Rising Shards

After Corinani was chastised by Snowglobe for what felt like an hour, the group was allowed to proceed to the place where apparently a bunch of monsters that only Corinani knew how to defeat waited.

"Here's what I don't get," Marmalade said. "If there were monsters in this particular area of the warehouse beating up arcade machines or what have you, why couldn't Snowglobe just get rid of them herself?"

"Oh. You know." Corinani said, rubbing her nose.

"I don't, that's why I'm asking!" Marmalade said.

"Ha ha...funny, funny question," Corinani said. "That will be answered in due time. Or in dude time, because we're all bros here, right?"

"I'm trans, so I'd prefer if not dude time?" Marmalade said.

"Ah crap, sorry." Corinani said. "We're in full girlie girl mode then, got it? Chick flicks and uh, chick lit and..." She coughed. "It's so hard being a teacher..."

"I'm not mad, and thank you for understanding," Marmalade said. "What I'd really like to know is why we can stop these monsters, and Snowglobe can't."

"Teacher probably charmed them in a way only she can fix," Roux said. "Which means she also unleashed the monsters plaguing these poor arcade machines. Which must be rather sturdy if they've lasted a year."

"Cani can do that?" Marmalade asked. "The charming monster part."

"Oh, yeah, it's super easy if you have the right tools for it." Corinani said.

"Why did you do that?" Marmalade asked.

"Oh, you know," Corinani said.

"She's just going to say that every time you start figuring out her secrets," Roux said. "Ask me instead, I know way more than her."

As they were led down the halls, Iris and Maia rejoined them.

"Where'd you go?" Roux asked, purposefully loud enough for Corinani to hear.

"Don't even worry about it," Iris said.

"Totally fine." Maia said. "We just had to..."

"Take a bathroom break is all!" Iris said.

"Oh my god, you guys have to tell me if you're leaving for any reason!" Corinani said. "At least you kept to the buddy system though, so I have a sticker of a cartoon banana giving a thumbs up just for you."

"Like two of them, or just one that we share?"

"Let's not worry about how many stickers I have on hand, and focus on the task! Also at hand."

"Can you explain the plan in at least a bit of detail so we know what we're doing?" Marmalade asked.

"Sure!" Corinani said. "So we'll go in there, I'll undo the charm, then we grab as many as we can and leave before Snowglobe notices." Corinani said.

“Wait, we’re just stealing them?” Marmalade said.

“Yeah!” Corinani said. “I had a great idea for a Recreant Protocol game—arcade machine challenge! Then I thought, who do I know that owns a bunch of arcade machines and is very easy to steal from? My old pal Snowglobe! She's so busy with all this business-y business when you business a business stuff that she won't notice!"

Corinani knew the particular warehouse decently well, getting the group to the wing where the arcade machines waited. She opened the door...to find a nearly empty room. No void monsters, and only one arcade machine. Snowglobe waited, leaning on it with her arms crossed.

"How did you get here so fast?" Corinani asked.

"Do you really think I'd let such an important shipment sit gathering dust for an entire year?" Snowglobe asked.

"I asked you a question first." Corinani said.

"I don't care."

Marmalade tensed, wondering if she was about to see her teacher get beat up.

Corinani reached behind her back, pulling something out of her pocket, keeping it concealed.

"When I say the magic word..." Corinani said quietly. "Everyone go to the arcade cabinet I touch."

"But there's only one cabinet in here..." Marmalade said.

"Then go to that one!" Corinani cleared her throat. "Snowglobe, darling. My dear friend. You sure tricked me."

"You won't be able to smooth talk your way out of this one," Snowglobe said.

"I wouldn't dare! I...perhaps just want to open a line of communication. To come to some sort of agreement, perhaps?" Corinani batted her eyelashes.

"The only agreement is me beating your ass until I've deemed you having a punishment comparable to the price you nearly cost me trying to ruin my shipment." Snowglobe said.

Corinani yelped, flinching and falling to the ground before Snowglobe even moved. As Snowglobe took a single step forward, a worker ran in.

"Ma'am! We caught two girls making out in the east break room!"

"What?" Snowglobe hissed. "Girls? What girls? You know I forbade PDA in these halls!"

Snowglobe stomped towards the worker. Corinani scrambled like some kind of crustacean towards the arcade machine, waving for the students to come over. They didn't waste any time, especially Iris and Maia, rushing to Ms. Corinani, who revealed she had a miniature wayback pedestal and gate rosin with her, quickly scraping her fang on it and sending the group home.

Once she made sure they were home (with the group returning to the void entry building) and weren't followed, Corinani started cheering, dancing around the stolen arcade machine. "Wooo! Made it! I was hoping for more than one of these bad boys, but what are you gonna do?" She said. "OK, should probably make sure I check that everyone's still here. Buddy system people, we didn't leave anyone behind, did we?"

"We left Michi behind," Roux said. "They will be missed."

"I'm right here." Michi said.

"Great work, students!" Corinani said. "We got real lucky those girls were having kissy time, Snowglobe gets so testy about that."

"Heh...yeah, real lucky..." Iris said.

“Don’t tell the school this is stolen. As far as they’re aware, Snowglobe’s company is donating it." Corinani said. "Ahhh, it's always a good time with Snowglobe. I've had such a crush on her on and off since we first met."

“Huh?” Marmalade said.

“When we first met, I thought all my butterfly feelings was just me being scared she was gonna beat me up," Corinani said. "But it was only partially because of that. But I realized those feelings too late. Then a bunch of other bad stuff happened between us."

Marmalade wasn't sure why hearing about a crush had her reacting like this.

"How did you know it was a crush?" Marmalade blurted out, not thinking about her friends nearby.

Corinani blinked in confusion. “You’re asking me that? Like genuinely?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“Sorry, that’s the first time any student has asked me for advice!” Corinani said. "I guess I figured it out with a lot of self reflection time?"

"I see..." Marmalade said.

“Did you get the stuff?”

Kitty Kilander approached. Marmalade went from feeling introspective about one thing to her heart racing. Seeing Kitty Kilander in person regularly was something she still wasn't used to, and she had never been this close to the singer.

“I believe you need to say the magic words.” Corinani said.

“And I believe you need to make up lost foot stool time." Kitty said. "Drag this thing to a classroom, then meet me in my office."

Corinani left to go find a cart to move the arcade machine, and Kitty left without acknowledging the students.

"That was...really weird." Marmalade said.

"Yeah..." Iris said. "We're gonna go."

Maia nodded. "Someone better make sure that we get extra credit for this."

"For real!" Iris said.

The two left. Marmalade, Michi, and Roux decided to head back to the dorms,

“It’d be cool if Kalei came with," Marmalade said. "She’d probably have some good material.”

“Koridia never has good material,” Roux said. “You and that dumb broad, I swear.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Marmalade asked.

“That all her jokes are bad?”

“Not that part, the other part.” Marmalade said.

"What other part?" Roux said, leaving the group without explaning.

When it was down to Marmalade and Michi, Marmalade wasn't sure what to say.

"You good?" Michi asked.

"I...am always a bit frazzled after these." Marmalade said.

"That's why I'm checking in." Michi said.

"Well...thanks," Marmalade said. "How are you?"

"I got lots of good sketches of that weird microchip ocean." Michi said. "The warehouse had some cool interiors too. So, good day overall."

"That's awesome!" Marmalade said.

Michi showed off their sketches, which helped Marmalade feel like this excursion was worth the drama if some good art came from it. And for Marmalade, she maybe got some good advice about self reflection that she wanted to put into practice as soon as she could.

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