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The rainbow, fluorescent lights seem to make everything look magical. It reminds Susie of the TV World, specifically the Lightners Live thing. It reminds Kris of the old 80's rock bands on TV that Toriel would never let them watch. So, in a way, it reminds the two of them of the same thing.
The rink is full of people, young and old and colourful and lonely. Susie finally finishes tying the laces on her rollerskates. Kris shoves the last of a chocolate bar into their mouth.
"Time for the rink?" She grins, and tries to hide the stumble when she stands up. Kris nods, grabs her hand, and towards the entrance they go.
The music blasts louder than the voices around, and dozens of roller wheels scraping against the ground can be heard. Kris is used to this, kind of. They've been here before, and they used to rollerskate with Azzy, sometimes. It was a long time ago, though. Susie's never even been near a roller-skate. She stumbles, falls on her face a few times, and ends up gripping the edge of the rink soon enough. Kris just laughs, and rolls along beside her, with a practiced ease that annoys the hell out of the girl.
The two spend a long while circling around the rink, and, before they know it, Toriel is back at the entrance, returned from whatever errand in the city she was doing. Whatever it was, her return was their exit signal.
The red minivan is almost back to Hometown, long gone from the roller rink, when Susie has a realization. In the back seats of Toriels car, she can see- shoved in the duffel bag the two teens were sharing, are their rented roller-skates. She doesn't even know how they could have gotten there...
What the hell, sure. Free roller-skates.
Her elbow nudges Kris's arm, and she gestures at the roller skates poking out of the duffel. She sees the cogs in the human's brain start turning, and then they reach into the bag. Shifting around the pair immediately at the top, she sees it.
Not one pair, not two pairs, but THREE pairs of rollerskates. They didn't even come NEAR a third pair of skates?! How did they end up stealing more?!
Toriel seems to notice the girl's distress from the car mirror, somehow.
"Is everything alright back there, you two?"
"yyyUP! Everything is, uh, wonderful! Great! Thank you!"
Susie sticks two thumbs up in Toriel's direction, and prays that's enough of an answer. It is, luckily, and Toriel nods, before continuing driving. Susie looks back at Kris, who's smirking, and gestures at the skates again.
Kris sticks up two fingers, turns them upside down, drops their arm, and then sticks up three fingers. Susie has never seen a more confusing motion in her life. She looks around, trying to find a clue, and, well, it seems the universe is on her side today. Just as she looks out the window, Hometown finally comes into view, and she can see the very top of the School in the distance.
Susie looks back at Kris, grins, and grabs hold of the duffel bag.
As soon as Toriel parks the van, Kris and Susie are out of the car. Using the good-ol 'school project' excuse, the two run off down the road, headed towards the school.
An old, plastic business card shoved deep in Susie's pocket got the school's doors open. It smelled faintly of mildew and chalk inside, evening sun streaming through the barely opened windows, and all of the lights were off. Most doors were locked during the weekend, but yet, the closet stayed unlocked. Just in case the school janitor needed something. Ignore the fact that the school did not, in fact, have a janitor. Hey, it was one less thing that they had to unlock.
An ever-familiar darkness spilled out of the closet. Susie dropped the duffel bag down beside the doorway. "I don't think we need, like, all of this. I know we don't need, like... our water bottles or knee pads or that stupid shit down there, 'cause we have magic, so I guess we just grab the skates and go." She pulled out the three pairs, passed one to Kris, and looked down into the endless closet. "...Jeez, ya never get used to how dark it looks from up here."
Kris grabbed her hand, pulled her into the closet, and down the two went.
The time spent falling through the air was brief, but always adrenaline-filled. Whooshes of blues and purples filled the air, an ever-present shimmer that the Darkworld had. Susie liked to think that this was what the Lightworld's sky would look like if there wasn't any light pollution. Probably less glittery, though.
The two thudded onto the bluish-gray ground, re-acquainting themselves to their surroundings. Kris stood up first, and Susie quickly followed. "Alright, dude, let's get Ralsei on some fucken' skates!" She shouted, already moving towards the main area of Castletown, when Kris tugged on her sleeve.
"What, dude, did we forget somethi-"
Her eyes locked onto six odd darkners whirring around behind them, crashing and bumping into eachother repeatedly. Two were blue, two were green, and two were red. They had odd bulbous googly eyes, and yellow leg-wheel-things. Almost similar to that of a Cuptain, but more like the type of creature you would punt into a box in your closet and try to forget about.
"....Well, that cant be good." Susie murmured, watching the odd creatures move around.
"Susie! Kris! I thought I saw you two come down!"
A familiar voice rang from behind them, causing Susie and Kris to exchange worried glances.
"Heeeyyyyyyy, Ralseiiiiiiiiii?" Susie turned around slowly, carefully blocking the view.
"Yes?"
The goat boy approached, head tilted to the side slightly.
"Uh, so, totally hypothetical situation here, but, what if, uh, we thought it would be a good idea to bring down some stuff, y'know, and the stuff kinda.... Turned into a Darkner? Without us really, uh, intending to make more Darkners?" She mumbled, just loud enough for him to hear.
He sighed slightly, before looking between her and Kris, who was still fixated on the scraping rollerskates. "Who'd you two bring?" He asked, voice laced with curiosity and slight concern.
"We kinda, were at a roller skating rink? But when we got back to town, we realized we had accidentally taken our skates. And an extra pair. So, we figured, hey, the three of us on skates....? Can't go wrong, right?"
"What were you two even expecting to happen? You know that objects turn into Darkners."
"Wh- we thought that they would stay as normal roller-skates! It's a very easy thing to forget, you know, that things end up as people down here!"
Ralsei squeezed in-between the two Lightner's, looking at the roller-skates.
"Well… I think they may get along with the Cuptains and Sweet Cap'n Cakes, so I guess they can stay! No harm in a few new residents."
As if on cue, the two green skates rammed right through the entry way, immediately swerving right.
"....Well, I suppose they were excited-"
Kris grabbed Ralsei's arm, tugging him backwards against the wall, before the two red skates dove through, following the green ones.
"Jeesus Christ, man, this feels like a book from that one guy- what's his name, the guy who wrote Cat in the Hat? This feels like one'a his books."
The two blue skates seemed to realize that they had been abandoned, as they quickly sped off in the direction of its friends. Were the skates friends? Were they technically related? Who knows.
The three teens stared towards the corridor that the skates had turned down.
“You know… I could probably get some rollerskates, if you two really want to skate?” Ralsei murmured, looking back and forth between his friends. “Really?! Hell yeah!” Susie grinned, immediately starting towards the castle.
Ralsei giggled to himself, before walking after Susie, soon followed by Kris.
Inside the castle, Susie and Kris watched intently as Ralsei fumbled around in some boxes. There was all sorts of random things in the Castle — It wouldn't surprise anyone if there were some rollerskates lying around. Ralsei let out a small hum, before pulling another box forwards and fumbling through.
“......Oh! I found some! Come here!” Ralsei remarked, pulling out three pairs of skates as the other two approached.
One pair of skates was a dark blue, with red accents and black-and-white striped laces. The second pair was a bright purple, with shiny gold accents, and a heart embroidered on the side. The third pair was a soft pinkish-red, with yellow sparkles and green accents.
“Woah, they even match us! This is awesome!” Susie exclaimed, quickly grabbing the purple pair and flopping down onto the floor.
“Hehe, I know, right? Umm, do either of you need help putting them on?” He sat down right beside her, starting to put on his own.
“I KNOW how to put on shoes, dude! Dunno about Kris, though.” Susie grinned mischeviously, looking at Kris expectantly. The human pulled their skates towards themself, before sticking their tongue out at Susie.
Soon enough, the three had their skates on, and had managed to get out of the castle without any injuries. Ralsei had suggested that they just stay in the immediate castle courtyard, as to not crash into anything or anyone. Except for eachother.
Which, admittedly, had already happened a bunch of times before they even got outside.
In the courtyard, Kris rolled freely in circles, while Susie slowly shimmied around the fences, Ralsei close on her tail.
“This…is harder than I thought it would be….” The goat mumbled, to which the girl let out a laugh. “I know, right? Earlier today was my first time, too. It’s like, all unsteady and stuff. Like when we stood on that big ass bookcase, fighting the titan! I was more worried about that thing collapsing than the actual literal world-ending giant.”
Kris pointed a thumbs up in the two monster’s direction, all of them reminiscing on that night. “Umm, maybe we should just get back to rollerskating…?” Ralsei suggested. “Yeah, I’m down for that.”