cinderlea | (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. ]

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Huh. Wonder what it was doing.

[ Totally deadpan. Was the Heartless taking sex toys. Good thing she's already her actual age again, because this conversation would be aging her if not.

Did he take Isa there. Christ. ]

[dammit, nothing? he misses when that would've flustered her all to hell. :( and yes, he did, just to show her where it was in case she wanted to get anything to accost Lea with at some point once everyone was back. did Isa actually go back and get something? who knows.]

Probably just looking for some shade, it was a nice sunny day.

I bet it was.

[ No, she's too old and she's had too much sex to get flustered over that. Now, if he tried to take her there as an outing... She's not going to ask if he took Isa, but she's assuming he did. ]

So nothing happened at all?

Not a damn thing, unless you count Riku willingly socializing with someone outside the family something.

[which IS pretty noteworthy, but. here we are at ice cream place, since i think it was just up the street.]

I mean, that's pretty remarkable.

[ Even Riku thinks so! Also hell yeah, time to get fucked up. She's gonna go inside and right up to the counter. Is this the same ice cream joint that Kairi and Axel went on a date to? ]

It is, yeah. He wasn't talkative or anything but he didn't avoid her or anything, I was really impressed.

[it is the same place, yes. what's Axel getting, i've forgotten already. he's looking at sherbet now, w/e. henlo shadow people, you're pretty cool.]

He's changed a lot since he first showed up.

[ Hello indeed. Riku doesn't get the creeps from these guys anymore, at least. She's gonna point at a flavor called Double Nutty Peanut Butter. ]

Waffle cone, two scoops.

Thank god, right? Just let me know if you're gonna hurl, I'll find you a bush. Waffle cone, one orange, one mango.

[ <3~ if mango sherbet doesn't exist irl it definitely does here.]

I'm not gonna hurl, I'll just give you what I can't finish.

[ Look at you with your tropical and refreshing scoops, you walking garbage disposal. The peanut butter has delicious pb chips in it, and chunks of peanut butter brittle stabbed into the top. She has zeroed in on it. ]

You know what I really wanted when I got back? Halloween Town food.

Gross, why? Or was that a euphemism, you know you don't have to spare me from the idea of you and Red, I don't mind.

[she's lucky he eats everything, even though peanut butter isn't high up on his list of flavors he likes.]

[ There you go, Axel, that one got her flustered and putting the cold waffle cone to her cheek after it's handed to her. ]

No! The food! What is it you're wanting to hear?

[ Implying he's a deviant who wants illicit details. ]

[i mean, he wouldn't say no to knowing if any of his specific tips have come into general use. /what. Axel laughs and leans over to kiss her other cheek at that, reaching with a long arm for the cone a shadow person is holding out for him. he'll stop now, that was all he wanted.]

Would you believe it, I honestly think Red's more palatable than a lot of the food he prefers.

You say that, but I've never been poisoned by pumpkin soup.

[ Is Riku implying that she, personally, has been poisoned by Red, or that Red is poisonous in general? She's going to sullenly crunch that brittle, since he's teasing her. ]

[just for that she's getting an arm around her shoulders. r we leavin this place or what.]

Good, you shouldn't have been. What's your guilty pleasure for Halloween Town food? The one super weird gross thing that you really like.

[ Yes, let's go back outdoors where it's nice. Maybe she'll lead him to the beach. ]

Uhh... I don't know. Most of what I like is really tame. Bugs. Ribs? No...

[ While Riku struggles to think, don't think about what kind of ribs she means. ]

[off they go then. he'd be cool with the beach! and he's absolutely thinking about what kind of ribs, since he's never seen any animals there besides Zero.]

What's considered finger food there, bugs? Fingers?

[dohohoho he's on a roll today.]

[ Definitely human. Also god, she rolls her eyes. ]

Nice. But... I have seen some nice finger sandwiches on Halloween.

[ Delicious peanut butter ice cream... Yeah, they're gonna walk to the beach. ]

Gross. But I guess I'd rather eat fingers than eyeballs or something.

[lead on, then. he's actually managing to take his time and eat his ice cream slowly and enjoy it!]

[ She is! I love how this is basically the same thing as the date thread so far. Obviously they're on a date now. Deadpan: ]

Depends on how they're prepared.

[also the abandoned olderxel birthday thread from like three years ago, where they had bbq and sake and then went and got milkshakes. and of course this is a date, why wouldn't it be.]

Is there a way to prepare eyeballs that makes it so they don't pop when you eat them?

~~[ But is it a platonic date ]~~

Probably, but why would you want to?

[ Now she's just trolling. There are probably more subtle influences from Halloween Town on Riku these days, besides the more greys and blacks in her wardrobe. More orange to go with the yellow, maybe, and the occasional spider or bat accessory, or piece of decor. ]

[that's honestly up to Riku, he's not opposed to some friend smooching at this point in time, especially if it's her. >.> ]

I have a limit on grossness, okay. Maybe that's why Red and I don't get along!

[ She probably would if that wouldn't upset her canonical relationship with Red. ~~Maybe there's just non-platonic feels because they're the only ones left.~~

Riku opens her mouth to say something, then snaps it shut and goes back to her ice cream. After a bite: ]

I'm sure it doesn't help.

[~~i mean, there's that too.~~ are they just sort of wandering around now, i forget.]

I think at this point the only thing I could do to be someone he could interact politely with is have a huge legitimate falling out with you.