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Violet was a young octoling, she didn’t need much money, well not much more than she got from turf wars that is. But regardless she often found herself working odd jobs related to her hobbies. Today she was helping to deactivate the spawn pads for the new, coffee-looking platforms that had grown in popularity as of recent. The whole coffee machine thing wasn't just for looks either, well some details were, but that's besides the point, spawn pads worked a lot like coffee machines, just with ink instead of coffee (on a side note Violet hated coffee, she hated how it tasted, how it smelled, she never understood how it made others more energetic, as caffeine had always made her sleepy).
Violet was beyond annoyed to hear that the team she was on would be working in Scorch Gorge, also known as Why-is-it-either-freezing-or-on-fire Gorge by the youth of Splatsville, which was filled with inklings and octolings alike, which there had never been a divide between in Violet’s home of Splatsville. as the country that Splatsville was in had stayed out of the territorial conflict, unlike Inkopolis. Thus after the octarians started coming to the surface, Splatsville was the perfect place for Octarians who didn’t feel safe in Inkopolis to live.
Oh shoot yeah Scorch Gorge. Scorch Gorge had never been a popular spot for ink sports, as if you played during the day it’d be burning hot, and if you played at night, it’d be freezing cold. But that's not to say Scorch Gorge didn’t have its fans, several inklings and octolings endured the temperatures simply to play in an objectively cool looking area with strange rock formations. Violet was not one of those people, she hated the heat, at night the colder temperatures were tolerable, but during the day? Hell no. And that’s exactly where she had been scheduled to work later that day, and in the afternoon no less, wherein the damn place would reach its highest temperatures, not to mention that due to the equipment that needed to be used to deactivate the spawn pad the work uniform consisted of a long sleeved shirt and pants, this was not gonna be fun.
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Violet had considered quitting from the job, but decided to suck it up and get it over with as fast as possible.
“I don’t know how the Judds come out here everyday, it’s so hot,” One of Violet’s fellow workers, Athena, complained, while fiddling with some of the wires that connected the spawn pad to the solar panels that powered it.
“Especially with the fact that they’re warmblooded, could you imagine working out here while generating your own heat? And also dying if it gets too hot?” Jasper added, “Also don’t cut the wire yet, whoever installed this did a shoddy job and it could cause an electrical fire if not cut right.”
“I thought the Judds could turn off the warm blooded thing? Like how we change our ink colors,” Violet said, returning from moving one of the already disconnected panels away from where the four of them were working.
“Nope,” Skylar replied, “The Judds are stuck as permanent portable heat packs.”
“Permanent portabl- PFFFT,” Jesper said snorting, “that's great.”
“Sounds like it could be slang for a bomb,” Violet said with a grin.
“But splat bombs don’t produce heat?” Skylar, notably the only inkling on the team, stated beyond confused.
“Octarian splat bombs did, where do you think I got these burn scars on my arms?” Athena retorted, sending a light hearted glare at Violet.
“You screw up making a splat bomb one time-“ Athena groaned.
“You two know each other?” Jasper asked, “Also you can cut the wire now.”
“Barely, me and violet met a few times in the octarian army, but never talked much,” Athena explained cutting the wire.
“Note to self, don’t join armies that use poorly made equipment,” Skylar said, causing Jesper to laugh.
“Wait Jasper, I thought you grew up here?” Athena asked.
“Oh I didn’t, but my parents did,” Jasper explained.
“And that should be that,” Skylar said, after Athena had cut the remaining wire, “How ‘bout we go home, get dressed, and meet at Mahi Mahi resort for a round of Turf War?”
“I’m in!” Violet said with a smile.
“Same here,” Athena added, and Jasper just nodded.
“Cya there!” Violet said with a grin.