Chapter Text
The sleepover had been going on exactly how Amos liked it: noisy, messy, and just “a little bit” unproductive.
Esperanza lay neatly on the bed, scrolling through her phone, her expression soft and relaxed. The gentle glow of fairy lights reflected in her eyes, giving her an almost dreamy look. In contrast, Amos was anything but calm - pacing around the room one second, flopping onto the floor the next, phone in her hands, muttering dramatically at the screen.
“Okay, this is not funny at all,” Amos said, staring at her artifact stats like she’d just been personally insulted. “Flat DEF? Again!? This game hates me.”
Esperanza didn’t even look up. “Or maybe the game is trying to teach you patience?”
“Esppie,” Amos dropped onto the floor with a thud, one arm over her face, “if patience gave me good sub-stats, I’d have built every character by now.”
The room settled into a comfortable silence after that - one filled with music, quiet breathing, and the occasional rustle of movement. It was peaceful in a way that made everything feel... safe. Normal.
“I give up! Flat DEF four times in a row!? That’s not RNG, that’s a targeted attack!”
Esperanza smiled faintly, but just before she could respond, the lights suddenly flickered.
Amos blinked. “Okay...? That’s... weird. I remember fixing that bulb this morning.”
Then her phone’s screen flickered too. The image distorted, the colors stretching strangely across the monitor like ripples in water. The music slowed, then deepened, as if the sound had suddenly fallen into a much larger space.
Esperanza sat up a little straighter. “Amos?”
“Don't worry,” Amos said, “it will be fine, Esppie. My potato phone lags all the time!”
“I don’t think the game is lagging now...”
The light from the screen spilled over the room in pale blue and silver. The air changed too - much cooler, heavier, almost like the whole bedroom had been replaced by something endless. It wasn’t just light anymore, as if something was trying to reach both of them.
Esperanza stood up, instinctively moving closer to Amos, but she didn’t say anything this time, just reached out and caught her friend's wrist, steady and firm.
“Stay close, Esper.”
The glow intensified, then the floor collapsed.
Amos laughed like a maniac as she fell - a breathless, disbelieving sound, caught between terror and exhilaration.
“THIS IS INSANE!!!”
And then, everything snapped back. They laid upon some sort of water surface. Endless, still, reflecting a sky that might not exist in real life- stars layered upon stars, stretching into eternity without horizon or end.
“Ouch, my back...” Amos was the one who spoke first.
Her eyes moved quickly, taking everything in, measuring, calculating.
“...So this isn’t a dream huh?” she said quietly.
Esperanza didn’t argue, because she felt it too - this place is just too real to be a dream. She took a small step, watching the ripples spread outward.
“...It’s beautiful.”
Amos exhaled slowly. “Yeah,” she admitted, eyes scanning the surroundings, “beautifully concerning.”
Suddenly, ripples formed across the water. A woman appeared from afar. She moved slowly, calmly, with a strange grace that made her seem almost unreal. The closer she came, the more stars above seemed to dim and brighten in quiet recognition, as if yielding to her presence. She looked human, but she was definitely not. Her form shimmered faintly, as though it existed in more than one place at once. When she stopped in front of them, her expression was gentle, but her gaze, when it fell upon them, held the stillness of something ancient.
“You’ve finally answered. It seems that this took longer than expected,” she said.
Esperanza blinked slightly. “Answered what?”
The woman studied them for a long moment before speaking again.
“You have been hearing the call for some time, whether you realized it or not.”
Amos frowned. “Call? We don’t even know who you are or where this is. It's just like saying I have the ability to summon a real godzilla on a random Tuesday!”
Esperanza squeezed her arm. “Amos, manners. And stop saying nonsense.”
“Geez, fine...”
“So...” Esperanza spoke softly “Why did you bring us here miss?”
The woman’s expression softened.
“Because the boundary between your world and this one has begun to weaken. Something has opened a path where none should exist. I cannot cross it myself, but I can bring those who are already attuned to this place. You’ve walked this world before, though only as observers. You know its paths. Its people. Its... possible futures.”
Amos’s expression shifted - less sarcastic now, more focused. “This world? You mean the game?”
The woman’s eyes flickered faintly.
“Precisely, but it is just a version of it.” she said.
Amos narrowed her eyes. “And that’s supposed to be us who should travel to this world, yes?”
“You are not ordinary visitors,” the woman said. “You are outside the threads of this world’s fate. That makes you able to enter where others cannot. Besides, I just need someone who can watch the changes of this story for me. I will handle the rest.”
“But why us among millions of people who play this game!?”
The woman stood there in silence.
Esperanza looked down at the water beneath her feet. “And if we say no?”
“Then you two will return to where you are from right now, and this moment will fade along with your memories about our conversation. You will wake as if nothing happened, and I will find a different person to do this instead.” The woman stopped for a moment, “Or you can step forward, and become part of this world’s story. The choice is up to both of you.”
Amos and Esperanza looked at each other. Amos was the first to break the silence, and for once her voice was steady.
“So if we go with you, we can actually do something useful?”
“Correct.”
"And what will happen if we go there? For example, what if one of us suddenly dies?"
"Then the one who died will return to this place, while the other continue the journey. Don't worry. When this short trip ends, both will come back to the real world unscathed. No matter how much time you spend in this world, only a few seconds just pass in the real world."
Amos exhaled once, then glanced at Esperanza with a look that was half nervous, half thrilled.
“Well,” she said, a grin starting to return, “that’s a lot better than dying in a domain.”
Esperanza let out a small laugh. “That was never our best possible outcome, to be fair.”
“No, but it was definitely a decent option. Like I always say: The best adventures start with the worst idea.”
Esperanza stared at her, then laughed under her breath. “Fair enough.”
The woman watched them patiently.
“Fine then,” Amos said. “We’ll go.”
The woman lowered her hand.
“Then hold on.”
Light surged around them. They barely had time to react before it wrapped around their bodies, pulling, reshaping - their appearances dissolving into glowing fragments before reforming into something entirely different.
Amos looked down, eyes widening. “Okay, that’s new!”
Beside her, Esperanza let out a quiet gasp, her appearance shifting just as dramatically - elegant, almost ethereal, with a lot of flowers covering her from head to toe, alongside with a pair of ears on her head and a tail.
Amos blinked, momentarily distracted. “...Okay, Esppie. Now you look like a five-star character.”
Esperanza laughed softly. “You don’t look bad yourself, either - white hair, blue and black cloth-”
“WAIT!? MY HAIR IS WHAT!?”
“White. Your hair is white.”
“AM I AN OLD LADY NO-”
“No, you’re not. Just calm down and look at your reflection on the water.”
Amos hesitated, looked down and slowly opened her eyes, “Ohhhhhhhhh. I seeeeee. The hair looks good enough.”
“Well,” the mysterious woman suddenly said, “I changed your bodies, so that you may exist here without being rejected. Now have fun you two. And don’t forget this: despite not being part of this world’s fate, interfering too much will turn you into a part of the story. Once that happens, you will lose the ability to come back. Even I myself cannot guarantee to do so.”
Then the ground disappeared. The woman’s voice was already far away.
They fell through stars, through light, through a sky that shattered into motion as they became streaks of brilliance cutting across the void - two shooting stars racing toward a distant, waiting world.
Amos reached out instinctively. “Esper- !”
Their hands met. “Still here,” Esperanza said, her voice steady even as the wind roared around them.
Amos laughed - sharp, breathless, alive. “Good. Stay that way.”
The light surged. The sky opened, then they crashed.
Light peered through their eyelashes as their eyelids fluttered. A pleasant warmth enveloped them. The fresh breeze caressed their cheeks. The surface underneath them was soft and they would have thought that it was a bed had they not smelled the fresh air of the outdoors.
They lay still for a moment, the world spinning around them, before Amos pushed herself up first, breath uneven. Her eyes lifted, roamed her surroundings. They landed on a green meadow filled with various delicate wild flowers. A few birds flew across the clear sky. A few dandelion seeds blew with the wind towards them.
“...Esper,” she said quietly. “Are we dreaming?”
Esperanza followed her gaze. “...We’re not.”
“Well then. It seems that we landed at Starsnatch Cliff. And since we’re already here,” her eyes sparkled with a mix of excitement and something far sharper.
“Let’s see how this world plays with us instead.”
Esperanza smiled, warm and steady as always. And just like that, their journey began.