(no subject)

[cinderlea]

[ 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. ]

Comments

[dawnrise]

[ Gosh. She doesn't mind any of it, and just holds on until he's done. If he keeps it up for too long she will ragdoll, though. ]

I missed you too. Kept my memories this time.

[f1re0nthesun]

[nah, he knows her tolerance for that sort of behavior is fairly low. he's curious about the additional smell, is there someone else here?]

That's good, it probably helped you fight that much harder, I know it helped Kai. Isa was a pretty good substitute for you, at least. She told me how things actually went compared to what I'd seen, it helped keep me from being a nervous wreck the entire time.

[dawnrise]

I can't even picture you two interacting that well, so I guess I'll have to see it for myself. Wait, what'd you see that made you so nervous?

[ There is in fact someone else here, and they're not easily visible from the door, being on the couch, but there's definitely a mess of silver hair trying to peek over. Who knows if this particular person even came up in his conversation with Isa. ]

[f1re0nthesun]

[it didn't, probably, and Axel's trying not to be too distracted by what little he can see behind Riku.]

—uh. The way it went in what I played was that Sora was probably dead or in limbo or something, and that Kairi might be as well, it was really unclear. As if the shit with Xemnas targeting Kai wasn't enough. I was so worried he wouldn't come back, until I talked to Isa.

[dawnrise]

What? What do you mean Sora was dead? What the hell happened?

[ There we go, there's the mild freakout. Imagine how terrible it would have been if everything from the game came true for her and Kai, Axel. Just imagine what that would have been like. ]

[f1re0nthesun]

[well, he hasn't really let go of her from the hug, he just stopped twirling her, so have more hug.]

It wasn't super clear, something about using the power of waking too much, but I'm really glad it didn't go that way for you guys. And it didn't, so quit freaking out about it.

[dawnrise]

[ Fine, she'll relax a little, but she's still a little tense on the inside, even if her limbs are mostly limp. ]

Look, you can't just say something like that and expect me to just go "okay". Sora might not be here, but... Every time I go back, I remember how much I missed her.

[ She loves her other bff, even if it's been years and she only periodically has 'her' Sora.

A rather smaller (teenage) Riku is climbing off the couch now to walk over, looking concerned and also skeptical of the amount of bullshit coming out of this conversation. ]

[f1re0nthesun]

I know. Would some equally alarming news help? Hi.

[waddup, smol Riku. your presence is much more sensible than what happened in the game, but Axel's still a little surprised.]

[dawnrise]

Like what?

[ She's going to be really pissed if it's something dumb like another game came out and there's a new threat or something. She looks supremely Done with this entire story. At the 'hi' she does turn around to see the smolku.

The replica gives him a little wave and crosses her arms. She's in normal, casual clothes, and looks very interested in whatever else he has to say. ]

[f1re0nthesun]

Xigbar's not dead, and is part of some people from like. Before the first keyblade war. I'll show you the stuff about it next time you come over, it's a little complicated.

[i mean it's sort of that, so. he very vaguely remembers about the girl Repliku who was around when he first got to the dressing room, but that was ages and ages ago, and this isn't quite the same.]

[dawnrise]

[ There's a long moment of silence from both of them. Then, in unision: ]

What?

[f1re0nthesun]

Yeah. It sucks. He- she, was just a planted spy the whole time, it's so stupid. Also more time travel bullshit? Like the Xehanorts weren't enough.

[one of many things that he was almost certainly shouting vaguely about from inside his blanket fort of secrecy. Axel lives such a weird meta existence compared to you canon people.]

[dawnrise]

A planted spy by who? People from the past? The first Keyblade War? What do they want?

[ What the fuck is happening. She really thought things were finished. ]

[f1re0nthesun]

Oh my god. Okay, um- here.

[clearly he should've saved this for later, even though it is pretty important. he's gonna steer Riku over to the couch and sit down on one end, facing the other end so they can talk.]

1/2

[benighting]

[ The replica shoots Riku a look, as they pass, then follows and takes a seat on the far corner of the couch. She might be staring at Axel, because what the fuck, it's another Axel, and it's a guy, and he's got all of this inside info that means more bullshit in the future because of some game? ]

[dawnrise]

[ He really should have, but Riku's glad she's getting all of this information now, rather than later. She might yell at him later for letting her go home without a warning that Sora and/or Kai might die, though. She would have been a complete wreck. ]

Do you want me to at least introduce you first?

[f1re0nthesun]

Oh. Yeah, this wasn't in what I played but it makes more sense. Another replica body, or...?

[the games are increasingly stupid, he's finding. they're good for a general layout of what happened but not a lot more than that. he is interested in how this other Riku came to be, he's just also a dumbass.]

1/2

[dawnrise]

Yeah, she's from the same time. She didn't just show up here like they usually do.

[ Because why would Riku think the replica in the games wasn't also given a body? She gestures to the replica. ]

You know who she is.

[ Then she looks at the replica, and gestures to Axel. ]

This is Axel. He's kind of one of the doubles I told you about, but he's... different. Not from the same kind of world. There's a hyena in there, too, but I guess he's less excited to see me than last time.

[benighting]

I think... I remember him from your Heart.

[ It's hazy. Feelings, mostly. Unclear memories. Nothing solid enough to grasp. She just sort of gives another little salute-wave, because what. ]

What makes more sense?

[f1re0nthesun]

Uhh.

[he has to think for a second. also while he's distracted, if Riku's paying attention, his eyes go gold for a second in acknowledgement, sorry smolku if that's jarring.]

I think the easiest explanation is that these games are kid-friendly, and also all of the boy versions of Riku are idiots sometimes. Ri's a good example, actually. What happened in the game was that you-

[he points at smolku.]

Were inside of Riku for that fight in the maze, and kind of ejected yourself from her- him, and punched the heart or whatever out of the dark version and left the empty replica body behind for... Nami, I think is where it went. It was dumb and didn't make sense.

[benighting]

[ The gold is super jarring and makes her tense for a moment and look at Riku, but since Riku looks relaxed and she has no idea what's going on anyway, the replica doesn't freak out. She looks... less confused by that than she should, maybe, and turns a more skeptical look on Riku. ]

So I guess other yous just don't stop me?

[ Riku shrugs helplessly, because fuck if she knows how boy-hers work, but she looks somewhat disturbed by this information. ]

[f1re0nthesun]

Like I said, the boy versions are really dumb sometimes. Um. Okay, how do I explain the other stuff...

[he has to think again, and runs a hand distractedly through his hair. i could just handwave the explanation, but it's good to make Axel use his brain.]

I guess the short version is that time travel is horrible and bad. The longer version is that there was this person back before the first keyblade war called the Master of Masters, who wrote down a bunch of prophecies and then disappeared, leaving these five foretellers behind who had copies of the prophecies, and then a sixth person who had a page that had been removed from all the prophecy books who was just supposed to keep an eye on things, I think.

[with him so far? the next text wall will be bigger and will almost certainly skip some bits, but we may as well get it over with now.]

[dawnrise]

And this is before the first War.

[ What the hell is going on. Why does Axel get to know all of this stuff? ]

I'm not sure you should be telling us all of this, but at this point I guess I don't care. Especially if some people aren't even alive in those other versions. You're sure this happened in our world too?

[f1re0nthesun]

No, but I think the part where Xigbar's not dead happened, Isa said she'd sort of wondered why Braig didn't show up recompleted again, after everything.

[because it's funny, and because someone has to. actually blame Tanya, i think she had Kai show Axel the first game, and it was all downhill from there.]

[dawnrise]

I guess I never really questioned it.

[ That's suspicious. Why Xigbar, though? ]

So she time-traveled?