Shadow slave: A Shadows Friend

The Southern part of the Academy where all the sleepers were situated was relatively small it was surrounded from all sides by parks and training fields

The low modern looking building was made of reinforced materials like all the other buildings in the Academy, a large portion of all the buildings were hidden underground, it left only a couple of floors above it it had pristine white walls and vast windows.

I can only predict how beautiful it could have looked during summer the contrast against all the greenery

The building itself was bright and vast all three of them were brought to a large hall where hundreds of other sleepers were currently located in. All of them waiting for the beginning of the induction ceremony. All of them had multiple emotions visible

I can only imagine the headaches administrators have since the spell infects randomly there is no structure for sleepers to undergo standardized education. Some people had a year some had months and a select sorry bunch only had a couple of days

'how lucky of me I'm SPECIAL'

Induction ceremonies were held each month at the beginning of the year to compensate for this they then held these every week as the winter solstice loomed closer

'me and sunless are quite lucky we were taken here to the Academy hours before the scheduled ceremony. Some people wait days for this'

Once inside the hall, she and probably Sunless understood two things.

Firstly, everyone was well-dressed and in possession of a suitcase, a duffel bag, or at least a backpack carrying their personal belongings. They were obviously coming prepared, most likely from home, sent off by their families. So Sunny, Rin and the silver-haired girl, who came empty-handed and wearing simple police-issued clothes, were not a norm like she had assumed, but actually an eye-catching anomaly.

'of course we're the weirdest looking people here'

Secondly, Master Jet was not being overly humble when she called herself below average by Awakened standards. Even though these young people were just starting their paths as Awakened, their looks were dazzling. Everyone was handsome, beautiful and radiated health.

some guys looked over at her in interest she looked back with red eyes and a frown. They recoiled and never looked back

'master jet was way scarier....and prettier. she had what nobody else here had....a presence a scary ass presence that made a whole room cold when she entered

Was this the difference between a Sleeper and a Master?

She had two options converse with these teens or stay here with sunless and get gawked at by people

Each of them had something to talk about their fist nightmares the future adventures and speculation on Their future in the dream realm

They wanted to talk and they wanted to be talked too. They wanted to ask and be answered

Everyone wanted to share.

She took a breath and looked at all these people she could atleast talk to one group of people....

I cant wait for people to act out my greatest fear

Socialising

Gives me fucking chills every time i think about it

She looks over at sunless to see what he was thinking

He was smiling darkly like he had a stupid plan.....

'Sunless I swear if you turn yourself into an unapproachable weirdo, so nobody talks to you...ill personally skin you'

They both made eye contact and Rin spoke

"D.O.N.T...Y.O.U....D.A.R.E"

In half an hour, pretty much everyone in the room hated sunless.

And with every conversation sunless had to taint his reputation. Rin was getting more and more ready to rip his head off

But she did have the last laugh with most of them

The conversations went something like this :

"Look at all these young people. How many do you think will return from the Dream Realm? How many will perish? What do you think our own chances of survival are?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure that a pompous fool like you will die first!"

"I'm so sorry he was kicked in the head as a child. Sunless go sit down all that standing up might hurt that small brain of yours"

Or:

"I even received an armor-type Memory in my Nightmare. It's an enchanted robe. Would you like to see?"

"Actually, I would prefer to see you without a robe..."

"sunless stop harassing people sorry ma'am his flaw is having extremely stupidity"

*****

Sunless looked at Rin as she joyfully skipped next to him

"Can you stop ruining my fun"

"What ever do you mean? I dont know what you are taking about..I'm having plenty of fun, besides. you wanted to be an outcast I helped you with that goal i just....made it funnier. If anything you should be thanking me

"YOU SAID I WAS DROPPED ON THE HEAD AS A CHILD!"

"oops"

Both were left alone sunless cause he tanked his social credit

Rin was left alone too but for other reasons...the threating people reasons

She looked over at sunless whose face was bruised and nose was bleeding they both sat down in a quiet corner

Rin chuckled as she sat next to him

"I didn't expect her to slap you to be fair"

"why are you here?"

"well I'm here because I'm about to enter my second nightma-"

"you know what I mean"

She sighed

"with the attributes that we share and the consequences of betraying one another. I trust you more than anybody here"

"but why"

"hmmmm...you seem like a funny guy and you're the only one here I can relate too...seeing that we're both from the slums and everyone here is some bratty posh annoying entitled teen..

.

.

did I mention how rich they are...you're the only one I could probably talk to without getting kicked out of the group"

"I'm funny?"

"not at all...I ran out of compliments so I made one up. Don't make me say it again...I hate lying twice"

"I hate you"

"I hate you too"

.

.

.

"But on a serious topic. Teammates"

She stuck her hand out for a hand shake. Seconds later a hand grasped that one and sunless spoke

"Teammates"

She smiled at him as she sat next to him in the corner.