The world out there sure is a sight to behold, huh? I'll enjoy the sights all the way back home. Need to be off before dark or the lab folks will start to worry. Maybe... Moonlight, it's time that all the others went home too? The other guests...would you kindly return them? By now their families are missin' them as much as mine misses me. Then you'd be free to explore the world if you're so enamored with it! Come to the mainland, see my lab, see the sights! Why not take the chance?
You and Moonlight have spent quite some time getting acquainted with each other, but you weren’t exactly kept in Sugar City Central of your own volition, and while the time you spent with Moonlight was pleasant, you do have a laboratory to get back to before the end of the day. Now, watching the sunset on a domeless horizon, you turn your attention from the lump of sand with seashells on it to the greater matter at hand: the citizens and guests the star-furred cat has “borrowed” while she’s awake. Harmless though she may be, it’s not exactly the most polite thing she could be doing with them, and while it might just be her way of seeking company, you’ve given her plenty of that over your time with her today - you’ve been the only giant she’s spoken with, and that has to count for something, right? Even if she has spent just about all her time being taller than you.
Something in Moonlight’s crescent eyes just isn’t the same - a little bit brighter than they were before, and maybe not quite as fey a shade of yellow-gold. Whatever strange enchantment has helped you get this far, it seems it’s finally begun to wear off, and you spend what you hope is the last of the energy on asking Moonlight to return her borrowed guests. Turning to her with a friendly smile, you make your request - and staring out toward the sea that surrounds Sugar City’s island foundation, she gives a relaxed sigh and a reluctant nod.
Yeah, she says. I mean...I didn’t want to keep them for too long anyway. Just needed to say hi, ‘cuz it’s not every day that I get a chance like this. Give me a minute, won’t’cha?
And with that, she rises from her spot on the beach, tugs at her arm-warmers - and leg-warmers, and the pastel pink collar with the silvery, heart-shaped charm, so much like Sweetheart’s that there’s no way it could be anyone else’s - and heads back through the opened gate to Sugar City Central. For a few minutes, you might wonder if she’s going to come back - but unbeknownst to you, she’s taking quite a bit of care to put each and every tiny visitor and inhabitant back where they belong, fishing them out of all sorts of interesting locations - her fingerprints, her hair, her tail - as she extracts every last one.
Half an hour passes before the moon-eyed cat finally returns to the beach, still standing while she stares toward the sunset. There’s a pleasant smile on her muzzle as she weighs the possibilities - could she come with you? Could she see the world for once, instead of staying here in Sugar City, cooped up in the emptied Central district to avoid causing harm she doesn’t even seem to know how to cause in the first place?
...But eventually, she sighs, and she shakes her head, and the last of the enchantment on her mind has clearly faded away. Sorry, Ace, she says, but I think if I went missing, the Central district would have a serious issue. I’ve gotta sleep soon, anyway, or Sweetheart - Central Sweetheart, I mean; Sweetheart Prime, sorta - won’t come back! And that just wouldn’t be any good, would it?
Besides, she continues, stretching her arms for a second before turning to you, I seem to recall reading somewhere that the lab you live in only has room for one giant? So it’d be a bit difficult for them to house two...
...But from the look on her face - determined and thoughtful - you can tell she’s not given up on the idea. After a minute, she saunters over to you, giving you what, at first, seems to be a handshake...but when she pulls her hand away, there’s a tiny patch of twinkling starlight in your palm - and it quickly reshapes itself from a blob of sparkling slime into a much smaller Moonlight, about the size of a typical human being.
That, though, she says with a smirk, could prob’ly fit into the lab, right? She’s not quite me, but she’ll be a good enough replacement! Plus, since we’re...y’know, technically the same person...everything that Moonlight sees and hears and tastes and touches and stuff like that is basically transferred to me! So I’ll be with ya in spirit, if nothing else!
Whether Moonlight’s little parting gift is enough or not, it’s starting to get dark, and you can’t afford to stay here for much longer. Goodbyes come swiftly and abruptly - a hug from the regular-sized Moonlight, a friendly wave from the smaller one, and the cat-girl retreats back into Sugar City Central, and the metal door sealing the Central district off from the outside world reforms from the strange, pink sludge it had been a handful of minutes before.
When you (and your new kitty companion) next hear news from Sugar City, things have changed - but not that much. Moonlight has disappeared, and citizens are being moved back into Sugar City Central. Given how difficult it’s been to keep Moonlight a rumor after her latest appearance, Sweetheart has reluctantly admitted everything to the citizens - that Moonlight has been in Sugar City for some time now, that she’s an alternate personality for Sweetheart themselves, that she just happens sometimes when the slime-rabbit wakes up, and she doesn’t go away for a little while after that - and things have gone unsurprisingly well. Citizens reacted cheerfully to being told the truth, and none of them were at all concerned with Moonlight’s existence. Nobody was hurt, after all, though a few folks were displaced for most of the day - but in Sugar City, odd interactions like those have always been part of the fun. In fact, Sweetheart has actually had to invest some time in assuring some of the more intrigued citizens that Moonlight will have to be back some day.
...But there was something more to your visit than Moonlight. You saw something nobody else had a chance to see. Something that couldn’t be explained - no, something that defied explanation. To explain what had happened to that small city block Moonlight had toyed with wouldn’t do the experience justice.
Maybe there’s more going on in Sugar City than you, or anyone else, thought.
