voidtreckerexpress | [Closed] I can hear them running chains around our door

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[Closed] I can hear them running chains around our door

Who: Rich and Trunks
Where: 2-B
When: Backdated to late night Jelly 2.
What: Rich returns back to the sleeper car after bolting on Trunks, and most likely after realizing a few things about the incident on the network. Bonding over trauma ensues.
Warnings: Discussion of mind control, physical and mental abuse, homophobia/transphobia, likely suicide by fire... anything about Rich's backstory might come up here so avoid if any of that is too difficult to read about!

Rich hardly dares to breathe as he steps into the room he shares. His steps are as light as he can make them, and he doesn't bother with turning on any lights. Honestly, he had been planning on just napping in the quiet car, but with how he had bolted out earlier, he had a feeling at least one person in the room wouldn't appreciate that.

God, Trunks must have been worried sick, and Rich certainly can't blame him. At least, not with the context. Even if Rich wouldn't want the concern, after what he witnessed between Jack and Rich, and after Rich had convinced himself it all was nothing...

He had been pretty messed up, and he's lucky he's started to recover himself now. It's a slow process, but healing always is. Now, if he can just make it to his bunk without interrupting someone else's process... will that be possible? Or has Trunks stayed up waiting for him?

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Rich makes a note of where the bathing suits are, but then follows after Trunks, up to the chairs. He sits nervously perched on the edge of one of them, silent for a few moments.

"I'm... really sorry I ran off, Trunks. I was freaking out and wasn't thinking things through. I get it if you're pissed at me."

Trunks just blinked at him, before chuckling softly. "I'm not mad at you Rich. I get that you were panicked. I was more concerned--and I'm sorry I didn't just shut the ICP off when that creep started talking."

"You don't need to apologize for that. I... probably shouldn't have bothered responding. I knew better than to try to fight with him."

He's tried to get his own SQUIP to see sense and failed. Why would another AI be any different?

"Rich," Trunks started, making sure his tone was understanding. Because he really did get it. "You were understandably having a panic attack, and then the person who caused it, just taunted you more." No judgement at all in Trunks' tone.

"I have my own trauma related to androids. I'm from a whole world being terrorized by two homicidal psychotic ones, so I'm not unusual either. Meaning I won't judge you, or think you're weak, or anything. I want to help."

"You... jesus, I'm sorry. I didn't know. Here I thought I was the weird one here." He grits his teeth as he thinks back on the way Trunks had reacted to the conversation over the ICP.

"Fuck, I should have known... he was upsetting you too. I guess Cassie was right that we need to deal with him for everyone's safety, not just mine."

"I've dealt with worse than him, Rich. I was more caught off guard, or I'd have stopped him from bullying you over the ICP sooner." Probably by smashing it, considering how angry Trunks had been. "I was, and still am, more concerned for you." Pausing, and Trunks reached up to rake his fingers through his hair. "The problem, and I already shared this with Cassie too, is likely that the train considers him a passenger. So blasting him to scrap likely won't help."

"...I'm sorry for making you worry." Rich mutters as some sort of response. He doesn't exactly know how to reassure Trunks that he's fine, or that he doesn't need help. Devero already proved to him that he couldn't just deal with this alone, but he doesn't know what to say about the way he is.

Instead, he just shakes his head. "I don't know if I'd want him dead anyways. I mean... it's complicated. I know he's not a real person, but the train making him a passenger... he's got more of a personhood than my SQUIP, for sure."

Trunks raised an eyebrow, but they could debate what qualified as a 'person' some other time. Jack being a 'person' or not wouldn't stop Trunks from taking him out if it became necessary. Wouldn't be the first time Trunks has dealt with threats lethally.

"You don't need to apologize for making me worry. Even if I didn't have my own issues--I don't like bullies. You were being bullied, and you're a friend. I'm kind of protective over my friends."

Rich isn't the type to want someone dead, even someone who's an asshole. It's just when it's an AI that things become... complicated for him.

Even more complicated is the matter of friendship to him. He's a little taken aback by what Trunks says.

"You... want to be my friend? Actually?"

"Is there a reason I shouldn't want to be your friend?" Trunks said with a half-grin. Teasing slightly.

"I... I don't know," Rich admits. "It's... complicated. I think because of who I used to be, I tend to think... no one would actually want that." Maybe he wasn't supposed to take that so seriously, but it's a thought that's still weighing on him.

"Well, I can only guess at some of your past. But I believe people can change, given a good enough reason."

"Yeah? And what are your guesses? Or do you wanna hear the whole mess, from the start? Bet there's something in there to scare you off," Rich says, suddenly a little more hostile than before. Where did that anger come from?

"You've been through a terrible trauma, besides what your squip induced. It also has done some terrible things, or tried to make you do them. I'm pretty sure, to put it bluntly, you've been through some shit. And after reading that document, you're hesitant to trust people." All guesses on Trunks' part.

"You don't scare me Rich. I've lived pretty much my whole life, minus 6 months, under the reign of actual monsters. I've met a few more, before coming to the train. I'd be dead, except I'm a good 'mouse' for them to play with as if they were cats. So go ahead and tell me all of it."

"...Trauma, huh." Perhaps Rich can agree with that. Perhaps part of him still thinks he shouldn't be upset when other people have it worse, one of whom is right in front of him.

"I guess I'm nothing compared to actual monsters..." Rich sighs softly, and rubs a hand over his face.

"I'll talk... as long as you'll tell me more about the shit you've been through too. I don't want to unload on someone without... doing something for them too. So I don't know if that'll help, but... I just want to do something good."

Trunks shrugged a shoulder. "What do you want to know? It's not like any of it's a secret."

Rich looks a little taken aback. "I mean, what wouldn't I want to know about? All the stuff with your world, and the robots attacking it. It sounds like it would have been hard on you..."

And he thinks about it a little more, enough to laugh. "Honestly, with the SQUIPs, my world was on the verge of an apocalypse itself, so maybe I could learn something about avoiding it."

"Not robots, Androids. There's a difference." Trunks said, before thinking. "You want everything from the beginning?"

"Yeah, well. That's probably where I'm going to have to start too. So you might as well." Rich has a lot to unload, but... he would rather take his time on that.

"Alright, well, let's start with some facts about me. I'm half-human, half-saiyan. That's an alien warrior race. In my timeline, I'm the last one I know of with any Saiyan blood. In the timeline I was pulled from by the train, there are 2 full blooded saiyans--my father and Goku--and two half-blooded saiyans, Gohan and baby me."

Trunks paused for a moment, before he continued.

"Also, there is time-travel involved, and at least 2 different timelines. Still with me?"

"Huh... okay. Yeah, I can see how the time travel aspect's going to get confusing, but I think I understand what you're taking about so far."

So four Saiyans, though the other three had died out in Trunks' future... Rich can already tell this might be a story that involves a lot of grief.

"Alright, so, let's start relatively at the beginning. Goku was Earth's greatest Hero, having saved the planet from multiple threats, and turned enemies into allies, if not friends. 3 or so years, give or take a few months, before I was born, Goku came back to Earth after training in space in response to a threat named Freiza. Frieza was an intergalactic conqueror of planets. He'd send his troops to take out any inhabitants on the planet, then sell them to the highest bidder. Goku and Freiza had clashed before, on Planet Namek. Freiza died on Namek, and Goku stayed in space to train."

A pause. "Namek no longer exists by the way. There is a new Namek, but that's all I know. During the time Goku was training in space, the Namekians, and my father, went and stayed at my mother's place, Capsule Corporation. Neither of them were my parents yet, but you get the idea. Eventually the namekians moved on, while father stayed because he was waiting for Goku to return, so he could try and best him in a fight."

Some of this sounds vaguely familiar, but Rich is smart enough not to make a comment on it. Whatever might have happened with him was reality, and Rich shouldn't dismiss that by comparing it to fiction from his own world.

"That's a lot of names, but I think I get the gist of that. Not that I get wanting to fight someone who's sort of a hero..." Different strokes, Rich supposes.

"Father didn't really care that Goku was a hero, only that he was stronger. It's a rivalry thing." Trunks explained, as best he understood it anyway. "So anyways, in my timeline--Freiza was revived and partially made a cyborg, and he and his father and their troops headed for Earth. Even did some damage before Goku returned from training in space, and took them down. Unfortunately, not too long after, Goku contracted a heart-virus. Which killed him. A cure was developed but not in time to save him."

"That's awful... so without him, you weren't strong enough to deal with any of the aftermath, I'm guessing."

Surely someone must have come to get revenge for Freiza.

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