Chapter Text
“Inky!” YAY-OK called for Gus's pet cephalopod as he filled up his food bowl. “Lunchtime!” No answer. “Gus, can you call your squid over? He listens to you more for whatever reason.”
“Inky!” Gus called when he walked in. “Come here little fella! He must not be hungry yet.”
“Let's just leave the food here.” Wally suggested. “He's bound to come and eat it at some point.”
“My suspicion indicators tell me there may be more going on. Not sure what, but I can feel it.” YAY-OK predicted.
“What do you know about Inky? You don't even like him all that much.” Gus glared at YAY-OK.
“Regardless of him being annoying at times, I'm rather concerned that I can't track him.” YAY-OK tried to detect him when his glowing antenna.
“Where could that squid have gone off to?” Gus raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe he's playing hide and seek!” Wally grinned. “Let's go look for him!”
After literally tearing up parts of the ship to find their tentacled friend, they came up empty.
“Okay, Inky, we're getting tired of this game! Olly olly oxen free!” Wally called out.
“That was the third time one of us called for him. Well, if he wants to keep hiding, that's his business!” Gus scoffed.
“Monkeys, I found something.” YAY-OK pointed somewhere.
“Well, it's about time!” Wally complained. Both monkeys hopped over to where YAY-OK was pointing, a ripped up piece of paper splattered in black ink. “This isn't Inky!”
“Of course it isn't. But this is the contract we signed to rent him.” YAY-OK told them.
“You'd think he'd take better care of it.” Gus rolled his eyes.
“Wait a minute.” Wally looked at the splatters. “I can sort of read a message.”
“You can?” YAY-OK and Gus asked at once.
“It says… Goodbye.” Wally gasped. “I can't read anything else.”
“Inky left?!” Gus's eyes filled with tears and soon Wally's eyes were starting to get wet as well.
“I hate to say it but most of the time you two don't seem to appreciate him all that much.” YAY-OK shook his head.
“How dare you say that, Inky loves us and we love him! It must be a misunderstanding.” Wally poked YAY-OK to make a point.
“I didn't mean you didn't love him. But whenever something more special comes into your life, like a love interest or a new pet. Inky seems to feel… Left out.” YAY-OK stated. “To put it very lightly I mean.”
“So this is our fault?” Wally whimpered as he started to sniffle more again, he and Gus cried out loud and hugged each other.
“It is…” YAY-OK's eyes on his screen generated tears of their own. “But I'm afraid you're not the only ones, if only I didn't forget how wonderful he was.”
“Enough crying!” Gus announced, then wiped his own eyes. “We should, no we MUST find our little ink maker. Then and only then can we show him how appreciated he truly is.”
“Are you sure you can stick with that?” YAY-OK wondered.
“We can only try.” Gus responded. “And we will!”
“And so, my journey begins, to escape the woe and misery of a loveless home. My journey is treacherous, maybe it will even lead to an untimely demise. But at least I can say that I gave it a shot.” Inky lamented as he held his bindle and sat on the bench next to an old alien man who was glaring at him while holding a newspaper. He groaned and walked away, taking the paper with him. “And of course I scared another one away with my constant talking. But my first owners were not impressed by my talking either, they said “it's not part of the rental agreement”, even though I could have gotten away with it easily, how nice it would have been to have a conversation. If not with them, then why not the robot? He was always put off by my ink, but were the monkeys any better?! At least my ink was USEFUL!!!!” Everyone at the park glared at him for disrupting their peace. “Okay, I'll be quiet now.”
Inky sighed to himself as he waited for somebody to notice him, but soon the park was empty and dark.
“If only that nice robot lady wasn't stranded on the asteroid with her partner in crime… Now she knows how to treat a squid.” Inky sighed.
“Deucer, I know everyone we know says we shouldn't be in space. Why would they keep all this wonder from us?!” A tall green duck shouted in awe.
“I don't know, Sway. Maybe they have a point, it's really dangerous here and I don't like how some of those rocks are looking at me!” Buhdeuce pointed at a tiny rock with googly eyes glued to it, left behind by the little kid who made it.
“That's just an arts and crafts project.” SwaySway reminded him. “I heard most creatures here are really friendly.”
“Most?! Who are the few that we have to look out for?!” Buhdeuce shuddered.
.
“They didn't say.” SwaySway shrugged.
“Hey, Sway, check this out!” Buhdeuce pointed at the purple cephalopod alien on the bench. “It's a little octopus thing!”
“Hey, little fella.” SwaySway crouched to get closer to Inky's level. “Are you lost? You look like you'd be someone's pet. Do you have an owner?” Inky winced then shook his head. “You do look like you need a home.”
“SwaySway! Remember what happened last time?!” Buhdeuce panicked.
“Hey, I have a good feeling about this one. Besides, if it turns out I'm wrong, I'll trust Jelly over him.” SwaySway scooped up Inky. “Come on Buhdeuce, let's go home, this little guy needs his dinner.”
“What should we name him?” Buhdeuce questioned. Inky smiled, wiggled out of SwaySway's arms. Then he shot ink at the ground, making a painting that he hoped would spell his name, but it was too messy to form legible letters. “Looks like he splatters ink to make pictures.”
“Let's call him Splatter!” SwaySway grinned.
Inky sighed, shrugged his arms, then hopped back into SwaySway's arms.
“Inky!!!” Gus called.
“Inky, where are you?!” Wally cried out.
“Look Wally!” Gus pointed at SwaySway and Buhdeuce as they hopped into a Rocket Ship with Inky. “Inky's being squidnapped!”
“We won't let those birds get away with it!” Wally screamed. “Back to the ship!”
“I'm supposed to say that!” Gus pouted.
“No time for correcting me, fake leader!” Wally pushed him towards the direction they came from.