Who:
restardom and any of her Square/Disney/KH travel buddies (Rise why) if they feel so inclined. Otherwise, it's just a stand-alone.
Where: Somewhere on Route 32
When: The first night of GLITCHING GALORE, shortly after Nanako's post
Summary: Rise copes. Or tries to. ACTION IS TOTALLY FINE.
Rating: G is the guess here.
Log: (
And the future will pour down )
So he stopped right in his tracks and turned on his heel, heading back toward Rise. If she was having trouble keeping up, he was more than happy to hang back with her.
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"I'm keeping up, I promise," she assured him, just in case that was the case.
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Sora half-wondered if it wasn't just Rise's ankle that kept her back here, and although that would certainly be understandable, he wasn't going to pry. Not yet. He stopped in front of her, extending his hand for her to take.
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And maybe it'd be easier to snap herself out of this slump with company.
With a defeated sigh and that same smile, Rise placed her hand in Sora's. "I guess that makes us lookout comrades then!"
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That was the phrase Goofy used, anyway-- that's how their formation generally worked: Sora in front because he was the quickest and hit the hardest, Donald in the middle because he was the squishiest and therefore protected in the middle by the other two, and Goofy in the back so he could keep an eye out for anything Sora and Donald might have missed.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, if you will.
He took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, carefully leading her closer. He'll keep hanging on in case Rise needs someone to lean on. One downside to Sora's company is having to put up with his lame sense of humor, though.
"Some weather we're having, huh?"
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... Namely, herself. And now with complimentary joke-cracking spiky-headed Keyblade wielder. At the very least, she'd had practically a year to adjust to the anomaly that was Teddie and his awful bear puns - the kind that usually sent Yukiko into gales of cackling laughter, but made the rest of the team groan - so Sora's sense of humor might have actually been a relief when compared to his.
Not that the look on Rise's face stated that. In fact, she was already rolling her eyes, even if she settled into a hop-stride that kept her from leaning on Sora too much.
"I was just thinking on working on my tan, actually," she replied airily.
Because sometimes you couldn't help but joke just to get through things.
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Talking ducks and dogs, a living wooden puppet, candy spaceships made out of candy blocks that he could definitely confirm were not edible, whale innards that made Sora wonder if perhaps Monstro hadn't eaten more than just his Gummi Ship in his lifetime... giant living cards with spears and potions that shrunk you down to mice size... Sora's repertoire of weird is pretty extensive.
"Er, well. Even if we haven't, at least all of us are experiencing it together?"
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Among other things, but Rise had the skill of adaptability, and very few things were odd to her-- once she gave them a few minutes to sink in. Ven could still give her headaches, though.
"We have," she informed him, not exactly certain of what Sora had witnessed, but knowing it had to be something odd for him to mention that at all. "I've seen ( ... )
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Not that he'd ever been trapped in what appeared to be a glitching computer before. Caused computers to glitch, though, that's an entirely different story. Sora smiled lightly at Rise, bumping her arm gently with his own.
"There's no reason to worry, then. Those things can look as weird and scary as they want, but I doubt they'd be weird and scary enough to actually hurt anybody."
He'd tossed that reassurance out there as a sort of precautionary gesture. Sora wasn't sure if Rise really was upset about something, or if it was her ankle that was still hurting, but he wanted her to know that he'd be there either way.
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So was she upset?
... Well, she was trying not to be. Souji only had a few bruises, and Nanako's bloody knee had come about from tripping, not from the... whatever-it-was actually hurting her. The team (Rise herself on occasion) had taken harder hits than that and emerged from them just fine, but this was different. Here, she wasn't with them.
But that was the way she'd felt when Sora had found out about Vanitas. When Minnie had been found in the well. When Kanji had broken his hand because of things he'd thought she and the others had said. When Heather had disappeared. When Ven had told her ( ... )
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The memory of how he'd felt that entire week still stung familiarly, and Sora wasn't able to look at Rise for a moment, either. Despite the hurt, though, he remembered something else, too. He stopped, and turned to face her, still hanging on to her hand.
"Hey, Rise? Look at me for a minute."
He paused, though just for a few seconds.
"Do you... remember the last message you sent us last week? What you told us?"
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So she merely nodded. She did remember, vaguely, what he was referring to. Because it had been the only thing she could say to sum up exactly how she felt-- how she'd always felt about her friends.
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"Then, Rise, you already are here for us. Right here." He patted his heart with the hand not grasping hers. "I know it's... hard not being there for them in person. To not be there to protect them and hide them from danger, or darkness, or whatever's hurting them."
In that moment, Sora had a revelation. With what he was about to say, he suddenly knew that back home, Riku was going to be okay. It's probably how he wound up okay through his home being destroyed, learning to wield the Keyblade, right up until that final moment in Hollow Bastion. He was protected by his friends in his heart, and Kairi... well, Kairi's heart was literally with him, but the same principle applied ( ... )
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"Of course, Rise. C'mon, no tears... Want me to sing you a song Goofy taught me?"
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She let Sora draw her closer for a much-needed hug, managing a nod (that didn't require talking with a shaky voice) and a raised eyebrow-- once she'd given her eyes a quick swipe to gather moisture. "I didn't know Goofy sang..."
Then again, her knowledge of Goofy consisted of big teeth, long ears, and somehow being a top knight-- according to Minnie.
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