Rising Shards

“So, what’s your story?”

We were trying to get our new ‘friend’ over to Falling Shards, but despite his demeanor, he was a bit of a chatterbox. And something about his vacant personality made it easy to talk to for some reason. He kept almost interviewing us, while sounding annoyed at anything we actually told him. We picked up Marmalade, Iris, and Maia while we tried to get to the sibling school, all of them getting stuck in conversations with this guy.

“A Kanibari, huh…? That’s interesting.” Kris said.

“What’s interesting about that?” Maia asked.

“I read a novel with a Kanibari character for class. A quote that stuck with me is one about how they lead interesting lives…”

“I mean, I guess?” Maia asked.

“Here, have this.” Kris said, handing Maia a small present.

Another weird thing about Kris, for some reason he had a bunch of presents on him that he was handing out like they were nothing.

“Can someone explain what the hell is going on?” Iris whispered.

“I pinned a message in our group’s Dynne chat with everything we know at the moment.” Lillia said.

“I don’t know what Dynne is!” Iris said.

“It’s that chat app, I made you get it, remember?” Maia said, free of Kris Krag’s attention when he started talking to Marmalade. “But whatever the deal is, we need this guy gone ASAP.” She used her claws to open the present, finding a fancy new game controller. “What the…? This is super expensive. Is this guy rich?”

What we had gathered so far and written on our chat for reference:

-The boy’s name is Kris Krag

-He doesn’t seem interested in much of anything

-He’s very chatty and asks a lot of questions about us

-He won’t go away even if we tell him to go away

-He keeps giving us presents

-Every fourth thing he says is vaguely to really flirty

That last one was proving to be a big problem. Kalei laughed it off when Kris said lines like “Enchanting…just like your eyes,” or whatever, Lillia stared daggers at him, Oka and I just emitted panicked noises that barely constituted words, and Iris and Maia took turns pulling him away. It had maybe been two hours after class, but they were long hours with us barely getting to one of the halls connecting Rising Shards to Falling Shards.

“It’s hard not to be amazed with someone as beautiful as you, Marmalade…” Kris said.

“I, uh, huh?” Marmalade looked at us for help.

Kalei grabbed Marmalade by her elbow and pulled her away from Kris, whose expression remained blank. Kalei muttered as she sent a quick message.

Kalei_the_Tyrant_Ranger: Im thinking its maybe time to tell this dude to piss off already?

CadenceEmpress: We’ve tried. I think carefully dropping him off at Falling Shards is our best bet after my attempt.

OkaOhri: You had a really good speech, Lillia.

RainaStarlightFangirl: It was terrifying! And he just stood there! And wouldn’t leave us alone!

MarmaladeLine: thx for the help Kalei! Have you tried saying how gay you are to this dude? Would that help?

OkaOhri: I think I pretty clearly said what mine and Zeta’s (my and Zeta’s?? Zeta’s and mine??? Those don’t sound right) preferences are, and that we’re dating, and that didn’t seem to sway him.

MarmaladeLine: dang.

Luck seemed to be on Kris’ side as well (we couldn't technically verify this one, so Lillia wouldn't let us put it on the list on the Dynne chat). I kept tripping over everything, including an embarrassing moment where I fell flat on my face and my tail somehow got under my skirt and flipped it up. And of course, Kris was right behind me. I was rescued by Oka's reflexes as she blocked his view, but the way she described Kris' expression in the moment, muttering that he looked "like a cartoon dog about to go 'awooga,'" I was ready to be done with this guy forever. Kalei also had a wardrobe related incident shortly after.

"Surely you've heard of an eGame—" Kalei started before she slipped, falling flat on her face just like I did. Oka and I yelped and rushed to block Kris from seeing her skirt all flipped up, but Kalei snapped at us before we could. "I have shorts on, relax."

That was the point Lillia decided to do a big, dramatic, “go away now” speech, but Kris' luck struck again as a teacher walked by right as she was gearing up to use her flame breath. Lillia also wanted to summon Ko over, but she was off campus with her sister.

“A visit to Falling Shards, eh…?” Kris said. The way his voice trailed off almost every time he talked was really grating.

“Yep, the school primarily for the boys,” Kalei said. “And where our good pal Syval goes, have you met him?”

“I only transferred here in the last few days…” Kris said.

“Well, do you wanna meet him?” Kalei said. “Syval’s awesome.”

“I don’t really care to meet guys,” Kris said. “My friendships with men never tend to go well…I just like to hang around gorgeous women.”

“When you say it like that, it sounds super creepy, are you aware of that?” Iris asked.

“Oops,” Kris said. “I have been told I say whatever’s on my mind too easily.”

Iris rolled her eyes so hard it looked like she was going to pass out.

Falling Shards structurally was like our school, just mirrored. None of the students paid us much attention. I could tell Marmalade was getting jittery about this trip, I wished I could have said something more supportive before she went on an anxiety inducing excursion. If we made different decisions or maybe had different familial situations, both of us could have been going to Falling Shards when our fangs came in. It was a thought that rattled around the back of my mind sometimes, and I assumed it did for Marmalade as well.

Kalei waved eagerly when she spotted Syval.

“That’s Syval?” Oka asked me quietly.

“Yep.” I said. We had joked about Syval being an average type, nothing too harsh, but I still felt bad comparing him to Kris Krag. The sheer vacancy of the latter, practically a clear glass window of a personality, made Syval’s personality more like a vibrant painting.

We had agreed to split up into groups, with a few of us staying to keep Kris at bay while Kalei led a second party to explain what was going on. Oka and I stayed with Kalei, while Lillia, Marmalade, Iris, and Maia kept getting questions from Kris.

“Syval, you know that dude standing with our friends?” Kalei asked, getting right to the point.

“Sorry, I don’t recognize him,” Syval said. “Maybe he’s one of the new semester students?”

“Damn,” Kalei said. She explained the situation to Syval, who nodded along.

“Sounds like he’s gonna have a tough time fitting in if all he wants to do is hit on you lot.” Syval said.

“You know anyone who could get this guy to stay in your school?” Kalei asked. “Someone to woo him possibly?”

“What do you think we do, just barter boys here?” Syval asked.

“…maybe?” Kalei asked. “It doesn’t even have to be romantic; it could be someone really cool who makes him play games to distract him from us so we can leave him here.”

Syval squinted at Kris, pondering the offer. “He’s definitely not my type.”

“Do you know anyone here who would be into that?” Kalei said. “We just need one person who can keep his dull ass in the Falling Shards side of school?”

“I can’t really think of anyone,” Syval said. “I don’t really talk about my ‘type’ with my friends. We keep that sort of thing locked up pretty tight here.”

“Right, I get not wanting to talk about feelings and junk.” Kalei said. “It took me forever to open up like that. I'm still pretty bad about it, honestly.”

“Yeah…” Syval said. “But even taking that out of the equation, I dunno if I can think of anyone who’d want to be around this guy by your description, romantic or no.”

“Mayhaps it’s time to rely on my contacts at Falling Shards,” Oka said smugly, stroking her chin as she stepped forward. “Syval, do you know two fellas by the names of Sandwich and…uh, I actually never got the other one’s name. I call him Not-Sandwich.”

“Oh, those two?” Syval asked. “I know em, yeah. I can’t remember that other dude’s name either. Not-Sandwich is great, I might steal that. I think they’re both at the upside-down extreme movie commentary rally.”

“Are we cursed to have everyone who could be of some use at that rally?” Oka asked. “No offense, Syval.”

“None taken, I haven’t contributed much at all to whatever you have going on.” Syval said. “Not to leave right after you got here, but Scamblo: Sturvival just came out and I was hoping to spend my night with some escapism away from all the BS at this school.” 

“I forgot that was out today!” Kalei said. “Alright, later dude.”

Oka walked very slowly as we headed towards our friends, who had the body language that said, "My soul is being ripped out by how boring this guy is, but also from him being way too forward and all the creepy incidents that keep befalling us."

“Let’s relish the few seconds we have before he starts talking to us again,” Oka said. “Do we have any kind of plan? Any idea for anything?”

“I was thinking we could ask Dr. Diast for help next?” I said. “When in doubt, ask a teacher for help!”

“Nerd.” Kalei said.

“Like you have any better ideas.” I said.

“I was thinking we just run to our room and play Scamblo: Sturvival for the rest of the day.” Kalei said.

“I don’t know what the heck a Scamblo or a Sturvival even are so we’re doing Zeta’s idea.” Oka said. “But if Diast is away at that rally too, I’m gonna scream.”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!