Tide Sanglo

The leader of Team Horizons, as much as the team has a leader anyway. Tide is often overshadowed by her louder and more boisterous teammates, but honestly prefers it that way even as she does her best to rein them in a bit. She's not really much of a fighter, but she'd do anything if it meant keeping Kara and Sik safe, and believes in their confidence that the three of them will be able to change the world... even if, sometimes, she has difficulty believing in her own ability.

Backstory

Tide used to be a professional Extreme Gear racer under the name "Riptide", and took part in the EX World Grand Prix with her custom EX Gear bike, the "Silver Arrow" (a heavily modified and repainted Hang-On). It was a major part of her life, and while she was never especially famous it was still something she enjoyed and she did gain a bit of a following, especially when it came to her rivalry with a more popular racer, Kate the Hedgehog.

Up until she suffered a permanent injury from a crash. Tide's career ended, as did most of her perception of her own self-worth. She struggled to move past it, unwilling to give up something that used to mean so much to her, but the nature of her injury meant that it was outright unsafe for her to continue. She fell into a depression, feeling utterly directionless, and felt like her life was over.

Enter her best friend from highschool, Kara. She'd heard about the accident, and shoved her way back into Tide's life to support her when seemingly no one else did. Originally Tide rejected her help, but Kara just kind of... refused to leave? They became roommates, with Kara assisting Tide while she recovered. As time went on, it became less of a temporary situation; there was a lot of discussion about where their lives were going to go from here, with Kara wanting to stay and Tide not wanting her to leave, that resulted in Tide admitting that she had a crush on her back in highschool that still kind of lingered. Kara thought that was adorable and agreed to try out dating, and they've been a couple since. Although Tide has physically recovered as much as she is able by "present day", Kara is still her emotional support and does her best to be there for her no matter what.

Life threw her another curveball in the form of Sik. Tide's now-estranged parents had been friends with his family, so she'd gotten to know the upbeat hedgehog when they were both younger and had been close friends before Sik had moved in with his aunt and Tide herself had moved to Station Square. With no one else to turn to after his disastrous exit from Team Advance, he'd tracked her down in need of help. Tide had absolutely no idea what to do-- she wasn't exactly in a good state, and surely Sik's family would be looking for him-- but Kara's protective instincts kicked in and she was able to convince Tide to let him stay. Since then, Sik has become like a little brother to her, and she does what she can to keep him safe... although he can be a bit of a handful.

While the circumstances behind it are a bit of a mess, there's no denying that the three of them are family. Tide agreed to form a team with the other two, and now Team Horizons gets into all kinds of trouble (and, sometimes, solves it rather than causes it). Keeping up with Sik and Kara can be exhausting, but Tide wouldn't trade them for the world.

Hobbies & Etc

Despite not being able to race anymore, Tide kept the Silver Arrow and regularly rides it as part of Team Horizons. Usually with Kara and Sik crammed onto it with her. It's definitely not the safest, but so is about half of what they do, so. Plus it's the one thing Kara's not able to talk her out of.

When she's able to have some downtime, Tide enjoys reading and has a sizeable collection including several audiobooks. She gravitates mostly towards fantasy, but has tried out some light sci-fi novels as well. She beta reads Sik's own writing, and is often a sounding board for his story ideas, but doesn't have much interest in writing anything herself.

In an attempt to get her to do something while she was at her lowest, Kara got Tide into vlogging and she's kept it up since. Usually it's more relaxed stuff like talking about her day or what books she's been reading, although there's sometimes surprise cameos from Kara and/or Sik that completely derail her. She doesn't really care if anybody sees it, it's just something she does for the sake of doing and it helps her keep track of her physical and mental progress.

Kara may be the "mom friend" of the team, but Tide's the one that's closest to Sik and picks up on his various quirks. When it comes to her own behaviours, though, Kara knows her inside and out. She's extremely thankful for it, and isn't sure what she'd do without either of them keeping her going.