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Acht was used to staying on the sidelines. In their childhood, they preferred back-end security work for the Octarian Army. In the Deepsea Metro, they stayed alone while DJing. In the Spire of Order, they stayed inside the elevator. It wasn't like they exactly had a choice with that last one until they were about to leave the Memverse, but it just meant they didn't have to change from what they were used to. Not like they were complaining, it was what they preferred as well.
Not much changed on the surface. After Pearl, Marina and Eight got them set up in an apartment near Inkopolis Square (mainly Eight - she lived in the same complex) and they got themself fully moved in, they sat inside most of the time and focused on making music. There wasn't anything wrong with that, they enjoyed producing. The Spire of Order helped a lot with that, being more conscious than they ever were in the last few years and being able to meet Marina again had given them a burst of motivation like no other.
But change was necessary, especially now. Times were different. After a life of going deeper and deeper until they fully lost themself, they were free. They've finally seen the surface, seeing Inkadia for all its true wonders instead of just the bits they had heard of and vaguely seen back in Octo Canyon. They recognized that, yet kept to themself as always. They weren't used to the surface despite how long it's been since they got here. Even simple things like standing out in the open back during the Grand Festival felt odd. Walking around in public, being noticed and recognized while at the record store, all of that was entirely foreign to them. If they ever got recognized in the past it was as "that delinquent kid who doesn't pay attention." It's still hard to fathom people look at them and go "oh look it's dedf1sh I love their music."
Everything about the surface was odd and very new. Pearl, Marina and Eight definitely helped them get used to a lot and they don't know where they'd be without them, but it was still odd. Foreign concepts became the norm. They could stay on the sidelines like usual but they'd learned pretty quickly being a shut-in wasn't healthy. Acht would always accept it when given an invitation to go out somewhere, but being in large crowds was never their forte. The only time they really thrived in big groups was performing on a stage to an audience; though that was more because they were focused more on the turntables instead of the people in front of them. (The Low Water Party was an exception, despite their hazy memory of the metro they know there was a reason they never attended physically.)
The thing with Inkadia was that there were large crowds everywhere. People looking forward to Turf Wars, kids gathering in the Square or the Plaza after school, the list goes on. It was even worse in the Splatlands, as they had learned. Splatsville really was the city of chaos for a reason. Evidently, this wasn't something Acht could understand quickly. They've been learning to live in new conditions for the past 2 years and still didn't have a full grasp on everything. It felt like everything was a far cry from what they were used to. No matter what they just couldn't fully adjust. Clearly they had misunderstood how hard change was to get used to, even though it was for the better.
But they knew why they couldn't oppose change. They witnessed it pretty well in the Memverse. A stagnant life is no fun. They had also learned this in part from their vague memories of the Metro and their own Sanitization. There was no use living life as a zombie. They had their own free will now. Not to say they intended to oppose change, they know what's good for them, but it can be hard sometimes to prevent themself from falling into a bit of a spiral where they refuse to leave their apartment for weeks on end. They do wish they know what exactly was wrong with them in that regard, why it was so hard for them to accept the surface as their new life, though for the most part they chalked it up to "weird Sanitization side effects." It's undeniable Sanitization changed them, it deprives you of life and rots your brain until you're a mindless drone. The Memverse helped them recover but there were some things that were irreversible. This may as well have been part of those, they thought.
There was a very long and far road ahead of them. They've got recovery from Sanitization down, but that's about as far as they've gone. They're still just at the start. They had yet to see everything that lies ahead of them. Now that they're living life for themself, they have a lot to learn. It'd take a lot to adjust but they were here to pave the way for their own life. Acht had people to help them out for a reason, they realized. This wasn't linear and certainly not something they could do by themself. They had no use for isolating themself in their room and focusing only on music anymore, they had given themself back a chance to live. There was no reason to waste that opportunity, and they were happy it was in Inkadia instead of somewhere like the Metro. Everything may have been weird and foreign and they can see it remaining that way for a while, but they have no reason to let themself overthink it too much. They weren't one that took opportunities much, but they knew they shouldn't refuse this one.
-
A record store visit one day led to them picking up Sandcastles by Stars in the Deep. It stood out to them the most from the album cover and title alone. They'd taken a quick liking to the song from their first listen, and it reminded them of something. A book they read when they were younger, a passage that stood out in particular.
“Even if you build a sandcastle together with someone, at sunset the waves will wash it all away. However, you can always build it again every time."
No matter how much the waves wash their life away, they had all the time in the world to rebuild their life anew. They could only go onward.