Professor Tori (aka "pink-haired lady") and everything we know about her
i havent seen any posts compiling everything about Tori yet, so consider this a masterpost of sorts for her.
march 24th, 2022, Tailstube #4 released with this graphic, showing a handful of npcs from Sonic Unleashed (and explaining how mobians/anthros/whatever usually live on islands and humans usually live on continents). one person stuck out, being the pink-haired lady behind Professor Pickle
as far as i know, this is all we knew about her for over two years. there was some speculation she was going to be in Frontiers, but obviously that wasnt true.
flash forward to december 10th, 2024 -- a clip of Shadow's introduction for Sonic Movie 3 is released, with a familiar face in the background...
yep, there she is! interestingly, she wasnt in this shot in the trailer that had this exact scene in it. they mustve added her in later for... some reason...? additionally, you can see text on the screen shes on.
the english text reads "12.30.24.START!" (tomorrows date, at the time of writing this), and the japanese text; プロフェッサートリィ, reads "Professor Tori" (or Torii, or Tory... ive heard there are a lot of different ways to translate it)
a name that starts with a T, with no additional context behind the character themself? well, that sounds an awful lot like --
the... note?? inside the front cover of Gerald Robotnik's journal???? sure enough checking the japanese translation of this note its explicitly signed by Tori (or Tory, depending on who you ask)
this is just about where the clues abruptly stop. anything else beyond here gets more into the speculation category. its also worth mentioning that Ian Flynn stated around the time she was first seen that "her inclusion is a tease" (source), so it wasnt a case of accidentally throwing old concept art in somewhere, it was a deliberate teaser for something coming in the future. apparently something coming tomorrow, if the movie clip is to be believed.
if im missing something, let me know! ill add it in with a reblog or edit the post depending on what it is!