I, NICOLE

Tangent · 2026-02-06T15:00:41+00:00

After reading Alternated Current, a Surge SI fic by Small Nerd over on Sufficient Velicity, which was apparently inspired by Subject: Rally the Chipmunk, I reached a chapter where Surge met analogues of herself from other Zones. One who isekai'd as Sticks the Badger in a literal Sonic Boom zone, goofy logic and all, and one as Nicole the Digital Lynx set in a version of SatAM/Archie Mobius. And was sad to find out that it wasn't actually a story of its own. So I decided to write this: I, NICOLE Yet another amalgamated mind SI fic by Tangent! In which I infect Nicole the Digital Lynx! Oh, and give Sally and Rotor issues of their own… O o O o O I woke up a few days ago, as Nicole in Princess Sally Alicia Acorn's body of all things. It was an overall overwhelming experience, as the Nicole part of me was experiencing biological life for the very first time, the Sally part of me was freaking out that she had Nicole, Rotor, and some Outsider in her head, the Rotor part of me pondered if the power surge through the Power Ring that caused the swap was the reason for what was going on, and the Outsider part of me just engaged in the old standby of repressing everything until the situation could be properly processed. So, overall, I think I basically ended up just repeating everything that Nicole had done while Sally and I were swapped. Which basically amounted to wandering off while Rotor and Sally figured out what was going on and making a general fool of myself as I took in the sights, sounds, and scents of the Village of Knothole for the very first time and marveled about the joys of having limbs and boobs and the ability to actually feel emotions like Sally's love for Sonic instead of just simulating them… Of course, the rude part was suddenly swapping back as the Power Ring discharge wore off of us. Except Sally is back to normal, Rotor seems unaffected, and me? I'm somehow an amalgamated merger of four individual sets of experiences into a single cohesive whole. I'm just calling myself Nicole because that's whose role I ended up in. Not that I'm pretending or anything, as I am Nicole. It's just that I'm also Sally, Rotor, and the Outsider as well. As a single ego, thank the Walkers. That council of egos thing or fighting for dominance sound like they both would have sucked. I try not to think about why or how I can suddenly project an image of myself outside my handheld, or how experiencing the world via this projected image even works. I do know that i have to stay relatively close to my handheld or I just sort of can't go any further, but my outermost range seems to be pretty soft. It is a bit annoying that it's further than the outermost range of whatever outfit I choose to manifest on myself though, because I can be walking along and then suddenly be Nicole the Inexplicably Naked Digital Lynx for no adequately explainable reason. I mean, Walkers, WHY!? Aren't my "clothes" literally a part of me!? Why do they disappear if I go too far from my device!? How can I even project myself anyway? My handheld does not have any holographic emitters! I just decide to leave my device and suddenly I'm there instead of in my handheld! THAT'S NOT HOW PHYSICS WORKS! I literally should not be able to do some of the things I am currently capable of. They are not in my specs. I should know. I checked. Quite thoroughly. I can do them anyway. I can also, apparently, experience headaches now. Fuck my life… I vaguely remember that I'm supposed to be able to manifest physically, at least on a temporary basis, and decide that maybe some nice cool night air might be just the thing to sooth my pounding temples. Deciding to just go for it, I focus on what may as well be called my sparkly magic bullshit powers and manifest in the material world as a material girl, where the material desk that my handheld is on promptly reminds me that I forgot to give myself Dark Vision. FUCK! O o O o O Sally woke up with the sharp, cold clarity of a seasoned scout. A heavy thud had echoed through the room, followed by the unmistakable groan of wood sliding against wood. She didn't move a muscle at first, her eyes scanning the darkness from beneath lowered lashes. In the corner of the room, near her desk, a figure was silhouetted against the moonlight. It was distinctly a female cat-type Mobian with lynx features, hunched over, clutching the edge of the desk as if in pain, and whispering vague epithets that Sally could barely hear.. An infiltration. "Who's there?" Sally demanded, her voice low and dangerous as she finally sat up. The figure let out a sharp, startled gasp. She didn't answer. Instead, she pivoted and bolted for the door, her feet hitting the floorboards with the heavy, rhythmic thumping of someone in a blind panic. "Wait!" Sally yelled, swinging her legs out of bed. The intruder fumbled with the handle, yanked the door open with a violent clack, and vanished into the corridor. Sally didn't hesitate. She didn't even stop for her boots or vest, only pausing just barely long enough to make sure that Nicole's handheld was still safely on her desk. She sprinted after the stranger, her bare feet silent on the stone as she followed the sound of frantic running. The chase led out of the residential wing and into the cool night air of Knothole. Sally pushed herself, her pace optimized by a sudden, intuitive understanding of her own stride and momentum—a gift from the swap she hadn't quite processed yet. She rounded the final thicket of trees just as the figure reached the edge of the village pond. The stranger stopped at the water's edge, trembling, its form flickering violently. The moonlight hit the figure's face—wide eyes, tufted ears, and a look of absolute, soul-deep humiliation. "End of the line," Sally panted, stopping a few paces back, her posture tense and ready for a fight. "Who are you? How did you get past the perimeter?" The lynx girl looked down at her own hands, then back at Sally. She looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her whole. "I... I forgot that I couldn't see in the dark," the girl said. The voice hit Sally like a physical blow. It was the same melodic, slightly modulated tone that had lived inside her handheld for years, but it was weighted with a very real, very organic frustration. Sally's jaw dropped. The combat-ready tension left her shoulders all at once, replaced by a staggering sense of disbelief. "Nicole? Is that... is that you?" O o O o O "Yeah, it's me," I sighed as I gestured wildly at the air around me. "I just needed to actually feel the night air on my face and tried manifesting physically instead of just the light form I had been practicing with. Only I forgot to give myself the low-light vision this body should have and your desk rudely reminded me that it was a physical object too. I didn't plan on the desk having a corner, or the hallway being so long, or... or any of this!" I looked down at the grass beneath my feet, which was very clearly being flattened by my actual, physical weight. "Sally, I checked the specs," I said, my voice dropping into a miserable whisper. "There are no emitters. My handheld is sitting on your nightstand, and I am standing by a pond with several walls between me and my device! This isn't how physics works. None of this is how anything works!" Sally took a tentative step forward. She wasn't scanning for emitters or checking for a projector; she was staring at her friend's tear-streaked and hyperventilating face for the first time. "Nicole," Sally breathed, a small, amazed smile breaking through her confusion. She reached out and touched my shoulder. Her hand met resistance. It met soft, warm fur. "You're... you're real. You're actually here." "I'm a disaster, Sally," I groaned, covering my face with my hands. "I chose to be a lynx because it felt right, but I forgot to give myself night vision! I chose to be a cat-type, and I can barely stand without feeling like I'm about to fall over! This isn't like when we swapped at all!" "You seemed to have run pretty well for someone who claims they can barely stand upright," Sally chided. "I PANICKED!" I exclaim, my voice full of shame. "What kind of person hears their best friend's voice call out and just runs away!?" I slumped down to my knees and tried to get a hold of myself as I made some minor adjust… "GAHH" I cried out as white-hot pain seared across my eyes! "WHY IS EVERYTHING SO FUCKING BRIGHT! OH, WALKERS THAT HURTS!" I immediately turn down the light sensitivity in my vision and the pain recedes, but the spots linger. Why did I want to be physical again?

Created: Feb 6, 2026

Status: Incomplete

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After a Power Ring discharge causes a temporary "Freaky Friday" swap between Princess Sally and her handheld AI, Nicole wakes up... different. She's no longer just a digital lynx; she's an amalgamated consciousness merged with an interdimensional Outsider and the lingering echoes of Sally and Rotor.

Gifted with the ability to physically manifest in ways that defy every law of physics in her database, Nicole must navigate her new "sparkly magical nonsense" while carrying knowledge she has no plausible way to explain.

But the biggest shock isn't her new body—it's the world around her. Sally and Rotor have gained a new gift of perspective that they don't even realize they're using, and the ripples of their new-found pragmatism are already dismantling the status quo of Mobius.

Can Nicole figure out the ins and outs of biological existence before her friends accidentally solve every geopolitical crisis on the planet without her?

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Tangent

Not too sore, are you?

Friday at 3:08 AM

#48

I, Nicole Designs
Nicole set 1

Originally designed and built by Dr. Ellidey as a desperate attempt to preserve his dying daughter's life by uploading her mind into the digital realm.

After the original Nicole Ellidey died of N.I.D.S. (Neural Immune Deficiency Syndrome),* and Nicole 2.0 failed to awaken as a fully self-aware digital entity inside the device he had crafted, Dr. Ellidey could not bear to keep the reminder of his failure, but neither could he bear to destroy it. So he gave it to the young Princess Sally, who ironically enough named the device Nicole and treated it as an imaginary friend.

This device bore the imprint of the wish of a desperate father for years until a power surge involving a Power Ring induced temporary swap with Princess Sally (now in her mid-teens) finally awakened Nicole as a fully self-aware AI.

*Nicole Ellidey's specific illness was never explicitly identified in canon, but that's what I'm going with as being canon to I, Nicole.

nicole_the_hololynx___i__nicole_by_tangent_rambles_dm6ive8-fullview.jpg

Visually, there's not much difference between the Nicole of I, Nicole and the Nicole of Archie Sonic canon other than this one preferring blues over purples...