--------------
FORMAT
---------------
Concerning the story, it is primarily a comedy, and as such should be taken with a grain of salt. Even supposedly dramatic things are mainly there to be sappy and humorous in their own right, which is in a bit of a contrast to Aboard the ARK, where serious moments do from time to time spring up. It is written in script format, which, as Shakespeare has proven, is the lowest form of literature, completely without redemption or any serious thought put into it, and thus should be hated on sight. The story is free flowing, so to speak, and is pretty much on a continuous thread throughout the episode, rather than a scene format. Admittedly, so much action without breaks can be a bit of an overload, so it's not reccomended to begin reading a chapter unless you have plenty of time.

--------------
PLOT
---------------
The plot was given a vague idea in the first episode, but I don't think I solidified it enough. Basically, in this universe (I'll get to that in a moment), Eggman does have a big following, including humans, robots, and other species. However, the EE has apparently gone into a long period of inactivity, which has caused many of its followers to desert. The reason for this is lack of funding, and so the EE plans to start a TV show to begin its revival (by luring people back to it and increasing funding), and eventual attempt at a takeover of Earth.

--------------
TIMELINE
---------------
The timeline in which this story takes place is slightly deviated from Sega. It happens some time after Sonic Adventure 2, and this world has never seen events like those depicted in Sonic Heroes. The events depicted in the games happened... roughly. I do go into what happened during the games at some points (such as the origins of this fanfic's Shadow, as revealed in episode 2), which provide some insight. The games didn't go EXACTLY like the originals, due to the differences in character, but the main events occured. But in addition to that, there was an EXTREME deviation in the game timeline, which I may go into at some point, wherein Eggman met the characters from OVA, including Sera, and managed to get her to be his girlfriend. At this time, he also gained many followers to his Empire, a good deal by choice, but even more when he conquerred a city (which he mainly uses for the audience of his show). In addition, several other fictional universes have occured, including Star Wars, Mario, Excel Saga, and several others which have not yet been mentioned.

--------------
SETTING
---------------
The main setting is Eggman Land, Eggman's capital city of his empire. This city, as mentioned in episode 2, was built over the desert in Sonic Adventure 2. In particular, Eggman's old pyramid base was demolished to make room for the TV studio. The city does NOT resemble the desert at all, as Eggman has totally changed the landscape. The city itself is highly industrialized, with several tall buildings and cement everywhere. There is a lake, and several places where grass can be seen, but largely it is comprised of cement and metal. There are giant golden Eggman statues and other touches you may expect in an Eggman-based city. If you've seen the Sonic OVA, think the Eggman Land from that mixed with Stardust Speedway, and just a slight touch of Station Square (only with a lake instead of an ocean). Other than that, this is set in Sega Sonic world (Earth), but with many other dimensions and worlds in reach (again, I may go into this at some point).

--------------
CHARACTERS
---------------
And now I get to what is probably the most confusing part of SESS; the characters. While in-jokes abound in the fanfic, the most glaring and detracting of these are the characters, many of which have not even been seen on EE, and only existed in planning and betas beforehand. What I present now is by no means a comprehensive list of all characters in this universe, but, as I said, if need be, I shall update this. This will be the largest section of the guide, but also the most useful, and may even come in handy for later EE projects. (I'm going to do this section at least in character, more or less. Ishnt, 'Mental, Inferno, Aqua, and MS2 are all based off of real people and their author characters. I will not go too greatly into the description of official characters, as you can find pictures of them elsewhere.)

Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik: The star of this show, Eggman is the ruler of an empire, and with an IQ of 300. It seems that he deviates greatly from his game personality here, but some of that may be simple window-dressing to throw people off, whereas other parts of it may be a genuine increase in insanity. It's clear that he's still very evil and intellegent, though his apparent lack of common sense can obscure this fact from time to time. As a side-note, he's a native Japanese in this fanfic, and has merely managed to phase out his accent to a great deal of success. In times of great distress, however, he slips into his native language/accent/pronounciation (see episode 1). On that note, he is incredibly knowledgable in foreign languages, and can speak many of them perfectly. In actuality, he is much younger than he looks, although he has yet to reveal an exact age.

Sonic the Hedgehog: There's not much to note here, as he's fairly accurate to his Sega form. He has a slightly more friendly relationship with Eggman than in Sega, but they are still deadly enemies. He's also slightly less antsy and more relaxed, and is more receptive of Amy's advances (though he hasn't mentioned much about that yet). In general, he spends less time alone than his Sega counterpart, but other than that, it's the hedgehog you all know and love (or hate, or like, or dislike, or are indifferent to, or whatever other wide array of feelings you may have for him. Yeah, you fangirls. That's really really weird.).

Ishntknew: It's me! I'm a Badnik, a robot in Eggman's army. I tend to help Eggman to manage things, and suggest ideas to him often. I'm also a member of the crew on the show. I'm a humanoid robot with a male design, who, apart from having really big eyes and pointed fingers that connect obviously to the hand, is nearly indistinguishable from a human. Brown, messy hair, blue jacket, red shirt with a grey Eggman logo (you see the logos in the SA era games from time to time, on Eggman's creations), ordinary blue jeans, and white tennis shoes. Obviously designed with infiltration in mind. My arms can transform into cannons which can fire plasma blasts, and can also contain a beam saber. My logic and common sense are more apparent than Eggman's, which is helpful whenever anything may go wrong, but I am quick to respond to anger.

Shadow the Hedgehog: OK, first of all, let it be known that this is NOT THE SAME CHARACTER as the one in Sonic Adventure 2. He has the same design and name, but other than that, brand new character. This Shadow is random as all get-out, and rivals Eggman as the most illogical character in this fanfic. He came into being from a slightly messed up cloning experiment, which is mentioned in episode 2. I'll mention here, as it is unclear in the fanfic itself, that this experiment WAS in fact done by this universe's Eggman, despite the speculation of the characters. He is rather fun-loving and a bit of a jokester (occasionally in puns), and has none of the original Shadow's memories. He rarely lets things get him down. In spite of his random and illogical nature, he is in actuality fairly intellegent, and a skillful fighter.

Sera: The daughter of the president from Sonic OVA. She mostly looks human, except for a tail and cat ears (which may or may not be a ribbon). In addition to these traits, she has cat-like mannerisms, as seen in episode 1. She is Eggman's girlfriend, and unofficially works on the show, although she has a few of her own projects which she works on, and for that reason, may show up at unpredictable times. She's slightly more pleasant than her OVA personality, being that she's not usually angry with Eggman, and she is slightly more subtle in her manipulation of others. Her adjustment to a life of villainy has been a bit of an odd process with debatable success, but she is always willing to help out Eggman whenever she can.

Elemental ('Mental): My girlfriend! She was found in a secret GUN research lab, on the return from a certain mission against Sonic. Although she was an ordinary human once, GUN had altered her body to a great extent. Her hair is now metal, along with her left hand, and she has enhanced control over Chaos Energies. She was found in cryogenic suspension, but her vital signs were not only fine, but in fact doing extraordinarily well, and was awakened with no troubles. However, the one drawback is that she had amnesia, and was unable to tell us much about herself. Reports from GUN about her were labelled "Project: Elemental", hence the origin of her name. Her silver hair is notably reflective, and can quickly be identified as metallic, though her hand seems to be quite less shiny. She usually wears a simple black outfit, which has an ordinary shirt, pants, and shoes. The Chaos Energy in her body is so high that, when awake, she is recognized by radars as a Chaos Emerald. This is likely due to GUN's experimentation. Normally kind, she is not very quick to an over-emotional response to anything, and usually keeps cool. Though not as much so as Shadow, she can be random, but is usually on-topic while doing so. This can come in useful when a distraction is needed (episode 2).

Inferno Boo: Cousin of none other than Bowser Koopa, Inferno came from the Mushroom Kingdom to assist the Eggman Empire, after his home had been destroyed by Sonic. He was once a Koopa known as Pyro, but had earlier gotten the Magikoopa Kamek to transform him into a Boo. He retained some of his Koopa characteristics, including shell and horns. Aside from his trademark Giant Generic Mallet of Doom, he has a good deal of proficiency with bombs. He is extremely quick to anger, and even when feeling fine, he is never afraid to speak his mind. His favorite drink is Pepsi Blue, and, while this may not seem like something of note, he has been known to show a fanatical devotion to Pepsi products, to the extent that this is actually of note.

Mecha Sonic 2 (MS2): Not exactly one of Eggman's "creations", so to speak... She is, in fact, an ordinary (in the sense that Sonic is ordinary) hedgehog who was modified by Eggman into a robot slave. Except the "slave" part didn't work out entirely well, as she maintained free will, and her own personality. In spite of this, she is still a loyal member of the EE, mainly because it means she gets to be around Metal Sonic and RK (an acronym meaning Robo Knuckles, though his true name is Metal Knuckles, from Sonic R). The transformation to robot left absolutely no organic components, so it would be inaccurate to call her a "cyborg". Her quills are shining metallic blue, and here eyes black, with red LED lights, and she has a grey muzzle. Her arms, legs, and stomach are grey, with her forearms and legs from the knee down both being covered by complex yellow casings with panels and lights. Her hands are much like Metal Sonic's, and her feet resemble Sonic's shoes a great deal. The rest of her body is yellow. While a bit cynical, she's generally warm to her friends. She can be blunt, but not in a hurtful way so much as straightforward to an extent that it just seems notable. Generally, she is well liked by the members of EE, although RK gets annoyed by her obsession over him. She chose the prefix "Mecha" rather than "Metal" simply because she thought it sounded more girlish.

Kurakusan: A crazy demon from another universe. He's large, purple, has black hair, and wears much elaborate armor. In addition, his eyes glow red and he has horns. There's not much I can say about him here for various reasons, but he seems to find great joy in causing pain to others. He comes from one of Egga's series of videogames, but said series has not gotten to a point of completion that you will know much about him. Despite his being an incredibly powerful demon of destruction and chaos, he still lives with his mother and brother (the latter of which tends to keep him in check) in their home dimension.

Cookies: The brother of Kurakusan. His looks are described in his appearance in episode 1, so I won't go into that here. He's an accountant, and the only person who has enough power to defeat Kurakusan when not aided by certain mystical artifacts. He sees Kurakusan's antics as childish, and, while fully aware of the danger his brother poses to the universe, mainly feels disappointment in him. Cookies has the power to transform into AWESOME COOKIES!, which is his ultimate form, giving him powers much like Viewtiful Joe. Unfortunately, despite being more powerful than his brother, he can be tricked into being unable to defeat him.

Aqua: The self-proclaimed "aquatic Badnik of niftyness", Aqua is a robot designed for aquatic combat. He is goofy and child-like, and one of the few TRULY oblivious characters in this fanfic. His background is not elaborate, and his character is not very deep, but he still provides interesting situations. Modelled largely off of Metal Sonic, Aqua is notable in that he has BLUE eyes instead of red, a large fin on his otherwise round head, and a mouth on his "muzzle". His body is also more round, and his intake vent more simple, blue with a spiralling design. His arms and legs have large fins on them as well, and his feet are purple instead of red. Aqua is known to have an incredibly large appetite, and claims that he once ate the entire solar system. When asked how he could be standing in front of us if the solar system is in his stomach, he quickly found something to be distracted by.

Random Wise Man: A crazy and random old man who gives Eggman advice occasionally. He is skilled in martial arts, and is a car enthusiast, taking great pride in his custom Random Wisemobile. In spite of his age, he is more healthy and stronger than many youths. He has the ability to echo when he says his name, no matter where he is, and can teleport. Whether this is magically or via technology, he refuses to reveal, insisting that it gives him an air of mystery. He dresses primarily in green, and aside from a large beard and big eyebrows (both white), he is bald. He carries a cane with him, but does not actually need it to walk, instead using it to throw people off, or to use as a weapon.

Professor Gerald Robotnik: The vengeful spirit of Eggman's long deceased grandfather. Apparently, he never got over Maria's death, even while they were both dead, and was rather angry when his plans were foiled by the heroes and Eggman. As a result, he became even more hateful, especially of Eggman.

Maria Robotnik: Eggman's long deceased cousin. Yeah, she's here too. She's far more benevolent than Gerald, however.

Dr. Ivan "Baconman" Machinenik: A mad scientist with an IQ of 299, Baconman very nearly rivals Eggman as the greatest scientific genius in the world. Unfortunately for him, he often makes huge oversights, preventing him from his ultimate goal of beating Eggman. He has a large crush on Sera, and is envious of Eggman, often trying to steal Sera away for himself. Childish and immature, he attempts to take over the world just to prove himself better than Eggman. He's from England apparently, and is very proud, asserting stereotypical high class British qualities, including an accent and a monocle. He wears an orange suit, grey pants, and black shoes, and his monocle is green. He is bald, although it is unclear whether this is natural or whether this is an attempt to rip off Eggman. Likewise, his nose is pink and round, but with similar questions as his baldness. He has a thin black mustache which points upward, and his eyes are grey.

Hopefully this addendum will increase the enjoyment of the fanfic. I realize there are still quite a few inside jokes that are probably completely confusing, but I will try to cut down on those in the future. SESS wasn't planned out too well when I began it, but now I'm taking it more seriously as a fanfic, since people who understand it seem to like it. As such, I shall strive to make future episodes accessible to everyone. (Well, at least everyone who reads this guide. It's your own fault if you don't read the important document at the top of the chapter list.) Thanks for reading, and I hope you will continue to read works by me!