Chapter Text
Drowning. That was the word to describe how 8 felt. Drowning.
It wasn’t always bad. Sometimes she was simply splatted. It wasn’t pleasant, but she would respawn and try again. Being splatted by the enemy and continuing to fight was some 8 was very familiar with, as a member of the Octarian Army.
This, though… this was different. The win condition wasn’t always to survive and get to the goal. No, that would be far too easy. Tests of all types. Uncountable different ways to poke, prod, and torture her.
Stepping in a drop of enemy ink: Fail
Missing a balloon: Fail
Running out of time: Fail
Practically looking at the wrong box funny and causing it to break: Fail
She didn’t even get time to process the mistake until it was too late. Until that damn tank filled up with that unholy mixed ink and exploded, splatting her.
The Orb. That goddamn orb. One octoling was fine. Two was fine. Giving them specials was fine. Until it wasn’t. Three, four, eight, hundreds of Octolings spawned and started to converge on the center. The crates were all gone, 8 was running low on ink, and the orb was going to be destroyed, and she was going to have to do all of this again, and again, and again and again and she wants to stop but she can’t stop because stopping is “eight” failure and failure is unacceptable for an octarian soldier and she needs to survive “Eight!” she needs to complete the test but she can’t and every attempt gets harder and harder “Eight!!” until fail fail fail fail failfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfailfail she smashes the respawn point beyond repair and lunge-
“EIGHT!!!”
[Line Break]
Agent 8 awakes with a start, sitting bolt upright. Her head slams into something, though it gives way. She opens her eyes and takes stock of the most important parts of her surroundings.
Weapon in hand, that’s only for when waking up could come with a moment’s-notice threat.
Octoling above her. There’s green on her tentacles. Sanitized. Move. Defend yourself.
8 quickly rolled off the bed and fired at the intruder. They blocked with a brella. Interesting choice. Octarians are trained not to use brellas. No matter.
“8! Hold on!” The figure shouted.
8? Who’s 8? Not her. She’s-
She’s…
TestSubject10008Agent8CuttlefishTheMetroAgent3OffTheHookTartarInkopolisIsoPadre-
8 stumbled as the memories of the past few days came crashing down, her Octo Shot clattering to the ground as she uses the wall to steady herself, her breath hard and heavy.
What- what just happened?
“Hey, you okay?”
8 tensed up and looked at the “intruder,” who was staying a considerable distance away from her. Understandable given the Agent’s out burst.
8 can see now that the person isn’t an intruder at all; it’s Marina. Marina Ida. The pop star who helped 8 escape the metro. Geez she was out of it.
“Um, you all there, 8?” Marina asked, taking a cautious step forward. She was using octarian. It made sense, since she was one, and there weren’t other cephalopods present, but it still was nice to be able to answer in 8’s home language as opposed to the broken Inkling she’d gotten from Cap’n the past two month.
“I- I think so…” 8 said, getting up off the wall and getting control of her erratic breathing. “Um, sorry. About att-“
“Don’t worry about it,” Marina interrupted, placing a hand on, 8’s shoulder. She had to resist the urge to flinch. “You were having a nightmare, not to mention you probably just went through more trauma in two months than half of inkopolis does in their lives. Zapfish knows what you went through down there.”
8 chucked humorlessly, not wanting to meet the taller octoling’s gaze. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt it would be incredibly rude to do so. As if Marina was so far above her that them even existing next to each other, let alone talking, would be considered scandalous.
“I… I guess you’re right. I had a nightmare. A… a bad one.” 8 felt shame rise in her chest at the admission. She wasn’t supposed to have nightmares. She was supposed to be stronger than that. She-
“Hey,” Marina snapped her fingers in front of 8’s face, bringing her back to reality. Again. 8 really needed to stop spacing out. “Look at me.”
8, finally, looked up at Marina and met her gaze. It was… kind. And sad.
“Let’s get you some breakfast, okay?” Marina suggested. 8 just nodded. She was still mentally recuperating from the nightmare. She’d had bad dreams before but this… this was something else entirely.
Marina guided 8 to the kitchen, where Pearl was already eating… well whatever it was she seemed to be enjoying it.
8 looked out the window to see that the sun was just starting to come up. She frowned.
“How long did I sleep for?” 8 asked as Marina sat 8 down across the table from Pearl.
Marina thought for a moment. “Since the helicopter, it’s been a day. In your defense, you’ve been through a lot.”
Marina walked over to what seemed to be the cooking area, though it was strangely robust. So many different devices and objects, 8 was sure that it didn’t make sense.
Then again, maybe things like that were required in order to make things like whatever it was Pearl was eating.
“Um, where is everyone else?” 8 asked. Wasn’t there… at least 2 more people?
“Mph,” Pearl… said? Through a bite of whatever it was she was eating. She swallowed then said, “Agent 3’s asleep, they also had a rough go of it. Craig and the Squid Sisters left Octo-Cannon, or whatever it’s called.”
8 frowned. Octo Canyon. Was that her home? Also, “Who are the Squid-“
Nothing was going according to plan. Octavio had successfully captured the Great Zapfish, and life in the domes got much better, but this inkling was an unbearable nuisance.
She’d single-handedly made her way through the valley, decimating everything the octarians had thrown at her.
No matter. The Octobot King was basically unstoppable. $@#%$ cheered for Octavio as he fought off the Agent.
But then, something strange happened. The speakers glitched out like a broken record, and a different song started to play.
One that she would never forget, not for the rest of her life.
“-Sisters…” 8 finished, her voice shaking. The memory had come crashing into her mind out of nowhere. Well, not out of nowhere. Callie and Marie, the Squid Sisters, were both mem-cakes she’d received during her time at the metro.
Before she’d only gotten vague feelings from the memcakes themselves, but something about what just happened caused 8 to actually remember them, at least one memory of them anyways.
8 was snapped out of her thoughts by a plate being set down on the table in front of her. 8 looked to the right to see Marina sitting down next to her, a concerned expression on her face. Evidently, 8’s shock was noticeable.
“You good there, 8? You asked about the Squid Sisters right?”
8 looked back across the table. “Yeah, I’m… fine. I just remembered something. That’s all. And I did ask about the Squid Sisters, but that’s kinda what the memory was about.”
“Woah, cool!” Pearl said, “what did you remember?”
8 hesitated. She felt… reluctant to tell Pear what she’d remembered. It seemed like an important moment, and as of yet it was the only part of her past she actually remembered. She wanted to keep it to herself, at least for now.
“It’s… nothing,” 8 said.
Pearl shrugged, “suit yourself,” and went back to eating her disc-like meal.
Marina nudged 8, “You should eat too, 8. I promise, these are better than anything you’ve had before.”
8 skeptically poked at the disc. “You sure?”
Marina nodded, “Maybe cut it into bites though first,” she laughed
8 did as she was instructed and-
Oh
Oh wow
8 scarfed down the rest of the disc like she’d never tasted anything like it before. To be fair, she hadn’t. She’d just finished eating the crumbs when a thought occurred to her.
She looked up to see Pearl, who was trying her best to contain her laughter. “You understand me,” 8 said curiously. She’d been talking in Octarian the whole time, and yet the inkling had been able to keep up the whole time.
“Duh,” Pearl rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, “I’ve known Marina for years, not to mention I had to teach her inkling from the ground up. She taught me Octarian as well.”
8 supposed that made sense. They had to be able to communicate with each other, after all.
They finished breakfast, 8 eating 3 more of what she learned were called “pancakes,” and Marina cleaned up after they were all done.
“So,” Marina said sitting back down, “there is one more thing we need to talk about.”
8 tensed ready for any number of questions about- about her time in the metro. Thankfully, that wasn’t what came out of Marina’s mouth.
“You need a place to live.”
8 hesitated, then thought for a moment. The other octoling was right. 8 did need a place to live. And of course, she wouldn’t be allowed to actually stay in a place as nice as this.
“Yes,” 8 said with a hit of resignation, “okay, where are the barracks?”
“Barracks?” Pearl said, confused, “what the heck are you talking about, ‘barracks?’”
8 frowned “sorry you might not know the word, it’s where soldiers are hous-“
“I know the word, 8,” Pearl said, rolling her eyes, “what I’m asking is why you think we would send you to live someplace like that?”
“Not to mention, inklings don’t really have soldiers,” Marina added, “well, I suppose there’s the NSS, but we they only have like ten members, including you.”
“Then, where are you going to send me?” 8 asked, voice on edge. She supposed living on the street wouldn’t be too bad compared to the metro. But if there weren’t any places for soldiers, then where-
“We’re not sending you anywhere, idiot,” 8’s train of thought stopped dead in its tracks as Pearl leaned back and rolled her eyes, “you’re gonna live here, with us.”
“If that’s what you want,” Marina added, quickly, “otherwise we’ll be happy to get you a place of your own, but I thought you would appreciate help adjusting to life here on the surface.”
“I- uh-“ 8 stammered. “No way. I couldn’t. I- I’m just- I’m not supposed to have-“
8 was at a loss for words. This… this had to be some sort of trick, right? A prank of some kind? She was just… well she didn’t really know, but there’s no way she was being offered to live in a mansion, right?
After a moment, 8 got her bearings. “Um, if you’re serious, I’d appreciate that. Staying here.” She said quietly. The worst that could happen is that she gets laughed at for believing them, right?
Marina smiles and puts a hand on 8’s shoulder, “We are serious.”
Pearl jumped on the table and started shouting enthusiastically, “Whoooooo! Project Octo Adoption is a go!”
Marina winced, “Pearl I told you we are NOT calling it that!”