Chapter Text
Our story begins in White Park Zone, specifically in a small and slightly dilapidated village - Crystal Pines. Once upon a time it was a bustling town with a rich mine, agricultural prowess and a cozy motel that was never empty.
Then they started building the park on the other side of the mountain. Roller coasters, chao racing, a luxurious grand chateau with enough rooming to host a small nation. The younger folk of Crystal Pines saw their chance and left the tiny village in search of a brighter future. The older villagers wanted to keep their hometown alive, even if it became more quiet and empty every day.
Luckily one of the youngest couples still living there was expecting.
~
The arctic foxes were just ordinary citizens doing their ordinary jobs. The father was a carpenter, and the mother a seamstress.
They had 3 children, who were a great help to the aging community. They grew up doing very physically taxing labor, like carrying firewood and later timber to help both their father and the rest of the village so they could stay warm during the freezing winter.
The eldest son was the strongest, and he was raised to continue in their father’s footsteps. The youngest son wanted to see the world, and he would leave the confines of his cozy hometown as soon as he became old enough. He spent a lot of his time whittling tiny figures out of wood scraps, and selling them online to increase his savings.
But this story is about the middle child, and their only daughter, Slushie.
Slushie did help her mother with the sewing, but never thought of it as her future career - she preferred baking and making art. She would often sit in quiet, watching the forest critters, and carefully sketching them in her treasured sketchbook. But stars were her favourite thing to paint.
Being small and remote, the village had little light pollution, and so little Slushie had a clear view of the twinkling night sky. It was her muse, her inspiration to make art, a reminder for her that the world was much bigger than the small village she rarely got to leave. She and her brothers sometimes visited the park together, and joined their parents whenever they needed something from the bigger cities below the mountain, but she wanted to see more.
When she became old enough to have her first real job, she wanted to ask the park instead of any of the villagers; they would never give her actual work to do, since they liked to baby the poor girl. She might have been able to carry trees up and down the mountainside, but if they needed help with hard work, they would ask her father or brothers. She was the only girl there, so she was the baby of the village, despite not being the youngest.
The park had gotten really busy and popular, a true tourist hot spot, so there would definitely be something for her to do. She was understandably nervous when she was walking around, looking for the people in charge who she could ask, but everything went well and she was soon hired.
She was only a minor cleaner among the dozen other cleaners, but she was excited. She could spread her wings and find out what she could do! The world was opening before her!
Too bad the first thing the whole wide world threw at her was a sleazy jerboa.
~
“So, would the pretty girlie want to take a break? My treat,” Fang mused.
Slushie didn’t respond, not realizing he was speaking to her, and only continued to mop the mystery stain off the wooden floor. Fang walked closer and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump.
“Huh?! Hi, I’m sorry! Can I help you?”
Fang grinned at her, picking her fallen mop off the floor and leaning his chin on it.
“I asked if ya’d like to take a break. My treat.”
“You were talking to me?” she blushed.
“‘course I was. Yer the prettiest girl around.”
Her blush exploded, turning her entire head a rosy red.
“R-really?”
She was awkwardly twiddling her fingers. Fang noticed and gave the mop back to her, moving to close the distance and smoothly tilting her face towards his with his hand. She was looking straight back, eyes shiny and wide.
“Absolutely! Everyone else’s trying too hard. Yer natural. Pure.”
Easy.
“So, how’s cotton candy sound? No, wait, wouldn’t that be cannibalism?” he smirked.
Slushie snorted in the least attractive way possible, earning a hint of a genuine smile from him.
“I guess I can take a break!”
And so, Fang led her downstairs and bought the biggest ball of cotton candy they sold.
Small price to pay.
Slushie became redder and redder as they shared the treat. They were using their fingers to pick at the candy instead of taking bites, but the sharing itself made her think of the sweet old couples back home.
“Is this love? He is very cool and gentle and funny….” she thought, feeling giddy.
Fang seemed to notice her gazing at him shyly, and winked at her. She almost dropped the candy as she moved to cover her grinning and red face, kicking her feet.
Almost too easy.
Slushie needed a moment to compose herself. Soon, she turned back to him, still slightly red.
“S-so, where are you from? How did you end up all the way up here?”
Fang looked away to hide the devious glint in his eyes.
“’m a traveler. Heard of the park, big, busy and glorious. Why wouldn’t I wanna visit?”
“Well, can’t argue with that. I love seeing all kinds of people here.”
“Anyone caught your eye, then?” Fang smirked and leaned towards her.
Slushie turned away, blazing again.
“N-no! I’ve just started, I have barely made friends with my coworkers!!”
“Well, I’d like to get to know ya. Ya seem like I could get meself in check around ya, y’know?”
“R-really?”
“Definitely. I could just keep ya company and that’d keep me from giving in to my bad habits.”
“I-I guess you could stay nearby while I clean. It does get lonely sometimes.”
“With pleasure, cottonhead.”
~
To no one’s surprise, leading a fairly unknown and obviously suspicious person to places marked “staff only” had bad consequences. Stolen things, broken things, people getting hurt…
She wasn’t fired, only briefly suspended, because she was so easy to boss around, obedient to a fault. Naive, new to the concept of selfish and not-very-good people.
She spent the week in suspension crying her eyes out. She had thought she was in love. She was up in the clouds, and crashed and burned and ruined everything.
She was going to be more careful around men.
She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
~
Slushie kept more to herself once she got back to work. Everyone seemed to pity her or laugh at her, which isolated her even more.
So Eggman taking over the world didn’t really change things much for her.
Underneath all the glory and blinding lights, White Park was always the perfect place for villainous activities, so everything stayed mostly the same. She was bossed around, mopping vomit here, blood there, cleaning up sharp shards of windows and smashed bottles almost daily. Luckily the bosses were careful enough to not have her deal with any of the bodies.
But one day a group of young canines approached her. They surrounded the poor girl and dragged her to a more quiet area.
“Um, hi, sorry, girl, but what are you doing in a place like this?”
“Are you some shady business man’s side piece or somethin’? Cuz you sure could be!”
“Please don’t, Brutus.”
“Agreed, that’s gross, stop it. But you, fox. Is that just a fantastic facade or are you really not aware of what kind of a place this is? Do you not realize the dangers? If so..........Do you happen to be interested in lab ratting?”
“Wait, wait, wait, who are you people? What’s going on?” Slushie backed away from them to gather her bearings.
The white spaniel sighed.
“I’m Dinah, and these are my brothers, Brutus and Carlisle. We’re on a….mission here. Heard of a really important artifact changing hands, no big deal. More importantly, you should find a better job.”
“Why? If it’s because of Eggman, he hasn’t really done anything to make me any more miserable, so I don’t-”
“You’re in danger here. One wrong move and some douche will mark you as his lapdog! Or worse!”
“........”
“She’s not wrong. Working here is a ticking time bomb. There are people here who will come after you sooner or later. You should quit as soon as you can and go stay somewhere safe.”
“My hometown isn’t faring much better. It’s full of robots, the villagers are too old to defend themselves. They need me. And this is all I can do. I need the good money I get from here to get them basic supplies.”
“But-”
“Thank you for worrying about me. Really. But I can’t leave. I have to help the people of Crystal Pines. Making Eggman mad will make things worse. And I can’t fight.”
“Are you sure?” Dinah walked closer to her, placing her hands on her shoulders. She turned away slightly.
“It’s all I can do right now.”
“.......If you say so. Want us to watch your back? We’ll be here for a while, and most likely visit again. White Park is a goldmine for shady tradings, you know.”
“If it won’t bring you trouble.”
“Trouble always finds us, anyway”, Dinah grins, eyes gentle.
~
Be it for the dog siblings’ protection or just pure dumb luck, Slushie managed to get through the war period unharmed. But the park became a lot more ominous and quiet once the news of Eggman losing reached the area.
The more villainous side of the clientele was visibly seething.
The bubbles that had been sizzling all this time were about to boil over, and the place simply wouldn’t be safe for her anymore. Her pure white fur was just begging to be sold or soiled out of anger, her big blue eyes almost asking to be kidnapped and used to get ransom money. She was a bright neon sign for a chance at revenge.
Slushie decided it was now or never. She would not come back here after today. She felt too many eyes on her.
Unsafe. Dangerous.
She heard someone debating how much she could be sold for. She clocked herself out as casually as she could, and bolted out the back door in the middle of her shift.
~
Crystal Pines didn’t suffer as much damage as many other places, but the villagers needed help. Help that Slushie wasn’t capable of giving them. Things could have gotten really bad without the Restoration checking up on the village.
Slushie was devastated. Once she managed to hole up inside her room, she cried.
I could barely help anyone.
I was in constant danger for so long.
I endangered my family.
I couldn’t protect them.
I don’t know how to fight.
I’m naive and stupid and should just have listened to Dinah and found another way to get money-
There was a tentative knock on her door before it opened slightly.
Slushie turned towards the sound, hiccuping and wiping her eyes to try to figure out who it was.
“Hi there.”
Amy Rose. She had seen her on the news. Leader of the Restoration.
More tears.
Stars, why would she be here? What did I do??
“Good job surviving this far. The Restoration will take it from here, okay?
She slowly entered her room, sat in her desk chair and rolled it next to her bed.
“I’m friends with Dinah. She’s on another trip who knows where, but she asked me to check up on you once we could visit Crystal Pines. Are you okay?”
Words weren’t really coming out of her at the moment. Amy looked her over.
“You don’t seem injured, at least.”
They sat in relative silence, Slushie’s quiet sobs being the only sound in the room.
“Being in danger can be really taxing both physically and mentally. But it'll get better. Trust me, I know.”
Sniffles. Slushie tried to get up, indicating that she was listening.
“Your parents told me about your job, and that you quit. Do you think you will still stay here?”
She didn’t immediately continue, so Slushie turned to look at her, not knowing what to say. Amy straightened in her seat and crossed her palms on her lap. She cleared her throat.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but do you sometimes feel like you want to leave this place?”
Slushie looked away and nodded, feeling ashamed.
“I'm the only girl in the village. Everyone’s baby, no matter how strong I prove myself to be. Never good enough.”
“Yeah, I can relate to that. ‘Good job, little miss, here’s some candy as a thank you!’”
“...Yeah.”
“....Are you happy here?”
“.....Yes... and no.”
“I think I understand, things like this can be really conflicting. But… what do you think, would being around more people our age help?”
“...Yeah. Probably. If they’re good people.”
“Well, I know a lot of people. Good, if not a bit odd, people. I think you’d get along with them. The folks at the Restoration, too.”
“Sorry, I’m not following?”
“Dinah and I can organize you a flat and a simple job in Seaside City if you want to try spreading your wings. Things are hectic so we won’t often be there, but we can help you get started. Does that sound good?”
“Yes, but… Why are you doing all this for me?”
“You just seem like you have the potential to do great things. Dinah said the same thing. Sometimes people just need a bit of a push.”
“...Huh.”
“So what do you say? You get the first month free if you act quick!”
That earned a small giggle out of her.
“Guess there’s no harm in trying.”