Trip

Hex and Din were out walking late at night, trying to find Elaine. Hex didn't want to call her because he felt disgusted with her, and every time Din called Elaine he'd get angry about it, so she decided to have the both of them search for her. They came upon a small bridge, and walked past someone with blue colored hair that had a pink cowlick in their feathered hair, which were both pastel cotton candy versions of the colors. They were resting their head on their right palm and looking out into the river.

"Are you two Angels of Acid?" the person asked.

"How the fuck?" Hex looked back to them, they had turned their head and smiled.

"I'm one too, you're trying to find Lady Elaine, yes?" they questioned further.

"Do you know where she is?" he asked.

"Do you know this man?" Din asked Hex.

"No, please don't use male pronouns, I'm already disgusted with my own body as it is, I don't need to be reminded of how I was born more than I already am, Please use they and them pronouns, you know what an enbie is, yes? Non-binary?" the person asked.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know," Din said.

"People aren't yet accustomed to asking for pronouns first before addressing someone, I hope to make a world where that's a common occurrence," they smiled.

"Yeah, the political system begrudgingly accepted gay marriage, but a lot of trans and enbie rights are being squashed at the moment, I'd gather they're in Macabre Hearse to change that," Hex said.

"Exactly, which is why I can't let you stop Lady Elaine, sorry. If you're trying to find her to stop her, I'm going to have to deal with you myself." They smiled, but the smile had a kind of angry energy behind it.

"What's your name?" Hex asked.

"Trip, which is funny considering my powers." Trip laughed, and summoned a fan with the same colors as his hair. They summoned their wings as well, which had two inch stripes of the same cotton candy colors that started with blue on the tips.

"What are your powers? Tripping people?" Din giggled.

"Observe." Trip waved their fan at Din's direction, a pink and blue mist erupted from the fan and was waved in her direction. As soon as it came close to her, she gasped.

"Oh, I see, you can make people hallucinate," Din said.

"It'd be silly to try that on me, I've had every hallucinogenic drug and can function pretty well while high." Hex laughed.

"We'll see about that." Trip waved their fan in Hex's direction.

As soon as the mist hit him, he started to hallucinate, he started to taste what he could only describe as blue, feel the sweet air on his skin, and see sounds. His vision went black, but he wasn't going to back down. He summoned his sword and ran up to where he thought Trip was, and slashed at him. He didn't feel the sword connect with anything.

"Trying to go off where I was?" Trip said from somewhere behind him.

He could barely hear Trip over the ringing in his ears which was almost deafening, Trip also sounded like his voice sounded fuzzy, like it was over an old television set. He decided that he needed to figure out where Din was so he wouldn't hit her.

"Din? Where are you?" he asked

"Over here," she said. She was behind him, she had not moved from the spot she was in.

"Stay where you are, I got this asshole," he said, and started to run around and swing wildly, trying to remember where in space Din was so he would not hit her.

"I can still see, you know, it's just I can see forever," she said.

"If I start coming towards you, back away then," he said as he continued to slash at the air.

"Do you really think this will work?" Trip asked, he was somewhere behind him again, which pissed him off even more.

"You know what, fuck this," he said. and raised his arms. He channeled his void power to open up a bunch of portals behind himself.

He heard Trip scream somewhere off in the distance. He got them. He felt that one of his portals sucked Trip in. His hallucinations instantly lifted, and he could see again, his senses returned to normal as well.

"What happened? What are all those portals doing there?" Din asked, rubbing her head.

"I did it to get 'em, and I got lucky. What should I do with 'em? Knock 'em around a bit first?" He smiled.

"You can do that?" she questioned further.

"All of them go to an enclosed space that I can manipulate. I could even crush them if I wanted to, but that'd be cruel." He shrugged.

"I don't know if I want you to injure them like that, what if they die?" she asked.

"Maybe I'll make the space small and cramped and leave them there for a few hours." He laughed.

"Can you talk to them in there?" she asked.

"Yeah, I can, want me to get 'em to promise not to attack us again?" he asked.

"That'd be nice, and then you can let them go," she said.

"Hey asshole, you feeling good about your decisions now? Want out? You have to promise not to attack us once you're released, and if you don't, you'll be stuck there for as long as I want you to," he said into his hand.

He put his hand to his ear, and Trip's voice came out of it.

"Okay, okay, please! You're crushing me!" they said.

"You gotta say it first," he said.

"I promise not to attack you once I get out, oh man my back is killing me in here! Please let me out!" they said.

"Alright, good talk, he said.

He channeled his powers again and dropped Trip out of one of the nearest portals. The portals all closed up behind Trip. Trip looked back and then to Hex with a stunned expression.

"I didn't know you could do that," they said.

"Elaine didn't tell you I had void powers?" he asked.

"No, all I know is that she has a thing for you, she won't shut up about you," they said.

"I can gather that much now, she had to tell me first before I realized the signs," he said.

"I won't attack you, but I did call for backup when I was in the portal, so you'd better run on home," they said.

"Thanks for letting me know," he said.

"Let's get out of here then," Din said.

"Yeah, see you some other time, then," He put his hands in his pockets and walked off with Din back home.

As they walked home, he asked Din about what she was hallucinating. She said she could see into the very fabric of reality, but still had her normal vision transposed on top. He said that he had a trip like that before, and that it was one of the life changing ones that he had. He wondered why Zlyena didn't tell him about Trip, and that they and Elaine weren't the only Acid Angels. He wanted to ask her next time he met up with her for training.

Read the rest of the book here: https://www.moonquill.com/book/113