thinking about the OXENFREE II concept where Riley saves Alex from the loop

it would take a crowbar to pry Alex away from Riley because i feel like Alex would hold on So Tight the moment she makes contact with her. with someone real for the first time in five years. Alex refuses to let go because she’s terrified that, if she does, she’ll be forced back into the loop. Riley lets herself be an anchor for the terrified girl, just to make her feel safer, more stable in reality.

also you can’t tell me that all of Alex’s senses wouldn’t be absolutely assaulted by Everything once she gets back to the real world. i mean, she’s been stuck reliving the same night over and over and over again for five years—she’s probably used to the darkness. and even when on the ferry during her false escape, that light is nowhere near as bright as the light in reality. also, there’s so much new stimulation. forgetting about the light, there’s the sounds, the smells, the sensations. the clamor of other people is deafening to someone who has interacted with the same voices for so long, the smell of gasoline would probably choke her, and the sensation of hot sun on her skin would be like throwing her directly into an open fire. the poor kid is absolutely overwhelmed, and probably starts to teeter into a full-blown sensory overload.

Jacob then proposes an idea: they wrap her eyes with something! since eyelids can only do so much, they wrap her eyes with some cloth to block off as much light as possible. if they have something to plug her ears, they use those, too. anything to make her more comfortable.

and then Riley and Jacob come to one big problem: Alex’s identity. this girl probably had missing posters or at least missing reports about her. it’s been five years, but surely people would have remembered a kid who disappeared under such mysterious circumstances. if they want to get her off Edwards Island, they need a way to hide her appearance, at least until they can get some hair dye to change her hair color from its very distinct shade of blue (“technically, it’s teal,” Riley says over and over again) (Jacob keeps saying orange, which Riley shuts down right away because orange is a hideous color and they shouldn’t subject the poor girl to that torture; “she’s already gone through enough!”).

so, to solve this issue, they have Alex swap her jacket with Riley’s. Alex seems extremely distressed to part with the piece of clothing that has quite literally gone through hell and back with her, but Riley swears up and down that she’ll return it to her once they’re somewhere out of eyesight of other people (and once she washes the thing. it reeks of sweat and saltwater and blood).

they also have Alex wear Jacob’s hat. they tie her hair up into a messy bun and tuck it underneath the hat, thinking that’ll be good enough to hide it from people.

Jacob carries Alex to the ferry, then to the car. she keeps her face buried in his neck the entire time, which is good. if her face matching the face of a missing teenager from five years ago doesn’t draw stares, then the fact that she’s essentially blindfolded certainly would. but she keeps her head down the whole time. she also has her nails dug into Jacob’s shoulders for grounding, and if this hurts him, he doesn’t say anything.

in the car, Alex falls asleep in the backseat while Riley and Jacob discuss what they’re going to do. they decide the best course of action is taking Alex to Riley’s house and waiting for her to recover enough to explain everything thoroughly to them. she can then tell them what she wants to do. if she wants to return to her actual family, then they’ll help her find them (though, Riley mentions that she’ll take Alex under her wing if Alex doesn’t want to go back to her home) (Jacob is curious about this, but he doesn’t say anything about it).

Jacob then asks the big question: “do you think Alex would rather have tacos or McDonald’s for breakfast?”