Chapter Text
Like any other day at any other time, the sun rose over Inkopolis, casting light and shadow over the cityscape. Taggers who had too much fun the night before ran for their homes, the professional turf war players conceded the stages to those less experienced, and Agent 3 lie in her bed, contemplating whether or not the decision to get up was really worth it.
When the laptop across the room of her small apartment (Why did she have to live so close to the turf wars? She hardly went these days…) pinged with a new message, she sighed, and decided that she would have to get up and answer. She practically rolled out of bed, feet and hands hitting the ground before she fell so she could at least say she CRAWLED out of bed if asked. After a round of thinking maybe she should head back to bed and say she slept in (most squids do) she found she was already at the computer. With a sigh, she placed a hand on the cursor and shifted to the tab with the message on it.
It was from the captain. She winced as she read that, a message from him usually meant either a new mission, a cringy request to hang out, or some other oddball antics. Agent 3 was never fond of any of those. But, to ignore the message now would be rude. She resigned herself and opened it up.
“Hello, Agent! It’s your favorite cuttlefish, here with a new mission for you. Well, sort of a mission. As I’m sure you’re aware, things have settled somewhat between inklings and octolings these past two years! Why, a duo of the two is rising up the ranks of fame and fortune. A beautiful thing. Reminds me of myself and Octavio, before things got nasty in the war.
Regardless, there’s some concerns about the poor Octoling soldiers, brought up with only the military in mind and thus with little to no real-world skills. I took the liberty of signing you and Agent 4 up to host some while they rehabilitate, and ah, it seems you two were lucky enough to be chosen. You’ll be getting a message soon about that, with details about where to meet them and a brief rundown on what to expect.”
Oh boy. She guessed she’d have to see what she could do to back out of this. The captain was well-intentioned, but he did have a tendency to pull her into things without asking. It seemed there was a bit more though. After the oblivious nature of the first portion of the message, she was reluctant to carry on, but then, she wasn’t doing anything better.
“I know this looks like another naive blunder on my part, but it’s not only the octoling who needs to re-adjust, Agent. I’ve been worried about you, the other agents say you haven’t been returning their messages much and Agent 4 in particular is concerned that you haven’t been leaving the house much. It was actually their idea to sign you up for this after I told them about the program. Call it an intervention, but I know what it can be like to have been a soldier and now find yourself in peace, but not at peace with yourself. Give this a chance. I think it’ll be good for you. Captain Cuttlefish, Over.”
She stared at the message for a little longer, taking it in. She… did suppose she’d hardly left the apartment these past few days. But... she’d gone to the store for some groceries, and she went to… what, two turf wars the other day? That had to count for something. She had sorta been avoiding the other agents maybe. But she really just didn’t want to talk to anyone these days. For the captain’s sake though, she decided, she would… room with her enemy.
Oh gosh, she had been signed up to share a room with an octoling.
That bit was only now sinking in. She’d shot octolings with the intent to kill, sorta a big deal when such intent can affect the acidity of one’s ink.
She’d destroyed their machines and countless footsoldiers.
Two years ago, she was the one-squid army against the octolings, and so all the violence of that episode had fallen on her hadn’t it? And now she’d share a room with an octoling. And…
Deep breaths. She was pretty sure that that’s the thing to do when you freak out, and she was fairly certain she was on her way to a panic attack or something. Reluctantly, she decided it was time to get ready for the day. Mainly just since it sounded like she was gonna need to look presentable, and not like a mess. Lime seemed like a good color for the day, so she went with that for her hair. Clothingwise… The down jacket from the hero outfit ought to be good for the day, there had been a chill as of late. As long as she was looking more colorful than she really felt, she may as well put on some Cyan trainers for now, and for her head… Just some old headphones would be good. As soon as she was done, there was a knock on the door.
Who could that be? She stopped at her laptop on the way to the door, there wasn’t a new message about where to meet the octoling she’d be hosting, so it wasn’t that. Maybe it was one of the agents?
She felt an odd sense of foreboding as she reached for the door. Not unlike how she felt following cuttlefish through the sewers that one time…
The door opened, and… there was an elite octoling staring her right in the face. She was dressed in a loose, grey tank top with similarly grey shorts, some plain slip ons, and the seaweed denoting her status was used to tie her tentacles to a pony-tail of sorts in the back.
She spoke, confidently and bluntly. “I’m Crescendi. The organization was taking too long deciding where we’d meet since apparently there’s some concern about your or my mental health. I said that’s bullsquit and came by. What’s your name?”
“Um. I’m Amber.” Squit. No one told her this was an elite.She was remembering things she’d rather not now. Was she really equipped to handle this? She remembered her hero armor protecting her from enemy fire, faceless octolings gunning her down. Crescendi was saying something. She responded with equal force. They don’t scream, they never did, though she knew she must have been hurting them with acidic ink. Someone was leading her somewhere, giving her a seat and asking her to breath, to focus on now. To her, now was war, now was hiding from the enemy, now was- music? Now was music. Someone was playing music. Was that the Squid Sisters?
She was sitting on her bed. Crescendi was on Amber’s laptop, looking somewhat concerned. “You feeling better now?” Amber took a moment to assess herself. “I think so.” Crescendi was clearly somewhat relieved by the response. “Good. I know some of the gals in my splatoon could get panicky, but I’ve never seen something that bad. Nice to know music still helps.”
There was a silence between the two of them, in spite of the music playing.
Crescendi broke the silence. “I guess I shoulda waited for them to figure out a meeting spot huh.” She spoke softer now, but with about the same confidence as her introduction. “With all respect due to my host, you’re a mess.”
Amber couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Maybe. Can’t say I noticed before today.” She sighed. “Though I suppose I haven’t held a conversation as long as this one for a while.”
The octoling stared at her a moment. “So. You have some manner of trauma and probably also depression. And as I understand it, you were signed up to host an old enemy without your knowing. And as fate would have it, they gave one of the best octolings to one of the best inklings.” She cracked a smile, but her eyes seemed to be more nervous. “Sounds like a bad situation for the both of us, huh?”