fandomhighdorms | Lobby: Thursday, All Day (Except Fifth Period): Cookie Table

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Lobby: Thursday, All Day (Except Fifth Period): Cookie Table

Okay, so: she'd made several dozen cookies last night, and she had actually followed the recipes for once instead of just making things up as she went along. So they weren't, say, Surprise Cookies, but they should be edible, which ... surprise cookies sometimes weren't.

Rikku got a table and set out the cookies - some chocolate chip, some of the peanut butter kind with the fork-marks on top, and some oatmeal raisin - and pulled up a chair. And behind her, she hung the sign she had made.

I am really sorry ...

See, this is why she put the note in the paper. Because she wasn't so great at signs.

She sat down and waited for people to come by. And take some cookies.

[so very, very open! harass Rikku, take some cookies, or both]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, I was with people who were really ... powerful, you know? Magic and swords, and - explosives were just kinda what I did." Rikku giggled. "And it'd be funnier if you had screwed it up, like, 'Eat at Jog's'."

"Where did you come from?" she asked. "It certainly sounds different."

"And do not get any ideas."

Peter tried to look innocent.

"I'm, um. From Spira? It's kinda - sideways from here. No one here has ever heard of it. I keep ... expecting someone to say something about me being Al Bhed, but no one cares." She shrugged. "And the magic and swords stuff - that was because I was a Guardian, I mean, we had to protect Yuna, so we needed to be able to fight, you know?"

Isabel eyed Peter warily and waited for her shirt to wind up saying Kick me or something similar.

"That sounds interesting Rikku," she said. "And is that where you learned how to tear reality?"

Rikku flushed. "N-no, that's ... it was an accident. I had an idea and went to the library, and found something, and it seemed just plausible enough that I had to try it. It was ... stupid, and reckless, and I knew better, I just thought ... if I could ..." She swallowed. "Anyway. I screwed it up and I won't do it again and, you know. Cookies."

"Which I for one appreciate," Peter said, snagging another cookie. "The cookies I mean. Anyway, I gotta scoot ~~as my mun's going afk for hours~~. Thanks for the snack, Rikku!"

Of course before he left Peter tried one last change on Isabel's shirt, where the back now read "Cookie thief."

"No problem. Good luck with the world-saving!" She waved.

"Bye Peter!" Isabel waved. She didn't notice what he did to her shirt until that evening. At which point Peter could have probably heard her laughter in his room.

"It's okay," Isabel said as she turned to Rikku. "I remember you being in the library. You weren't even in Special Collections, so I doubt you were trying to do something like this on purpose. If you want, come by next Wednesday, maybe I can help you find something a little less dangerous."

Rikku flinched a bit and stared at her hands. "No, that ... that was after. I did go into Special Collections for this. I didn't realize ... what it was like in there. I was stupid. I know that. I just didn't think anyone would get hurt, except me, and ... I was willing to take that chance. I thought I had to." She swallowed, hard. "But it didn't work. He didn't move here. I moved ... somewhere, I don't know where. I blew something up to get back. That's how it tore."

"I ... that's really nice of you to offer. There may not even be a way to do it. Safe or otherwise. He may not ... even exist any more." She shrugged. "Hades said he could do it, but he wanted some kind of deal for it, like my soul or something. Even Professor Ares thought that was a bad idea."

"So I'm not sure ... what to do any more. Maybe I was selfish to try and maybe I'm selfish to give up and I'm not sure about anything."

"He might not exist?" Isabel asked. "I have a feeling I'm missing a lot of back story. If you want to talk about it, I'll listen." She thought of Max and Michael, trapped on Antar and how much she wanted to get back to them once the timelines synced up. "Trust me, I think I'll be able to relate."

Rikku smiled ruefully. "You, uh, don't mind?" She stared at the table for another moment. "It's just that we had to ... save the world. And he wasn't real. His whole world was a Summoning and wow, nobody here has Summoners either, but the fayth had to be set free and they stopped dreaming and he disappeared and ..."

Rikku shook her head. "He wasn't supposed to be real, and when we fixed what was wrong with our world, he stopped being real. He faded out in front of us and she ... she hasn't been the same. I thought ... if I could find him, somehow, and bring him back ..."

She looked up at Isabel, biting her lip. "I'm supposed to be her Guardian, is all. Protect her. So if risking my life would bring him back, or making a crazy deal with Hades, then ... isn't that my responsibility? Maybe I'm selfish. I don't know any more."

Isabel only understood about half of that. But it was enough. She'd certainly risk her life if it meant keeping Max and Michael safe. God only knows she'd done it before, be it when they facing down the FBI in Roswell, or Kivar's forces on Antar. She thought of Maria and Liz, grieving in Roswell. "If he's not meant to be...I don't know. You're talking about stuff I have no experience in dealing with. At least beyond knowing that it does hurt."

Rikku looked up, nodding slowly. "You ... you too, huh? It kinda sounds like you could join our club."

She waved vaguely. "Sorry, Dawn and Luke and I are going to start one. Maybe, they might be kidding but I'd kind of like to. Just - for what happens when you save the world but you don't get to celebrate 'cause ... you have to go to the funerals."

"Yeah, I probably could," Isabel nodded. "My record on world saving isn't all that great. But I do know all about losing people."

"I'm sorry," Rikku said softly. "For the people you've lost."

"Thanks," she said. "And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dump my own issues all over you."

"Oh! No, don't be." Rikku shook her head. "I ... it's kind of nice, somehow, knowing that ... other people understand. I mean. What it's like."

She swallowed, hard. "It's harder with him because ... he's not really dead. He's not supposed to be gone, he just vanished. I thought I could fix it. Maybe I just wanted to pretend it's not real, or I could control things, or ... I don't know any more."

"Trust me, a lot of people around her understand," Isabel assured her.

"Yeah, I'm sure you'd want some sort of closure. Maybe if you figure out where he went? More research?"

"Sometimes I think it's too many," she said, softly. "I'd almost rather it was no one else, you know?"

Rikku nodded. "Maybe. I'm scared to ... I don't want to go back into the restricted area, but that was the only place that seemed to know. But it hurt my head in there. I just wonder ... if he's out there, you know? And what that means."

"Oh I know. We're supposed to be high schoolers. Our biggest worry is supposed to be who likes who, or where we're going to college," she sighed. "Not how to keep the people we love safe, or how to save our planet."

"If he's out there, then there's a chance you can get him back. It's just a matter of finding the right way."

Rikku nodded. "At least mine's over. I mean, we saved the world. We did it. I know people here who ... still have to go back and face whatever's out there. That has to be harder. It'd kill your nerves."

"Do you ..." She took a breath. "Do you really believe that? He's ... he may not exist. He kinda never did, in one way, but ... I mean, he was here. He was solid, and you could punch him and talk to him and laugh with him and whatever it was that Yunie did with him off in the spring 'cause I so didn't ask but you know. So ... he's real enough, isn't he? Maybe?!"

It was a bit of a struggle, but Isabel didn't shudder. "People do what they have to do. Even if it scares them to death."

"I've seen friends I thought were dead come back. People I thought were lost forever turn up for coffee in the Perk," she said. "It's Fandom. Anything is possible."

"Oh. OH. I didn't mean ... is that ... you, too?" She shook her head. "Man, I'm not so good with tact today, huh? I'm so sorry."

Rikku considered, for a long moment. "Maybe ... maybe you're right. Maybe it is. He was real enough for her to love. He's ... he's gotta be out there somewhere. I just ... maybe I shouldn't give up, yet. Yeah?"

"It's okay. There's no way you could have known. I haven't told that many people."

Isabel smiled, "Don't give up. Just don't do anything crazy without checking with people."

Lobby: Thursday, All Day (Except Fifth Period): Cookie Table

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