Rising Shards

If there was one thing my fellow students and I were getting better at, it was bouncing back after a big void event. After the Fang Moon Web and Sharai Dagger incidents, I got to see firsthand how we all could dig deep and just keep going even when we had no energy for the mundanity of classes.

After dealing with the daggers, we didn’t get a week off of class like last time. I guess we only got a few of those per semester, and this was too close to the last big one. We didn’t even get a day off this time, jumping right back into class. The week after kind of blurred together, feeling like a mush of incidents in classes and around the dorms.

“Ribbons”

A big class for chatting time was Dr. Diast’s. She usually gave us some time to talk during group work, and was late enough that we could continue our conversations from breakfast sometimes.

“Here Zeta, look at this.” Oka held out her hand, interrupting me from spacing out staring around the classroom. She had a tiny pink ribbon tied around her ring finger. It looked like the kind of ribbon that would be on a present, but maybe a bit silkier than a regular one, like she got it from a fabric store, maybe?

“New cloth to match the wrist one?” I asked.

“No, no, this is a fad going around.” Oka said. “See, a pink ribbon wrapped around the ring finger means you’re seeing someone. A lilac one on the pointer finger means you’re looking. Green around the thumb means you’re only looking for a farmer. White around the left-hand pinky means you want a friend, but on the right-hand pinky it means creative collaborator. The others are the same no matter which hand.”

“And the middle finger means…” Kalei started laughing before she could finish.

“Well, in addition to that, apparently a red ribbon around the middle means you’re actively not looking for someone.” Oka said. “So here, I got you one too! If…if you want. A pink one, I mean. I only bought pink since we’re, you know. Dating. Well, wait, actually, I got a set with a bunch of colors, but that was only so I could get the pink…”

“Uh, yeah, I wanna.” I said.

“Yay!” Oka gently wrapped a matching pink ribbon around my ring finger. It had me imagining her kneeling to put a ring on my finger. So flower petals were blooming all around us in my imagination. “Oh, one more thing!” Oka said. “We gotta like wrap the ribbon fingers around each other to confirm it. The story goes it like charms our love, which is kinda silly but…”

I held my hand out instantly. It was a slight hassle to get our ring fingers to connect, but we managed it. I didn’t feel like a surge of energy or anything, but it made Oka and I both very happy.

“Is anyone else doing this thing?” Kalei asked, looking through the little gift box Oka bought that was filled with the ribbons. It looked like the kind of box romantic candies would be in, but instead of candy it was just lots of ribbons. Kalei grabbed two yellow ribbons and wrapped them around her middle fingers.

“Uh, that isn’t one of the things!” Oka said. “Yellow isn’t one of the colors, is it?”

“Nah, I’m just going against the grain or whatever.” Kalei said. “Then when someone asks what’s up with mine, I can give ‘em the double bird and not get in trouble.”

“I think you’ll probably still get in trouble if you do that.” I said. “Have you seen anyone else wearing these?”

“A bunch, yeah, it’s all over the play clique.” Oka said.

“You still hang out with them?” Kalei asked.

“Uh, yeah, why wouldn’t I, just because the play’s on hold?” Oka asked. “Some of them are cool. Like most of them aren’t Clover. Like Lillia! Lillia’s cool!”

Oka gestured to Lillia just as she arrived in the classroom and sat down. Oka took the ribbon box back and shook it in her direction.

“I’m not playing that game.” Lillia said. “If you’d like to hup killshot, gladly, but I’m not taking part in a fad that exposes personal affairs to such an extent.” She held her hand out towards Oka’s neck. “Hup. Killshot.”

“Twelve points.” Oka said.

“You’re too kind,” Lillia said. “That was a clear seven pointer, I made it very clear I was about to killshot, but I will accept your score.”

Oka’s box of ribbons got a lot of attention, even from people I had barely talked to. Oka had gotten a bit more sociable with others from her clubs, having to talk to a lot more people than I did in my spirit betterment club.

“Oka, you got the pink ribbon!”

“Huh?” Oka turned.

“It’s been a while,” A girl I could genuinely not remember the name of said. “So I didn’t know you had a couple deal. Congrats!” I honestly had barely seen her in any classes, so I was confused by her suddenly approaching us. The ribbon fad was more powerful than I realized.

“Uhh huhuhuh, yeah!” Oka said. She grabbed my ribboned hand and held hers up next to it.

“Aww, precious! How’d I miss that you two were a thing?” Mystery Girl said. “Although I have skipped like a lot of classes lately.”

“Y-yeah…” I said. Mystery Girl grabbed a ribbon for herself without asking if she could.

“Hwshaaaa!” She said, grabbing a white ribbon. “As an agent of chaos, I must keep people guessing.”

“What’s her name again?” I whispered when she left.

“I have no idea,” Oka whispered back. “I don’t think I’ve ever talked to her before.”

Others who came up had different meanings they heard about the ribbons.

“I heard gray means you just got dumped, and light gray means you just dumped someone,” Iris said. Maia had been suspended for a day for getting in a fight with Scrungy, so Iris didn’t have her to bounce off of and seemed a bit lonely. “I was thinking I’d get gray to spite Olivia, but it’s been a while since I got broken up with, but it still makes me sad when I think about it?”

“What would you pick otherwise?” I asked.

Iris squinted and hummed as she thought it over, eventually scrunching her face up from the effort. “This is too confusing! I’ll just take a green and say it’s for my hair.”

“Green means farmer.” I said.

“Iris is looking to get in on that farmer lifestyle.” Kalei said.

“I mean, OK, a farmer could grow food for you, and you’d never have to go to a grocery store again.” Iris said. “So who’s the real loser here?”

Marmalade stopped by next. “Let’s see …” She said before grabbing a lilac, a white, and a green. “I’m just curious if there are any farmers here. Dating a farmer would be nice, if you think about it.”

“Right?” Iris said.

Curious about what we were doing, Michi stopped drawing for a second.

“Oh, Michi!” Oka said.  Michi winced as they were spotted, facing the ordeal of being recognized when they would rather blend into the background. They quickly grabbed a lilac and two whites.

“Seeking pretty much anything.” Michi said before rushing back to their drawing.

“Wow, everyone’s gonna have a ribbon at this rate,” Oka said, speaking a bit louder to get Lillia’s attention away from her pre-class note taking. “It’d be a shame if someone didn’t get one, huh?”

Lillia rolled her eyes. She took a lilac ribbon and wrapped it around her left pointer finger. “There. Happy?”

“Just a bit!” Oka said.

“Kalei the Streamer”

“Awww yeah, ooh baby!” Kalei said to no one in particular as she finished questions on a worksheet.

“Kalei keeps…doing weird catchphrases.” Oka said.

“She’s practicing being a streamer.” Lillia said. “Though I’ve told here there’s more to it than just saying ‘ooh baby.’”

“Are you going to just do video games, or are you going to do a fun stream like makeup streams?” I asked. “If I was going to stream, I’d do a makeup stream like Chellsi-Mikeila-Keila. But like. Less stupid.”

“I’m not sure I like the implication that makeup is fun and gaming isn’t, Zates.” Kalei said. “But that gets an oh yeah, ooh baby anyways.”

“Oh, you really wanna do makeup?” I asked.

“Finally!” Oka said. “I’ll go get my kit!”

“She’s just saying empty, meaningless catchphrases, don’t listen to her.” Lillia said.

“I dunno if I’d do streams though now that I think about it,” I said. “If I was doing something, it’d probably be like a book review vlog. Or a TV review one. Or a hybrid! Then I could edit it when I get all tongue tied. You can’t do that live.”

“It sounds like you’ve given this some thought.” Lillia said.

“I’d so watch a Zeta reviews stuff channel!” Oka said.

“Aww,” I said.

“Huh? What’s wrong with that?” Oka said.

“I’d kinda…want you to be like my co-host.” I said.

“Oh!” Oka said. She got a very smug look on her face. “Zeta and I could be WatchThis stars!” She gasped softly. “Your tail has to be in the logo.”

“My shelves need to be really fancy. All the book reviewers have fancy looking shelves.”

“Something like this?” Lillia held up her phone. She had an image-based app up with her account, that had gorgeous looking shelves filled with all sorts of books from new ones to ancient looking ones.

“Whoa, those are really pretty,” I said. “Are those the shelves in your room?”

“The same as yours, yes.” Lillia said.

“You made them look so much…cozier.” I said.

“She’s very good at that.” Oka said. “She doesn’t use filters either.”

“What?” I asked. I was also proud that Oka knew what filters were now.

“And she won’t divulge any of her secrets.” Oka said.

“Maybe we should get our shelves looking nicer.” I said.

“So you want to take all the Raina books off of them?” Kalei asked.

“Hey, what?” I snapped. “No! Why would I take my Raina Starlight books off my shelves? Why would that make them look nicer? That’d make them look worse. Much worse.”

Kalei held back her laughter.

“You just said that to get me steamed, didn’t you?” I asked.

“What gave that away?” Kalei said.