A meet-up at the park.

The beginning of Autumn's golden and amber bloom on Mobius had started making it's rounds. Leaves had begun turning yellow and orange and littering the ground beneath. Tails enjoyed the Autumn and Winter seasons especially. It was when his coat began to get more fluffy and thick as well as cooler weather generally meant it easier to do outside activities such as work on the Tornado and other crafts of his. There was also the remembrance and appreciation of the warmth of the sun and fire that would wash over many Mobians after a snowy night. Yes, to Tails the signal that fall had came was the heralding call of possibly his favorite times of the year.

Though he begrudgingly did not spend much days outdoors recently. Eggman's little escapade and take over of the planet had left a lot of clean-up and repairs to be done as well as exposing blatant flaws and holes in many security systems around the world. While Tails was happy to lend a very kind and helping hand to those who were in desperate and in need his time on the emergency aid and rescue would be brief as many governments and corporations were far more concerned with getting their status quo met and back on track. Of course these were the types of people and employers who understood the need for...recompense and paid him wealthy for sometimes what would otherwise be a simple security software update and re-patching lost and corrupted data. Whether the exorbitant prices were there because Tails was one of the few individuals who could work on these large scale operations or if it was hush money for what is essentially him logging into their most secure servers and jumping through various classified data that he was sure he wasn't supposed to see was not something he really concerned himself with. He understood the need for secrecy just as much as they did.

To be fair in his own mind though. Tails didn't like the idea of spending days in and days out simply writing and working code just to repair some mega-corporation's mainframe or so some local government can feign that it had it's populace best interest in mind. This was mostly so that he could reroute the funds to go to the most important places, hospitals and aid support groups that needed food, supplies and shelters to continue the restoration of the world. He figured that if his employers weren't already willing to give this kind of money to them then they had no intentions of doing so.

Tails was in the middle of briefly combing through a server's mainframe attempting to figure out why the software wouldn't update properly after his fifth attempt at trying to remotely do it over his computer. A detail caught his eye near the bottom of the info dump that he had neglected to see the first five times.
"Operating System Funix ver1.029 1993"

Tails threw his hands off the table in dismay and defeat and sank into his chair.
"Really now, you'd think G.U.N. would at least have the decency to upgrade their damn servers at least once a decade. I'm pretty sure Eggman's grandpa was still alive when this thing was installed jeez." Tails said annoyed. He rubbed his eyes and looked over to his clock which said it was 6:37PM.

Tails began signing out of various logins and mainframes on his computer and closing tabs.
"I'm just going to send them an email telling them they need to upgrade their physical hardware and servers, there's nothing I can do about this none of my equipment is compatible with something from the prehistoric era." Tails though to himself as he had logged out of the last secure gateway he was in and opened up his email.
"Besides..." he glanced over to his closed window and opened it to see the sun had began to shine an orange aura, signalling sunset was approaching. "I need some fresh air and sunlight I haven't had a break in over a week."

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Tails had decided to walk to a nearby park settled between two lakes. The sun had just started to set and started shining bright orange and yellow rays across the sky and lake lighting up the whole area with an orange tint. Tails found a nice hammock with a wooden bench to sit under and took out his meal that he had brought with him, a simple turkey sub with lettuce and tomatoes, and began eating it while admiring the enviorment around him.

A few children and their mothers were at the playground swinging and two of them seemed to be playing tag their childish laughs echoed through the area with a delightful ring and a few flickies had decided to nestle down by the bank of one the lakes and chirp and dance together. Further off into the lake that Tails was facing was a few Chao dancing and gliding soundlessly across the water, Tails thought for a moment on what they could be doing but had decided it was most likely them chasing the fish. Tails rested his head in his pawlms and let himself really breathe in the fresh aroma of the autumn breeze.

He often wondered why there were beings and people out there that hated these things. He had figured that maybe people like Eggman had just lost themselves in their own machinery, never taking it the simple qualities of life that can be so easy to enjoy once noticed. Tails had skirted past that mindset once before. It took Sonic literally dragging him out by the tails and go on a field day adventure to reset his mind after cramping himself inside his shack for about 2 weeks.

Just before he had caught himself daydreaming a girl's voice had interrupted his inner dialogue.
"Excuse me, do you mind if I sit here too?" queried the voice behind him.

Tails strengthen back out. A bit started from the seemingly sudden interruption.
"Oh yea, sure go ahead. It's not like I own this place." Tails said as he turned around to look at the girl.

She was a vixen with red velvet fur on a majority of her body but with seemingly a cream colored coat stretching from the bottom of her snout to what he had to assume was most of her torso like his. Her slightly slanted and violet eyes glistened off of the reflection of the light that skirted off the lake and shone in the pavilion and she had long, pushed back silky hair. The most notable thing he noticed about her was that she was wearing oriental clothing. A purple and seemingly plain purple kimono that fell down almost completely to the ground but hovered just a few inches from it exposing the top of her feet the bottom of which was wearing with sandals. She looked extremely beautiful and charming but he wasn't sure if that was because of the lighting, the fact that he liked red fur or his age.
Possibly a combination of all three.

She suddenly started giggling to herself. Tails quirked his ear to the side asking the question in and of itself before he realized that he'd probably just be staring at her with a big stupid smile on his face for the past minute. His ears jolted up at the realization and he tried to repair his first impression.

"Ahhh, uh. Sorry I couldn't quite see your face clearly. The glare of the sun made it hard." Tails said as he quickly turned around and began munching on his sub again.

He heard her move to his left a bit before saying "Do you mind scooting a bit more to the right I'd like some more space."
He slide himself to the edge and silently noted down in his head that he was going to break a wall with his face when he got home for being so rude and embarrassing.

The vixen took out a white box several inches big and some chop sticks. When she opened it Tails could see that it was sushi with some spices and sauces arranged on the side. For a while Tails sat and tried to refocus on the view and atmosphere like he had previously while he finished off his meal. He had thought of striking up a conversation with her for a bit but had decided that this felt more natural and friendly. Just two foxes enjoying the view and peace of what Mobius had to offer.

After Tails had finished his sub he had decided he'd strike up something to her if only because he didn't want to leave and felt comfortable.
"Sooo, I see you're not from around here. You seem like you're from Chun-nan." Tails said, attempting to make small talk.

"Mmm hmm." The vixen muttered, her mouth was full and she put her index as she chewed and swallowed.
"I'm a monk-in-training from a village in Chun-nan called Nin-jing. I'm currently on my pilgrimage." She answered while turning her face and attention towards him.

"Oh wow. Sorry but I've never really heard of that village but then again I haven't really visited the country too much." Tails responded.
He lifted an open hand to her, "The name's Miles Prower by the way but everyone just cause me 'Tails' because of my tails." She took his hand gently and shook it with a closed eye smile and bowed a bit. "My full name is Li-na Yue-lang but you can just call me Li-Moon as we often don't say our full names in my culture." Li-moon answered back.

As Tails pulled his hand back he said, "That's a pretty name. I like it. I live around here and you seemed new. So what brings you all the way over here from your home?"
"Oh, I'm on a pilgrimage. You see some people where I live are born with some degree of chaos abilities. We can sense and sometimes even manipulate the innate chaos in ourselves and if someone is very strong they can even influence other's inner Chaos. Those who are found with these abilities at an early age are trained to be monks and sages of peace and use our abilities to heal wounds and enhance health." Li-moon answered almost proudly.

"Ah, so you're one of those on-field medics that were able to keep a lot of people from suffering permanent movement and sensory loss during the battles right?" Tails queried.
Li-moon tilted her head side to side, "Mmm not exactly, I'm not skilled enough to heal major and important wounds like that and secondly our abilities are very limited because only the most skilled masters can use chaos outside of their own body. In reality if I were to try to do that right now I'd either hurt myself greatly or I'd fix the wound only to cause damage on some other part of their body." She answered carefully, it looked like she was still trying to find the words in his language to speak properly.

"You're very good at Acornisium, you've must be very bright to learn so much in what must be a small time." Tails complimented.
"Oh we learn Acornisium and our own language at the same time. What I'd like to learn is who are you." She replied with a smirk.

Tails swung his hand to the back of his head and scratched it, one of his many nervous ticks. "Oh I'm just a computer and mechanical engineer! Nothing special hahaha!" He said pretty bluntly and loudly.
Li-moon tilted her head and cocked an eye and ear "JUST an engineer?" she asked almost mockingly.
"Ahhh, I just fix a lot of broken and old stuff that other people don't want to fix it's nothing TOO special." He replied.

Li-moon giggled to herself again and turned her attention to the lake again. "It's so pretty isn't it?" She said in somber voice.
"Yea, it's why I like this park so much." Tails replied redirecting his attention as well. The sun had mostly sunk beneath the horizon and only a third of it was still peaking above it the sky had gone from orange to purple with dark blue approaching from behind it, grasping the sky for the night to soon own. Most of the children were gone and there was a singular mother left grabbing her child by the arm insisting that they go home and get to bed soon. The flickies had stopped dancing and retreated back to their nests and the Chao had all started to gather around the lake and sleep in the protective energy balls they formed around eachother. A breeze swept up form behind them that had a peculiar chill to it furthering the coming of night.

Tails asked, "How long have you been away from home? Do you miss your family?"
Li-moon replied almost cheerfully, "I do get kind of homesick sometimes. But honestly I enjoy exploring the world I get to see so many people and so many sights like this and while I miss my family I know I'll see them again within a few months and that they can take care of themselves far better than I can with myself." She giggled again.
"Yea, I bet. It's hard growing up and having to figure out things for yourself." Tails replied and chuckled with her.
"Oh, do you live away from your parents?" She asked.
"Ahh, I'd rather not talk about it now." Tails dodged the question with ease that only comes from repetition. "So why are you even on this journey?"
Li Moon took a moment to ponder what to say. "I've gotten many reasons. My mother says it's so I experience how everything in the world works together and that'll help me in my training. My father says it's so I can go around and see the suffering and pain of others and how different it can be and to learn how to help people. With the war that went on recently with Eggman he said it was a prime opportunity to do exactly that. But..." she paused for a moment and they both looked as the sun finally sunk fully over the horizon and the sky turned into a deep and dark blue where stars began to twinkle into existence.

Li-moon took a deep breath and said, "I think this is why I think we have our pilgrimage. To explore the world and find out what makes it so fantastic. People often say that moving is like de-rooting a tree. But we're not trees, we have legs and hands and eyes and minds. I'm glad I got to set out to see the world like this. To see it's beauty even after destruction and to see how Mother Mobius and her children reap and repair themselves after tragedy. I think that if people stay confined to one area for too long they begin to shrink their world down and if they do that then they shrink their mind and view and soon you just have a person who acts like a tree. It wants nothing to do with change or people because change is a threat and people take up more room in your small world."
Tails sat silent for a moment flipping through what she said. Although her choice words were obviously limited he understood and agreed with the sentiment. Maybe if Eggman didn't always lock himself up in a tower full of mindless robots, maybe he wouldn't hate everyone so much and maybe he wouldn't want to enslave everyone.

Tails helped himself up off the bench and almost stumbled from the weakness in his legs. He glanced at his pad quickly and saw that almost an entire hour and a half passed since he deiced to come here. He guessed it was because he lost track of time eating and daydreaming. He reached out a hand to Li-moon but she had already picked herself up. He quickly "corrected" his movement and acted like he was scratching his shoulder. Li-moon noticed the obvious ploy and giggled again.
"You're sweet Tails but I can help myself" she smiled at him.
"Ah haha, well I was raised to treat ladies with respect." He blushed and scratched his head again.
"Chivalry is always a good thing for a man to have." Li-moon looked up at the stars. "I believe it's time for both of us to go home. I hope we can talk again sometime Tails." She bowed again and made her way back from where Tails thought she came from. Tails was about to make his separate path before a thought occurred to him.

"Hey Li-moon" He called out to her. She turned and flicked her tail acknowledging him. "Do you have money and a place to stay? You can crash at my place if you want." He said.
Li-moon audibly laughed this time. "Now, now. Don't you think it's a bit too early to invite me over to your house alone together?" She winked at him and laughed again when both his ears and tails fell flat in embarrassment. "I appreciate the offer but my parents have money to spare for my lodgings." She assured him. She bowed again and Tails waved at her meekly before she made one last giggle and made her way home. Tails followed her example and did the same.

"I mean, that wasn't what I was going for but I definitely wouldn't mind that." he thought to himself as the street lamps ahead of him marked the sidewalk path to his home.


Author notes:
This took longer than I wanted it too even though it was off hand writing.
Personally I don't like my word choices in some areas and honestly I need to expand my vocabulary again.
Any and all criticism I want to hear even if it's just purely negative like "Y NO SEX" some feedback is better than nothing.

T. NaT (May is best Guilty Gear girl.)