Rising Shards

I sighed as I scrolled through my phone. I was flopped onto my bed, trying to give myself a relaxing night, but every site I checked had way too much hate for my favorite things. I was just trying to watch a new trailer for the next Tower of Hate and Love episode, but got recommendations for such enticing five plus hour videos as “Why Tower of Hate and Love Absolutely and Unforgivably SUCKS Now” or “Arlit/Raina Starlight: the WORST part of Tower of Hate and Love?” I hated that all the news sites I had on my phone recommended that crap. I made sure to at least give a dislike to each of the videos, but that still gave them a view, so it wasn’t really a win.

There was a comment on one of them about how bad Raina’s acting was in the latest Tower season. It made me mad enough that I actually signed in to respond.

I angrily typed in, “You really don’t get Raina Starlight’s acting style, do you?” and felt really proud of myself when I sent it. Then I felt really bad about being mean and went back into the site and edited my comment into something nicer. Then I went back again and just deleted the comment outright.

Oka had been busy with her theater practice, so a lot of the time evenings were spent with me by myself. With Kalei busy a lot of the time practicing with the Matora sisters for beam chasers or playing games, I hadn’t had a lot of time with her either.

I needed a shower to cool off from that stupidity of modern fandom. Our dorm room shower wasn’t anything to write home about, but since becoming a Cani with effectively a water-based power, showers weirdly made me feel more in tune with my ability. Kalei always got on me for my long shower times, so it was great any time I could take one when she’d be out of the house, so to speak. A good, hot shower could be meditation time for me, a brief window where I wouldn’t have to think about crappy people online complaining about my favorite show, homework I was behind on, void fighting, people that actively wanted to hurt me like Ovie, any of that negativity. For a few minutes, I could just sit under the water and not think about anything. I doodled a bit on the condensation on the walls, just enjoying the warm water and my few moments away from all the stressors of the world outside my soaked walls.

After my hair had been through my regularly scheduled lather, rinse, double rinse, lather, rinse, triple rinse, and a brush, double brush, brush, double brush, triple brush, double brush, as well as a new lather, rinse, double rinse, lather routine specifically for my tail, I was feeling very content and walked out with a towel wrapped around my torso to check a note we had pinned near our front door. We all wrote down our schedules for the week so we’d know where the others would be (I had annoyed Kalei texting her too much asking where she was, so she initiated the ruling to make the schedule). Neither Oka nor Kalei would be back for a few hours, so I had a bit more time to myself, which was a mix of good and bad. Good because I liked recharging during alone time, but bad because alone time not under the incredible meditative power of a hot shower had me prone to thinking about all the sad and stressful things going on in my life. I had been reading the book Dr. Diast gave me about value systems and other good mental health stuff, and that was helping a bit.

I went back into the bathroom and took off my towel. I wasn’t feeling the clothes I had brought with me into the bathroom as much as I had before I showered, so I went over to the dresser and picked a few more shirts out.

I laid out my potential nighttime outfits on my bed. This was just for me, so it was pretty pointless to think this much about outfits, but I still knelt in front of them, sitting on my heels and wondering which set of pajamas I really wanted to be cozy in for my evening alone.

I was split between my Raina Starlight set and my straight up Tower of Hate and Love set. I wanted one of those out of spite for all the hate my favs were getting online. I mindlessly drummed on my thighs for a bit as I debated which felt more right that night. Without my towel wrapped around my body, the room felt a bit more chilled so part of me pushed me along to make my decision quicker, but this was a self-care night, so another part of me was also fine with taking my time picking, even if it was a bit cold for the amount of time I was spending unclothed.

I heard something creak behind me, which was weird because the dorm room was empty, I had just verified that a few moments earlier. I had verified that, right? I wouldn’t have walked out even slightly unclothed if there was a chance someone else would be in the room. I turned around slightly.

It took me a few seconds to process that Oka was sitting on her bed, frozen as she held her backpack in mid motion putting a notebook inside it. She had a wide-eyed look like she was about to faint.

“AH!” I screamed as I practically went into a fetal position after diving into my nearest blanket to cover up.

“AHHHH!” Oka yelled back. “Sorry! I didn’t think you’d…Really sorry! I didn’t…see…well, I didn’t…sorry!”

Oka continued to frantically apologize as she left. I heard her shut the door to the outside hallway and I stopped to catch my breath and cool my heart down. After a few minutes of hiding under a blanket, I finally peeked my head out. My tail was completely poofed in full panic mode.

I had my back to her at least and was sort of a bit under the blanket so the most she saw was whatever was in that view. Presumably. I didn’t know how long she was looking my way. Even if she only saw a little, that wasn’t fair on a like astronomical level. I had a system in our dorm room that allowed for no awkward changing moments. While that didn’t overtly break my streak, it was still rattling. Especially because my roommate/best friend/girlfriend just walked in on me completely naked.