compliment. his scalp itched but he couldn't do anything about that due to this damned wig. "why were you so insistent on dragging me here." he can't help the bluntness to his tone, all of that stimuli from the sounds, smells, let alone the massive crowd, was beginning to irk him more and more as the seconds passed.

amy's eyes were practically sparkling as she listened to ian & sonic's exchange, her attentions rapt on sonic in particular, "wow sonic, you sounded so good!" at that, sonic grinned over at her and flashed a thumbs up, "oh gosh, let's see if i remember any words..." turning to face ian, she smiled up at him and spoke, her cadence slowing down and sounding a tad broken up. "il tuo cappello è bello."

"Oh, grazie."

"that in mind, i'm gonna take ian to grab some grub." sonic didn't want make julius feel more pressured, and that meant getting him away from the trio. especially tails, if anyone of them might start pulling the ruse apart it'd be his little buddy. planning to meet up later, sonic 'ian' and the others all went their separate ways.

it wasn't until they were fully out of earshot and eyesight that sonic started speaking to julius normally again, "whew, i panicked there for a second!" he lets out a softer laugh, "i was torn between italian or russian, but i thought that italian would be the safer bet!"

the playful maybe has julius' gaze narrowing a fraction behind those oval obscuring sunglasses. instead of roman moving to shake his hand, a device is placed in julius' outstretched palm. his fingers curl around it, eyebrow canting upward more as he pulls it closer to himself. hm. he supposed he could find some use for this. really when he'd mentioned it previously, he'd done so offhandedly. hadn't expected roman to actually remember.

pockets the piece of equipment for now, gaze resettling on roman as the other wipes blood off his face with a handkerchief. "worry. i never said i was worried." he scoffs, as if the thought of dead bodies were of any concern to julius. he smiles, in fact, "explain to me how you killed them." he may as well get some satisfaction out of knowing.

cont from (x) @drrobctnik

· 𓂃 ࣪˖🔪 ˖ ࣪𓂂 . "Maybeee~" It's spoken playfully as hands are held behind his back, clearly hiding something. Some equipment he recalls Julius mentioning that Roman had acquired in his recent raid of someone who owed him money. It's small, but he's sure there's more to it, but that's not really something he understood. That's why he found value in befriending someone like Julius, and wanted to keep that. Hence the gesture.

Equipment is held out in offer for the other to take before pulling out handkerchief from pocket to wipe off some of the blood still on his face. "I have people to clean up my messes for me, you don't have to worry about that."

julius had just discovered about his own experimentations; those memories ⸻ of being injected, killing the scientists after he'd lost control ⸻ he had shackled away and compartmentalized. locked and buried deep within, yet always a nagging. a ghost of dreams, thinking them only bad nightmares, horrible intrusive thoughts that couldn't possibly⸻ but they were real. they were memories, and julius was not a human. hadn't been in decades, not since he'd been a young boy.

the rage he'd felt was indescribable. he couldn't stay with G.U.N any longer, knowing now what he did. & so julius sought to leave the base, but not before exacting some revenge. this organization had done nothing but take, take, take from julius. time he returned that favour.

before this though, he sought out agent stone. stone, julius had decided, was not part of the plan. stone was one julius couldn't bring harm to, no matter how annoyed and irritated he may be feeling. so, julius had told stone that they'd be parting ways, and stone was to leave the base. julius made up some small lie about stone being relocated to a different G.U.N base without him. convincing enough, julius decided. that done, he left, headed back to his own quarters.

& didn't exit from his 'room' for the next few days, planning.

of course, missing his duties meant that eventually the G.U.N base supervisor and some of his men were obligated to check in on robotnik. he could hear them now, knocking on the door and demanding that robotnik open the door, before they broke it down. he stood there, memories of those agonies ghosting along his ear.

he could feel it now, so easily: that power swelling within his chest, swirling and building, arcing down his arms and kissing his fingertips with warmth. he gathered that chaos energy into his palms, noting that bright red energy that gathered like a mist initially before transforming into a brighter plasma, a low bubbled laugh rolling out of julius' mouth at the sight. a grin split along his expression ⸻ HE WAS GOING TO ENJOY THIS ⸻, and he moved, hurling that sphere of chaos energy at the door the moment they breached; which caused an explosion to billow outward, engulfing the supervisor and the men behind him, causing the others to be blown off their feet.

alarms began to blare, explosions in another part of the base caused the lights to cut and for the emergency lights to kick in. washing the floor and the walls in a darker red. julius stepped out, over those bodies, barely paying them any mind. until his gaze landed on an unmoving person laying just a bit away from the main group.

stone.

julius stalled, staring. what⸻ he moved, scrambled, dropped to his knees and scooped that limp corpse body into his arms, eyes scanning and roaming stone's face for any signs of life. no, no- "y-you were supposed to leave," the words are hurried, hushed. julius had killed him⸻ NO, NO JULIUS COULDN'T HAVE⸻ NOT HIM

his shoulders twitched, hunching over stone's body, as though protecting him. useless. stupid. worthless. his breathing was quickened, as though gasping for air he couldn't suck in fast enough. he hadn't meant to- he couldn't- please, come back. "i'm sorry, i'm sorry!," the words were barely there, whispered, voice breaking, a choked catch of the last syllables. if he'd felt that energy building before, it was skyrocketing now. his entire body tensed up, a screamed wail of a noise that heightened into a louder angered sound: shrill and echoing and seemingly never-ending.

that energy burst outward, not in an explosion but a burning of fire, that energy arcing around julius' body. through tear-stained face, he watched as stone's body burned away in his arms. ash, slipping through his fingers, scattering along the floor only to blow away from that output of pressure. he had thought he'd lost everything before⸻ didn't realize until it was too late just how much more he had left yet to lose⸻

Julius has appeared! What to do?

Brush off Ask to leave Punish Leave them