Rising Shards

”No, that doesn’t go there,” Ovie said seconds after Marmalade tossed a castle playset into the shopping cart.

”What doesn’t?” Marmalade asked.

Ovie picked up the box, holding it up in an obnoxiously sassy way.

”Boxes at the bottom, more janky, misshapen action figure plastic cases on top.” Ovie said, digging up some of the toys to move the box into a corner. ”It’s not hard to understand.”

I suddenly had a clear mental image of what it would be like to have Ovie as a roommate, and decided I wanted to avoid that ever happening.

”Was this something we decided on?” I asked.

”I’m deciding it now, so do it that way,” Ovie said.

Leave it to Ovie to make the most fun sounding game show suck. Well, the slow-ass shopping carts and no direct competition had that handled pretty well, but still, there should be some joy in throwing a bunch of toys in a bunch of shopping carts.

”Marms, hand me a dart gun,” I said, pointing to the rows of toy guns we were approaching.

”Why?” she asked, obeying immediately.

”Cuz I’m gonna knock some sense into Ovie, dart style,” I said, taking the toy gun and aiming it at Ovie. I didn’t take the packaging off so it was a fairly empty gesture, but I did wanna stand up for Marms if she was gonna go at Ovie.

”Don’t open the package!” Chellsi said.

”Yeah, they said no stealing when we tried to open something!” Mikeila-Keila added.

”That’s because you were trying to open stuff before we even started the race, dears,” 09 said.

”Don’t call them ’dears,’” Ovie said.

”Why not?” 09 asked.

”I think it’s cute,” Risa said.

”I think it’s cute too,” Ovie said. ”Just...something I want to call them.”

”You wanna call us deers?” Mikeila-Keila asked. ”Isn’t it just deer?”

”What about us is all uh, like, deer?” Chellsi said.

”D-E-A-R-S, not deer as in the animal,” Ovie sighed, but I saw a bit of a smile on her face.

Marms and I shot each other looks. Getting stuck on this thing with a new group dating situation was strange. I didn’t have any judgment for them dating as a group, I just could tell it was gonna be like the bus trip where they yapped nonstop. Maybe that was good though, it had been a long freaking day from beam chasers to bus rides to void to meeting myself (?) and now this. I could just disconnect, but that didn’t feel right either.

I was kind of surprised Roux wasn’t joining in on this, but they were huddled up at the front, whispering about something with Raytris, who I could see changing shape, alternating between shifting to something small to sit in Roux’s lap to something a bit bigger to perch beside them, then small again to sit on Roux’s shoulders.

”Marms,” I said. ”Were you a big toy head when you were younger?”

”Pfft, why’d you ask it like that?” Marmalade giggled.

”Maybe I wanted to say it a bit silly to get a reaction out of you,” I said.

”Well, it worked,” Marmalade said. ”And hmm...” She looked over the shelves as she continued to throw toys in. We reached the buildable toy zone, and she grinned as she shoveled some robot toys in cans and boxes into the carts, ignoring all of Ovie’s instructions. ”Well, I’m a trans girl, so Blocktritus was pretty foundational for me.”

”Right, right,” I didn’t really get into that line of robot toys, but Marms explained all the lore to me and showed me some of the movies. ”My mom got me the blue one for my birthday once.”

”There’s a lot of blue ones, that doesn’t really narrow it down,” Mamralade said.

”Yeah, yeah, the first blue one, it was early on,” I said. ”Wait, Aira likes those too, is she trans?”

”I don’t think she is?” Marmalade said. ”OK, it’s not a one to one ’every trans girl likes this and cis girls doesn’t’ thing. Like, Zeta didn’t have any, but she can be a real normie sometimes. But it is a trans thing for me at least.”

”Sorry, I’m being annoying,” I said.

”You’re not,” Marmalade said.

”You both are, actually,” Ovie said. ”Don’t mention Faleur in my presence.”

”We weren’t talking to you,” I said.

”Even if you’re not talking to me, I don’t want to hear about that girl,” Ovie said.

”Are you still not over that?” I asked. ”It’s kind of embarrassing to still be on this.”

”Right, be normal for once,” Marmalade said.

”I barely know you, but I advise you to stay out of this,” Ovie said.

”Why?” Marmalade asked.

”Maybe let’s all take it down a notch,” 09 said.

”We’re not the ones being jackasses,” I said, stopping the cart completely. ”Ovie’s the one with a grudge against a girl she needs to let go of already. Zates didn’t know about you and Jeans. You’re not even together, I don’t think. You have like four girlfriends now, what the hell do you have left against Zeta?”

I got way more in the zone then I intended when I started talking. Saying all that, especially the Jeans part, made me feel weirdly righteous for a second. Then I remembered I was helping Jeans out at the moment, and felt like a huge hypocrite. I’m helping Aira out, and Syval, those two first. I couldn’t give a damn if Jeans stayed stuck in some pocket dimension inside a dumb rock forever. I told myself that, but that didn’t make me believe it.

Ovie’s nose twitched.

”Also, just saying, if you got a problem with both Zates and Marms, I’m gonna start thinking you have a problem with trans girls, and that’s a kick-assable offense in my book.” I said.

I seemed to have hit a nerve, because Ovie started stammering right away.

”I don’t—! That’s! Come on, why would I...?” Ovie said.

”Then maybe back off a bit,” I said.

Ovie sighed. ”I’ll...do just that, I suppose. Let’s just finish this stupid game, I want my prom dress.”

I winked at Marmalade before starting the cart again. I dunno what I had to be cocky about, I felt a bit scummy about it, but someone needed to tell Ovie off, and Marmalade needed defending. Judging by the fact that none of her girlfriends stepped in for backup, maybe they agreed with us.

”Heh,” Marmalade chuckled as she opened her phone. I could see it kind of from where I stood, it looked like a wall of numbers. She noticed my stare. ”Ah, Roux just sent me a meme.”

”Is it one I’d know?” I asked.

”Er...it’s a bit obscure,” Marmalade said. ”I’ll explain later.”

”Sounds like a plan,” I said, grinning.