Chapter Text
Eights eyes slowly flutter open as a beam of sunlight that has escaped the confines of the blackout curtains hits her face. Annoyed, she turns away from the window, but the damage has already been done.
The octoling groans as she forces herself up into a sitting position, stretching her arms up towards the ceiling. She remembers what she had planned for the day and immediately plummets back onto her bed.
She is officially the new addition to the New Squidbeak Splatoon! Although initially she was excited when Mister, Captain, Cuttlefish gave her the offer that she accepted without a second thought, she now regrets her decision ever so slightly (very).
It just feels a little wrong, joining her former „enemy“. Though those feeling come less from having retained loyalty to Octavio (which she hadn’t) and more from the fear she might have to hurt her brothers and sisters on the battlefield. Or even just receiving disappointed looks from opposing octolings when they see one of their people on the enemies’ side. And most importantly, she couldn’t imagine watching them be hurt by the people who are now her coworkers. Makes her tear up a little just thinking about it.
But it’s too late for second-guesses. She just has to grow up. What kind of agent is scared of the battlefield?
At last, she forces herself out of her ever so comfy bed to get herself ready for whatever awaits her at her new job
___________
In the freshly washed leather gear she still has from when she was in the deepsea metro, she steps over to what she thinks is the correct manhole. Very reluctantly, she dives down through the grated cover. Gross.
The captain mentioned a group patrol that he wanted her and two other agents to do. An icebreaker exercise of sorts. Eight already dreads it.
Something Eight has discovered - or rather, rediscovered? - about herself was that she was cripplingly shy. Cod, she hated herself for it.
She shivers at the thought of meeting the other agents.
Eight forces her brain to change the topic.
How does a 'group patrol' even work? Will all of them be together in a big group? Wouldn’t it be safer if they went in groups of two instead? Although, it is an icebreaker exercise. Well, then she just has to pray that they won’t be attacked.
…
Having arrived at her destination, Agent 8 pops out of the manhole hastily, trying to mask her disgust (a failed effort).
Looking around, she sees a pair of familiar looking inklings and some inkling boy she doesn’t know.
No sign of Agent 3. Hm.
Not that Eight really cares. She’s just a little intrigued by Agent 3. She hoped to maybe get to know her a little.
Timidly, she approaches the group of inklings chatting among each other. The black-tentacled inkling waves to her excitedly, flashing a big smile. Her energy was contagious, Eight had to admit. She couldn’t help but smile back.
„Agent 8! Heeeey!“
Whatever script Eight formulated in her own mind earlier refuses to leave her mouth, so she resorts to a polite bow.
The black-tentacled inkling then starts introducing her to the other two inklings. Eight feels a little othered, being the only octoling.
„This here is Agent 4!“
The orange inkling smiles at her warmly. He extends his hand for a handshake, Eight hesitantly complies. Eight really can’t find the words to describe him. She’s slightly taller than him, but she’s also wearing heels, so it doesn’t exactly count. He has a very welcoming aura to him. But that’s it.
Well, she’s here to learn more about him, right? She doesn’t have to figure out everything from one glance.
„…You, uh. You gonna let go now?“
Eight flusters. She was too lost in her own mind to notice she was still, very tightly, gripping the other agents hand.
She pulls her hand away and looks at the floor.
The black-tentacled inkling makes over again.
„….Aaaaanyway, I’m Callie and that’s Marie, yeswe’rethesquidsistersdontfreakoutplease.“
Eight looks at them both in confusion. The name rings a very small bell in her head…She believes Captain Cuttlefish mentioned them before, but she doesn’t exactly know what for..
Marie, the gray-tentacled inkling, mutters something about people being uncultured - which Eight takes mild offence to - and Callie starts singing….singing that melody.
Eight perks up instantly. Of course!
Callie sees her perk up, prompting he smile to widen.
„Seeeee, she knows us.“
Eight turns red. She can’t believe she’s in the presence of THE Squid Sisters. She only remembers glimpses of them, but she assumes they are very powerful, having saved so many octolings with their music and all.
Silence takes over the group. Eight is a little confused about what everyone was waiting for. Agent 3 is obviously not coming. It would be embarrassing, arriving this late. Maybe they’re waiting for Mister Cuttlefish?
Before it could get any more awkward, A sound emerges behind the octoling.
Startled by the sound of ink splashing, Agent 8 whips her head around to find the source of the noise.
That just so happens to be Agent 3, emerging from the tunnels leading to the canyons. Eight really didn’t expect her to be this late, given Agent 3’s usual demeanour. Maybe she’s just bad at judging people.
She watches the older girl closely. She seems to be squinting at the orange inkling next to Eight.
„Toby?!“
„K- What are you doing here?!“
„Dude, I work here.“
Agent 3 walks towards Agent 4 and shakes his hand in an odd way. Probably an inkling thing.
Eight’s gaze doesn’t leave Agent 3’s face, not for a second. Something about that smile…
She snaps out of it, now staring at her folded hands.Agent 8 feels so out of place. They all already know each other. How unfair!
She blends out the chatter happening next to her, hoping to somehow fast-forward to when they go on patrol. Although, that might not look that different from her current situation. Oh man.
Eight audibly sighs. She can’t be cripplingly shy and be afraid of missing out, though the thought of joining the conversation and not knowing what anyone is talking about felt more degrading than just standing beside them like a neglected child.
So, she stays put, scratching at her hand, staring into space.
She can feel the time pass. Inklings really can't keep anything brief, can they? They never had to, she assumes.
Running out of thoughts to distract her, she decides to eavesdrop whatever the other agents were talking about...
...only to find the space next to her empty.
Panicked, she looks around herself to find her fellow agents. Only sign of them is a faint voice coming from the lower canyons.
They went on without her! What the shell!
She runs towards the voice. Thankfully, Agent 4 and Agent 3 were only about 10 meters away from her.
Quickly sprinting towards the two, she tries to suppress her frustration with being left behind.
"There you are!"
says Agent 4, weirdly cheerfully. It's evident that he's trying to make her feel welcome, but it's definitely not working. Especially after she was left behind without a word.
Whatever. She's here now and she will pay the most attention to make sure she stays here.
"Told you."
"Yeah, yeah."
Eight can hear them whispering amongst each other. Somehow, her frustration makes her a little more confident in talking to them.
"Told him what?"
She says in a more bite-y tone than she intended.
"That you'd follow."
"What, did you think I'd just stay behind?"
She crosses her arms. She probably would've stayed behind if she didn't wake herself up. But she didn't. She didn't stay behind.
To her surprise, neither of them answers. She kind of expected Agent 4 to defend himself at least. He seems like the guy to do so. Or maybe she just hoped he would.
They don't think that she’s incapable, do they? Because she isn't. In Eights opinion, she is very much capable. She's the reason Inkopolis didn't go to absolute ruin, after all.
Did they...not know that?
The next few minutes remain silent. It was awful, so awful. Callie said this is for getting to know each other, why weren't trying to get to know her? It's not like those two have anything to talk about, since they already know everything about each other.
Or maybe Eight was just thinking too much about it. She isn’t being as 'grown up' as she hoped she would be
Eight scopes out a rock and starts kicking it as she walks. At one point, it rolls over towards Agent 3. But she ignores it.
Finally, someone breaks the silence. Agent 4, obviously. He seems like the talkative type.
"Soooo, Inkopolis...Square. How you like it so far?"
Eight isn't sure who he's talking to at first. Wouldn't surprise her if those two started talking only to each other again. So she tunes him out.
"Octo girl."
Eight now realises that she has to answer him. The fact that he called her 'octo girl' made her want to respond even less
"...I have a name."
„Sorry. Agent 8, right? How you like the surface so far?“
Eight thinks hard. Surface is surface. It's great. The air is great. The sky is great. Everything is...great!
She has spent the last week outside, except when she slept, of course. She loves the outside world, but the amount of times people stare or whisper to each other about the way she looks have make her wanna become a little bit of a shut in.
But she couldn’t say that in front of her senior agents. and especially not in front of the fearless Agent 3. How embarrassing would that be?
"...It's...It's better than where I was before."
„Yeah, kinda assumed that was the case.“
It's quiet again. Eight can only long for home. Once again.
The heat of the outside world is much unbearable to Eight. Even though the metro was a little humid and the air was sparse, at least it was a nice, lukewarm temperature. Out here, it feels like she’s being cooked alive.
"You know this is for team building, right? We're supposed to get to know each other."
Eight only nods.
"Isn’t there anything you wanna know, or...?"
Eight flustered a little. She kind of forgot she was supposed to talk as well.
What about Agent 3? She was so nice and somewhat talkative when Eight was staying with her...where is that now? Why won't Agent 3 talk?
"Uh...I guess, why- how did you two-"
"School."
Agent 3 interrupts her. Agent 4 shoves her lightly.
"Yeah, we were in the same class back in middle school. No one really talked to her, cause-"
Agent 3 slaps the back of his head. Eight stifles a laugh. It was funny how he just took it without hitting her back. It was probably the safer option for Agent 4, though. Agent 3 could totally beat him up.
But she’s also a little sad that Agent 3 interrupted him. Why didn’t people talk to her? Who wouldn’t wanna talk to her?
Realising her tentacles had curled up, probably from imagining Agent 3 beat up Four (she is just too cool..), she clears her throat and pulls a straight face again. Embarrassed, she pulls them straight, hoping they didn’t see.
Out of the corner of her eye, Eight swears she can see Three smile at her, sort of. It’s a little hard to tell, but she chooses to believe it was a smile. Solely to make herself feel a little better.
She tugs at her tentacles more aggressively.
„Uh, doesn’t that, like, hurt?“
She can hear Agent 4 ask. She quickly lets go of herself, laughing flusteredly.
„It does, but, y’know they don’t listen sometimes, so you gotta…um. You know?“
She sputters out, repeating the pulling motion she was doing earlier, trying to force a playful smile.
Agent 4 stares at her completely befuddled. Agent 3 doesn’t seem to bother looking at her. Cod, she need to die, right now. She looks in the opposite direction. The mountains won’t judge her. Would they?
this really can’t get much worse, huh?
Well, it did.
Eight feels someone tugging, or rather yanking at her wrist. She yelps as they pull her behind a large rock. She looks at the responsible inkling, Agent 3, confused and a little ticked off.
„Hey, why-„
Agent 3 shushes her. Eight looks towards the edge of the rock, but she can only see Agent 4 peering over it. She looks back at Agent 3, expecting an explanation.
„Octolings.“
She whispers.
Eight visibly tenses up. This is what she feared the most. Of course she just had to have the worst luck in the world, huh?
She looks back at Agent 4, who’s still trying to figure out if the octolings are trouble or not. She can’t really read his face or his body language, so she sits down against the rock, hoping this will pass and they can just continue their patrol safely.
But it didn’t pass. Agent 4 said something about the octolings looking hostile and she could hear Agent 3 groan. Both of the inklings got ready to attack. Agent 3 touched Eight’s shoulder as she got up and she really tried to. She really tried to, but she couldn’t move fr the life of her.
She couldn’t even watch as the others walked away from behind the rock. Her eyes were locked to the ground. She swears everything was more blurry than before.
Eight knows she’s a coward for staying behind. But she knows that acknowledging her flaws won’t change them.
She can’t help but imagine the scene happening multiple meters away from her. She tries to switch off her mind, but what else is she supposed to think about?!
Eight decides she can’t stay here. After all, what use is she here?
So she goes looking for a different hiding place. Anywhere else but here
__________
Agent 3 splats one of the 3 remaining octolings surrounding her and Four. She’s pretty confident in her ability to one up any larger group of enemies. It’s a skill she fought for over the course of many years. Agent 4, however…lets just say he’s average. That’s all Three will say about that.
As she hides in her ink, trying to see what octoling would be more convenient to take out first, she hears Four yelling to her as he struggles with an elite.
„Where the shell is Agent 8?!“
„How would I know?“
Four groans, finally pushing the elite off of him. Three determines he will be just fine on his own. He could use the training. Plus, he’s synced to the respawn point back at Cuttlefish cabin anyway.
…He’ll be fine. So she runs off to check on the younger octoling.
„Kaori? Kaori, what the fuck?!“
But as Three looks behind the boulder they were initially hiding behind, she’s no longer there.
„Shit.“
If the captain finds out she lost the new agent, she’s dead for sure. She scans the area for any sign of Agent 8. Luckily, the octarian deserts weren’t as windy today, so she could the marking in the ground that a pair of heels left behind.
Three follows them hastily. Really the only reason she is, is because she needs this job. Ever since…the thing with her parents, the cuttlefish family have pretty much been her new family, in a way, sort of. Losing that would be….well.
She needs to find this girl.
The footsteps end at a more rocky part of this area. Faintly, she can hear sobbing. She already regrets not sending Toby instead.
Three takes a deep breath, then walks towards the sound.
„You good over there?“
She asks Agent 8, who was sitting on the floor hugging her legs to her chest. Eight quickly wipes the tears from her eyes, seemingly trying to hide the fact she was crying.
„I’m alright…“
Three eyes the octoling for a few seconds. She comes to the conclusion that dragging Agent 8 with her in this state was not the best idea, so she sits down on the ground next to her.
„You don’t look alright.“
No response. Three isn’t sure if she expected one.
She looks up above the rocks. The sun stood high in the baby blue sky. There wasn’t any clouds covering it today, which made it just a little warmer than it usually is during fresh season.
„Why’d you run away?“
No response, only a sniffle and some shuffling can be heard from the other girl. Three is trying really hard to be at least a little trustworthy. So hard.
„No reason? Were you just too lazy to fight, or what?“
„N-No!“
„Then why?“
Three looks at the octoling again, who has lifted her head up from her arms and is now looking straight at her. Those puppy eyes…Eugh.
„You promise you won’t laugh…?“
Three sighs. What, did this bitch see a spider?
„Sure.“
Agent 8 pauses, turning her head in the opposite direction. Three wishes she would just get to the point. Feelings make her want to barf.
„….The thought of hurting them…it’s…“
Three’s annoyance fades a little. That made more sense then if Eight had seen a spider.
„..y’know..? Back in that facility, I told myself that they’re beyond saving anyway. I’d be doing them a favour, if i killed them..“
The octoling forces a laugh. Three can definitely tell its forced. For a second, she even feels bad for Eight. But she quickly cleansed her mind of that.
Feeling make her want to barf.
„I get it, yeah.“
Both of them run out of things to say. This time, there was no Agent 4 to interrupt this calming silence. Three thought it was better this way. When she’s upset, she prefers the silence too.
„…I-I don’t even know why I took this job. I knew I’d have to f-fight octarians at some point.“
Three can hear the tears welling up in Eight’s eyes again. Cod…
„…Eight.“
Agent 8 looks up (down) at Three. Her eyes, still red and glossy, her lips quivering and her tentacles squirming around as if they’re trying to break away from her head.
Three forgot what she wanted to say for a moment. She regains her focus after breaking the eye contact she had with that cute face of Eight’s. Now she really wants to puke.
„You don’t have to be out on the field, y’know.“
„I don’t…?“
And just like that, the tears stopped forming, though Eight’s face remains pathetic-looking.
„You can just hang out at the cabin with Callie and Marie. Somehow that counts as work…“
Eight pouts at her. Three avoids looking.
„But I want to be useful…!“
Three groans, facepalming. Then she starts laughing. She isn’t exactly sure why. What Eight said wasn’t nearly funny enough for her to be laughing like that.
She kind of expected Eight to get angry at her for laughing, maybe start crying again. But that girl just stared at her. As if she was a pile of gold or something. Weirdo. Really killed the mood, in Three’s opinion.
At least she isn’t crying anymore. Three can go home now (hopefully).
She gets back up on her feet, looking down at Eight with her hands on her hips
„Sooo, you ready to go back?“
The girl nods, pushing herself off of the ground. The two walk back to the path they were actually supposed to be on without words. Only Eight glancing over at her every once in a while. That girl has a staring problem.
But at least Three gets to keep her job!
______________
When the both of them arrive back at the cabin, Agent 4 immediately starts yelling at them for leaving him behind. Something about betrayal, he was freaking out, bla bla bla. Her and Eight were laughing their asses off listening to him.
Maybe this new girl isn’t that bad after all.
(She should fix her staring problem though.)