The Next Day

— Grudia, Colyath 21, 8054 —

“And let the next meeting of our Creators’ Day work, commence!!”

“You’re really excited about this, huh…” Twy muttered as she watched her twin scribble on a small whiteboard in her room.

“Not like there’s much else to get excited about, around here,” Sky retorted. “Besides, we have less than three weeks to work on this stuff!”

“And who knows if we’ll get dragged along on another trip or two in that time,” Phoenix pointed out from her seat on the edge of Sky’s bed. Kestrel sat next to her, rounding out the four current residents of Sky’s room. “We should probably be meeting to work on this more often,” Phoenix continued. “We met twice on the weekend, but we still basically just talked about what we’re doing. We need to actually get started soon.”

“Lot of details…” Kestrel muttered.

“That’s just the nature of projects like this,” Twy responded. “We have basically four different parts of the performance to put together, and we need to make sure they all fit each other. Of course that would require a lot of planning.”

“Luckily, I already did my part!” Sky exclaimed as she whipped out a couple sheets of paper. “I already wrote our song!”

“You did? Let me see,” Phoenix replied, to which Sky readily handed over the paper. Phoenix then began to read the lyrics, only to stop a second later. “…Oh, right. You’re writing the lyrics in Japanese.”

“You really went with it, huh?” Twy remarked.

“Well, we established that English won’t work,” Sky pointed out. “So this is the next best thing. I wrote a song in English, translated it to Japanese, and then cleaned up the meter a bit.”

“Is this actual, legible Japanese?” Phoenix questioned.

“I mean… maybe.” Sky smiled sheepishly. “I may’ve, uh, prioritized the meter and rhyme over keeping the grammar structure intact, ha ha…”

“Of course you did…” Phoenix responded with a sigh of resignation.

“Oh c’mon, it’s not like anyone will be able to tell!” Sky insisted. “None of us even understand Japanese, and we’re the ones from Earth!”

“I feel like butchering the language we’re using for the song defeats the entire point of trying to showcase Earth’s culture,” Twy replied.

“Alright, fine, I’ll put more work into it,” Sky conceded with a huff. She then turned to Kestrel, saying, “maybe we should figure out how the backing track will go, first, though. Have you worked on that at all?”

Kestrel shook her head. “Need lyrics.”

“I guess that makes sense. We should probably be working together on this more closely, huh?”

“You only just now realized that?” Phoenix remarked incredulously.

“Shush, you,” Sky retorted. “What about you and sis, huh? Have either of y’all started work, yet?”

“I need to know what kind of song you’re singing before I can put together an outfit for you,” Phoenix replied in exasperation. “The outfit has to match the energy and style of the song, after all. Are you writing pop? Rap? Rock? Something else?”

Sky pulled a face. “Rock? That’s so old!”

“That’s why I’m asking. What genre does your song fit into?”

“Uh… well, pop, I guess.”

“You wrote a J-Pop song, didn’t you,” Twy deadpanned.

“Ha ha ha…!” Sky grinned and chuckled sheepishly. “…I mean, c’mon, sis! I’m writing a song in Japanese! Of course it’s gonna be J-Pop!”

“J-Pop… that’s Japanese pop, right?” Phoenix questioned. “That’s… hmm. Aren’t we doing a nature theme? Maybe pop is too energetic…”

“Pop can be anything you want it to be!” Sky countered.

“I’m not sure genres work that way…” Twy responded.

“What’s your plan, then?” Sky crossed her arms as she turned to look at her sister. “Hey, you’re the one in charge of the art piece! Have you started yet? Maybe we can all derive inspiration from what you’ve done!”

“That’s a lot of pressure…”

“We clearly haven’t formed a firm enough plan, yet…” Phoenix commented, while pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “None of us are on the same page!”

“Start with Sky’s song,” Kestrel suggested.

“I guess it’ll have to do, if Twy hasn’t started on her part, either.”

“I mean, I’ve sketched a couple drafts,” Twy replied. “But it would be silly to start on the actual painting until we knew what we wanted it to look like.”

“Alright, let’s see the drafts, then,” Phoenix said.

“Well… remember that these are just sketch drafts,” Twy responded as she opened up a folder and pulled out a handful of sheets of paper. “I assumed we were going with the nature theme after all, so I looked up some natural landmarks on Earth.”

“Hmm…” Sky mused as she, Phoenix, and Kestrel took a moment to look over Twy’s drafts. Between the five sketches, there was one of a giant snow-capped mountain, another of tall rock columns standing amongst trees, one of a steep fjord, one of a rushing waterfall, and another one of a mountain — though this one with much more gradual slopes, and clearly standing alone.

“Mount Fuji, nice!” Sky remarked while examining the latter sketch.

“I can easily recognize Mount Everest, or Sagarmatha, as well,” Phoenix said. “Niagara Falls, too. These are really good, Twy!”

“Thanks…” Twy responded bashfully.

“What about these other two? The fjord looks like one of those European fjords, right?”

“Yeah, from Norway. I’m not even going to try and pronounce the name. The rock columns in the forest are from China — the Shilin Stone Forest, in fact.”

“Sikalia…” Kestrel commented.

“I thought they looked a lot like what we saw on Sikalia, too,” Twy replied. “That’s why I picked it, actually.”

“It’s an interesting parallel, for sure, but I think that actually means we shouldn’t go with it,” Phoenix said. “Remember, half of the WCU student body went with us to Sikalia. They’d probably just think that this sketch is a stylized rendition of Sikalia’s rock columns.”

“Oh, true…”

“By similar logic, I think we should probably nix Niagara Falls, too. The ACT this year is in Riverana, after all, and it started just this week. I’ve already seen coverage of the Anika Falls in some of the broadcasts they’re showing around the town.”

“Which leaves Everest, Fuji, and the Norweigen fjords, then,” Sky commented. “Personally, I vote for Mount Fuji! I’m writing my song in Japanese, after all!”

“I’m inclined to agree, but at the same time…” Phoenix pursed her lips in thought. “…I don’t know. This just feels weird, you know? None of us are actually Japanese, but we’re still basically trying to represent Japan. That doesn’t sit right with me.”

“Twy and I are half-Japanese, that counts!”

“Well… I guess you have a point.”

“At the same time, we really don’t know much about Japan, ourselves,” Twy pointed out. “Our mom moved away from Japan when she was just a kid. I kinda share your concerns, Phoenix.”

“Oh c’mon, y’all are thinking too hard about this,” Sky refuted. “Do you really think any of the Tresédians will care about where on Earth all our stuff is coming from?”

“It’s still superficial,” Phoenix argued. “Imagine if someone in the audience was actually intrigued enough by our performance to ask us more about it. What would we tell them? We wouldn’t be able to tell them shit!”

“Well, what more do you want? We already decided on the song being in Japanese, didn’t we? I even already wrote the damn thing!”

“Ugh…” Phoenix pinched the bridge of her nose again as she released a frustrated sigh. “…Alright, fine. Have things your way.”

“Alright… Mount Fuji it is, then,” Twy commented uneasily. “…I’ve never actually painted Mount Fuji, actually. This could be nice.”

“Make sure you make it as big as possible!” Sky exclaimed. “This painting is going to be the backdrop for my performance, after all!”

“W-wait, backdrop? That’s… I don’t know if that’s going to work. I was going to use watercolors, you don’t typically use watercolors for paintings larger than a couple feet on a side!”

“Entrusting a wallpaper-sized painting to a single person sounds like a gigantic ask, anyways…” Phoenix mused.

“Well we have to have something showy!” Sky declared. “We can’t just stick a painting on an easel and call it a day!”

“That’s… that’s actually what I was going to do…” Twy muttered.

“What?! But that’s so small! How is the audience going to see it?!”

“Do we even know how big the audience will be?” Phoenix questioned.

“Couple hundred?” Kestrel suggested.

“WCU’s entire student body is only around 300 people, right?” Twy pointed out. “I know there’s going to be a full day ‘talent show’ of sorts on Creators’ Day, but I doubt most of the student body is going to be there the entire day. There’s going to be lots of stalls and things, as well, after all.”

“The talent show is open to the entire Compound, not just the school,” Phoenix pointed out. “There might actually be a few hundred people in the audience at any given time. In which case, Sky might actually have a point… if we want the entire audience to see the painting, then it’s going to have to be large.”

“I… suppose,” Twy responded uneasily. “But a painting that large… the only feasible way to make it would be to compose the larger painting out of a bunch of smaller ones, like a grid.” A look of realization then appeared on her face. “Actually… I don’t think that’ll be too hard. There’s enough space on the dorm’s roof to lay out all of the canvas while I work on it. And since I’ve been practicing painting with my Hydrotechnism, it’ll be a lot easier for me to cover large areas than with conventional watercolors. This could actually work…”

“Alright!” Sky pumped her fist and then slapped Twy heartily on the back. “I knew you could do it, sis!”

“Well, don’t say that, yet. It’s still just a plan…”

“It’s much better than what we had half an hour ago,” Phoenix pointed out. “So we really are rolling with a Japanese theme, then, hmm. Well, I can take that into account when designing your outfit, Sky, but I’d still like to hear how your song and Kestrel’s backing track actually sound first. Kestrel, do you know how long it’ll take for you to get even just a sample of your track?”

“Mm…” Kestrel reached over to grab the lyrics Sky had written to quickly skim them. She then glanced at Sky. “…Sound?”

“Uh… if you’re asking how I want it to sound, I could show you a couple of my favorite songs,” Sky replied.

“Please don’t just copy standard J-pop,” Twy pleaded.

“I make no promises!”

“With examples…” Kestrel muttered, and then looked back to Phoenix. “Few days.”

“Alright!” Phoenix remarked, “it sounds like we actually know the next steps, then! Sky, Kestrel — you two get to work on the music. Once you’ve got an idea of how things will go, let me know so I can get started on my part. And in the meantime, Twy, if you need any help, I’m free.”

“I guess I could use some help figuring out how large the final painting needs to be, and putting together the canvas on the roof…” Twy mused.

“Perfect. Sounds like a plan.”

“Then let’s get to it, everyone!” Sky exclaimed as Twy and Phoenix stood up to begin working on their side of the project. “Let’s make our performance the best one anyone will see on Creators’ Day!!”

---

*

“What? No! I was winning!!”

“Sorry. That’s just how the cards fell,” Conrad airily remarked as he sat back against the wall, letting his game controller rest on the floor in front of him.

“’How the cards fell’?!” Austin retorted while passing Conrad an incredulous glance. He then looked to his other side, where Spike and Danielle also sat, at which point the former simply shrugged. “…I can’t believe this,” Austin muttered, turning his attention back to the racing game that the four had been playing. “I don’t— I don’t usually lose like that!”

“But you got second place,” Danielle pointed out.

“He’s kinda got a point, though,” Spike commented. “Conrad, dude, I didn’t expect you to be so good at games.”

“Eh, it’s nothing really to brag about,” Conrad responded dismissively.

“Yeah, ‘cause it was a fluke,” Austin insisted. “C’mon, let’s do another race! I’ll beat you this time!”

“That’s what you said the last ten times,” Spike replied.

“You really care about winning, huh?” Danielle remarked, her feet idly kicking as she laid stomach-down on the ground, her hands griping a controller in front of her. “Personally, I’m having fun no matter how well I do!”

“You still weren’t too bad, yourself,” Conrad said. “The four of us were at the top the whole time. The AI might as well have not been there.”

“AI in racing games is always terrible and unfair, the fact that we beat them shouldn’t be a surprise,” Austin stated.

“Something about that statement sounds just a little contradictory.”

“Ah, you know what I meant…”

“We could play somethin’ else,” Spike suggested. “A fightin’ game, or somethin’.”

“Huh, is this what you guys usually do with your afternoons?” Danielle questioned as she looked at each of the three men. “Just sit here and play games?”

“It— it’s not all we do,” Austin responded defensively.

“Yeah, sometimes I take a nap,” Conrad remarked cheekily.

“I usually get some training and work-outs in,” Spike said, “but it seems like everyone’s busy lately, and trainin’ alone ain’t much fun. Still need to do it, of course, but there’s less reason to do much of it.”

“Busy, huh?” Danielle echoed, “is this because of that Bleeder stuff?”

Austin and Spike exchanged a wary glance while Conrad replied, “maybe. Probably not, though.”

“The Bleeders are definitely a problem, though…” Spike muttered. “I get the Deans and the Defense Force don’t wanna drag the students into things, but it still seems dangerous to leave us outta the loop…”

“Is that why you’re here? To deal with the Bleeders?” Austin asked to Danielle.

“Huh? I’m here to play games,” Danielle replied as she held up the gaming controller.

“No, I mean… ‘here’ as in ‘Compound Tresnon’. You even came with the rest of CSF-1, right?”

“Oh! That.” Danielle shrugged. “I think the Colonel was worried about the Bleeders, yeah. I’m helping out with guard duty everyday, too. But I mostly came to see Mark.”

“Why aren’t you with him now, then?” Conrad questioned.

“He’s on guard duty…” Danielle replied with a pout. “And he said that if we went on guard duty together, then I’d just distract him with conversation…”

“That sounds pretty harsh, from Mark,” Spike commented.

“Well, he said it in that way he says things where he’s being really considerate and it’s hard to argue with him,” Danielle claimed. “And I mean… he’s not really wrong, I guess. At least he promised to hang out once his shift is over.”

“So the two of y’all are helping with guarding the compound, huh…” Austin mused. “Are things that bad…?”

“I bet the locals are just being super cautious,” Conrad replied. “Kaoné’s here, after all, and supposedly she can take on entire armies by herself or something, right? We’ll be fine.”

“Whoa, entire armies?!” Danielle exclaimed, her eyes practically sparkling in amazement. “Wow! I want to see that!”

“I don’t, if ‘seeing it’ means Tresnon gets attacked,” Austin countered.

“W-well, true…”

“Anyways…” Conrad gestured toward Austin’s laptop screen. “We going to keep playing?”

“Well, we got the whole afternoon,” Spike said. “I guess we got some coursework we needa do, but that can wait ‘til later.”

“We should get the others in here, too!” Danielle suggested. “These kinds of games can support more than four players, right?”

“Some games can, but I dunno about my room,” Austin replied.

“I doubt you could convince Pierce to play games with this group, anyways,” Conrad commented dryly.

“And the girls are workin’ on their Creators’ Day project, ain’t they?” Spike questioned to Austin, and then turned back to Danielle. “We’d be better off lettin’ ‘em work. It sounded like they had a lot to do.”

“Oh yeah, they had that thing, didn’t they,” Conrad remarked. “Man… it sounded like so much work, from what I heard from Phoenix and Kestrel.”

“What are they doing?” Danielle questioned. “And… what’s Creators’ Day?”

“It’s a Nimalian holiday,” Austin answered. “One where they celebrate ‘creators’. Like, if you can create something — art, food, fucking underwater basket-weaving, then Creators’ Day is for you.”

“The girls are plannin’ some kinda musical performance,” Spike added. “I know Sky is singin’, and I think Twy’s paintin’ somethin’? Somethin’ like that.”

“Oh! That sounds really cool!” Danielle exclaimed. “When is this happening?”

“Ranth 7th, right?” Spike replied, passing a quick glance toward Austin — who nodded in affirmation.

“Yeah, about two and a half weeks from now,” Austin said. “…Uh, Nimalian weeks, that is.”

“Figures that Phoenix would try to take on some kind of crazy task like that a mere couple weeks before the deadline,” Conrad commented. “Don’t know how she wrapped Kestrel into all this, but I’m happy to stay far away.”

“What?” Danielle passed Conrad a clueless glance, and then turned to look at Austin and Spike. “Are you guys not doing anything?”

“Nope,” Conrad replied airily. “I’m perfectly content with being a consumer, thanks.”

“Yeah, we don’t really have any plans…” Spike admitted.

“I kinda want to, though…” Austin said. “Like, the idea of a holiday celebrating creators is really cool, I think. And I like to write! …Sometimes, anyways. But I don’t know what I’d do for the holiday…”

“If you wanna do somethin’, you should just go for it,” Spike declared. “Don’t hold off, you’ll just regret it. Like a certain other thing you’ve been holdin’ off on for years, now.”

“Sh-shut up. Anyways, I just said I don’t know what I’d do, didn’t I?”

“A’ight, a’ight. But if you think of somethin’, let me know if I can help.”

“Is there not anything you want to do, yourself?” Danielle questioned to Spike.

“Uh, well…” Spike smiled sheepishly. “I’m not really like Austin, or the twins. I don’t really got any, uh… ‘creative’-type hobbies.”

Danielle then turned to ask the same question to Conrad, but he replied before she could speak. “Same here,” he stated. “I’m not really one for doing things. Not unless it’s fun, somehow, but that’s rare enough.”

“…Wow. You really are a lazy person,” Austin remarked.

“Won’t even deny it,” Conrad replied. “But I guess if you come up with a fun idea for Creators’ Day, then I could help out, maybe. Don’t expect me to pitch in for something like what Phoenix and Kestrel and them are doing, though.”

“I wouldn’t want to do something that involved, anyways,” Austin said, and then placed his hand on his chin in thought. “Hmm… somethin’ fun, though, huh…?”

“If I’m still here and free around then, then I’ll help out, too!” Danielle exclaimed. “Especially if it’s fun!”

“Uh oh. This is starting to sound like an actual commitment…” Conrad remarked.

“Well, we’d still need somethin’ to do,” Spike pointed out. “This is some real short-notice plannin’, anyways.”

“No joke…” Austin muttered.

“Don’t stress yourself out about it, dude. I know I said to go for it, but Creators’ Day is an annual holiday, right? So even if we miss this year, there’s still next year. I bet we’ll still be here, ‘round that time.”

“I guess that’s true…”

“I wonder if I’ll be here, in a year…” Danielle mused.

“Ah, a year is so far away,” Conrad replied dismissively. “Why bother planning for what happens in a year? Let’s focus on the now. Like this game that we aren’t currently playing.”

“Oh, right.” Austin passed Conrad a sheepish glance before taking control of the game’s menus — he was player one, after all. “Sorry. I guess we got a little sidetracked with that conversation, huh?”

“Don’t sweat it,” Spike replied as he regripped his controller as well. “But I’m with Conrad. Let’s get another race goin’!”

“Alright! And this time, I’ll win for sure!” Austin declared as the four went back to racing, whiling away their free time on a weekday afternoon.