Chapter 1 - A Normal Day

Mavi thought she was pretty aware of herself, her thoughts and emotions. She took a certain amount of pride in this skill, keeping a level head has a lot of benefits after all. However, she wouldn’t need a fraction of that skill to know that she was bored. Bored is an understatement actually, she’s about to lose her mind from boredom. This was the first time in almost 3 weeks that there hasn’t been a customer inside the store, a fact that Mavi both cursed and blessed. It was nice to catch a breather, drop the “I don’t hate hearing every Squid Sister’s song played on repeat every day” face and truly relish in her misery.

The interior of the store was as bright and garish as ever, neon pink and green competing to dominate your vision like it’s a turf war. The old Squid Sister’s news studio was converted into the official Squid Sister’s merchandise shop, and thanks to its theme, location, and a recent single from the Idol Duo the store has been a very popular place recently.

“Cod, I didn’t think ever stop coming!”

Mavi, who had been sitting with her head in her hands, looks up and squints as her orange hued coworker emerges from the stock room.

“I don’t know how you do it Maves, it’s like the second you’re out of eye sight you completely switch to a different person.”

“It’s Mavi, and I can only do it because the pay is decent. If I was paid any less an hour I’d never smile at a customer again. How do you do it Teddy? How do you have so much energy after all these people come through?”

Teddy pauses, and then turns to her with a big smile. “I’m gonna buy some new turf gear soon! That’s enough to keep me going for days at least.”
“Mmm. I suppose it is.” Mavi goes to lay her head back in her hands, but the little bell above the door ringing stops her. “Great, more people.” she deadpans, then sighs. “Here we go.” Teddy steps back into the stock room to resume looking busy. As she slides her glasses onto her face, her customer service smile covers her natural sulk.

“Hiya! Welcome to The Squid Sister Center We’ve got everyth… ah, hello Lusca.” Mavi’s face falls back to a more natural smile, with just a hint of apprehension.

Lusca is a lanky octoling. His natural bright green did its best to blend into the garish Marie-tinted background of the store, but his aggressive movements and loud voice did everything they could to undo that work. He wore his signature Forge Inkling Parka with his 18k aviator glasses on his forehead, both of which doubled as his turfing gear and his casual wear. Privately Mavi suspected he only wore the jacket because it hides stains well, but she only brings that up every few weeks. Out of courtesy, of course.

“Mavi! Just the squid I wanted to see!” He begins waving enthusiastically. “How ya doin? Life treating you well? It’s been so long!”

Mavi fixes him with a pointed look. “You saw me 2 days ago when you somehow dragged me through hell, again. If you’re here to ask me to go back the answer is no.”

“Oh, come on it wasn’t that bad! We’re only Profreshional, it’s not that rough!”

Her glare sharpens.

He continues, “Ugh. Fine. But that’s not what I came to ask. We’re out our 4th player for turf this afternoon.” His hand finds the back of his neck as he rubs it, a slightly sheepish look on his face now. “Splinter’s a no show, think it’s something with her family. Nothing serious, a least, but she won’t be back until the weekend at the soonest.”

Mavi lets up on her scowl, replacing is with a sigh. She turns to him with a smirk, “Awfully convenient of you to ask in the last hour of my shift.” Lusca looks away sheepishly. Mavi makes a show of pulling her planner out of her bag. She knows there’s nothing scheduled for this afternoon, but she wanted to give Lusca a hard time for dragging her through salmon hell the other day. ‘Small victories’ she thinks.

“Well, it seems my afternoon is clear, I suppose I can do a few rounds with you guys.”

Lusca brightens immediately, a cartoonishly large grin splitting his face wide. “Thanks Mavi! You won’t regret it!”

She sighs, and nods. “See you in… 43 minutes then I assume?” she asks, glancing at the hideous pink Callie-themed clock on the wall behind her.

“Of course! You know me so well.”

“Just don’t scare any customers away again.” She gives him a side eye glare as he starts to walk backwards to the door.

“Wouldn’t dream of it! Oh this will be a blast.” Lusca turns and begins walking much faster towards the door. “Tower control is always fun!”

“Tower cont-wait HEY!!” Mavi shouts at him as he runs through the door snickering. She almost chases after his cackling form, but another set of customers walks through the open door as he sprints away. She sighs, resigned to her fate. “Hi there! Welcome to The Squid Sister Center where we’ve got everything you could ever want for right here in store!”

True to his word, Lusca meets Mavi outside the store right as she leaves. They quickly fall into stride next to each other at a quick, but not rushed pace.

Mavi opens the conversation, “You’re a jerk, you know. You tricked me.” Without warning she takes a swing at his right shoulder, still angry about the bait-and-switch. Without even glancing in her direction, he leans out of her range.

“If I mentioned tower control you’d have kicked me out of the store!” He goes to shove Mavi, but she takes a deliberately slow step to make him miss.

The two continue to “trade blows” while bickering like they weren’t trying to punch the other.

“So who’s our other 2?” Mavi asks, ducking under an arm sweep. “You said Splinter’s out, so that leaves…..” Lusca meets her with a cheeky grin.

Mavi stops, dead still in an instant. “Tell me you didn’t ask Queen.”

Lusca walks for a bit longer, stopping a few steps ahead and then turns around to face her. “Re-lax Mavi. I didn’t ask queen, You and I both know she’d have thrown me out a window before I could even finish my question.” He pauses for a moment, “A lot of people would throw me out a window actually…” He trails off, a hand scratching the underside of his chin as he sends an accusatory glance at Mavi. She meets his eyes without flinching.

Mavi gestures for him to continue, he obliges. “I don’t exactly think she really needs a team anyway. If she got like, 2 squid beacons, I’m pretty sure she’d be able to win on her own.”

Mavi frowns, but doesn’t argue. It’s true after all, Queen is closer to a force of nature on the field.

“I want to have a chance at some action too you know.” Lusca adds.

Mavi thinks for a second, “If Splinter’s out and you didn’t ask Queen, that removes Tiara as well…” She frowns, and then snaps her fingers. “It’s Thursday!” she declares. “Tim’s off work today, so he’s definitely out on the field.”

Lusca nods.

Mavi continues, half-mumbling “It won’t be Lettuce, she’s busy with her project, won’t be Toolbox…” She pauses, “Why do so many of our friends use these stupid nicknames!?” She asks in an exasperated tone. “Toolbox at least makes sense, he’s a mechanic, but I jus- I don’t know what’s worse, that Catherine put her official ranked name in as Lettuce or when I think of her Lettuce is the first thing that comes to mind.”

Lusca prompts her “Don’t you use a nic-”

”That’s different and you know it.” She cuts him off. “Regardless, it’s gotta be Tim and Rex then. They’re the most likely to let you rope them into tower control”

Lusca beams beside her, “Yup! Rex will take any excuse to get out there and Tim never likes playing solo, it was so easy to get Splinter to round them up with me.

They continue walking for a few more minutes, making idle chat about their friends and daily lives. As they arrive in Inkopolis Square the take a quick detour to the Crust Bucket to grab drinks and a snack for Lusca. They head into Deca Tower, and split up in the lobby to gear up for battle.

In the locker rooms, Mavi changes into her turfing gear. A White LS tee with full ink recovery subs replaces her garish pink and green uniform shirt. A pair of athletic shorts replace her work slacks. Her simple work slides swap out for a pair of Blue Laceless Dakroniks, their sub abilities not yet customized. To complete her outfit, she pulls a simple Squid Face Mask with full ink saver subs out of her bag, and slides it into her pocket. She grabs her trusty Tenta Brella out of her backpack, and gives it a quick glance over, checking for any obvious signs of damage or wear. Seeing nothing, she steps out of the locker room to meet with her friends.

As she’s walking over to her friend’s usual spot in the lobby, someone bumps into her side, knocking her back.

“Oof! Um, sorry! Excuse me!” she quickly blurts as she turns to the person she ran into.

He’s a taller inkling, tanned skin, blue ink, and wearing some kind of reflective gear. He looks around as old as she is, early 20’s, with his tentacles pulled back into a short tail to them out of his eyes. Splattershot in hand, he just stared down at her, a blank look on his face. She shied back a little under his gaze, but his passive reaction at the situation makes her a little angry.

“You sh-You should watch where you’re going! You could have knocked me over!” she says, a bit louder than she meant to. He seems taken slightly aback, an apologetic look appearing in his eyes, though he makes no move to speak.

Unsure of what to do now, Mavi awkwardly stands there, staring down this taller inkling, until an octoling steps up beside him.

“Excuse me,” the octoling begins, “He has trouble talking to others. I doubt his actions were made with any hostile intent.” The taller inkling frowns at the octoling, but then nods to confirm her words.

The octoling herself smiles at this. She’s very tall, with tanned skin, and dark pink tentacles framing her face. She wears the same set of reflective gear, and carries a E-liter 4K Scope in her left hand.
She continues “I am Clover, and this is Quinn.”

“Oh! I’m Mavi, it’s nice to meet you guys. I shouldn’t have exploded at you like that. I had a long day at work and yeah, I apologize.”

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you Mavi. It is alright, no need to apologize. accidents happen,” Clover smoothly replies. Quinn nods. Clover continues, “Please excuse us for leaving so soon after introductions, but our team is waiting for us.”

Mavi chirpily replies, “Maybe we’ll see each other out on the field someday! Good luck to you two!” The two wave at Mavi as they walk away.

Mavi turns and resumes walking back to her group to find them watching her intensely.

She immediately blushes and turns away, surprised by the intensity of their gaze.

“Wh..?” she tries to start, but gets cut off by Rex.

Rex is a broad octoling. He has the muscles of someone who’s played turf war with a roller for the last 5 years, which is to say he was very fit. He has tanned skin and natural maroon tentacles, which were pointing upwards, likely due to him running his hands through them in stress.

“Dude! Oh my cod! you almost picked a fight with Ghost!”

“I just bumped into someone…” Mavi replies weakly.

Rex seems shocked for a second. He stares at her, his intense eyes easily meeting her own due to their similar height. The octoling, stills, obviously collecting himself.

“Just bump- Mavi that was Ghost! THE highest ranked player in the system not part of a pro team!” Rex loses it again. “Dude he’s a higher rank than half the pros!!” He throws his hands up. “He could go pro at any time. I don’t know why he hasn’t actually! Surely someone at that level of skill gets offers all the time…” Rex continues ranting, having gotten himself lost in thought. Everyone else tunes him out.

“Glad that didn’t go any worse.” Tim says. “They seemed intense.” Tim is a shorter inkling, blue tentacles trail down and stop right above his peach shoulders. He works as a gardener for the city, and is relatively fit himself as a result. He leans against his Kensa Charger, continuing “Wow, you really got him going this time! I haven’t seen him this wound up since the finals a few months back!”

“Ahaha…” Mavi laughs weakly. “Yeah… he sure is… passionate.”

“I thought they seemed nice!” Lusca interjects through a mouthful of food. His splatana is laying on the ground next to the bench he’s sitting on, with Rex’s N-Zap next to it.

Mavi replies, “They were! Like she said I don’t think he meant to bump into me, he probably just had something on his mind. I wasn’t really watching where I was going either.”

All three of them take a moment to watch Rex. He is still ranting to himself, trying his best to work a groove into the floor by pacing.

Tim breaks the silence, “Rex is right though. Triple is a pretty intimidating figure. Easily one of the best non-pro players.”

“Wait, Triple? I thought you said his name was Ghost?” Mavi asks.

Tim answers, “They say that he can sneak up on even the most attentive player. Sometimes it’s like he literally phases through walls to appear behind you.”

“That doesn’t ans-” Mavi starts before she gets interrupted by Lusca.

“Ghost is his nickname. Officially, his tag is Triple. People don’t understand the reason the name, and he’s so damn good anyway, so they just started calling him Ghost, and it stuck.”

“I… see.” Mavi answers.

Tim continues, “The octoling with him was pretty tough too. Pretty sure that’s Point, and she’s got a similar ranking to him, very high.” Lusca realizes something, getting an excited look on his face. “Oh! I wonder if Agency is doing games today! It’s been a long time since they played as a full team.” Rex, hearing mention of Agency, leaves his solo conversation and rejoins theirs. “It’s been months for Sparkler and over a year since Spinshot did any public matches. I wonder how they’re keeping in top shape? Like I know you can workout or whatever but how do they keep that turf specific…”

Mavi cuts him off, with an annoyed look, “What are you talking about?”

Rex quickly turns to face Mavi. “How do you not know about Agency!? You’re a high ranking player you should know who these people are!”

Mavi meets his exasperated face with a dismissive expression. “I don’t spend all my time thinking about turf. I have other things to occupy my mind.”

“Like what?” Tim asks, a slightly smug grin on his face.

Mavi replies, in the driest voice she can manage, “Like memorizing how many times Marie breathes in Ink Me Up.”

Tim bites back a laugh, and then elaborates. “Agency is the group those two are a part of. There’s only 4 of them total, and they all have a similar reputation and skill.”

“So are those reflective vests like, their uniform or something?” Mavi asks.

“We think so, though really no information beyond their tags and rankings is known.” Mavi ponders that for a moment. “They sound intense.” The other 3 nod solemnly.

“Lusca are you done eating?” Rex asks, doing an almost ok job of hiding his impatience.

Lusca quickly shoves the last bite into his mouth and nods eagerly. He wipes his hands on his jacket before tossing Rex his N-Zap and grabbing his Splatana. The group makes their way to the terminal to enter matchmaking for the day.

A few hours of turfing later and their overall score for the day was tied, one match remained. Their team, named Fish Food, sat relatively comfortable in the top 500 of team rankings. Team rankings were typically a lot looser compared to individual player rankings, due to the variable nature and number of members. Fish Food was host to 9 members officially, large but not unheard of for groups this high in the rankings. Each of Fish Food’s members were at least somewhat notable in their rank, but the real standout members were in the top 1,000. At times, this could lead to some fairly competitive matches, and the occasional face off with a pro player wasn’t unfamiliar to them, but none of that before could have prepared them for this. As if directed by fate, the members of Fish Food would be fighting a familiar duo, Ghost and Point. Half of the infamous Agency team. Their other members were no slouches either, one of them being a top 200 ranked player, the other being a pro from one of the smaller teams in the league.

“Well, here it is Rex!” Lusca starts with a cheeky grin. “You’ve been saying for so long that if you got the chance to fight Agency you’d take it, and now here it is!” Lusca punctuates his sentence by laying his arm across Rex’s shoulders and gesturing to the screen with his other. Rex just stares at the screen, stiff.

“You’re joking” Tim, the lowest ranked of them present, says as he stares at the match information. “We’re actually going to die.” he states matter-of-factly.

“Yup!” Lusca cheerfully adds.

“Well,” Mavi starts, “What do we know about them?”

Rex, to distract himself, even if it was to explain exactly how they were about to lose, quickly explains. “Point’s got one of the sharpest aims in the league, so keep out of her line of sight above all else. It doesn’t matter how good the other players are if she’s constantly sniping you before you can reach them. Ghost is a whole other beast. He’s a master of front line combat, expect him to hover around the tower as it moves, defending it. He won’t ride it hardly ever, so you can expect their duelies to be up there.”
Cobalt, their brush, is known for his flanks, and G-whip is pretty slippery with his duelies, make sure to track him if you’re trying to hit him.

Mavi takes a moment to digest all that info, thinking, before she takes command of her clearly frazzled teammates.

“Ok. We need a plan if we want any hope of winning this. You say their charger is a problem? Rex I want you on her. Don’t let her get comfortable, ever. I want her on the move constantly, so she can never take a shot. I know your N-Zap isn’t the best for that but it’s what we have right now.” Rex nods.

“Tim, their Octobrush is likely going to have a similar plan, keep an eye out for him, and try and stay near Lusca if you can manage to. Lusca will help get that brush away when he’s close.

“Lusca! First, thank you for using the splatana today. It’d be over twice already if you came in with your Sploosh-o-matic. I need you to guard whoever needs it. If there’s no one to guard ride the tower, I’ll do my best to keep them off you, and trade off with you on the tower if you’re needed elsewhere.” Tim and Lusca nod.

Mavi pulls her mask out of her pocket and slips it on. “Let’s go down with a fight at least.”

The battle starts out well enough, the first third or so going roughly to plan, getting the tower a fair amount of the way through the enemy’s side. Rex has their charger on the move, Lusca is chasing the brush off of Tim, and Mavi is defending the towers from the duelies, making sure to keep her back against the tower to avoid a pot shot from the charger. The only thing that’s strange is a suspicious lack of splattershot, Ghost isn’t playing nearly as aggressive as it was suggested he would. Nothing more than an occasional trade, which Mavi could defend easily with her Tenta Brella’s shield.

Things feel like they’re going well until Rex is suddenly splatted. Ghost is nowhere to be seen. Things quickly spiral out of control from there. Their charger gets into position and quickly picks Lusca and Tim off. Mavi, sensing her impending doom, opts instead to super jump off the tower to the newly respawned Rex, preferring that to the delay of a respawn.

Its like a switch was flipped on the enemy team. Any openings Fish Food might have taken advantage of before were closed immediately by the fire of a splattershot.

They desperately fought back, knocking the enemy off the tower a few times but never managing to ride it off their side of the map.

After a particularly brutal flank from the brush, Mavi calls out to her team as she respanws. “The plan is shot! go on the aggressive! Tim cover Rex, Lusca on me! Watch each other’s backs, they flank!”

New plan put to the test, they manage to chase the enemy team away from the tower again. Now working in pairs of 2, Fish Food effectively pries those gaps open again and begins pulling at them for much leverage as possible.

Fish Food rides the tower out of their side of the map in a brutal cycle of tower hopping, 2 of them hold the tower until one of them goes down, then the other 2 take the tower as the downed player respawns and super jumps to their partner, who’s in a safe place. As they push it further and further into the enemy’s side, it only gets more and more hellish and hectic. Their swap out plan is unreliable at this point so it just becomes a free for all to keep it moving.

Mavi and Lusca ride the tower through a particularly open section, Mavi barely deploys her brella’s shield in time to block a shot from their charger, as Lusca slides past her crouching form to take out the brush who appeared right behind them. They manage to hold the tower for far longer than any thought they would, the two of them included. Lusca’s quick draw on the splatana keeping anyone from getting on top and Mavi’s shield protecting his back in the process. She continuously forces anyone approaching from her side back with her own spray of ink, deploying the shield at the last possible moment, to let it recover any amount it could. They even kick a splat bomb off before it could explode them, but this formation couldn’t hold forever.

Mavi’s shield breaks after a brutal assault from the duelies and the charger, forcing them to abandon the tower.

The two dive off to the side, Mavi inking the ground right before they land. With no time to catch their breath and no shield the two immediately take up a defensive stance, back to back. In the background Mavi can hear 2 chargers exchanging quick bursts, and Rex getting splatted.

Mavi and Lusca line up back to back, as the duelies and the octobrush come at them the Octobrush charging straight at Mavi, the dualies dodge rolling towards Lusca. Keeping in form with their tower play, Lusca spins and charges at the brush coming up behind Mavi, slashing through him with a well timed lunge swipe. Meanwhile, Mavi spins and starts firing at the duelies, negating the range advantage they had. Lusca takes 2 stray hits from the dualies before Mavi splats them. Lusca is splatted by the charger moments later. Mavi hears the chirp alerting her that her shield’s recharged as she desperately inks a path ahead of her to swim through.

Out of the range of the charger, Mavi pauses for just a few seconds to catch her breath and recover ink. It’s only through battle instincts gained from years of practice does she turn around and deploy her shield, just fast enough to catch the concentrated fire of a splattershot.

Quickly ducking to the side, Mavi fires at her assailant, Ghost, while an idle part of her acknowledges that he really does live up to the name. She ducks around a corner, desperately inking a path to run on. She ducks behind a different corner to dodge an incoming splat bomb. While there, she sets down a beacon. A risky move, placing it leaves her low on ink, and there’s no guarantee anyone is free enough to help her.

She swims back around the corner and runs the other way, barely recovering enough ink to deploy her shield again to survive. She ducks around a different corner, into an alley that thankfully hasn’t been inked yet, and coats the ground to move faster.

In a spur of the moment plan, she sinks into the ink right on the edge of the corner. Ghost, splattershot in hand, quickly rounds the corner launching his ink to cover up Mavi’s path. He practically steps on her, but he misses her hiding spot right on the corner.

Mavi acts, moving to strike in the half second before he realizes she isn’t there. Emerging from the ink, she starts firing. Ghost quickly tries to shoot her down, but her shield pops up to absorb the hits.

After a four second exchange that felt like minutes, Mavi splats him. Someone lands on the beacon behind her, she dashes over to group up with them.

She and Rex turn and run for the tower, which had been quickly moving through to their side of the map. They ambush the charger from behind, and with her down they run straight for the tower.

A screeching whistle stops them in their tracks, the 5 minutes is up. The tower sits on their side of the map, Fish Food loses.

After everyone’s cleaned up in the locker rooms and had a few moments to come down from the adrenaline, the present members of Fish Food regroup. Rex and Tim changed out of their turf gear. Lusca, of course, still wore his signature jacket and shades, most people who know him assumed he basically slept in them. Mavi opted to keep her turf gear on as well, as her only change of clothes was her garish work uniform. She takes the mask off, like she usually does between rounds, and quickly stuffs it into her pocket as she walks over to her friends. She makes a point of watching out for anyone as she walks over.

As she approached, she expected an air of defeat, instead she found Rex practically vibrating, Lusca more animated than usual as well, and even Tim looked excited.

Mavi decides to test the waters, with a reserved, open ended question. “How well do you think my plan worked?”

“DUDE,” Rex turns to her in an instant. Her question went ignored. “THAT WAS INSANE WE FOUGHT HALF OF AGENCY! I SPLATTED POINT!! WE DIDN’T GET DESTROYED! MAVI-OH-MY-GOD-YOU-SPLATTED-GHOST-DUDE-DO-YOU-KNOW-HOW-IMPORTANT-THAT-IS-DO-YOU-HAVE-ANY-IDEA???” Rex nearly knocks her over in his borderline incoherant rambling.

She makes it a point to clasp his shoulders and push him backwards to regain her space, Rex barely takes notice, continuing to ramble and wave his hands, as if directing the most intense orchestra performance ever written. “Can anyone translate for me?” She asks in an over dramatic, exasperated tone.

“You splatted Ghost.” Tim says in a matter-of-fact tone. Mavi just stares. When no one elaborated, she prompts them. “It’s turf, people get splatted. That-that’s how it works. You say it like splatting this guy is something special!”

“It is.” Lusca replies, “Ghost hasn’t been splatted in over 2 years, the longest on record for an active player by far.”
Mavi just stares. “Ok, I’ll admit, that’s pretty impressive, but why is Rex freaking about over it?”

Tim sighs, “Dude you can’t be this dense. Rex is like the biggest Agency fanboy in the city. He would have sold all his gear just to get the opportunity to fight one of them naked without a weapon. Today though? He got to fight 2 of them, splat one of them, and be on the team that broke one of, if not the most impressive long-standing record in the entire history of the sport.”

Mavi shies back slightly, rubbing the back of her neck with her left hand, a slight blush on her cheeks. “Well, when you put it like that i guess it makes sense.” All 3 of them turn to Rex, who is still pacing around in circles waving his arms, talking up a storm to himself. Thankfully, he stopped screaming.

’It’s s shame,” Tim says, gesturing at Rex. “We almost got him coherent in the locker rooms too”

“Well,” Mavi starts, directing her voice to make sure Rex hears it. “How about we go get something to eat. I haven’t eaten since my lunch break and that was a few hours before turf.” Rex stops his rambling mid sentence, and rejoins the group.

“We could go to-” Lusca excitedly begins, before being cut off by Tim. “We are NOT going to the Crust Bucket Lusca. I want some ACTUAL food today.” Lusca scoffs.

“Why don’t we go to the ramen place a few streets over. They should still have the afternoon specials for the turf crowd.” Rex offers.

They all nod, and start heading that way.

As they walk, Mavi goes to move her terf mask from her pocket to her bag, only to find that it isn’t there. “Aw, shit.”

The other three pause, it’s not unheard of for Mavi to swear, but she usually only does so for good reason.

“I dropped my mask somewhere. Damn, I only recently got that thing to full subs and I REALLY do not want to go through all that hassle again.” Her companions nod in sympathy, losing a piece of quality gear is never fun. “I’m gonna run back and try to find it, you guys go on and get the food, I’ll rejoin you after.

Quick farewells are bid, and Mavi begins jogging back the way she came, scanning the ground as she goes.

Her search takes her all the way back to Deca Tower, where she scans the lobby, not finding it anywhere. She checks over the locker room; nothing, and then asks at the service counter if anyone turned it in. Unfortunately, no.

Sulking, Mavi casts one last glance across the lobby, and heads out the front to meet her friends at the resturant.

Right as she exits the Tower, someone taps her shoulder. She turns, with an annoyed expression, only to meet the eyes of a particular blue Inkling. Ghost. She stares at him for a second, before he reaches into his pocket and pulls out her mask.

Mavi, quickly swapping her look of annoyance for one of surprise, waves him over, out of the doorway. Ghost follows.

“Oh! Thank you so much!” She calls as she walks. “I was worried I lost this! I only recently finished getting the subs right on that I would have hated losing it!”

Ghost nods in understanding, and hands the mask over. Mavi quickly folds it and slides it into her bag, and turns back to Ghost. An awkward air immediately surrounds the two, Mavi remembering the weight of her earlier accomplishment. ‘Quinn, his name is Quinn’, Mavi thinks trying to derail her current train of thought.

“So… uhm…. good game Earlier! I looked around for you guys in the lobby to say that but I didn’t see you guys! Haha, that match was pretty intense. You guys are crazy good! You really live up to your nickname! I don’t even know how I managed to, ah, well…” Mavi trails off, face heating up in embarrassment. Her mind begins reeling; ‘Did I really just start rambling like that? Why am I so nervous? Does he think I’m bragging? He’s being nice, returning your mask and here I am rubbing my victory in his face! Why am I so-’

“You played well.” Quinn says. His voice is low and quiet, but surprisingly soft.

“Oh!” Mavi says, knocked out of her spiral by his words. “Th-Thank you!”

“It’s been a long time since someone got the jump on me.” Quinn says, a distant look in his eyes.

Looking closer, Mavi can see the faint outline of something around Quinn’s right eye, a burn scar? It’s partially concealed by both shadows and his hair. It’s clearly something he doesn’t want to show off, so Mavi tries to banish it from her mind.

Quinn continues, “You’re very good at this. You react very fast and your aim is very accurate. Your decision making pairs well with your ability to lead your team”

Mavi is completely caught off guard by Quinn’s assessment, face lighting in delight and embarrassment up from the compliments. “Oh y-you’re too ki-kind. It’s nothing special, I jus-” She’s cut off by Quinn.

“Don’t sell yourself short.” He says aggressively, slamming his fist into his open palm. “Your opening strategy was very well thought out, and after I heard you call out halfway through the match, your team obeyed without question, and nearly won because of it.” Mavi blushes harder.

“And you do all that with a brella” Quinn finishes with a smirk.

Caught off guard by the insult to her primary weapon, Mavi instinctively fires back “Hey! Just because the greater competitive meta ignores brellas doesn’t mean they’re bad! I seem to recall the shield ruining your plans several times!”

Quinn scoffs in amusement. “They did.” Quinn turns to leave, but before he goes he turns to her. “Mavi, it was nice to meet you, properly this time. I hope to see more of you around, maybe to battle again some day.”

Mavi smiles at him, “Yeah, that one was fun! I’ll see you around Quinn!”

He nods, and turns and walks away.

Later that evening, Mavi’s in her apartment’s kitchen, preparing some tea. Her apartment is far enough from the Square that it’s generally quiet at nights. Tiara, her roommate, is off with Queen practicing in wherever the heck their studio is. She intends to settle down and read a book, maybe sketch some ideas while listening to a podcast. Yes indeed, Tonight should nice and qui-

The apartment door slams open “MAVI WE NEED YOUR HELP!”

With the most annoyed face of the day Mavi turns to the door to see her roommate, Tiara, standing in the doorway, looking haggard from what was clearly a quick trip on foot.

Tiara, in Mavi’s opinion, is a mess. Today is one of her “low-effort” days, which despite its name was still a very complicated arrangement. She has her namesake on, a black tiara that sits front and center on top of her long back-length tentacles. Said tentacles fade from the same black as her tiara from the top to a sandy beige. The black of her tentacles blends well with the black of her tank top, and that’s about where the compliments end. She’s wearing striped fingerless gloves of neon pink and light blue. Her skirt, the same color as the blue on her gloves, is held up by a bright green studded belt. She’s wearing dark Platform boots as well, with lace all the way to her knees and belts across them every laces every so often.

Mavi, who knows her dreams of a quiet night are nearly impossible now, meets Tiara’s hurried request with a deliberately slow turn. “What’s up?” she finally offers, as she starts pouring the tea into three travel mugs.

Tiara, gasping for breath while holding the door frame holds up a finger, asking for a pause. She shuffles into the apartment, pushing the door closed. “We need a sound guy.”

Mavi, for the millionth time today, just stares. “A… sound guy?” she eventually offers.

“A sound guy!” Tiara happily replies.

“Right… can’t you just like, do it yourself?” Mavi asks, her last attempt to escape.

“Well, we thought we could, but we just can’t figure it out! We lost almost half of our practice day to it!” Tiara says, in an upset tone.

“Ok, but, why me? I don’t know anything about music, much less music equipment!” Mavi defends.

“I thought you knew something because of the Squid Sisters promo amp series you had to give live demonstrations for?” Tiara asks, in an innocent tone of voice, but a malicious look in her eyes.

“Well, that’s not exac-” Mavi tries to deflect. Tiara doesn’t let her.

“Or the Squid Sisters brand karaoke Machine? You’re practically the maintenance girl for that thing!” The voice gets sweeter. Tiara’s eyes narrow like she’s predator that’s finally cornered her pray.

“A karaoke machine isn’t any thing like recording music!” Mavi tries. The glint in Tiara’s eyes practically shines as she grins at Mavi.

“Or every single demonstration video in that store? Wasn’t the guy so bad at editing AND mixing you nearly threw him through the front window? I mean he literally pays you extra to make those videos now!” Tiara asks in a voice so sweet Mavi can practically taste sugar. Tiara’s eyes are now fully open again, her mouth split in an infuriating grin equal parts smug, proud, and sinister.

Mavi slams the empty kettle on the counter. “DAMN THOSE SQUIDS AND THEIR SHITTY MERCHANDISE!!” She sighs, collects herself, and then turns to Tiara. “Fine, I’ll come look at your tech issues.” She says it more terse than she meant to, but any offense that could have been taken was completely neglected.

“Yay!!” Tiara throws her hands in the air. “Lets head back, the sooner we can get this resolved the sooner we can get back to practice!”

“Fine, but you’re carrying Queen’s tea.” Mavi replies, already slipping her shoes on. Her favorite jacket, a beige pull-over hoodie, should be enough to keep the chill of the evening at bay. ’Besides,’ she reasons internally, ‘it’s not like Tiara will give me the time to change’. “Hey, speaking of, where is Queen? She usually follows you whenever you barge in to yell at me.”

“Oh, she’s sulking in the practice room. She couldn’t figure out how to work any of the new equipment and that made her mad.”

Mavi replies with a smirk, “We can jog there, it can’t be too far if YOU ran here.” Tiara pales, an impressive sight for someone who already has fair skin. Mavi continues, “You know how she gets after she’s been pouting alone. Normal Queen is a big enough headache without the extra crankiness.”

Tiara, terrified of having to run anywhere, quickly squeaks out “Nono, that dumbass can sulk for a few minutes longer.” She turns to Mavi, the smug look once again overtaking her face. “Besides you’re going to fix all our issues anyway so she can’t be mad at you for at least 2 days.”

“Oh I’m sure.” Mavi dryly retorts. She makes sure to grab just her mug of tea, still warm, and head for the door. Tiara scrambles behind her to grab the other two, and follows Mavi out the door, closing it behind her.