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[ 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

What if I just want piggy back rides up the hill? You know, the curly one.

[ Wouldn't be the first time they hopped a fence or two just to fuck around with the local attractions. Also stop, she's not gonna let that continue. They might leave soon, all Lea really wanted was to see Isa's costume and eat some candy. She's thinking about getting a bag. ]

[if she can find one that would be ideal tbh. Isa dumps another handful of candy into her mouth and turns to look, coming over with a separate handful of malted milk balls for Lea.]

The one that's right over there? Fine, get on.

Yeah! Hang on.

[ She slides off the opposite side of the wall that the cauldron and Isa are on and sort of sprints-but-floats over to the nearest home. She nearly gets her tail sliced in half by the guillotine walkway, but she's fine. ]

[oh my god are you- that was definitely a big sigh from Isa. whatever, she'll just... eat this other pie while Lea's doing whatever. wouldn't do for it to go to waste, after all.]

[ She's still totally visible! She's just poked her head inside a door to make sure no one's actually there, and then she's grabbing something from beside it - aha, it's a burlap sack, and a nice sized one to boot. Apparently they just keep them by the door like umbrellas or something. Now she's bounding back over, looking pleased with herself. ]

Look at that, a good idea. You're not completely out of them.

[Isa could probably just carry the cauldron, but this is admittedly easier. is she grinning now? it's hard to tell with all those teeth.]

[ Uh, duh, she's totally grinning because her bff is the best, duh. Lea stops after she's hopped the fence to get back and holds the sack up like some kind of prize. It was a long and grueling adventure across the street, but she made it. ]

They come to me when they're most needed, of course. Now here, help me shovel this stuff in.

That would explain things. Just hold the bag open.

[we don't have all day here, not with the lesbian agenda looming. Isa hefts the cauldron up effortlessly so she can just dump the contents into the sack. candy for days, and maybe another eyeball or two.]

Whoa—

[ O fuck. She does hold it open and was perhaps not expecting the entirety of the cauldron to go with them, but look at the way her eyes light up! Her stomach is going to hurt so bad tomorrow when she gorges for like two hours on the couch! ]

[maybe all the hot sex will relieve the pain i mean what. no, makeouts will definitely help, if Lea even manages to get away with gorging, with mom-friend Isa over here. most of the cauldron's contents fit in the bag, anyway, and another centipede in the bottom of the cauldron can keep the remaining couple of handfuls of candy, fuck it.]

So wait, am I going to be carrying you and all this?

You're the one that decided to take the whole pile. Besides, it's not like it would be hard for you.

[ Don't make her choose between cool monster rides and candy, she's had too rough of a day already. ]

[that's fair. she sets the cauldron down and plucks the sack out of Lea's hands. the monster ride is gonna get way cooler soon, if that helps Lea at all.]

Yeah, yeah, climb on already. Over to the hill, right?

Hell yeah. We can leave after that, if you're ready to go.

[ She looks a little disappointed in the sack-napping, because it means she can't gorge on candy during her epic monster ride, but sure, that's understandable. She's going to climb on similarly to how she did before, careful not to pull on anything. ]

Works for me.

[Isa waits until Lea's settled before she starts moving, candy bag clutched in one hand, but only makes it about three steps before she lurches, almost as if she tripped on something. several things about her "costume" are changing, and it's up to Lea if she wants to try and stay put or hop off during all this. the sack gets dropped at some point, but it doesn't spill too much.

the first thing that happens is Isa gets a bit bigger overall. this is followed by some excruciatingly horrible flesh-rending sounds and a howling sort of scream because some of this is extremely uncomfortable, but she's not dying, so it's fine. her skull shifts and lengthens to make room for two more pairs of eye sockets, though they remain empty (for all the things she couldn't see), and her actual eyes have gone fiery. her arms split along the full length of them to turn into two separate pairs of arms (for all the plates she kept spinning through all the bullshit), but the chains around her shoulders and upper arms don't change to match, and end up half embedded in the muscle (for all the lack of choice and control she ever really had). she's breathing hard by the time everything stops happening - like fifteen seconds after it started - and is hunched over but still on her feet.

get a load of that ~~dog~~ hell-beast.]

[ Yeah no, but in the most polite of terms: fuck that. She's not really sure if Isa did trip or not at first, and then- size change? Is she lurching? No, Lea has about a second to realize she's getting bigger before the horrible sound effects start, and that has her hopping off immediately, and putting some distance between them to boot. It doesn't seem like she's burning her, but she doesn't want to make it worse anyway. All she can do is stare, prepared to act or fight or cast a heal, until it's over. Lea's still staring, but she's stunned, unsure of how to react. Is she hurt? Can she hear her? Is she berserk? ]

Isa?!

[just give her a second to process what just happened. she shakes her head a little, like there's water in her ear, or like she's dizzy, and then huffs in a disgruntled way that is purely Isa, no matter what she looks like. she swings her head around to focus on Lea, and... makes a sort of warbling growly noise that shows a lot of teeth. looks like her ability to speak went away with the changes, fuck. why are you like this, dressing room. also fuck, hopefully that conveyed that she's not berserk, or hurt. (it probably didn't.)]

[ Her finger twitches a little like she's ready to call her keyblade, but then it tightens into a fist. She's way more likely to bolt than try to fight her, specifically for the door. Neither one of those sentiments was made very clear, no, sorry. ]

You wanna repeat that for me?

[there are two options coming to mind here, and she's aware that both of them could potentially lead to Lea summoning a weapon. but without the ability to speak, or the familiarity with how animals communicate that someone like Axel or Riku would have, there's not much else she can do. at least she knows that picking Lea up before she can pull a weapon is definitely bad, as picking up the candy bag and heading for the door would also be.

she's going for a third option, which is to sit down on the cobblestones and very definitely sulk with all of her hands jumbled together in her lap and her huge head tilted away from Lea. this went all poopy, dressing room, why. she just wanted to look cool and be badass and seduce the only lady around. was it that second pie, is this justice for eating both of them AND taking all the candy? Lea gets a grumpy noise.]

[ At least that gets the message across, and Lea visibly relaxes, expression going from tense to relieved instantly. She also moves back over and gently tries to put a hand on her, if Isa will let her. ]

For a second there you had me worried. How about we take the candy and go home?

[honestly, being petted is about the only thing here that will immediately improve her mood. she's still grumbly, but less so, and reels in the candy bag from where she's parked, pointing at the curly hill with two hands and looking inquisitively at Lea. or at least that's probably what the tilted head means. did u still wanna go over there, friend.]

The hill? Nah, let's go home. We can crawl Halloween Town later, when it's closer to Halloween.

[ She doesn't want to do piggy back rides with Isa like this, and to be honest she wants to get Isa the fuck away from this place since it's going to be like that. Candy and laying on her puffy couch and maybe kissing sounds better. ]

[that does sound better, Lea's right about that. Isa's still grumpy and rumbly that things went sideways in this room again, when it was going so nicely, but what is there to do besides just leave? she hauls herself upright again, braced on all limbs except the one holding the bag of candy, and shakes herself out before turning towards where the door is. Lea gets a gentle headbutt, that's more like Isa bumping her snoot against Lea's shoulder.]

I'm goin', I'm goin'.

[ She is moving, too, floating lazily across the cobblestone and dirt just to ruffle Isa up a little and get her to focus on something else. Maybe she'll put her tail in her face, like cats do. ]

[what— that was an ilu boop, dummy. don't make her pick you up and carry you, she'll do it. in fact, that sounds like a good idea. Isa gently grabs Lea's tail and yoinks her closer, and then sweeps her uh. out of the air, and rearranges her so that she's sort of cradled like babie in the upper pair of arms. that still leaves one for the candy and one to walk with, this is a great setup, why doesn't everyone have four arms?]

[ We have already established that Lea does not speak animal language. She understands what's going on here though, although she flails a little at being picked up in the usual way, and, like usual, doesn't fight it once she's settled in. She looks grumpy herself though, although that seems to be stemming from the tail yank. ]

Looks like I got a ride out of this anyway. You happy?

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welcome to kate's emporium of text walls and angsty symbolism

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