Donald and Goofy finally arrived at Traverse Town. A town with a vaguely Victorian aesthetic in terms of design and layout with plenty of alleyways and shops of all variety along with whatever apartment homes could be seen. This was Traverse Town, where people of all variety lived. This was due to it being a shelter for those fortunate enough to survive any loss of their world. From what they learned, this town was within 'The Realm Between'. A fitting name given the open, starry night sky above them.
The instant they left their ship, they began searching for the 'Key' they were told about in the King's letter. They made their way through the First District of the town, clad in new attire purchased from one of the clothing stores: Goofy wearing a green turtle neck sweater under a black vest and yellow baggy pants with a matching had which also sported red goggles while Donald wore a different styled blue shirt with lighter blue accessorized pieces of fabric over the shoulders, golden bracelets and a beret themed hat with zippers at the back end.
"Huh?" Goofy grunted with curiosity and concern as his eyes were drawn skyward, catching Donald's attention. Thinking the dimwitted captain must have gotten distracted by something, the court wizard followed his gaze up to the sky…only to go wide-eyed alongside Goofy. "Look! A star's goin' out!" Goofy said fearfully, pointing to the sky. "No wait... two of em!"
Sure enough as Donald looked where Goofy pointed, two stars suddenly twinkled out of existence. The first vanished in a blink and the second followed barely a moment later. Their faces fell with increasing worry. The worlds were disappearing at a more alarming rate than they thought. If something wasn't done, countless more lives would be lost, and there wouldn't be any stars left in the sky.
"Come on. Let's hurry." Donald urged as they continued, Pluto walking happily beside them. They walked for several minutes through the streets but didn't see any sign of what they were looking for. It was enough for Donald to get miffed as he crossed his arms and asked, "Where's that key?" The key the King mentioned was their one hope to finding him and solving this crisis. If they didn't find it…well they would rather not think about it.
"Hey, you know? Maybe we ought to go find Leon?" Goofy suggested, remembering the other person the King told them in their letter.
As the pair wandered further through town, Pluto suddenly branched off from the way Donald was walking, and went into an alley. Goofy noticed this and looked between the dog and the duck. "Uh, Donald, y'know I think we should-" "Ah what do you know, you big palooka?" Donald interrupted with a dismissive wave. With everything else on their to-do list, Donald was in no mood to indulge any silly ideas. Goofy paused, considering Donald's words and wondered, "Hmm, what DO I know?" Maybe Donald was right. They couldn't afford to get distracted. "C'mon Pluto!" he called out as they moved on.
Oh if only the court wizard and captain of the guard knew what it was that their quadrupedal canine companion discovered. Sitting slumped and out cold next to a box was none other than Sora. Pluto shuffled up to the boy and gave him a lick on the side of his face. The action caused Sora to stir. With a groan, his blue eyes opened groggily, finding himself face to face with a weird looking dog panting and wagging its spindly tail. "What a dream..." Sora murmured as he dozed off again.
Pluto fixed that by pushing his right paw into Sora's gut, forcing him awake. "Ah! This isn't a dream!" Sora said, now wide awake, and VERY confused as he stood up and looked around. Suffice it to say, this place didn't look like home at all. "Where am I?...Oh boy." he wondered as he looked at the starry night sky. He looked down at the strange dog and, silly as it seemed, asked Pluto, "Do you know where we are?"
Rather than answer Sora in any way, Pluto suddenly perked up, raising one of his floppy ears as if he heard something. Before the boy knew it, the dog began running away. "Wh-Hey!" Sora called out, stumbling out of the alley only to stop with a stunned look on his face as he registered what he saw. Victorian buildings and lamp posts, colorful signs, people he didn't recognize, a hovering, winged, fluffy creature with a big round nose and some ball like thing attached to what looked like a string coming out of its head. "This is so weird." Sora said as the realization dawned on him. "I'm in another world!"
From the corner of where Sora stood was one portion of the alleyway leading to a ledge. On it stood an adult man with long brown hair waved behind him. He wore a black leather pair of pants, matching gloves and a short sleeved jacket with red angelic wings on the back as seen from the angle he was shown. A white shirt clung to his well built torso underneath it and a silver necklace with the head of a lion hung across his collarbone. This man stoically watched Sora from the shadows, keeping a very close eye on him as the boy aimlessly wandered around.
-
Ruby could barely feel anything. She felt as if she'd been asleep for a long time, even though she was certain she'd been very much awake a moment before. Her head felt a bit hazy as she tried to wake up.
"How's she doin', ya fuzz buckets?" came the sound of a gruff yet somewhat colloquial male voice. "Still resting, kupo." came a more high pitched voice, followed by an identical voice speaking in an adoring manner. "She looks so cute when she sleeps, kupo."
Ruby's curiosity rose in her state veering between consciousness and unconsciousness. Whether it was curiosity or simply not being able to stay in the state much longer, she began to stir with a faint groan. "M...Mm...Mmh?" The small sound of her voice got her observers' attention as Ruby's silver eyes fluttered open slowly but surely. "Wha..." As she rubbed her eyes, she let out a high pitched yawn, which stopped short when her eyes registered just what they were seeing. Or well at least attempted to register what they were seeing.
"WAAH!" Ruby shot out of the sofa, a yell of shock emerging from her, making the bizarre creatures jump and scatter with a unanimous "Kupo!?" The late middle aged man raised an eyebrow at the girl's reaction as she scrambled up along the top of the sofa, looking around herself in a near panic. "Wha!?Whoareyou!?Whatareyou!?WhereamI!?What'sgoingon!?Ididn'tdoanything!Ididn'tmeantointrude!Ijustgothere,whereverhereis!"
The girl's lines of pleas and questions and appeals and then some, came out in a flurry. She was so confused and panicked, it was amazing if anyone could keep up with a thing she was saying, let alone understand it. But really, could anyone blame her? The moogles looked at each other and at Ruby as the man behind them pinched his brow and stepped forward to try and calm the girl down. "HEY!" His yell thankfully managed to stop her rambling in its tracks. "Take a breath, kiddo!" he said, glad he managed to get her attention at least.
He was a middle aged man had a head of short, upwardly spiky blond hair seemingly held up by the goggles on his forehead. He had a rough trace of matching chin hair along his face, which also sported a toothpick wiggling in his mouth. He wore a white t-shirt with blue pants held by a yellow sash and black boots which thumped on the ground as he stepped past the little creatures. "Name's Cid. These moogles found ya laying around the alleyway in the Second District of town and decided to drag ya to my accessory shop." he explained, nodding to the creatures, or moogles. He picked up a nearby chair and pulled it up to sit down before continuing. If only to try and help her relax at least a little. "This is the second floor of my shop where these fellas live. They're the finest smiths in town is so they make good quality stuff. Anyway. Since you're here? Odds are your world has been consumed by the darkness too. You're another one of the few who're fortunate to end up here in this sanctuary world."
As the moogles let out a unanimous "Kupo" with a nod of their heads, the information that this Cid was sharing with her...seemed to go over her head in the midst of her confusion and panic. "Wh...Whatnow? I don't understand. Sanctuary? Darkness? World? What are you talking about!? What is going on!?" Her flurry of confusion and worry made Cid pinch his brow and sigh. Did he really hit her with that much info too soon, or was she just naturally such a worry-wart?
Regardless, the sound of bells from down below attracted his attention. It seemed he had a customer. "Look, I'll tell ya everything from the beginning later. For now, I got a shop to run. You get a little more rest and try and clear that head of yours by taking a walk or something. See ya later lil miss." And with that, Cid went downstairs, closing the little floor hatch behind him, leaving Ruby just as confused as before.
"Oh...great." she said, sighing as she was able to discern absolutely nothing from Cid's explanation. Her silver eyes shifted to the moogles hovering in front of her, and a moment later..."Well..." she reached out and grabbed one in her arms, making it let out a surprised "Kupo!?" as she held it in her arms like a plushie. "At least you little guys are super cute." she said adoringly, squeezing the flummoxed creature.
"Hey, hey. Easy with the fur fluffing, Kupo!" the moogle held captive in Ruby's arms cried out in disapproval, though this fluffing wasn't going to be stopping any time soon.
-
Downstairs, Cid came down the ladder leading to the second floor and met his supposed customer behind the counter. Putting on the cheer expected of a professional shop owner, Cid smiled and announced, "Hey there. How can I…" only to stop when he saw that his customer was... "Aw. It's only a kid." Unsurprisingly, the kid in question did not take kindly to the comment. "I'm not a kid! And the name's Sora!" the spiky haired boy lashed back indignantly. Cid rolled his eyes at Sora's response and raised his left hand up in response. "Okay, okay. Simmer down." Cid said, mostly unphased by the boy's behavior. He couldn't help noticing an air of worry and a bit of sadness behind the boy's anger, prompting him to ask, "So why the long face, Sora? You lost or somethin'?"
"No!" Sora exclaimed indignantly, before realizing what Cid didn't mean it in a condescending way. Taking a moment to calm down, he hesitated to answer. "Well maybe. Where are we?" Though at first confused by the boy's inquiry, Cid soon realized Sora was also not from this world. That could only mean he was a recent arrival. While such a thing wasn't unusual given what this place Traverse Town was, it was odd for more than one person to come to this world within a small time frame as another. At first he thought Sora was from the same place as Ruby but now that he thought about it, it was more than likely just coincidence. Whatever the case, Cid took that opportunity to explain things to Sora as in-depth as possible.
"Traverse Town..." Sora said after Cid eventually finished his explanation. As expected, he didn't get all of it, but one detail caught his attention immediately. "So gramps. Is this really another world?" Annoyance crossed Cid's face at Sora's thoughtlessly thrown out title. He might of been middle aged, but he wasn't even in his forties yet! "Don't call me gramps! The name's Cid!" With that indignant rebuttal out of the way, Cid took a breath and got back to the topic. "Not sure what you're talkin' about, but this sure ain't your island." he said. Sora was still unsure what to feel about all this. He actually managed to make it to another world. If he was able to do it then...maybe Riku and Kairi made it here too somewhere. "Hm...Guess I better start looking for Riku and Kairi." With a shrug Cid gave a small wave to Sora as he left. "Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doin'. If you ever run into trouble, come to me." As the spiky haired boy left, Cid let out a sigh and shook his head. "Seems like I'm bein' little more than a glorified babysitter today." he muttered in annoyance.
Little did Cid realize that the voice of the boy caught the attention of a certain huntress in training upstairs. The instant she heard that indignant response of his, she found herself listening in as best as she could...which was not easy through the floorboards. "That voice...it sounded kind of...familiar." She wasn't entirely sure, but something told her that she'd heard that voice somewhere before.
Though the other thing the boy's voice mentioned about finding friends of his...it gave her hope that maybe her friends made it here like she did. Of course, that assumed such was the case for the boy too. Unable to help herself, Ruby turned and walked toward the nearby door. Amid the now very fluffed moogles confused inquiries of, "Hey, where are you going, kupo?" she looked back and reassured them, "Don't worry, I'll be back! Promise!" And so, with a smile, out she went to explore the town. Hoping she'd find that boy if only to figure out why he sounded so familiar. And with luck, find Weiss, Blake, Yang, and everyone else. "I hope you guys are okay..."