[Lucas considers himself fairly good at rolling with punches. He's a sunny-side-up sort of guy, a man of good humor and good spirits.
And then there's Ryslig. It's hard to be good-spirited about kidnappings and stories that sound like they came out of the dark space under Twilight's bed. It's hard, when he'd tried to get between an older man harassing a little girl, only to have the man flash fangs and fly away on wings. Real wings and real flight.
It was a relief to be able to follow familiar voices out to the clearing by the lake. It kind of looks a little like the set of Friday the 13th out here, but it can't be bad if his buds are here. They probably just got separated in the shuffle. Everything's gonna be okay.]
Oh man, am I glad to see you guys. Can you believe some of the...
[And then he's close enough to see them. His voice trails off slowly, eyes raking over the shapes of things that only tangentially resemble friends.
[And then here's Riley, clearly still herself despite all of the changes that have happened to her—and there have been quite a lot. She's a nymph, flowers and green skin everywhere, with some vines here and there too. She's like her own mini, personal garden at this point.
And the exact moment she sees Lucas, she freezes and her expression quickly goes from a :D to a D: and straight back to a tiny, unsure, disbelieving smile to try to be reassuring. He shouldn't be here. He was the one that got to escape all of this, and while there's part of her happy to see him, there's another part that just keeps going no. She doesn't want him to undergo everything that she's undergone with Maya and Farkle.]
[This is awkward, there is no way it can't be awkward, why can't Maya be here to call him Huckleberry, why is everything awful, oh god. She'd taken to stepfording a bit since everything continued to get worse, but here's Lucas and that broke down whatever flimsy barriers she had in place pretty easily.]
Welcome to Ryslig. You haven't been here too long, have you?
[She stands, awkwardly, and Lucas can probably see the roots that have taken the place of her toes now, and she awkwardly clasps her hands behind her as she tries to even consider what to say. And she hopes that he hasn't been here for too long.]
[EVERYTHING IS WRONG, it's a good thing no one can hear her internal screaming.]
You see, things sort of—happened, and it was because of these scratches and—[She unclasps her hands, waving them around maybe a bit too dramatically.] Now I'm a nymph! And the same thing happened to Maya, and she's a manticore, and Farkle is whatever he is.
[Lucas is a good student. He's studied his mythology when they were covering it in class. And as far as he knows, "Nymph" is some kind of ancient nature girl. And those myths always get a little Rated R, the kind of stuff that's best read with the flashlight app on his phone under some covers.]
Right. Okay. I follow.
I hit my head, and I'm hallucinating.
[Because why else is he about to have a sexy dream about Riley even though he usually has them about Maya this is all so confusing.]
No. [She sighs, clasping her hands together again, rocking back on her heels.] I'm sorry, I know it's really hard to believe—but everyone that comes here turns into some kind of monster, and—it's not a hallucination.
Oh, come on Riley. You can't really think I don't expect Zay and Maya to jump out from behind that tree over there laughing at me. I mean, it's a good makeup job, don't get me wrong, but...
[He cups Riley's cheek in a hand, rubbing his thumb along the side of the face to smear some of the obvious costume.
Except it's not smearing. and now it's just him touching Riley's face and she's too warm for this to be a prosthetic.
His face turns a shade of red, and he slowly, awkwardly, lowers the hand that touched her.]
[Oh god, Lucas is touching her, Lucas is touching her, her brain shuts down for a good few seconds before she blushes and pulls herself back, stumbling over her own feet a little.]
It's not makeup. I haven't seen Zay—it's just been me, Maya, and Farkle for a few months now. I know it's hard to believe.
[It's not real. It's not real because it can't be real because if it's real then something's been hurting his friends and that's a possibility that isn't allowed to happen ever.]
But I just saw you. All of you. We had lunch together.
[She takes a deep breath, trying to think of what to say—and considering skirting around how awfully people treat the monsters sometimes so that she doesn't overload Lucas anymore than he is being overloaded with all of this information.]
That's just... something weird about Ryslig. Maya doesn't remember anything about 8th grade, and she was here a lot longer than me or Farkle. Um.
No one's found a way home yet, and no one's figured out how to change back.
[She's absolutely positive that Lucas would do his angry Lucas thing if he had to—she knows the situation is probably enough to merit that reaction, because he always hated seeing things happen to his friends.]
It's the Fog God, and—no one knows. She just changes us.
[Riley's assessment is spot on; Lucas is already slightly puffed up with the level of importance that comes from rescuing a friend.]
If nobody's done it yet, then that just means we have to do it. It's the same thing we're always handling at home! When we're all together, we can do anything. Even the impossible.
[The impossible like making sure Riley doesn't have to be green.]
[Lucas, thank you for being predictable. In a way, that's kind of its own relief because it's something so familiar, but at the same time she doesn't want him to get hurt. There is hope, though. He's not wrong, the four of them can do anything—though they haven't quite faced anything like this before. Their lives have been so normal before this place.
She does offer him a small smile, though.]
We've been trying. Farkle's been doing a lot of studying, and I've been making sure that no one gives up hope.
[If there's one thing Farkle Minkus has taken one joy out of in this whole thing it's magic and learning how to use it. Or how it relates to science, to be more precise. Mostly it's just really cool and the one saving grace of the shrinking slightly more, turning a sickly shade of green, and looking like some weird version of Santa's helping elf. Except with tiny wings to boot.
He spends just as much time studying that as he does everything else, but maybe that's not a good thing because he doesn't seem to get any further in his researches as he'd like. It's distressing, but not nearly so much as the sudden voice behind them as they talked.]
Lucas! [Oh. Wait, this is not. A. Good. Thing. Welp, he hesitates making a face and trying to puzzle out what to say, but nah let's go casual.] Oh. Hi.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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And then there's Ryslig. It's hard to be good-spirited about kidnappings and stories that sound like they came out of the dark space under Twilight's bed. It's hard, when he'd tried to get between an older man harassing a little girl, only to have the man flash fangs and fly away on wings. Real wings and real flight.
It was a relief to be able to follow familiar voices out to the clearing by the lake. It kind of looks a little like the set of Friday the 13th out here, but it can't be bad if his buds are here. They probably just got separated in the shuffle. Everything's gonna be okay.]
Oh man, am I glad to see you guys. Can you believe some of the...
[And then he's close enough to see them. His voice trails off slowly, eyes raking over the shapes of things that only tangentially resemble friends.
This sure ain't Texas anymore.]
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And the exact moment she sees Lucas, she freezes and her expression quickly goes from a :D to a D: and straight back to a tiny, unsure, disbelieving smile to try to be reassuring. He shouldn't be here. He was the one that got to escape all of this, and while there's part of her happy to see him, there's another part that just keeps going no. She doesn't want him to undergo everything that she's undergone with Maya and Farkle.]
Lucas! Lucas. Hi. You're here now.
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This is awkward. This is the most awkward thing.
He slowly raises a hand, attempting a subtle wave.]
Hey.
...
Riley.
[It's not Riley it can't be Riley no way is that Riley.]
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[This is awkward, there is no way it can't be awkward, why can't Maya be here to call him Huckleberry, why is everything awful, oh god. She'd taken to stepfording a bit since everything continued to get worse, but here's Lucas and that broke down whatever flimsy barriers she had in place pretty easily.]
Welcome to Ryslig. You haven't been here too long, have you?
[She stands, awkwardly, and Lucas can probably see the roots that have taken the place of her toes now, and she awkwardly clasps her hands behind her as she tries to even consider what to say. And she hopes that he hasn't been here for too long.]
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I've got these scratches, and I think something bit me. So.
[Riley's treating this like there's nothing wrong with this and there is very much something wrong with everything happening right now.]
So you're green. Is. There a school play I don't know about?
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[EVERYTHING IS WRONG, it's a good thing no one can hear her internal screaming.]
You see, things sort of—happened, and it was because of these scratches and—[She unclasps her hands, waving them around maybe a bit too dramatically.] Now I'm a nymph! And the same thing happened to Maya, and she's a manticore, and Farkle is whatever he is.
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Right. Okay. I follow.
I hit my head, and I'm hallucinating.
[Because why else is he about to have a sexy dream about Riley
even though he usually has them about Mayathis is all so confusing.]no subject
No. [She sighs, clasping her hands together again, rocking back on her heels.] I'm sorry, I know it's really hard to believe—but everyone that comes here turns into some kind of monster, and—it's not a hallucination.
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[He cups Riley's cheek in a hand, rubbing his thumb along the side of the face to smear some of the obvious costume.
Except it's not smearing. and now it's just him touching Riley's face and she's too warm for this to be a prosthetic.
His face turns a shade of red, and he slowly, awkwardly, lowers the hand that touched her.]
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It's not makeup. I haven't seen Zay—it's just been me, Maya, and Farkle for a few months now. I know it's hard to believe.
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But I just saw you. All of you. We had lunch together.
[Months, she said.]
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That's just... something weird about Ryslig. Maya doesn't remember anything about 8th grade, and she was here a lot longer than me or Farkle. Um.
Why don't we sit down.
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[Because sitting down is the opposite of what should happen in that instance.]
Who's doing this to you? What do we have to do to get them to stop?
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[She's absolutely positive that Lucas would do his angry Lucas thing if he had to—she knows the situation is probably enough to merit that reaction, because he always hated seeing things happen to his friends.]
It's the Fog God, and—no one knows. She just changes us.
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If nobody's done it yet, then that just means we have to do it. It's the same thing we're always handling at home! When we're all together, we can do anything. Even the impossible.
[The impossible like making sure Riley doesn't have to be green.]
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[Lucas, thank you for being predictable. In a way, that's kind of its own relief because it's something so familiar, but at the same time she doesn't want him to get hurt. There is hope, though. He's not wrong, the four of them can do anything—though they haven't quite faced anything like this before. Their lives have been so normal before this place.
She does offer him a small smile, though.]
We've been trying. Farkle's been doing a lot of studying, and I've been making sure that no one gives up hope.
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He spends just as much time studying that as he does everything else, but maybe that's not a good thing because he doesn't seem to get any further in his researches as he'd like. It's distressing, but not nearly so much as the sudden voice behind them as they talked.]
Lucas! [Oh. Wait, this is not. A. Good. Thing. Welp, he hesitates making a face and trying to puzzle out what to say, but nah let's go casual.] Oh. Hi.