Rising Shards

Naomi Ratuna:

At a brief reprieve in theater camp, Naomi and some of her friends had cautiously left the theater building on the college campus to one where faculty wasn’t actively angered at the premise of cell phones and other electronics. The idea from the theater building’s staff was to put all focus onto acting and to avoid all distractions, but they were busy chasing first years trying to sneak off and use their cell phones, giving Naomi’s group the perfect chance to sneak off and use their cell phones. Normally, Naomi would never consider such a thing. She was a prefect, she had strict rules that she followed closely and expected other students she was in charge of watching over to do the same. But she wasn’t at Rising Shards, and this college was way too strict, even for her, so she gladly played Chompy Blitz Bumpers on her phone in the Catstrong Hall lounge area. 

”Hey, Naomi, sorry if this is too private, but um...” One of her friends, Carm, said. ”I’m looking at your Friendliest page...”

Naomi sighed. She knew exactly where this was going. But her game paused and a 4 minute ad came up (she had the free version of Chompy Blitz Bumpers) so she couldn’t act like this commercial for back pain cream was incredibly interesting for that long.

”Why are you...er, why does it say you’re still in a relationship on your page here?” Carm asked.

Naomi thought over her answer carefully. ”I’m hoping...to patch things up. Or that the potential possibility to patch things up could still be on the table.”

”You’re not the one who messed it up, though,” Carm said, her immediate answer surprising Naomi. ”It’s not your responsibility to fix it. I say move on.”

”Hm,” Naomi said. ”I’ll...think about it.”

Kitty Kilander:

Kitty wasn’t thrilled to be at Rising Shards, but she hated to admit it was a lot cozier and more pleasant than Wildfire Hearts. The bleak atmosphere of the latter school got old really quickly. She had just finished chatting with Caya, and was mulling over some fun stipulations she could have if her team won against Caya’s in their upcoming duel. As she rounded a corner, she spotted another family member. Now, spotting a family member at Rising Shards wouldn’t be that rare, two brothers and a sister-in-law worked there. And a niece and a clybrid niece. But the clybrid niece was lost in the void now or something. Void stuff was too confusing, so she focused on the Kilander ahead of her.

”Penty!” Kitty squealed.

Penteldtam gave a wide forced smile, as though someone had a knife to his back and told him to act natural. He held up his coffee mug and pretended to sip from it. He slowly turned around, then dropped his mug on the floor and took off running around the hallway, shoving and knocking down a group of boys from Falling Shards that were in his way. Once Kitty finished laughing at the losers on the ground as they picked themselves up, she chased after her brother. Penty could be pretty wily, but Kitty was a legitimate athlete and caught up to him easily. She gave him a big bearhug, partially as like an expected familial gesture and partially to keep him from running anymore.

”H-hi, Kitty...” Penteldtam wheezed.

”Now, Penty,” Kitty said, shaking Penty back and forth. ”Is that any way to treat your favorite widdle sissyyyyy?” 

Caeda Firae:

Caeda took one of her gloves off and gently placed her palm on the stone wall of one of the buildings on the Rising Shards campus. It was winter so she didn’t hold it there long because it was super cold, but she hoped the school felt the importance of the gesture. She was finally going to attend a real Cani school. Her big poofy squirrel-like tail that she was still getting used to twitched from the excitement.

”Are you nervous?” Ms. Letoh, the teacher assigned to give Caeda a quick tour around campus, asked. By Caeda’s estimate, the teacher had about zero self confidence which was sad but also maybe good if she wanted to break rules and such.

“Nay lass, when we last spake, I was but a freshly fanged Cani. Now, with over two weeks of experience under my belt, I’m finally ready to start at this here Cani school.”

”Right.” Letoh squinted. ”Sure, OK. That...I get what you’re saying. Maybe?”

”How long has it frickin’ been since I got my fangs between now and here anyways?” Caeda asked. ”It feels like an eternity has passed.”

”Hmm,” Ms. Letoh said. ”Your fangs came in on, what was it...oh! What a perfect day for them, on Fang Moon Web! So it’s been a few weeks. Or two weeks, like you said. Though I’m not sure why you asked right after you just...did I mishear what you had two weeks experience of?”

”A few weeks of no school. A few weeks of lonely and silent maddening isolation.” Caeda said. 

”You were supposed to go to class at your old school until you could start here.” Letoh said.

”Well anyways, I was also going to ask, is 09 around? We chatted a tad during the Fang Moon Web Trip and she really helped me out in the whole void escaping deal, so I want to check in with her.”

”Well...about that...” Letoh said. ”09 is...away. From the school. For an undisclosed amount of time?”

”Dang.” Caeda said. She clenched her fists. There would be plenty of time to connect with 09 once she was back. For now, it was about making the most of her newly fanged lifestyle. ”Well at least now I’ll finally be able to go to a Cani school, starting tomorrow.”

”You actually don’t start until next week.”

Clover Locke Dragnis: 

Clover saw she had a message from Caeda just before they took her phone away at theater camp. Not that she would have responded right away. Things had been weird between her and her best friend since their unfortunate incident a few weeks back, especially as it had quietly snowballed into the dissolution of a lot of things. Clover hoped they’d figure out how to be normal once Caeda settled in at Rising Shards. It’d be weird for their friend dynamic for Caeda to have fangs now, but that would be a fun kind of weird. Not the weirdness stemming from that time at Caeda’s house a few weeks ago that Clover really wished she just kept quiet about.

All day, she tried not to think about it, but after what went down, she felt like the theater club hadn’t taken her side after the gossip spread out. It obviously hadn’t reached everyone yet, but people could tell immediately something was up when her and Naomi suddenly stopped talking to each other. 

Even at theater camp, Clover couldn’t bring herself to even look in Naomi’s direction when she walked past. If they had to do scenes together, sure, they could figure something out. But fortunately (or unfortunately?) that opportunity never arose. Nothing that interesting happened during camp. The only interesting thing that happened in theater camp was when Oka Ohri got some kind of dramatic phone call that shut her down for a while. When she stumbled out from it sobbing, a group of students tried to help her get through whatever happened. Naomi was even trying to console her in her own way. From what Clover heard from murmurs afterward, something had happened to Oka’s dear Zeta. Her ”best friend.”

When Oka was being comforted, Clover could only stare as others tried to help her, as she was crying pretty hard. 

Best friend. Ugh.

Clover thought of all the times Oka had to randomly add that she was dating her bestie in their conversations. At times Clover felt a need to protect Oka, but part of that ”protection” stemmed from how incredibly obnoxious she found Oka Ohri to be.

Narkissa: 

”So we’re not heading to the Sharai?” Ovie snapped. Arctus and Octa Kathron didn’t flinch. Narkissa just grinned watching her yell at two powerful Endorans. This could go so badly for her, and that was really fun. ”Then what’s the point of any of this? Why did we bother following you?”

Arctus and Octa looked at each other. For two people who just tormented their own daughter into beast tendency, they sure didn’t look it. They looked more like they spent the day lounging around watching TV. Narkissa kind of respected that. Arctus smirked slightly. ”We had a deal, we’re not going back on our deal. We’re just taking a different path to the Sharai. One that’s probably more efficient.”

Ovie paced around. The Kathrons had brought them to some nondescript void node where they could plot and scheme and not be bothered, but the setting was pretty dull. Like the fake park Narkissa’s group had been regrouping in a bit earlier at station Spero, but with less fake and more boring nature. Some weird void animals that kind of looked like cows but were definitely not cows grazed on the tall grass around them. Night had fallen there, but maybe they were in a place that never had any daylight.

”And what way is that?” Ovie asked. She looked to Aira and Laenie for backup, but those two were hanging onto this party by threads. If Laenie’s dumbass brother wasn’t involved with this, they would have ran home already. Honestly, seeing Aira and Laenie attempt to have some backbone as they betrayed a close friend in hopes of finding Laenie’s aforementioned dumbass brother was one of the funniest things Narkissa had ever seen. The hypocrisy was outstanding. So with those two frozen, Ovie turned to 09. Narkissa found this very interesting. Ovie was oh so devoted to her beloved Jeans, but there was something going on between her and the clybrid Cani. 09 just shrugged. ”So you’re just not going to say anything?”

”We’ll explain it when we’re ready to.” Octa said. 

”Couldn’t you at least have let us get our ship?” Ovie asked. ”That’d probably be really helpful here.”

”Not that helpful.” Arctus said. ”And your school has probably gotten that ship back already, so it’d be best if we don’t head back there.”

Narkissa thought about egging Ovie on there and really making her get mad at the Kathrons, but they cut her off before she could form a good suggestion that would really get her raging.

”We know how to reach the Sharai,” Octa said. ”In a sense, it’s easier to bring them to us than it is to go to them.”

”Can you at least give me some indication that I’ve made a moderately decent decision following you?” Ovie asked.

”We’ll tell you more when we’re ready.” Octa said.

”Unbelievable.” Ovie said and stormed off.

”I’ll...make sure she stays level headed.” Narkissa blurted out. She knew it was a risk to follow an angry Ovie, but Aira and Laenie were effectively frozen in place. 09 wasn’t moving either, but she didn’t seem to be out of fear. Maybe it was hitting her how moronic her choices were that led her here. Narkissa wasn’t burdened by regretting choices like that; she was more the type to barrel forward knowing it’d all work out for herself in some way, so she pitied 09 for having that self doubt as she followed behind Ovie, who shoved her way through tall grass and muttered to herself until she found a clearing. Ovie noticed Narkissa following, but continued pacing around the clearing rather than immediately throwing acid around or something.

”Can you believe this?” Ovie asked after pacing for like ten minutes. ”This is so terrible I’m venting to you of all people.”

”Vent away,” Narkissa said. ”Just don’t smash me into anything again or I’ll tell these presumably very powerful Endorans how much you’re still bitching about them.”

”Ugh,” Ovie rolled her eyes. She tapped her foot on the ground. ”I have to say something just to say it out loud. This isn’t directed at you, this is just so I can say it and hear it and try to process this.”

”Is this a love confession?” Narkissa asked. ”Even if it’s not for me, I should be a lot more dolled up for this, I’m not ready, hold on.”

”Shut up.” Ovie took a deep breath. ”We can’t trust them. Not even a little bit. We can use them for our means, but they’ll probably do what they did to Manure to us the first chance they get, and not in the way we want to make us stronger. I just want Jeans back, and then I’m getting as far away as I can from them.” She paused, and looked at Narkissa.

”Do you want me to review your little speech there?” Narkissa asked. ”It was almost cute, I guess?”

”Shut up.” Ovie said. ”I want to know if you agree with me. We might have gotten ourselves into something really dangerous here, and it’s just hitting me.”

”Just like 09.” Narkissa grinned as Ovie winced.

”All I need right now is to hear you say it,” Ovie said. ”Do you trust them?”

”Don’t worry darling,” Narkissa said, enjoying seeing Ovie’s despair in the light of the stars of some random void node they’d never return to. ”I don’t trust anyone.”