A bell behind her rings as the pizza place's door opens, and a certain familiar boy walks out. He has a pizza box in his hands, and his face is hidden as he struggles to close the lid one-handedly.
Scowling to himself, he stops walking, fumbling with the lid's edges. No, this part goes inside. Inside, not--okay, there. Closing the lid with an accomplished grin, he finds himself looking straight ahead at the person who'd been hidden up until then. He goes very still.
For the first entire couple of seconds, he just deals with a sudden overwhelming sense of familiarity, that he knows this person and that they mean the world to him. When his thoughts finally catch up with him, he has words for what his instincts are screaming at him: best friend. Best friend who he hasn't seen in over a year and a half. Best friend who's gone through so much with him in the past, and who is now finally here. She is here, isn't she? This isn't some kind of cruel illusion
( ... )
The sound in her voice isn't shock or surprise or any sort of overwhelming emotion. Mostly just a mild relief, really, and she smiles widely at him before glancing from side to side, struggling to make a little more sense of the situation.
"Have you found Tuck, yet?"
She stretches up, stands on her tiptoes to peer over Danny's shoulder as if Tucker might be hiding there, and then drops back down to blink at him. The fact that he's holding a pizza -- or that he's not in the same clothes he was wearing about six minutes ago -- doesn't really register with her yet.
"Have I found Tucker?" Danny repeats incredulously, not even seeming to understand the question. Where Sam is mildly affected, Danny's mind has been blown: Sam's here. Now, is she an illusion, or is she real?
Suddenly he has to make sure. He needs to know if this is really his friend, and that she's solid. Starting towards her, his vague notion of patting her arm from afar somehow gets mixed up in translation and becomes him throwing his arms around her in a rushed, desperately glad hug. (And yes, he's completely ignoring how this must seem to the fresh-from-their-homeworld-Sam.)
"Sam, you're here! I mean, you're actually here, even after so much time with no one else coming!"
Well, something is obviously not right. Had Danny hit his head? Had something happened to him? She lifts her arms a little awkwardly to gingerly pat him on the back. "Why wouldn't I be here? Didn't something just --"
Wait.
Why did Danny have a pizza?
She steps back then, shaking her head from side to side and making a vain attempt at collecting herself. "Danny, what's going on?"
He looks perfectly fine, although by the time she pats his back he's started to realize how incredibly awkward this hug is. Her step away from him comes half a beat after his own step away from her.
"Sam, we're not in Amity Park anymore. We're in a dreamworld called Somarium." There's a tiny pause. After having stood there drinking in the sight of her, it suddenly occurs to him to check for injuries, or any other bizarre differences between how he last saw her. "How long have you been here? Are you okay?"
"Like.. ninety seconds, maybe." She's completely unhurt, though there is a red imprint on her cheek where she had been propping her face up with her hands. "How long have I been here? How long have you been here?"
She's having just a little bit of difficulty wrapping her mind around most of this, and she gives her head another shake, as if that will somehow help.
"Ninety seconds? Wow. You're really fresh off the boat."
For the first time in a long time, Danny takes full advantage of the benefits of having best friends from a place like Amity Park, and a background of ghosts and insanity. "Uh--that's kind of hard to explain. Time passes differently here than in our world, so I think I've been here for over a year."
Well, that would certainly explain Danny's reaction to her, and she gives him another look - a hard, scrutinizing one, as if trying to figure out if anything has changed about him or not.
'That's impossible,' is what she wants to say, but she knows better and instead just takes a low breath, trying not to spaz out entirely.
"That's - it's seriously not cool. How do you - you just live here?" Notice the second person singular, not the first person plural; maybe she hasn't quite accepted what he's saying yet.
He looks roughly the same as he last did in her world: he hasn't aged a day. Any other changes (if they're there) are probably too hard to notice around that almost goofy euphoria he had at seeing her for the first time in so long.
That joy, by the way, fades a notch at her question. "Well... Yeah. It's not like we have much of a choice. There's no way back home from here, unless you just randomly 'go' the way you came."
Scowling to himself, he stops walking, fumbling with the lid's edges. No, this part goes inside. Inside, not--okay, there. Closing the lid with an accomplished grin, he finds himself looking straight ahead at the person who'd been hidden up until then. He goes very still.
For the first entire couple of seconds, he just deals with a sudden overwhelming sense of familiarity, that he knows this person and that they mean the world to him. When his thoughts finally catch up with him, he has words for what his instincts are screaming at him: best friend. Best friend who he hasn't seen in over a year and a half. Best friend who's gone through so much with him in the past, and who is now finally here. She is here, isn't she? This isn't some kind of cruel illusion ( ... )
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The sound in her voice isn't shock or surprise or any sort of overwhelming emotion. Mostly just a mild relief, really, and she smiles widely at him before glancing from side to side, struggling to make a little more sense of the situation.
"Have you found Tuck, yet?"
She stretches up, stands on her tiptoes to peer over Danny's shoulder as if Tucker might be hiding there, and then drops back down to blink at him. The fact that he's holding a pizza -- or that he's not in the same clothes he was wearing about six minutes ago -- doesn't really register with her yet.
Reply
Suddenly he has to make sure. He needs to know if this is really his friend, and that she's solid. Starting towards her, his vague notion of patting her arm from afar somehow gets mixed up in translation and becomes him throwing his arms around her in a rushed, desperately glad hug. (And yes, he's completely ignoring how this must seem to the fresh-from-their-homeworld-Sam.)
"Sam, you're here! I mean, you're actually here, even after so much time with no one else coming!"
Reply
Wait.
Why did Danny have a pizza?
She steps back then, shaking her head from side to side and making a vain attempt at collecting herself. "Danny, what's going on?"
Reply
"Sam, we're not in Amity Park anymore. We're in a dreamworld called Somarium." There's a tiny pause. After having stood there drinking in the sight of her, it suddenly occurs to him to check for injuries, or any other bizarre differences between how he last saw her. "How long have you been here? Are you okay?"
Reply
She's having just a little bit of difficulty wrapping her mind around most of this, and she gives her head another shake, as if that will somehow help.
Reply
For the first time in a long time, Danny takes full advantage of the benefits of having best friends from a place like Amity Park, and a background of ghosts and insanity. "Uh--that's kind of hard to explain. Time passes differently here than in our world, so I think I've been here for over a year."
Reply
Well, that would certainly explain Danny's reaction to her, and she gives him another look - a hard, scrutinizing one, as if trying to figure out if anything has changed about him or not.
'That's impossible,' is what she wants to say, but she knows better and instead just takes a low breath, trying not to spaz out entirely.
"That's - it's seriously not cool. How do you - you just live here?" Notice the second person singular, not the first person plural; maybe she hasn't quite accepted what he's saying yet.
Reply
That joy, by the way, fades a notch at her question. "Well... Yeah. It's not like we have much of a choice. There's no way back home from here, unless you just randomly 'go' the way you came."
Reply
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