Rising Shards

Oka, Kalei and I had moved all our stuff around on the floor of our room so we’d have plenty of space to get to work. Kalei asked for some help putting her Fang Moon Web costume together, so there were piles of fabric, buttons, and some toy swords and other weapons strewn about.

“Who’s Zup again?” I asked as I trimmed a piece of bright blue fabric.

“Zup, as in the lead in Tyrant Rangers IX: The Adventuring of Zup, that Zup.” Kalei said. “Only one of the best games ever made.”

“Oh, yeah.” I said, sort of remembering. “So why are you going as him?”

“Well, it was either Zup or the wife in Dentist Haircut, but I haven’t seen that yet so I’d rather something I know better.”

“Zup wears a freaking short tunic,” Oka said, holding up the like skirt part of the Zup costume. “This is definitely not school regulations if you don’t wear leggings or something with this.”

“It’d be a memorable costume at least,” I said.

“Well, Zup’s confident in his body so it’s fine,” Kalei said. “But yeah, I’m wearing leggings because it’ll be cold on Fang Moon Web.”

“But not for any other reason?” Oka asked.

“Nah,”

Kalei pulled out her phone and started searching.

“I probably should have gotten a reference pic up for you guys,” Kalei said.

Kalei showed us some pictures of Zup. He wore a bright blue tunic and pink boots and had plenty of tools and weapons for adventuring.

“I bought a bunch of foam swords and stuff, so they better let me hold em,” Kalei said. “I mean, we get like actual weapons for class, so I figure foam for a costume is OK.”

I hadn’t given much thought to what I’d be wearing that year for Fang Moon Web. I had never really had a true Cani experience of the holiday yet without my fangs coming in, but I did go out with my costume every year. Stella’s idea of Fang Moon Web celebrating was to watch the Talon Tralon’s Fang Learns a Moon Web cartoon that they play every year, then having her glass of wine early and going to sleep with the outside lights out so no one bothered us.

Thinking about my first Fang Moon Web as a true Cani gave me a sudden feeling of discomfort. I got on my favorite website, What’s Wrong With Your Body, to investigate. I quickly stumbled upon a troubling article about Fang Moon Web reactions to freshly fanged Cani. Apparently, the beams from the moon or whatever that hit Cani on that day could lead to serious side effects. I wondered if the library had the Cani help book, Uh Oh. Remember How I said Being a Cani Isn’t like Being a Werewolf? Well, Tonight it Kinda Might be a Bit More: How to Deal with Fang Moon Web as a New Cani.

We were all about out of steam working on Kalei’s costume, but it was close enough to finished that Kalei could do the finer details on her own.

“How do you guys react to like the weird Fang Moon Web stuff?” I asked.

“Like what kind of weird stuff?” Oka asked.

“Like the weird Cani stuff.”

“I dunno,” Kalei said. “It’ll be my first Fang Moon Web as a full blown awakened Cani or whatever.”


“If Fang Moon Web happens on a full moon, I go like, full,” Oka said.

“Full?” I asked.


“Like full Kanibari looking, with feral flu symptoms on top of that. Basically turning into a half-animal looking monster thing and an intense craving to eat red meat.”

“Oh, wow,” I said. “Does that suck?”

“Kinda?” Oka said. “You never really feel full no matter how much you eat, and then the next day you have to deal with how much you ate. And the whole body-shifting thing can lead to some soreness. It’d probably be more fun to go through it here. My school wasn’t very equipped for full moon Fang Moon webs.”

I must’ve given away a look of panic.

“It’s like a month away though, Zeta,” Oka said. “And it’s not even going to be a full moon one this year. You two will be fine.”

Working on Kalei’s costume had me inspired to pick my own costume out, which sounded like a more fun way to spend my afternoon than homework or staring blankly into space. I checked out a study room in the library to have my own computer with relative privacy. At least, that was the idea. Just like a few minutes after I got in there Oka passed by and spotted me. She waved and pointed at the door.

“Hey! I’m not interrupting like, actual study or homework time, right?” Oka asked, staying in the doorway. “Because I can leave if I’m bugging you–“

“You’re totally not!” I said. “I’m just looking at costumes.”

I invited Oka to join me, and she sat down on the opposite side of the study room table. She seemed a bit sheepish still, like she felt guilty about messing with my alone time.

“I was just thinking I want to pick my costume today too,” Oka said. “My old school didn’t even let us wear costumes on Fang Moon Web.”

“That sucks,” I said.

We were quiet for a second, and I feared I had driven the conversation train off a broken exploded bridge almost immediately. Oka’s old school seemed to be a sore subject.

“Let’s change that this year. Right?” I said.

“Right!” Oka said. “I…don’t have any ideas though. Like I said, picking costumes for this is kinda new to me. What do you normally do for Fang Moon Web?”

“I usually just go as Raina Starlight,” I said. “Or one of the characters she played.”

“She didn’t have any Zup-like outfits, right?” Oka asked. “Because I feel like two of us wearing skirts that short will get us in trouble.”

“Uh…she was in Dangerous Spy Volcano Mission and her outfit was kinda tight in that and she had like five knives,” I said. ”I thought about doing it one year but Stella said no, and this school’s stricter than she is so that one’s out.”

“Yeah, the school rules say we can’t have costumes with full masks, real weapons, anything explicit…” Oka said.

“I’m thinking I’m just gonna do Arlit from Tower of Hate and Love,” I said. “Still Raina Starlight, maybe her best role.”

“If you do, you’re not gonna do a like…spoilery costume are you?” Oka asked. “Because I just started.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll do her Season 1 look!”

With my spoiler avoiding skills I found a picture of Arlit from the first season of the show where she was just a lowly airship pilot, before she learned of her great prowess with time travel, and way before she learned her greater prowess with dimensional travel. I could order most of the parts for the costume on my own, then probably beg/annoy Stella into helping me with the more difficult/expensive parts.

“Just make sure to cover my ears or yell really loudly if anyone comes up to you and starts talking about stuff from the show I haven’t seen yet.” Oka said. “I give you permission to either grab my head or just scream if that happens.”

With my costume set, we turned to brainstorming ideas for Oka’s.

“You could just like, cover yourself in flowers,” I suggested. “Like a full on nature goddess or something. Then like, free costume since you can magic up your own!”

“Let’s save that as a backup plan,” Oka said. “While I am down for that, I want to make sure we explore all my options.”

Even though we were relatively new friends, hangouts like this helped me realize more and more that I just enjoyed being around Oka. I feel like she could make planning a grocery list fun.

“Oh, we could be a team and do a like duo costume!” Oka said. “We could go as cats; we have the teeth for it. We just need maybe like pipe cleaner whiskers?”

“That’d be cute!” I said.

Oka suddenly looked downward.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“I just remembered something,” Oka said. “It’s nothing. Just a costume idea I had when I was a kid that I never got to do.”

Oka was blushing.

“No judgment here,” I said. “I think I spent about twenty minutes gushing at you about Arlit’s eyelashes and how I could never get close to them with my costume, so I think you can say whatever and I won’t goof on you for it.”

“Really?” Oka asked.

“Seriously, Oka, I won’t even laugh.” I said.

Oka smiled softly, but still had trouble looking up.

“I always wanted to go as uh,” Oka coughed and mumbled something.

“A what?”

“As…Pajama Lara Buttonfelt…”

“Oh! From that kids show?” I remembered her; she was the host of a reading show. True to her name, she wore felt pajamas that had a lot of buttons.

“Yes!” Oka said, practically jumping on top of the table with excitement at me knowing who she was talking about. “Pajama Lara Buttonfelt and the Ginormous Futon…”

“I remember watching that show when I was really young!”

“Would it be weird? I think it might be weird…”

“Aw, do it! Now that would be cute. Cuter than you as a cat even!”

I thought about how Oka would look with Pajama Lara Buttonfelt’s outfit, and was caught off guard by the mental combo of adorable things making me practically short circuit.

“What?” Oka asked. “Did you just think of something and reconsider? Should I go back to the cat idea or flowers—”

“No! I just…” I trailed off. “I pictured it and...I think you’d really pull it off.”

“Awesome,” Oka said. She blushed again, and said with a like big city accent, “You’re cool, Zeta. I digs ya.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“It’s uh…from the show.” Oka said. “They did a Fang Moon Web special, and one of the books was…kinda like what we’re doing right now actually. Two people got together to work on costumes. Or, two hats I guess. I always liked that episode. That was my favorite episode.”

“They might have the book here,” I said. “Or that show might even be online!”

I searched through episodes of the show posted online and pulled up the one that sounded closest to what Oka was describing.

“That’s it!” Oka said. “I can’t believe you actually found it!”

“Pretty much every show’s online now,” I said.

“Like I said, my school was not fond of such things as ‘the internet,’” Oka said.

Oka stared with sparkles in her eyes as we watched the episode. I found myself watching her reaction more than the show, which was just how I remembered it with Pajama Lara Buttonfelt introducing stories while sitting on her ginormous futon. The story Oka was talking about was a big hat meeting a little hat in a closet when they were left behind on Fang Moon Web. They became friends as they coordinated outfits.

“You’re cool, Big Hat. I digs ya.” Little Hat said at the end of the story.

“To you as well my new friend,” Big Hat said in response. “Although we weren’t picked for costumes this year, I feel as though I’ve gained a treat sweeter than any candy would ever be. A friendship like this.”

Oka caught me looking her way during the credits and suddenly buried her face in her arms on the table.

“Sorry,” Oka said, her voice muffled by her arms. “It’s so dorky. I don’t know. It’s cheesy. I’m sorry.”

“What are you apologizing for?” I asked. “It was cute. I’ll try to find you a Lara Buttonfelt costume if we can’t make one. Cuz you gotta go as her for Fang Moon Web this year.”

“A-alright,” Oka said, lifting her head back up. Her face was super red now. “Thanks, Zeta.”

“No problem,” I said. “And I digs ya too, Oka.”