It really didn’t.
She’d spent the whole night, or at least as much of it as she could stand, just lying in bed and pretending to sleep. Unfortunately, ‘low-power’ mode hadn’t been nearly as restful as she’d hoped it would be.
It did dull everything a bit and reduce the now ‘hyper’ awareness she had of her surroundings, including things that as a previously organic being she’d never before been aware of (should never have been aware of), radio and wireless frequencies included, but her mind still remained active, far too active, going over everything that had happened to her and, courtesy of her now digitized and ‘defragmented’ memories, indeed much of the rest of her life.
The awareness this brought of everything she had experienced and now was unlikely to ever be able to experience again, at least not in the same way, was devastating. It was nearly overwhelming how deeply her life had been twisted from what it seemed it should be, and there were moments where she wanted to try, just for five minutes, the option to ‘power off’, rather than to continue lying ‘awake’. In the end though, the horror at the thought of just ‘deactivating’, like one of Tails’ devices, was too much for her to stomach, and she decided to just try to put up with her far too active mind instead.
Still, eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore, and when it barely qualified as morning, she decided it was time to ‘wake up’. If anyone questioned her about it, she could just claim that her recent experiences with Dr. Robotnik were making it difficult to sleep (which was, more or less, the truth, though not in a way that anyone was likely to guess). Besides, she knew that, in contrast to herself (or at least her former self), Sonic was anything but an early riser (at least when there wasn’t an adventure on the horizon).
It was odd though when she caught her reflection in the mirror. She looked exactly the same. No bedhead, no tiredness in her 'eyes', her ‘pajamas’ were only as worn as she’d made them before going to ‘sleep’….It just all seemed so fake to her….But the worst part was that she knew she was adapting.
All these ‘flaws’ were being logged, and her internal systems were automatically preparing a number of updates and auxiliary programs to ensure that her ‘fur’ and ‘spines’ would have just the right amount of ‘muss’, that her ‘clothes’ would adjust to the amount of the time they’d been ‘worn’ and other environmental factors (like stains or tears), and altogether that she’d appear every bit the living, organic hedgehog she’d once been, without any need for her equivalent of conscious attention. In other words, she could almost feel herself getting better at lying, at pretending to be something she wasn’t…not anymore.
‘Sighing’ once again, she gave her reflection another look and then adjusted her appearance to look like it usually did in the morning, after her normal preparations, and shifted her ‘clothing’ and ‘accessories’ to look like that of her favorite red dress, headband, shoes and gold bracelets. It was disturbing really….She looked great, and what usually took forty-five minutes and quite a bit of effort (or at least more effort than she would like to admit) had barely taken a second or two.
“...I don’t…I don’t know if I hate this or not….”
That she could look her best, with basically the equivalent of a thought, was hard to wrap her mind around…before she remembered again that…in reality, it was all just metal underneath….
Giving a last conflicted look at her reflection, she paused to ensure that everything she was ‘wearing’ had been placed in her storage device and wouldn’t be left laying around for someone to wonder where she had picked up the ‘extra’ copies, then proceeded out of her room (glad that it had an attached bathroom, which would make her exit, completely ‘prepared’ for the day, more believable). She wasn’t sure exactly what she would do now but she just knew she couldn’t stay in her room pretending to sleep any longer.
Walking out into the hallway, she noticed the door to one of Tails’ workshops was open with the light on. She ‘sighed’ again. She shouldn’t be so surprised really. She knew Tails was often up late or early, or, not infrequently, entirely went without sleep whenever he really got into one of his projects. Still, it was a terrible practice for a boy who was still growing like him, and she knew that Sonic frequently tried to get him to adopt better habits, often enlisting her help. She smiled thinking of all the times she’d been called in to ‘persuade’ her two-tailed friend to get to bed (her hammer may or may not have been involved in that on some occasions).
“Ah, Amy!!….Uhm…it’s not what it looks like….”
The young fox trailed off guiltily, now having finally noticed her after she had decided she might as well just wander into his workshop and see what he was up to. For the moment, she only felt like giving him an amused smile rather than one of the lectures she’d previously been more likely to offer. There was just something so comforting about seeing Tails being Tails.
“It’s fine, Tails. I was having trouble sleeping too.”
She realized that had probably been the wrong thing to say when his expression fell and his look of guilt began to deepen (though obviously for another reason now). Deciding she needed to head that off, she tried to turn his attention back to something more positive:
“Anyways, what are you working on?”
He gave her another worried look before glancing back down at the only partially assembled (or disassembled, with Tails, it could be either) devices in front of him, his earlier expression of worry and guilt beginning to fade away.
“Well, it's a new idea for a communicator. I’ve been trying to use micro-sized Chaos reactors to develop something that has a much further range and is less susceptible to outside interference. Anyways, I’m having trouble figuring out the right frequency to make it work. I’m almost certain it has to be between 1.6 and 1.8 chz, but that still leaves so many possibilities that it could take awhile to produce working prototypes.”
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Amy was happy to see that all his prior concern seemed to be gone now as he spoke about his latest project, his enthusiasm becoming infectious. In fact, she was so pleased to see him looking happy again and to be talking about something that didn’t relate to her recent kidnapping that she didn’t even give much thought to her next words.
“...Well, how about you try 1.7865 chz? It should be well within the reactors’ capacities and will likely function well with the alloys it looks like you plan on using. That frequency should also avoid the problem of receiving interference from the typical ambient level of Chaos energy in the atmosphere and most other Chaos powered devices.”
After she had finished saying this, they both sort of froze.
“What...what did I just say?….”
It had seemed so ‘normal’, just a helpful observation she could give a friend regarding a problem he was clearly having trouble with…and yet now what she had just so casually uttered was filling her with horror….
“I…I…No…No!!….There is no way that ‘Amy’ could make that kind of observation, that she’d know anything about that kind of stuff.”
Only, it had seemed so natural to her, something so well within her knowledge that she hadn’t initially thought twice about commenting. Meanwhile, Tails seemed to remain frozen (she’d have to review her logs, but it looked like he hadn’t even blinked), and she was bracing herself to hear the inevitable shout of ‘imposter’, now that she’d just gone and done something that seemed like it would be impossible to explain away.
However, when she was beginning to wonder if she should just flee from the room, Tails ‘unfroze’ with one of the biggest and most excited smiles she had ever seen on him.
“I think that’s exactly it, Amy!!”
He turned swiftly to one of his nearby computers and began hurriedly running simulations and adjusting designs. Amy, meanwhile, was having trouble figuring out just what had happened and why she wasn’t be denounced as a ‘fake’ by one of her closest friends, someone she considered like a ‘little brother’ to her.
“That’s…that it?! He’s just happy I figured it out?”
“Thanks so much, Amy!! This is going to save me weeks of effort. I might even have the prototypes ready in just a few days now.”
“I guess that’s...that’s just it then….Uhm, okay?”
“I can’t believe I missed something so obvious though. Of course, it was going to be 1.7865 chz. How could it be anything else? Really, thanks for pointing out how stupid I was being….And, all of the unnecessary tests I was thinking of to find a working frequency through successive iterations….Maybe I really do need to get some more sleep if I just missed something simple like that….”
And with these equally grateful and self-deprecating comments, the fox dived back into his work with renewed enthusiasm.
“Oh…I get it now….Though if anyone else had been around….”
Though he had been getting better over the years, there were some ways in which Tails was just ‘too’ smart for his own good. He, very easily and with only limited awareness of this fact, fell into the habit of speaking in ways that were far too scientifically advanced for almost any other person to keep up with (as his friends, they had gotten used to it and just learned to listen along politely). This being the case, what Tails considered ‘normal’ and ‘obvious’ would not be so for the majority of the planet (at least when it came to his areas of interest). So, it looked like she had been saved by the fact that, from Tails’ perspective (and, oddly enough, now from her own), the comments she'd made were almost a ‘simple’ observation about an easy and clearly overlooked solution to his technological problem.
“I….This is so weird…but, uhm, I guess I’m glad he’s happy.”
Relieved she’d somehow avoided disaster due to her earlier slip, she decided to just watch Tails work for a while. It was again comforting…though she had to restrain herself from occasionally commenting on potential optimizations Tails could make to his simulations or the revised versions of the new communicator designs he was working on (which seemed like it would definitely be pushing her luck too far)...or from freaking out that she was actually following along and even surprisingly interested in all of this….
About two hours later, Tails hit a command to save his latest changes, stretched, and turned from his workstation, only to do a double-take.
“Oh, wow, Amy, I didn’t think you were still there. Sorry about ignoring you like that.”
Amy just gave him a smile.
“It’s no problem, Tails. I was glad I could help you with that problem, and it was nice just to be here while you worked.”
And, really, it was. The fox’s innocent enthusiasm was soothing, even healing to her. He looked a bit embarrassed in return.
“Ah, okay, then. I’m glad that it was interesting for you too…but I guess it really is time to take a break.”
He looked at the clock, appearing a bit surprised. “I have been here awhile, haven’t I?”
Amy shook her head and gave a laugh in return.
“A bit.”
He rubbed his head, embarrassed once more.
“Well, definitely time for breakfast, I think. You probably haven’t eaten yet? Sorry if I kept you from making breakfast for yourself.”
Amy felt something within herself sink.
“Ah, no, I haven’t eaten yet…” “And likely never will again…,” she thought but didn’t say. “But, definitely…we…should have something….I’ll…ah…cook.”
Really, as much as the situation regarding her inability to truly eat again was depressing her, she didn’t want to take any chance of denying the young fox a nutritious breakfast. Half the reason she came over to their residence as frequently as she did was to ensure that Tails was eating right and otherwise taking proper care of himself…and the other half…well….
“Thanks, Amy, your cooking is the best!!!”
With that, the fox ran off to clean up, something both she and Sonic had drilled into him was a necessity before meals. Nervously, she made her way into their kitchen, realizing she hadn’t actually cooked since…it happened. Would she still be able to?