Rising Shards

The maximum speed on the shopping cart monstrosity was abysmal. I tried the best I could to wring any excitement out of this event, but so far was failing miserably in that aspect. Our shopping cart lazily rolled along as we tossed toys into the hastily welded together metal bins.

"Kinda thought this would be more of a competition with the way they hyped it up," Charmaine said. "Instead it's just...this. I guess there's the prize for getting the most expensive stuff...but like, who cares?"

"I think Ana thought this would be more competitive, too," Sai said.

I was ready to crush Zeta and her friends in shopping spree-based combat, but we didn't even get to be in the same aisle together.

"Just enjoy the ride," Chickadee said. "It's been a beautiful day, you know? A beautiful, successful day." She winked at Caeda.

It was a bit strange to have those two with us, in spite of being devils like us it had been a while since we'd actually interacted. The two were always plotting something when we were in regular contact, or at least seemed like they were.

"What do you mean by successful?" Esther asked. "Did you two ask each other to the dance or something?"

"Er..." Caeda chuckled as she lazily threw some more plushies into the cart. "Well, we are, but. Heh, it's a secret..."

"I'm guessing a secret you're not going to tell us any time soon," Charmaine said.

"That would be correct, heh," Caeda said.

Caeda usually bragged about everything she was doing, even when she was working with us on the exact same thing. We all had an objective from my mother to get stronger, but she didn't seem to mind that Caeda and Chickadee had broken off from the group to achieve that via their own means.

I wondered if I should investigate further, though. Not knowing exactly what the two were scheming was troubling, and something told me I should be more concerned than I was.

But, why though? I was at about their strength in battle, if not stronger. Maybe the two were just dating off to the side, which didn't matter to me. I told myself to wait until the next time I was in another battle with Chickadee and Caeda to see if we could be in sync again.

"So...toys, huh?" Charmaine said, getting in the state where she was so bored she needed to make conversation. She took a scif-fi action figure and chucked it in the bin. "I'm not from here, what toys did y'all have growing up from here? Anything cool?"

"I've been here a while, but I can't say many toys are super cool, save for—" I started.

"If you're going to talk about Tower toys, I'm jumping off this cart," Sai said.

"Nooo, that's dangerous," I said. "It's going a whole one mile an hour here."

"I would be surprised if we even hit that speed," Sai said.

"I'm not from here originally, either," Chickadee shrugged.

"I liked Haven fighter toys growing up," Caeda said. "I like the space fighter ones, and oh! I made lots of custom figures of myself over the years."

That seemed very on-brand for her, and I almost said just that in a tone that probably would have started a fight, but Esther responded first.

"Cute!" Esther said. "You will have to show me sometime."

"Heh," Caeda sounded like she was unable to process Esther's genuine attention towards her. "Um, what toys did you all have? Like, in the worlds you grew up in?"

"Where I come from, fire sludge was all the rage," Chickadee said, doing a motion like she was bouncing a basketball as she made a gross, wet sound effect. "But my folks hated it because it gets in everything, either burning it or gooping it up. I wanna find some just to see their reaction when I show off a new tub of it. They're gonna be all, 'nooo, the new furniture, Chickadee, what the helllll!' Heh."

"That's...interesting, sure," Esther said. "Back home...what did we have back home?" She frowned as she tried to think of it.

"Those wooden climbing dolls were big," Myles said.

Esther's eyes lit up. "Yes! I only had one, but I wanted a second so bad, because...they did that thing!"

Suddenly, Esther, Myles, Ash, and Charmaine lit up, all making a motion with their hands and making weird clicking noises.

"Uh..." I said.

"No, no, it makes sense!" Esther said.

"It doesn't to me, but as long as you get it, I guess," I said.

"They were these wooden figures that had curvy arms so if you had two together, they'd link up and the arms would make them climb," Ash said. "They couldn't on their own, but they clicked together really nicely."

"And if you had the climbing pole, you could make them climb all the way to the top, then let them drop and they click-click-click all the way back down," Myles said.

"OK, but who had the pole?" Esther said. "I only had one doll."

"We did, but..." Ash glared at Myles. "Someone decided to step on it to see how tough it was, and broke it in half."

"I had the pole," Charmaine said.

"Yeah, well, you're royalty, so..." Esther said.

"So I probably had more chances for toys than others, yeah," Charmaine said.

The way the four of them were so excited about these toys was cute. I wondered if I could find them anywhere. Even if their world was lost, maybe some were around? I made a mental note of that as I noticed Sai hang their head for a second.

"You alright?" I asked. The others were too engrossed in their toy memories to notice.

"Yeah, I'm good," Sai said. "Usually, not remembering the old place doesn't...OK, it does bug me, but I can put that away."

"You shouldn't have to," I said.

"I know, but it's whatever," Sai said. "Just makes me feel left out, a bit."

"Maybe you should grab a toy right now," I said.

"What do you think I've been doing this whole stupid shopping cart race?" Sai asked.

"I mean! Like...pick one out you want, and make today a special memory," I said. "Or something like that?"

"Well, the sentiment is nice at least," Sai said. They turned back toward the shelves. After some searching, they grabbed a plush of a girl with brunette hair in a helmet and racing gear. "From Revelation Racers."

"Never seen it," I said.

"Well, I'm making you watch it when we're home," Sai said. "They're probably not even gonna let me keep this."

"I'll make them let you keep it," I said. "We each gotta get at least one toy, right?"

"Are you gonna threaten the toy people?" Sai asked.

"Well, no, but," I shrugged. "Maybe. One way or another you're getting that plushie."

"Thanks," Sai said.

While I did want a high octane race where I'd humiliate Faleur, the slower speed and just us on the cart meant I could have a moment like that, which was probably a lot better than what I wanted.

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