The Island to Various Rifts, Friday Through Sunday

[spin_kick_snap]

This is what happens when you stopped listening to the radio for the island; you were taken by surprise when you stepped on the island and saw that half of it looked like it belonged somewhere and somewhen else. Like, even moreso than usual.

Even with all the differences in the island, the first rift took Kathy by surprise as it opened up under her feet, too wide for her to bounce out. It reminded her a little too much of that column of light that had grabbed her to bring her to LA. Only this time it was down instead of up and when she looked around...

"Okay, I am not in Kansas anymore."

[For thems what are there with her.]

Comments

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante winked at her. "Three," he said, and took one step off the edge.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy bounced down, appreciating the chance to do something stupid and adrenaline-inducing that wasn't followed up by a sick twist of fear, and landed on the roof of the train. She immediately grabbed for a handhold, mostly to keep herself from bouncing back up again. That could get a little dangerous on a moving train. "What next?" she yelled, like Dante had done this before.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged, grinning, like he had done this before. "Get in?" he suggested, already moving towards the back of the compartment.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy wasn't prepared to swear for sure that he hadn't.

She followed after him, climbing down to the back of the car. It had a door to the compartment there and a small walkway to the next car in line.

"That one," she said, pointing to the second car. "They won't have heard us land."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Good thinking," Dante said, sliding easily along the walkway. Paused, by the next compartment, looking at Kathy with a question in his eyes. "Ready for this?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Well, I'm letting you go first, just in case," Kathy said with a small smile. "But yeah. Let's do this."

She...kinda wanted to see what came next, honestly. Like her sense of adventure was waking up after a long nap.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante reached for the door and pulled--

...and found himself face-to-face with a large rift. "What the...?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"That's the thing I fell through," Kathy said, peeking over his shoulder. "Do you think it leads back to the island?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"I mean, we can try...?" Dante said.

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's that or we take our chances here." Kathy shot him an amused glance out the corner of her eyes. "Do you wanna do something? Or sit and wait and see?"

She didn't bother waiting for his answer. Dante would always rather do.

[rebelseekspizza]

Yeah, he was moving by the time she said 'something', striding forward through the entrance and into--

Okay, he'd expected to feel dizzier.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy popped out behind him and immediately looked around. "Well, not Fandom, that's for sure," she said. "But nothing is upside down, so..."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Still pretty far from home," Dante said, turning around to regard the... yep, street. "Not lookin' very East Coast in general."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy looked closer, at the way the buildings rose above the horizon and realized that, no, she knew exactly what coast they were on.

"It's LA," she said. "We're in LA."

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante blinked, and looked aside at her abruptly. "Fuck," he said. "You okay?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Look," she said, pointing to the city. "The lights are on."

Hard to tell in the day, but here and there the neon gleamed bright enough to be seen even in the sunshine. More sun reflected off car windows and chrome as vehicles chugged up and down the 10.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Well... not your LA, then, I guess," Dante said, relaxing a tad. "Maybe it's Fandom's?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I don't think so," Kathy said, tiny niggling details reading 'wrong' to her on a level too unconscious to really pick out. "It's not quite right."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Well, as long as nothing's coming swinging at us, I guess it could be worse...?"

A beat.

"Fuck, being in the city makes me hungry."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Everything makes you hungry," Kathy said with a smile. "Should we go looking for pizza?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Might as well get a snack before we figure out how to get home, right?" Dante said. "You know you wanna too."

[spin_kick_snap]

"Actually, I kinda wanna see if the Pickle Hut is open," Kathy admitted. "I miss their burgers."

It hadn't been a chain and she hadn't felt comfortable asking Anders to go with her to see if there was a version of it in Fandom's LA.

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante blinked. Then he nodded. Slowly. "Okay," he said. "Let's go find the Pickle Hut."

[spin_kick_snap]

"You gonna be okay going there?" she asked. "It's the same diner that..." She trailed off and shrugged. "That you found me in. That day."

[rebelseekspizza]

"I know."

He shrugged. Tried to be casual about it. "It'll be fine. Whatever, it was years ago."