Work Text:
Trip doesn't know who she is, or what she even stands for, as in spite of being from a part of the last remaining descendants of the Gazer people within the Norther Islands, she was always seemingly subtly considered as the weakest link by her remaining members of her tribe.
Often going at the back of the line, handling things in the aftermath of activities, and sometimes be at her own expense within social times when she lived there through her life.
Even the older members in spite of their kindness to her individually, still treat her as if she would be a possible burden in some form or shape, as if she can't be of any use even with the past times.
It didn't really frustrate her, rather it made her sad, both to the world and herself.
The biggest moments in her life she could remember was the one time where she interacted with an "explorer", they call themselves, who was rather "foreign" (She assumed it was a name of their people) to the Northern Islands, who was alone and somewhat timid just like her, which sparked her curiosity to the point where she found herself learning another language by them alongside the concept of numbers and slang, such as setback, incomprehensible (bit too long) or guys, after a past few days as she goes both in and outside of her tribe place to meet them when she can, it was around a thousand or more words according to them.
All before they walked off into the sun, like everyone else did eventually.
In-and-out, day in and day out. When one comes, another leaves, sometimes never to be seen again, for the better or worse.
Nothing exactly ends, and she doesn't know what to think about these types of thoughts in her mind.
However, she does know that when someone is on a bit of a big thing that is unnatural in color and seemingly threatening, there is a chance that they don't mean well in the slightest.
You could thank some resource stealing trips from random outsiders for that, they are often too inexperienced to her cultures sense of power, which often leads to cutting their trips short.
Despite that however, she still fails at even the most basic of threats, all because of her metal armored footwear, like the weak link she is.
And now, she was taken in by a mean weasel named "Fang", against her will, meeting up with a rather unique looking being who goes by the name of "Dr. Ivo Robotnic" after seeing so much... Unnatural colors and atmosphere that she had even seen in her life, it made her want to spit out a little for how offputting it is, it made her feel uncomfortable.
So, she (forcefully) became the so-called Trio's "Guider" to leading them the way to her tribes most treasured symbol and important piece of her kind, the Soul Fragments, pieces of what was once a colorful whole that was broken off in trying to seal the inner corruption of her own people from ever influencing the rest of the world.
Each one, representing the souls of an important individual that helped her tribe's history (They call them "Chaos Emeralds" but there was nothing chaotic about them).
First however, they want her to get the context of her homeland and her ancestry since she is too "young" enough to have yet to have all the info about it, by going into one of the ancient temples that she once went a while ago before being unable to go there after.
But, when she revealed this information to them, what happened next was something that she wishes she hadn't been a victim to.
Fang had gone up to her and begins yelling and screaming and shouting and this and that and everywhere at her for any sort of setback despite of her being directly related to the exact people that they are looking for, reminding her that she is too weak-willed and soft to do anything except for her position.
She heard of these things before, the yelling that is, it happened all the time between other people so much due to the limiting numbers of her own race as well as the possibility of their own culture being wiped out, screams turn into fights that leave sometimes in bruises, other times they became mere hallows that echo through the void of her spirit no matter where she is, and sometimes it spreads like a fire wanting to walk among the grass.
When you are the weakest link, you can often be the freest of being able to walk around as if nothing else in the world matters at that moment as no one has any attention to you, but sometimes when it does, you would often hear things that they wouldn't say to one another.
Things that....
Often spell the difference between what kind of individual you really are.
They weren't people within a tribe, they were monsters that wanted nothing but shatter the echos into nothingness, things that never seem to end for her life.
So, to see someone outside of it do the exact same but to her, she was kind of shattered, only to have "Robotnik" shut him up on his ranting 6 seconds in, telling him that they can't waste their time on being a baby to shouting on such a child over nothing, and that they have to get to their job as soon as possible, or he would cut his "salary".
Why would he cut off one of his foods? It's not like he had any with him.
But she didn't care, those voices that she had just heard seconds ago were gone, for now.... It was making her soul beat too much than she would like.
When they begin to walk out of the big metal thing behind them, she thought a bit about how she just went out of something incomprehensible and unnautral, into the familiar that she always knew, she sort of realized something.
She didn't see all of this that she is into as a form of continuing on with life, after all, everytime she goes to slumber, her "mind", as that explorer calls it, begins to start anew as if the past time was dream, even if she still bears its scars.
Rather she saw it as a rebirth to a different circumstance.
Said circumstance, being a rather unfortunate kind.
She doesn't understand almost anything of what the guys were saying at all, someone about "hedgehog" he hates, mostly about needing to do this or that. It feels hallow and somber for its own good. She is so alienated of it, but she lets it go to her head.
All she mainly knows is that Robotnik is saying all of this since the "hedgehog" is going to pose a threat to her home, and all she has ever known. That claim softens her a bit, but mainly to the round one, not Fang.
Even so.
Why does all of this even exist?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She walks, and walks, and walks and walks.
Even when she did some explanations to the round guy and Fang, she didn't really need much to say since they seem to get the idea very quickly, much to her confusion but she didn't care much.
It's fine, she rarely ever speaks unless told to, it was what she was known for back home.
Yet, despite of all this traveling, it gets a bit too, slow, uncomfortable, and "dull".
She goes further into the place but.... She begins to zone out, almost like she is.....
Asleep, but not at the same time.
Finding herself in a dark space where she can see herself sitting in the very corner far away, crying to herself as she curls up in a circle, devouring herself from her tail ever so slowly as it begins to bleed onto the floor.
But no matter how much she devoured in despair, she never really goes away.
That was one of the worst feelings one can have, the feeling that everyone can just walk over you, and make you feel like there is no one on your side no matter how much you feel genuinely justified over it.
A tragic end, for such a tragic on-
*CLANK*
Now, she meets the ground, forcefully.
It definitely woke her up, and it feels a bit painful, mainly by the force of the helmet than much else.
There it is again.....
The screams. they don't stop, it's happening again.
She's in danger again, she doesn't know what to do if it's happening again! She is in a cage!
She can't make Fang angry or him again, but she has no way to not let it happen.
Always being able hear them no matter what room or floor she is in, how far she is in any part of the world.
She needs to walk away from it, find something that can help her mind, as that explorer puts it as. She remembers that they said that she seems to enjoy being alone when she is with the atmosphere, and herself in silence.
So, she tried to follow that example through the hallway further before turning left.
She realizes about what she is seeing upon doing so, a plant form that had taken life from a specific light from the souls upward, helping it bloom to even their constructs that were known to be all rock and no life.
A bell-shape sprout, meant to symbolize the dawn of a new day. It was one of her personal favorite plant life's, so it was a blessing to see it flourish for this kind o-
And bam, Robotnik comes by, and there is no more of a bell, but a floor.
There is no dawn, only death, for which she is bearing witness to.
All she can do, is pray, and hope that the soil that gave this plant a life, would once again begin to see another day.
Why, why does it have to be this way, he may be understandable, but it doesn't make her feel as safe as the Explorer did for her. She couldn't even remember him talking to her about her culture or even her as a person nearly as much compared to the other.
No, maybe he is a bit too busy with his objective, he seems a bit too "stressed" out and maybe he's doing in glee as a way to "cope" with his goal of helping the land out.
All she can hope for is that he doesn't unintentionally ruined aspects of what he doesn't know in the proc-
*CLANG*
Shes flying now, in midair.
Held very still.
Too scary, too out of nowhere, too much at once, vision is going even more blurry to her eyes.
Where is she at? What can she do?! How c-
WHAT IS LI-
*BAM*
She feels something hard on her back, and now she is flipped around as the room becomes more static and ill-visioned very quickly.
it feels like she's flying to fast!
Too fast!!! ORANGE LIGHT IN FRONT!
TOOO FAS-
*CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH*
*CLANK CLONK*
*RUMBLE*
Not too fast anymore, body at the ground, kissing it.
Can't even budge either, but she eventually forces it out.
Nope, don't want to think about that ever again.
Upon bearing herself and her surroundings, she finds a mural room that is covered in blue light by the surrounding Hayo Shrooms around the area, blistering with bright joy as they stand still.
Robotnik begins to flash his own light onto the wall from the other side of the room, revealing one of the more common murals that she knows of, a carving of each of the souls that represented the fragments based on a power that they wielded during their prime.
The main one that she knows the most on is Hiydah, the 5th Generational Soul that wielded the power of the seeing what mortal life couldn't, touching within the spirit realm that resided in every life in existence, and was seen as a symbol of secrets, morality & finding a way to bring a brighter tomorrow even when finding the evil was harder to see or know of as they bear invisible to the blind eye.
She was mainly interested in her since she felt a connection to her soul whenever she was alone in her thoughts, sometimes beginning to feel like that she is bearing a similar power to her, especially when listening to her own people at nighttime.
She looks back at Fang as he gets up to his unnatural thing, slightly slamming his fist to "repair" it before hooping up. It is there when she notices that there's a piece right beside him laying on the floor, with knife points sticking out like a weapon, with a plus and minus symbol on both ends, she saw them on the way out of the big metal thing before taking the trip.
Why is she named Trip anyway?
Oh, because that's what people called her because of her flat armor footwear that was normal armor for her tribe. She remembered she doesn't mind it.
Trip finally begins to speak, waving it behind Fang.
"h-hey, you seem to le-"
*Clink*
She accidently bonked her helmet with it, reminding her that she is even less careful about herself than she realized. Not even the most basic of movements can she even help herself.
Why..... Why?
Speaking of that,
She wonders if....
If she does bear the idea of being in an existence where nothing ever changes for the better or worse. The more she thinks about it, is change even a bad thing?
Sure, thing staying the same means that no new bad things, but in a way, it's a bit too simple to think that having things always be the same means that issues would never show up, is it?
What happens when the corruption that was sealed for so long ago begins to unravel itself from her own family? Would their biases become threats to everything? Can change mean less biases since they are based on what they originally thought of what life is to them?
Even if a cycle is natural, does it always have to be a cycle of the "status quo" as the person put it?
Maybe it's all about the "condition" that everyone has based on how they originally life live...... Right?
Okay, now she's beginning to think like that Explorer guy, she doesn't know if that is a sign of improvement or going "crazy".
Oh, there she goes again, saying another word she learned from them, since they were the only person to treat her with a bit more than she ever knew, maybe outsider stuff is becoming a bit too much fo-
WAIT IS THAT THE OURIAN?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
WHAT IS IT DOING HERE IN THIS HALL OF ALL PLACES?! DO THEY SEE THEM AS INTRUDERS?!
OH NO! IT CA-
*CLING*
Trip begins to gain a sense of fright or flight as she begins to hold on to dear life onto the guardian of the temple, one that she once saw as a friend, is now everywhere and anywhere all at once.
Up, down, left right, sideways.
If only she can just, make them stop for just a bi-
She flies out of the end tail of the Ourian, harshly landing on the floor. with the force of the landings shockwaves from the helmet shaking her head. It was horrible, all she could think of is what has her life even led up to into seeing things in such an unusual light, and how everything is happening way to quickly than she had known. She doesn't know if it would ever end, even if she tried into making it end.
Then, light, and rumble begin to cleanse the room altogether.
She gets up on her feet and see the Ourian on the ground under the rubble that is weighing down on them. It was over, but at what cost or way to do so? She looks at Fang who near the wall of the room, smiling himself as if he had won some big game that makes him look better for others. This doesn't feel right though, is it?
"At least we calm it down... Ri-"
Just as she was beginning to handshake the weasel, he just passes by her as if he's a stain in the mud. She didn't know what to expect from that.
Why is he so happy about this? Smiling as he puts his feet on top of his head? What is he really gaining from this aside of knowing that he is safe for now?
No, she doesn't think she will ever understand him, or even think it is right. This guardian is probably harmed in such an unnecessary way that would've been solved with understanding and prayer. This can't be happening, why did he think this is ever a good idea?
She is beginning to hate him ever more on the inside, as she expresses her own sympathy to the defeated guardian that is showered with light as she places her hands onto their nose, hoping that they can recover from this unfortunate conclusion.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After that, the day went by with nothing else happening, Robotnik made a drawing of his interpretation of what seems to be of her people's more dragonic forms, which is a trait that everyone bears within themselves, with her being the sole member that is unable to make it work.
When she is forced to get back at the big metal thing, something worse happened.
There was a stern, serious look from Fangs eyes, where instead of words of echoed screaming or hatred, are just a look of disappointment, as if what she did was so bad that it doesn't deserve to be said.
A sign of knowing that you committed the ultimate sin, that someone out there fully looks down upon you, with a guise of malice. It was the same thing as the screams of its voices, but invisible to the blind eye, just like the inner evil.
That is until he finally says it
"You know, you could've just asked us more about what lied ahead of time to save us the trouble, brat." , he says before walking away from her as he mumbles about what kind of purpose does she even have for Robotnik to be somehow fine with having her on the team
Shortly after, Robotnik tries to talk to her a bit more about the threat of the hedgehog and his malicious group known as the "Blurring 4" and how he is doing this with the best intentions, but considering of their interactions beforehand, she isn't really as sure.
She wonders that, for a man who seems to have their heart in the right place, Robotnik seems to pick a rather poor choice to have someone like Fang work for him, what happens if he does something that would go against his goal?
No, enough about that...... There was too much to bear for today. They are going to fully head out as they would sleep there one last time before going further into the islands.
She begins to close off her, cycle, in her own bed, she didn't bother with anything after the trip aside of eating dinner, which she picked a specific fruit she knew of since everything else that was "Food" didn't make as much sense to her.
Nothing made sense, why does she even bother?! What even is this?! What is it?
No, she already told herself that its enough for today....
So, she waits within her slumber, hoping that the darkness overtakes her again to get it all over with.
But when it did, she found herself awoken in a void.
All she could she brown and orange right in front of her face, where it begins to feel more painful and stabbed as the seconds roll by before she finds herself laying on a floor of water, half of her body within a vast emptiness of existence and in water.
As she got up, she walks forward, realizing that she has nothing on her, not even the gloves of her hands.
Continuing her walk, she finally finds her home within distance, preparing to run towards there and meet with her family. As soon as she did however, her neck was pierced....
By a spear, unable to speak of anything.
A head poked out in the distance, blank and white.
"You know too much of the outside, alongside the things that are too corrupt for this world, and for that, you will never be belonged here for the rest of your life. Expected for such a weak link, one less burden to deal with.", it echoes as she begins to kneel downwards from the fatal injury she had received
Trip didn't care, she begins to walk further into the village, but instead of spears, the head fades away. Upon going to her living space though, the other side was the same big metal thing that she is currently living in, slowly fading away within distance. When she looks back behind her, there was nothing, not even the door she was just so holding. She was alone again, still not knowing on what she truly did wrong at all. Or even if their poor outlook to her was ever justified and that she is only in denial of it, that she should just accept that everything she was doing is wrong for her people.
trip hears voices in her stomach, then to her tail
there are voices in her body, why are there voices in her body.
they are screaming out loud, at her, at her own soul, she wants it out.
things are coming out of her mouth, she can't control it
she wants the voices to be out of her, right now
so she does, ripping them out, one after another.
its getting louder
its getting too louder
more, she needs to rip out more voices, its too much, theres less voices but still too loud for her ears, she cant get them to stop
she shouts outloud but no one is within distance, she decides to run but there is nothing to see through since nothing is accepting her
so she rips more, and more, and more and more
then, nothing.
She finds herself laying on the bed that she slept in, realizing that it was just a nightmare that she was having. Feeling uncomfortable, she decided to put her head on to the side of the bed to-
Her mother, within the vast darkness that was too dark to even see, begins to stare at her soul, with a blank stare of her face as she begins to put her hands onto her cheeks and begins to tighten them further and further, Trip tries to get out of her hands but her hands are too strong, unable to get her head out of her grasp as she forces her to stare right back into her.
She opened her mouth, a damned whisper begins to shout.
"I am so disappointed in you."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She gets up again, upon shock to her spirit, she was in darkness like before, thankfully with some moonlight showering from the window nearby. She begins to look all around her and to her legs, before realizing that this is real life and not a dream.
She begins to relax a bit, realizing that she is fine, for now.
So far, she knows that she might be more disconnected to both her home, and this settlement that she is into right now, but all she can hope for is that it can at least make some form of difference that she can. She thought a bit about everything that came beforehand, feeling like that maybe this isnt as bad as it might have been, and that she is too new to everything she had just went through by now.
Fang is still evil, and Robotnik is confusing, but at least she has herself, maybe that is all that matters in the end.
For now, she might think about what to do with herself when the time comes, she remembered that one of the last things the Explorer told her was something like:
"Trip, I get the feeling that you don't really enjoy on what you have in your life outside of nature based on how you talk about the others, and while I don't want to force my way of life onto you, I think get the idea on what you mean, as I perhaps have it myself. The feeling that you are too disconnected with people like you, and yet too disconnected for the outside world of your culture as well. So how did I answer that issue to myself? Simple, I decided to expand on what I felt was how life worked, exploring not only in how others see it, but also towards the very idea of what life even is. Sometimes things just happen just because, and that is okay, it is up to you, to prefer on what you want to do with your life, sometimes even when others shout at their lungs against your decisions that you will make.
That isn't to say that you should push people's boundaries or disrespect them. but it is to say that one of the most important things one's life is, is themselves, for the better or worse. Life is just complex like that, and there are various answers to a lot of things, but I do feel like that doing things you don't want to just for the sake of what they want you to be is not exactly okay, especially if it doesn't revolve around anything that is too important to ignore. Take that what you will.........
After all, I did the same thing for my parents, they wanted me to have a family and get a good job for money, so instead I am with someone of the same gender as me because I love them and wanted to do some casual hobbies while exploring various places of the world! Because I want to feel the breeze of various places that have good raining weather. That is my choice and how I interpreted. So, I hope that when the time comes, that.....
You decide on what you want to do, not anyone else, or even me."
It was some of the last words they said before they left the islands.....
She always thought about that everyday, even when she has a hard time following the meaning as she can't seem to know what she wants to even been for how much she has been ignored to a degree. Even then, she wonders if what they're saying is even true for her case, they never interacted with her home or much of her culture besides herself, what do they know about it that she doesn't? Maybe it is a bit too ignorant for them to say it so easily.
Well, maybe it can be settled tomorrow.
Another time, another chan-
Wait....
Why is it wet? It feels, cold.
Hallow, tastes weird. In fact, her end of her tail is hurting a lot, and also a bit slimy.
Trip begins to press something on a wall, based on what Robotnik told her about the "system" and.........
The bed is red
The bed is red
the bed is red
the bed is red
the bed is red
the bed is dark red, along with her own mouth.
She begins to fade out within nothingness of her mind.
For when she begins to wake up.
She will begin anew, with the scars that she will bear to her alone.