cinderlea | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ Riku disappears first. Vanished in her sleep, in the middle of the night, collapsing in on herself in a shimmer of starlights. This isn't like last time. No warnings, no chances to say goodbye, no hesitation or resistance. She just isn't there.

Lea goes minutes after Riku, in the same way. But she's awake, lounging on her couch, having a conversation as she flips through her phone. Here and then gone, like a flame. This isn't the first time either of them have gone home, but it's the first time it's so abrupt. At least it isn't death. The last time Riku went home was seven years ago. She was gone for a month, and she came back with shorter hair and the Mark of Mastery. The last time Lea went home, no one really noticed. She thought she was used to it by now.

Things are different this time. Disorienting. Lea meets Kai in the training, for real this time. Riku has her memories, or at least most of them. They're hazy, dreamlike, but real. She has them all. She remembers how old she really is and how long she's been gone. She remembers everyone she cares about, and everyone that won't change here. She keeps her ice magic and takes what she's learned here to use there. But time is fluid. She doesn't feel like she's been gone for seven years.

Lea's are gone, for now. She lives everything new and fresh, with the dressing room appearing only in dreams vivid enough to unsettle her.

Things aren't the same for every world.

Things go better than expected.

The core story is the same. The heroes rescue the ones that need it, they bring everyone back, they defeat the darkness, and they go home. How and when and who — these things vary, but they do it all together and they go home together. And then their story is over, at least for now, and they come back.

Unlike how they went out, Lea and Riku reappear together on the beach. Coming back is just as disorienting, and neither has their phone, so they get their bearings and confirm memories with each other, of the dressing room and of home, and then separate to find their friends.

They've been gone two months. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[this place isn't huge, so they're almost there already. where is the candy and is Isa going to be able to fit in wherever it is, hm.]

I think that would involve someone hitting me with sticks before I explode. I hope that's not on the agenda for today.

[ Realistically there's candy everywhere because it's Halloween Town, but let's say there's a big cauldron full of it out in the square, close to the guillotine. ]

Don't look at me, I'm not the one suggesting explosions. For once. Look! Over there.

[ Gonna crawl forward a little (please don't tip over) so she can point in the right direction. This added height is sweet. ]

That feels like a trap, but again, I'd like to see someone try.

[oof. at least Isa has four extremities on the ground for stability, though she does arch her neck a little to keep Lea from just falling off. she's getting an eyeful of some really excellent and appreciated side/underboob from here, too.]

You're so suspicious of everything. I mean, it's justified here, but still. Place looks empty to me.

[ She is willing to take a chance on a cauldron full of candy. She'll wait until Isa stops moving to try to climb down, though. ]

[Isa nose has never been as good as Zexion's was, but it's better now than it is out of the costume. she doesn't smell anything that seems recent, anyway, so she moves closer to the cauldron and hunkers so Lea can get down.]

Looks don't mean much, but I think it's clear. We'll find out, I guess.

Guess we will.

[ Hup. She hops off and walk-floats over to the cauldron, leaning over it to get a good look. There are some creepy crawlies in there too, probably a couple small body parts as well, but the vast majority of it appears to be candy. ]

What're you after?

[she follows Lea and lowers her head to give the cauldron a sniff. don't mind her when she snorts suddenly and rears up because a centipede that has no business being as huge as it is just appeared.]

Uh. Nothing with wrappers, ideally. Find me some sour stuff.

I can just unwrap them for you.

[ What do we want, sour gummi worms? These are available. Lea eyes the centipede carefully, but otherwise doesn't react. Probably poisonous. ]

That sounds incredibly tedious for both of us.

[plz. how big is this cauldron, will Isa's big beast paw fit in it? what if Lea just picks out all the bugs and wrapped things and whatever she wants and then Isa can just upend the whole thing into her face.]

Not like you wouldn't be doing it anyway.

[ This is a doable plan. Right now she's picking up a comically large flat lollipop to usher the centipede out of the cauldron. Go on, we don't want any shenanigans. ]

Go on. Shoo.

[the centipede waves several of its legs at Lea in a menacing way, but then scurries off.]

Yeah, but I'd much rather have a lot that I can dump in my mouth all at once.

Eat the plastic then. Or I could melt it all into candy stew.

[ She wiggles her fingers over the cauldron in her best imitation of a witch, but doesn't actually heat anything. ]

Both of those are awful ideas.

[Lea, you're a bad person and you should feel bad. Isa sticks one paw-hand into the cauldron and snags several gummy worms with her claws, and drops them into her mouth before turning and shambling off a short distance away, sniffing at the air. she smells pie and it smells good.]

Somehow I don't think the plastic would hit you too badly like this.

[ She regrets nothing. Mostly. Not here, anyway. Another bug gets removed from the cauldron and she pulls out a couple chocolate bars to devour. Candy sounds great. Sugar that isn't ice cream sounds fantastic. ]

Yeah but what if it doesn't hit me until I'm not like this?

[she's not interested in shitting out candy wrappers, okay. also just like some sort of horrible fairy tale, there is now a huge wolfish monster delicately swiping an entire pumpkin pie from this windowsill and shoving it in her face.]

[ I— what the fuck. She saw that and watched it happen, and obviously wouldn't try to stop her, but she's also staring. ]

I'm impressed. And uh, that's a good point. Still doable. You still want candy?

[ She has two unwrapped chocolate bars for her. ]

Yes. There's another pie here if you want some.

[what, you've never seen someone eat a pie in one bite before? Isa's gonna sit back on her haunches and open her mouth expectantly. there are so too many teeth in there.]

Pumpkin?

[ Maybe she'll pass on it. Pumpkin is such an okay flavor, but there's so much candy instead. She doesn't wait for a response since the priority is, indeed, the candy, and steps over to lean closer and sorta... toss them into Isa's mouth. She doesn't want to put her arms in there, okay. ]

[that's fair, although Isa would never bite Lea unless she asked first. the chocolate disappears into her mouth and she's a little sad that her mouth is so big that she barely tasted it, but what she did taste was good.]

Yeah. I know it's not your favorite, but the first one was pretty good.

Hmmm. We can take it with us if you don't want it.

[ More chocolate it is. She's gonna perch on the low wall near the cauldron and devour this, since they seem to be melting a little faster in her hands. ]

I'll see how I feel after I've gorged on candy.

[she turns back to the cauldron and leans over it, picking carefully through it with her claws. unbeknownst to Lea, Isa's now thinking about when she sent the kiddos to HT separately to fight each other; it was inevitable that it would come to mind here.]

[ Lea's doing a good job not thinking about anything involving kids who aren't bratty Halloween people. After she's devoured two whole chocolate bars with all the fixings, she leans back on the wall to look up at the sky. ]

You ever wonder why some worlds always seem to be stuck in the same time of day? I mean, I've seen Halloween Town at night, I've seen it during the day, but it's always pretty close.

Maybe they're situated close to the edge of things, like Twilight Town is.

[they're a lot of what Isa's thought about since entering this room. she misses them, but she's doing better now that Lea's home. time to dump more gummy candy in her mouth.]

You think so?

[ It makes sense, but honestly she'd never really tried to figure it out on her own. She does that with a lot of mundane, unimportant things - things she's just curious about. Probably because when they were kids she could just ask Isa for the answer. She's gonna use her tail to sweep up a large handful of candy for herself, just to see if she can. (She can, but several things spill. One of those things might have been an eyeball.) ]

[the eyeball ends up on the ground next to Isa's giant foot, and either the light is playing tricks on her or the dressing room is, and either way the eyeball definitely looks like it's that good good Xehanort color. it makes her panic, and she kicks at it, sending it rolling away into some weeds.]

...maybe. Makes as much sense as anything else.

[she's so cool and collected.]