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

[ It's really less that she wanted advice or sage wisdom and more like... she knew he wouldn't give her a hard time for it, or feel particular emotions about it. He has no reason to care, and Riku already has a lot of complicated emotions about what she did. She doesn't need someone else's getting in the way, despite how much she wanted to tell someone. Her replica... wasn't going to be who she told, or Red, and Axel's great but...

She looks startled when he takes her hand, and completely unsure. She hadn't thought about that question, obviously. ]

I don't think I can.

But would you want to? Can, should, it doesn't matter as much as you think it does. You only have so many chances to do things, sometimes.

[if shit makes you happy, then do it, basically. he still likes to pretend consequences aren't a thing that happens, so his opinions aren't entirely useful, but. also here comes a shadow person with a tray full of meat.]

... Probably not. I don't think she deserves someone who can't give her their full attention. Or someone like me.

[ That sounds too depressingly self-deprecating. Here, she leans forward too, resting her chin in her hand. Since the food is coming: ]

I mean, if I'm going to throw monogamy out the window it would be for someone just as messed up as I am.

[ There, a one-liner. Riku is joke(?)-flirting. Now she'll lean back and look to the shadow-waiter. Is it going to be all raw meat... ]

[idk how it works normally so yes, unless there's some stuff that would normally take like 30+ minutes to cook thoroughly, in which case that's been pre-cooked lightly. clearly they don't know Hachibi can cook his own food. he lets go of her hand with a snort and leans back as well, sniffing at the tray of food that gets set down on the table.]

I very much doubt she's made it through everything she has completely unscathed. From what I've seen she's good at hiding most personal doubts and concerns, because she's the hero. She's not allowed to be uncertain or down on herself.

[whoops, that got real, he didn't mean to do that, sorry.]

You're not wrong.

[ Riku crosses her arms, because she knows. She knows Sora better than anyone except Kai, maybe. And she's known so many other Soras through this place. ]

But it doesn't matter. She's not coming here anyway, whether I wanted it or not.

She'll be fine, and so will you.

[have some of this meat, friend. food helps everything, which is why he's tossing a couple of bits onto the grill in the middle of the table, and cramming one of the raw bits into his mouth. he can't eat too much raw, Axel's system can't deal with it the way Hachibi's could, but a little is fine.]

I'm not worried about me.

[ She can do that too! A little. Normally Riku would never, not with red meat. (Fish is a different story.) But they're close enough to the full moon that she notices when he takes a chunk, and grabs one of her own to savor. She does like her steak a little more rare after all the werewolf business. But yes, more meat on the grill. ]

I have thought about it, though. You're right.

[ For some reason Hachibi has become a Person She Can Talk To. ]

And not just Sora. But I can't.

[now she's getting a slightly bemused look, because of course she can, if the person is there, just do it, what's the big deal. but no, he gets it, even if it's just abstractly. and maybe that's why he's someone she can talk to about shit; he's not really comparing himself to the same situation, either conceptually or from experience.]

You don't use that word the same way I do.

You mean you don't double and triple consider everything you do, questioning the effects it will have on your friends and relationships for years after you massively fucked up everything because you were a brat?

[ Ah, my protective sarcasm. She's immediately thinking of all the people she knows who will just be impulsive and do whatever as soon as they think of it, or with or without regard for consequences. Look at this blank stare. ]

Had no clue.

No, because I never stopped being a brat.

[look at this winning smile. at least he's self-aware these days, enough to know that much. nomp on this strip of beef, plucked directly off the grill.]

No one would know what to do with you if you did.

[ Do they have plates? I'm assuming they have plates, so Riku's going to get herself a couple pieces grilled before anything. Her tongue is not heat-resistant, after all. ]

[ ;O plates are for nerds, as are forks.]

Can you imagine if I got a Gemini? Except it would be too much like Axel to be new and interesting.

[ Riku stops, and then squints into the distance somewhere over Hachibi's shoulder. She's considering it seriously, and unhappily. ]

He'd be less tolerable than you, somehow. I don't even want to think about what mine is like at this point.

Polite and wimpy, I imagine.

[he's saying you're a badass bitch, Riku. <3 hmmm more beef on the grill, and some of this pork also.]

That's a compliment.

[ No one has ever described Riku as "polite", especially canonically. I'm a werewolf and I want a fuckload of charred sausage, please. ]

It is. Appreciate it, you know I hand those out about as often as I do apologies.

[and he had to ruin it by pointing it out, what a dipshit. but his wry expression says he's aware of that, at least. he nudges one of the plates of meat closer to her, he kind of claimed it automatically, whoops.]

I do know, and I do appreciate it.

[ She means that sincerely, too. Do we have sauce in this restaurant? Where is it. I need garlic and spice. ]

[Riku's getting the no banana face from Hachibi for her sauce preferences (there are a couple of bottles on the table), because he can smell the garlic without it even being opened yet.]

I'll never understand humans and the amount of stuff you put on your food.

[as if his human's tastebuds stop working when he's in control, or something.]

It's called "flavor".

[ The sass. ]

Meat's better when it's cooked with bacon, right?

God yes. But for the crunch and the grease.

[...maybe he just doesn't know how to interpret the info coming from human tastebuds. maybe he's just deeply in denial.]

I feel like you're missing something vital. If my parents ever show up again I'll have dad make dinner for us. He'd be thrilled, since it's so many people.

[ Her dad's grilled fish A++ also big island feasts. Riku can cook fish, but it's just not the same. ]

I liked him, the one time we were around him. If it's all fish I'm less interested, but I admit we don't eat it that often, maybe I just haven't had the right kind.

[my god, a compliment and an admission that maybe he's not an expert, in the same day?]

You really haven't, or you wouldn't be saying that.

[ Casual bragging about her dad, sorry. ]

If I ever had to give up meat, fish would be the last to go. Not that it'll happen.

I do like crab, but only because food that takes work to get into is usually good.

[Axel has almost certainly expressed this sentiment in the past, and Hachibi's demonstrating by snapping one of these ribs in half like it's a twig so he can actually get a taste of some marrow with his meat. that's not how crab works, but whatever. melted butter is also a pretty good human invention, he can taste that, at least.]

Alright, you're forgiven a little for your taste.

[ Riku loves crab. She would fight someone for crab. That is not at all like eating crab, to her, and she wrinkles her nose a little. Maybe because the last time she saw him do that it was Red's. Haha.

Anyway. ]

I missed you.