Chapter Text
She’s just dropped out of University; in her final year after studying for the last four years and getting nothing but top grades and specific congratulations for academic achievements… and Surume’s never felt better.
She’s free from the net, the world is her oyster, the ocean’s her playground!
The car ride home from the University office is full of joy and loud music: something by ‘Someone and the Golden Trizookas’??, not the usual thing she’d listen to but she’s been branching out recently.
She can’t remember if she used the correct signal when going left at that last turn but she probably did.
She definitely pulled out on that guy, whoops.
Pulled into her apartment complex’s parking zone and left her car parked a little crooked, that’s okay, she’s only gonna get out and drive again tomorrow! Or maybe later-
She is pulled from her thoughts as her apartment door suddenly swings open revealing her roommate and best friend: Eight. Who’s standing there with suspicion all over her face; eyebrow cocked up, eyes squinted and analysing her. Eight’s posture is blocking her entire route into the apartment, screaming confrontation.
They both stand in silence for a second, Eight waiting for a confession and Surume waiting for an accusation.
They don’t wait long.
“Where did you go to, and wh-e-y so long?” Eight asked, face cold as stone.
Surume was so proud of Eight for her journey in understanding and embracing Inkling culture, though her Inkish was still a little broken and her accent still as heavy as a Nautilus Splatling she’s made massive strides from how she first was only a few months ago.
“‘Why’, with an ‘I’ sound.” She corrected.
Eight stared at her incredulously with what looked like slight frustration.
“...WhY!- Have you been gone so long?!” Eight’s anger was building at the lack of real response.
She should really blow off some steam, Eight was getting too worked up over this, it wasn’t that big a deal.
In Surume’s opinion clocking in for a shift of Salmon Running was the best stress reliever-
“Let’s go Salmon Running!” She gazed at Eight for her agreement, Eight hesitantly looked back. The anger the Octoling was previously riddled with melting away into worry and concern.
Surume clasped her hands together in a pleading motion, “C’mon! We’ll get, like, a ton of golden eggs and we’ll get our own back on a couple of Maws for totally ripping you up last time we worked!”
Eight suddenly looked downright disturbed at Surume’s comment, she was pretty down in the dumps after that shift, said it kinda messed her up a bit.. But that was ages ago!
Eight’s face remained frozen in that saddened state, eyes shocked that Surume would even say that to her.
Surume shook her hands away and didn’t wait for a response.
“I’ll go start the car again, go get ready then we’ll go!” Surume called out behind her, she was already racing back down the hallway towards the parking lot. She skidded around corners cutting the start of the stairs by jumping over the bannister and onto the level below with a cheer.
The car was just how she’d left it, crooked with the engine still warm, she got in after fiddling with her keys for what felt like hours and immediately opened Inkstagram on her phone.
New post from Callie about hers and Marie’s recent tour, a photo with Callie posing with a surprised fan next to her, obviously caught off guard by the photo. The ‘like’ button remained unpressed.
The notifications in the corner of her profile showing a red hot ‘99+’, people asking what she’s up to, she should probably post… but that’s effort and it’s not like she doesn't text and update the important people. Another notification from ‘Captain’ Three pops up at the top of her screen and it gets ignored again. Being the captain is a bit much, in Surume’s opinion Three needs to be humbled badly; she's always giving her a nasty look!
And with that new silly hat she looks like a coddamn Mudmouth- Oh right she was going Salmonin'. With a couple of steps she was back on the road and speeding down towards Grizzco. A blurred pink face in the mirror watched as she departed.
The rip and shred of Salmonoid scales and meat was suffocating. Her arms ached from flinging the Flingza Roller with all her might, from whipping an Explosher as hard as she could, and from lugging around an E-Litre. Her face stung from the many slices lined across her cheek oozing orange ink like she’d been slashed across the face with a razorblade, which she had been. Some chums had apparently recognised her from numerous Runs and targeted her using ‘deadlier’ weapons… not deadly enough apparently! Because she beat their grey behinds until they bled green!
A promotion!! Now she’s Eggxecutive 999+, she already was before but now she’s a higher number past that pesky ‘+’ sign.
She should go celebrate with Eight!
…But…
another round wouldn't hurt?
“I just can’t imagine what is false about her!” Eight’s worried tone echoed through the phone and throughout the empty apartment.
Captain Three hummed through the phone, they weren't sure what had suddenly possessed Four either. She was acting recklessly and without care, she literally bragged about skipping her University lectures and wasn’t coming home until late and recently starting not coming home at all.
“Every conversation we share she is in hysterics and is quick to desert our post-.. Apartment.” Eight still finds she struggles the hardest with changing her specific language, she can fake the accent when necessary and can smile and mimic Inkling customs with ease but the language is so much more… Casual and civilian-like. Eight doesn’t fit in and it doesn’t help that her only grounding in Inkling culture (Pearl doesn’t count, she’s rich, she’s not part of natural Inkling culture) has started acting berserk.
“..She’s been ignoring my texts and turning up late to missions.” Captain’s deadpan tone held all the disappointment she could muster, which was not much.
“Yeah! And she’s stopped doing her daily posts on Inksta!” Eight could recall she stopped posting out of the blue on a random Sunday nearly two weeks ago, Eight asked about it and Four just said ‘She forgot’.
The Captain made a sound to say something else but was quickly shut up by Eight continuing.
“-Along with that she abandoned me in the parking lot!” Even the memory of herself standing alone in the empty parking space watching as four’s car spun out of the parking lot after that failure of a conversation had her getting mad.
Four casually bringing up the ‘Maws’ incident wasn’t too nice either, Octolings were taught to be tough and resilient, great for the battlefield but not great for fighting against relentless beasts hellbent on tearing you apart. Which is why when Eight was bitten she just lived, left crawling around on Spawning grounds floor while her entire waist-down was missing and her entrails were spilling out behind her.
A Coddamn random Co-worker had to shove her into the water so she would implode on purpose. She had to be put down like a pet Shrimp and Four was talking about it like it was a silly accident that was something to be laughed at and joked about like she had accidentally dropped her SplatterShot in the water and not been brutally severed from her lower body.
“Agent 8!” Captains voice pulled Eight from her thoughts, realising her whole body was shaking and her eyes were blurred.
Eight sat down on the sofa, leaving behind her worried hovering she was previously doing. Listening in on the phone closely.
“Agent 8 I need you to be completely honest about this, do you think we need to intervene? And is Agent 4 a risk to the operation and the secrecy of the New SquidBeak Splatoon?” The Captain's voice buzzed with a cold edge.
They both knew the ‘secrecy of the NSbS’ was bullcrab and that it was just a formality, what she was really asking was if Four was a risk to herself.
Four had never acted like this before or anywhere close to this, she was the most reliable and most successful agent. This sudden flaw was concerning.
Eight hesitated before answering, “I-.. believe so, Captain…”
Silence filled the room and Eight stared off, thankful that the Captain’s not here so she can easily avoid eye contact.
“...Okay. I’ll make the other Agents aware and set up a meeting including us and Agents 1, 2. Agents Neo 3.1 and Neo 3.2 will be kept on call in case anything goes south.”
The phone went dead as the Captain hung up, Eight stared off into the distance of the apartment.
Four was so kind and quiet, and while sometimes she could be energetic and eccentric she was still usually a very closed off person and this sudden boom of this new explosive personality was..
Uncomfortable and nothing like the timid and laid-back squid she’d met when she was still learning Inkish basics and two weeks out of the ground.
Eights expression shifted at the thought. Face scrunched up as she could feel her eyes filling up with tears, refusing to let them fall.
The Octoling groaned as she jammed her hands into her eyes and face hanging it downwards in defeat. She let out a loud sob as she mumbled.
“What’s wrong with me?” her figure shook as she spoke to a quiet apartment.
Eight yelled through wet fingers in frustration. She had abandoned the Octarian army, fled her homeland without her family or friends, and escaped certain death in the Deepsea metro but the sudden change in a friends behaviour is what gets her so worked up?
She nearly laughs at the absurdity of it all.
She lets her head fall back onto the top of the sofa, staring at the ceiling, tears now collecting at the base of her ears rather than the bottom of her chin.
A meeting with Four and every other agent that Four directly associates with… Four’d hate that..
Eight lets out a small snort at that, her roommate hates surprises.
Eight fully giggles at a memory where she and Four had finally gotten around to making and putting together a bed for Eight after two weeks of Eight and Four living together, they had spent the entire day building it and checking instructions. Only for the sun to set and Eight to lay down on the matress for it to suddenly fall apart underneath her.
Four had been so confident and sure of the fact that Eight would finally be able to sleep in a bed that night rather than the sofa and seemed more upset than Eight did at the failure of a bedframe, Eight only managed to calm her down after explaining that she still could sleep in a bed tonight: Fours bed.
She had been so funny about it, Four had agreed almost instantly and Eight could recall the feeling of Fours breath on her chest as Four nearly contorted her body as she slept. The feeling of warmth that rushed through her body as Four mindlessly draped her body over her arm and stayed there for what felt like hours. Eight knows for sure she hadn’t even tried to sleep a wink that night yet it felt like the best sleep she’d had in years.
Eight frowned as she mulled it over in her mind.
On one hand the meeting is meant to catch Four off guard so that she cannot hide anything in advance and cannot suddenly have a convenient excuse not to come.
On the other hand Eight doesn’t want to leave Four in the dark. She doesn't know what's wrong with her but… she seems so ungrounded and reckless. Like a flighty stray shrimp that could run away at the smallest sign of danger.
Plus Eight doesn't want Four to feel… betrayed. Right now, Eight can tell, she's her closest friend and the only person (according to Captain) that Four is regularly talking to.
Eight doesn't want to lose that trust.
The phone in her lap feels heavy as she stares down at it.
She wipe a stray tear away as she picks it up, unlocks it, and stares at Fours contact information.
Pinned at the top with the name: “Half’o’Me” a stupid joke that Four had set her name as, defending it as her agent number being half of Eight’s.
Eight had never wanted to change it.
She took a breath and tapped the screen, listening to the ringing.