Chapter 10 - Welcome Party

The two just stared at her for a second, she looked away to give them a chance to recover.

“M-Mavi!”

“Ah! You!”

The two of them seem to recover at the same time.

“Gah!” Pearl practically throws herself away from the work table. “Mavi! What?” Marina half hides behind her hands, blushing profusely.

This feels remarkably familiar Mavi muses internally. It was very similar to how Queen and Tiara had acted when they first got their apartment. Mavi would walk in after a day of work and find the two snuggled together on the couch. Huh… I’ll think about that… later*

Mavi tries her absolute hardest to sound casual. “Uhm, h-hey guys, sorry to interrupt, M-Marie said you would a-answer my questions.”

Marina takes the out she’s given. “Oh! Right, yeah we can help with that.” She sighs, turning away to fidget with something.

“You coulda at least knocked.” Pearl grumbles.

“M-Marie lead me in here, I t-thought you knew I was coming!” Mavi pleads.

Pearl just sighs. “Alright, whatever. What questions do you have.”

“Um.” Mavi stalls. Really, she didn’t have any questions. Well, that’s not true, I have too many questions. Regardless, it took her several seconds to come up with one. “What… do you two do? Marie mentioned that you guys work on a different project than the rest of us.

“You know about the Zapfish incidents?” Marina asks, Mavi nods. “To make a long, long story short, Octavio’s first defeat shook confidence in his leadership and purpose. A good number of us left after that.”

“I don’t imagine the second incident did him any favors.” Mavi casually replies.

A slightly troubled look crosses the idol’s faces. “That’s… a light way to put it.” Pearl offers.

“There were a lot more moving parts in the second incident.” Marina clarifies.

Pearls quick to follow up, “We’ll sit you down and tell you the full story later, and trust me it, it’s a story”

The two continue to bounce the explanation between each other. “For now, what’s important is that a second faction split off from Octavio, and are actively resisting him right now.”

“We’ve tried getting into contact with them, but as far as we can tell, their base is somewhere deep in the domes, we can’t easily get there.”

At their pause, Mavi offers a question. “So, you two are working to establish contact?”

Pearl hesitates for a moment, “Yeah, but that’s… not the focus. Right now, we help the Octavians who try to escape, well, escape.

“Is it like, a prison break thing?” Mavi asks, a slightly nervous tone to her voice.

“No, not like that.” Marina confirms, easing Mavi’s worries.

“Not at the moment, anyway” Pearl amends, raising them again.

Marina continues. “Right now there’s two main methods. Either the group from before sends us a one-way broadcast, telling us when and where a large group will be, or you find someone while patrolling.”

“Huh, do you guys go out and look for them?”

“That’s on you guys, you get em up here to us, and we take it from there.” Pearl explains.

“We’re not the fighters.” Marina clarifies.

“Not that we can’t,” Pearl interjects, “If there’s a rescue mission you bet at least one of us is down there.”

“There’s just a lot of work to do once they’re out as well. We can’t just leave them alone when they make it, they don’t have money, food, a place to stay, or a legal identity. That’s where we come in, or at least we’re the first step.”

Mavi takes a few moments to mull that over. “Alright, that’s really respectable actually.” She gets two genuine smiles in return. She hesitates for a moment, a question on the edge of her mind, before deciding to just ask it.

“Marina, you were one of those who escaped weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was.” To Mavi’s slight surprise, there’s no hesitance. No fear or shy admittance, Marina admits it as easily as explaining that the sky is blue.

A tense few seconds pass before Mavi nods. “Cool. I’ll have to ask you about it sometime. I-if that’s ok!” Marina sends her another smile, while in the background Pearl lets a silent sigh of relief.

Mavi keeps the conversation moving, “You say I could encounter one of these refugees while I’m on patrol, is there anything I need to be worried about?”

Marina thinks for a moment, before asking Mavi a question in crisp, annunciated Octarian. “How fluent are you in Octarian?”

“Pretty decent, growing up one of my friends taught me the basics, and I took classes.” Mavi responds with ease.

“Ho’bou’tiish d’yu’nderstnd?”

Pearl chuckles at Mavi’s stumped face.

“Come on, make a guess at least.” Pearl prods.

“Ummm, is it…‘How about do you understand’?”

“Close,” Marina congratulates. “How about this, do you understand? Don’t worry, you’ll get time to work on it before you’re on your own.”

Curiosity plays through Mavi’s voice, while her eyes narrow slightly. “Was that Octavian?”

A look of relief washes over Pearl. She slides her head through her hands as she goes practically limp in her chair. She half mumbles to herself, half to Marina “Oh, thank cod this one’s smart.”

“W-what does that mean?”

Marina sends look that’s half glare half agreement to Pearl, before she turns back to Mavi. “The last person we taught Octavian dialect to was Nora…” Sympathy flashes through Mavi’s eyes. A look of understanding passes between the three of them.

A few moments later Mavi picks up the conversation. “You say that’s the Octavian dialect. That makes sense, it’s still Octarian, just… fast?”

“Efficient.” Marina corrects. “In the domes, resources were very limited. The culture very quickly developed around efficient use of materials, and soon that same reverence for efficiency swept through the rest of the culture, including the language.”

“That’s… wow. I never considered how that could affect things.” Mavi says, a hint of awe in her voice.

“The Octarian you know would be considered ‘formal Octarian’ in the domes, due to the extra time spent on annunciation.”

Mavi nods in understanding.

“Also, they don’t call it Octavian.” Pearl bluntly informs her. “We’ll getcha some lessons on understanding it. Your speaking should be fine, they’ll understand you, we just gotta make sure you can understand them.”

“Right, that makes sense,” Mavi agrees, before the conversation lapses. She looks around the room, both to look for other questions and to avoid awkward eye contact.

“What’s the story behind the Hero Weapons? Marie explained the Hero Suit to me, and that they’re stronger than standard, but I don’t really know anything about them beyond that.”

“Oh that? That’s easy.” Pearl begins. “So, a shit ton of modern turf weapons are decedents from weapons used in the War. The hero weapons aren’t any different, they just didn’t get spread back to the public.”

Marina tags in. “The original Squidbeak Splatoon used the original hero weapons, they were made by Sheldon’s Grandfather, er…”

“Ammoses” Pearl clarifies.

“Ammoses! Sheldon later took up his grandfathers mantle and decided to redesign the weapons for us.”

The three stand up and walk closer to the weapons rack at the back of the room. Mavi takes the chance to inspect it closer. The weapons are set in on open hooks, making it very easy to take any weapon off the wall. There’s a Hero Weapon variant for each main weapon type, save for the new Splatlands weapons that haven’t quite settled into Inkopolis culture yet..

She eyes the three damaged looking weapons hung near the bottom. “What’s the story behind these?”

Pearl and Marina share a look. “Those…”” Marina starts, a bit unsure.

’They’re the main weapons for the other agents, or at least their main shooters.” Pearl finishes for her. “Gen 1 Hero Shot–” She points at the L shaped shooter– “Is Quinn’s.” She points to the more rectangular one, “Hero shot Gen 2, that’s Nora’s.”

“Is the Octoshot Clover’s then?” Nods from her companions. “Why are they so… worn?”

Marina sighs. “We’ve been through a lot, but honestly? Everyone else way more than us.” Pearl looks like she’s about to protest, but a glare from Marina stops her from following through. “The weapons just show it better than they do.”

Further conversation is interrupted by the sound of Marina’s phone buzzing. She pulls it out and checks a text. “Pearlie look here.”

Pearl glances at the screen, before heaving a dramatic huff. “Speak of the devil… Alright, fine. I’ll see you guys in a bit.” She makes her way to the door. She pauses beside it, before quickly ducking to the side and turning the security camera monitors off. She’s out the door a moment later. Mavi sighs internally, before sending Marina a curious look.

“Quinn sent a text, Marie’s on a bender, needed another set of hands out there.” she explains.

“I… see. What’s going on out there?” Mavi asks, a tiny hint of suspicion in her voice.

“We’re just setting up for… something.”

That’s not suspicious. “Alright.” Mavi looks around the room again. She points towards the front of the room, at the three stations and the massive monitor array. “I take it that’s the comms station?”

“Yes! Well, sort of. In most cases the comms happens on one of these side tables, the front of the room is mostly for missions.” She pauses for a moment before adding, “Because of gear configuration.”

Mavi nods in partial understanding.

Marina elaborates. “There’s a separate set of gear we use for big missions. More tech, better protection and the like.” Marina walks over to the weapons rack, and flicks some kind of switch on the side.

Mavi braces herself for some kind of sliding wall or secret panel, but all that happens is a somewhat loud clicking sound. Marina then grabs the front of the weapons rack, which swings open like a cabinet door.

Inside the cabinet, 7 mostly black suits hang in a center compartment, helmets and boots stowed in separate compartments along the bottom. Beside the suits, an impressive array of black padding and over armor sits in small compartments of their own. Ink tanks in the same color scheme rest on a shelf above the suits. Along the left wall, a large collection of cabinets and drawers sit, spanning the entire height of the cabinet. Every piece of equipment has a number on it, 1-8 (minus a 7), placed in such a way you’d not be able to see it when it’s being worn.

“Here’s the Hero Armor. They take a while to make, so it will be some time before you get your own.” Marina absently glances through the drawers along the left. Everything Mavi sees is very clearly further augmentation for the suits. Armbands and headbands of some kind, though they’re clearly not made with aesthetics in mind. A few cabinets near the bottom hold less-refined looking pieces, with wires and circuit boards exposed in some cases.

After a few more moments, Marina closes the cabinets, the same click echoes as the lock reengages. “All this gear’s synced to the computers at the front there. With a lot of agents in the field, a lot more data is gathered, so its set up for three people to easily offer comms at once. The bigger screen will show a map with tracking for all the agents.”

“That’s a pretty wicked system.”

Marina smiles at the compliment. “Thanks! I designed it myself.”

Further conversation is stalled by a very rapid string of buzzes from Marina’s phone. She frowns before looking down at it. She stares for a few seconds, brown knitting in thought. “Hey… Mavi. I hate to ask, but would you be alright in here alone for a few minutes? I have something I need to take outside.”

“Oh! Umm, sure. I won’t touch anything.”

Marina smiles at her, while walking to the coat rack, where the two remaning uniforms are hung. “You’re an agent now Mavi, you’re welcome to look at things, though I do ask you don’t shoot the weapons inside.” She grabs the two suits, and heads to the door before stopping abruptly. “Oh, right! Your brella’s on the work table, it should be all fixed up. Someone’ll be back for you in a few minutes!” She closes the door behind her.

Mavi stands for a moment, mind idly spinning through possibilities. She sits down in one of the meeting chairs as she thinks. Whatever they’re setting up, they clearly don’t want me seeing it. Mavi’s on her feet in an instant, walking over to the security station. She turns the monitor back on, quickly scanning over the different cameras. Three of them were blocked, by what seemed like a haphazardly placed piece of cardboard. Whatever they were doing, Mavi couldn’t see the front of the cabin, the obstacle course, or the grate.

She grabs her brella, clipping it to her side before sitting back down in the same chair. I wonder what they’re doing. Are they setting up some kind of induction process? Heh, right. I’ll step outside and they’ll give me a fancy robe before swearing me in… No, it’s probably some kind of skill test course. That way they know where to start training me. Sparring? It could be sparring. I don’t know where the respawner is here, or if there even is one… I hope there is one.

As that line of thought tapers off, Mavi thinks over everything that she’s been told so far. Truly, it all just feels so, normal. I know its a whole thing around celebrity culture and whatever, but they’re all so, normal! I was prepared to be told how dangerous everything was going to be, not have sandwiches! . . . . . It’s nice though. I like it.

A sudden flurry of footsteps approaching the door brings Mavi back to the present. She tenses slightly, before the door swings open to reveal Callie, clad (somewhat hastily) in the same reflective vest everyone else had been.

“Mavi!” She cheers. “I’m so glad you decided to join!” Callie’s on her in an instant, crushing her into a surprisingly tight hug.

“Hi…” Mavi wheezes out, struggling for air.

Callie lets her go, still excitedly bouncing around the room. “I’m so excited, it’s been YEARS since I got to help train a new agent, this will be so much fun!”

Marie’s words from earlier echo through Mavi’s mind, and again she feels guilty for thinking bad about Callie. “Fun for both of us?” Mavi asks, an even mix of apprehension and playfulness in her tone.

“Oh you know it sister!” Callie excitedly calls back, before she stills herself. “But first, we have some, ahem, really important and reeeeally formal processes to get through.”

Ah, there it is. “Alright, I can do that.”

Callie stops her. “One thing first!” Callie hops over to a bag Mavi didn’t see her set down. Carefully, she reaches inside before pulling something out. Callie spins around, before walking backwards towards Mavi.

“Mavi Reefseeker!” She announces in a surprisingly ceremonious voice, “the new Agent 9 of the Squidbeak Splatoon. I present you–” Callie dramatically spins around, and bows her head, presenting what’s in her hands to Mavi– “Your new Hero suit!”

Stunned, Mavi just stares for a few seconds. Long enough for Callie to raise her head and push the hero suit towards Mavi.

Slowly, Mavi takes it, letting it unfold to it’s full size as she holds it up. Like the others, it’s a bright reflective yellow, though the jacket underneath it is softer than she thought it would be. Her eyes catch on a series of pink stitches near the bottom of the vest. Mavi slowly traces her fingers across them, lost in thought. Further inspection revealed a patch on the inside of the jacket that reads “Welcome Agent 9!” in slightly sloppy lettering.

Mavi looks back up at Callie, who’s watching her with uncontained glee. “Well come on! Put it on!”

“Ah! R-right!” Mavi reaches up to pull her Orange cardigan off, tossing it onto the table. She fidgets with the jacket for a moment, getting it turned around properly before raising it above her head.

“OOOH! What’s this?”

Mavi freezes, Hero suit held halfway above her head. She spins around, to find Callie inspecting her cardigan. “Oohhh W- th-that’s!! Um…”

“Oh snap! That’s a bomb sniffer chunk!” Callie pokes it. “And you’ve got ink in it! Wow!”

“Ahaaa! I-I-I…” Mavi tries desperately to defend herself, but words just don’t cooperate with her.

Callie inspects the cardigan for a moment longer, before setting it down and shrugging, turning back to Mavi. Upon seeing Mavi’s frozen, embarrassed form, Callie just gives her a confused look. “What’s wrong?”

Now it was Mavi’s turn to just stand there confused. She sighs, lowering her arms with the Hero Suit still on them, before forcing her words out. “I b-brought an outfit with e-extra chunks, in case I, I was u-under attack again.”

Callie looks at her confused for a few seconds longer, before clarity snaps through her eyes. “Oh, right! You don’t have to worry about that, I lectured Marie for an hour that night about shooting you!”

“You’re not mad?”

“Why would I be mad, if anything it’s a good thing you were prepared! Means you’re smart.” Callie finishes, a note of assuredness in her tone. “Now come on, suit up! We’ve got a formal and important process to go through!”

“R-RIght!” Mavi lifts her arms, lettings the hero suit fall down over her undershirt. It takes a bit of wiggling to get her arms and head through the holes, but before long she’s smoothing out the wrinkles as Callie squeals in delight.

“Okok! You look good by the way. Ok! Let’s get on with this!” Callie grabs Mavi’s hand before she could protest and pulls her towards the exit. They stop at the front door to the cabin. “You ready?” Callie asks.

“I don’t even know what’s about to happen.” Mavi admits.

“Great!” Callie shouts as she opens the door.

===

It takes Mavi’s eyes a moment to adjust to the sunlight. She can see all the other agents, talking about something, along with… *an old man? That’s gotta be the Captain then.

Before she can take any time to figure out what’s going on, Callie’s gently pushing her the rest of the way outside. She hears the door click shut, and then feels Callie step up beside her, setting a hand on her shoulder.

“Everyone!” Callie shouts, the others quickly fall silent. As Mavi’s eyes adjust, she can see that they’ve set out the tables again.

“I present to you, Agent 9 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, Mavi Reefseeker!” Callie triumphantly hollers. Cheers ring out. Quinn claps, but looks as happy as the rest of the group.

Mavi stands, caught off guard by the sudden attention. She looks around at the others, before noticing the cake. And the balloons, and the streamers– oh my cod its a party. They set up a part for me. A smile slowly working its way onto her face.

Callie leans down, talking in a quiet tone for only Mavi to hear. “Gramps asked to meet you before the party proper begins, so we’ll do that next if that’s ok?”

“Um, a-alright.” Mavi agrees.

Callie’s upright in an instant. “Great! Nora c’mer!”

Glancing over to Nora, Mavi’s not surprised to find her in a standoff with Marie. Nora waits, still and calm, while Marie guards the cake, a fly swatter in her hand. Marie smugly smiles as she points towards Mavi and Callie with the fly swatter. Nora begrudgingly makes her way over to the two. She’s intercepted by Callie, who whispers something to her, before walking over to Marie.

“So, Agent 9.” Nora says as she approaches Mavi, a playful smirk in her voice. She stops right before the steps to the cabin, leaning on her cane. “Welcome to the splatoon, for real this time.”

“Y-yeah. I’m.. it’s a lot to take in.”

“I bet! You’re lucky, I didn’t get cake when I joined.”

In the background, Callie tugs on the shoulder of Marie’s hero suit, clearly trying to drag her somewhere.

Mavi levels her eyes on Nora, “This party was your idea wasn’t it?”

Nora gives her an innocent smile, before grabbing Mavi’s hand to pull her off the porch. “Don’t worry girl! You’re so tense! He’s really not that scary, Grampa’s a great guy, he’ll love you.

“Yeah… ok. I appreciate the encouragement.”

“No problem! Callie asked me to distract you for a few moments anyway!” Nora steps to the side with a grin smug enough to rival Marie’s.

Before Mavi can respond, the sound of a cane hitting the ground demands her attention.

In front of her, the Captain stands. He wears a strange patchwork smock of some kind, a blue Legendary Cap on his head. His hands rest on his cane, no, that’s a Bamboozler, his back looking straight at her. To either side of him, Callie and Marie stand, backs straight, hands clasped behind their back. Combined, they make for a surprisingly intimidating presence.

Mavi freezes, her confidence withering under the sudden attention. She catches herself, forcing her posture straight. I chose to be here, I’m not backing down now. She takes a moment to collect herself, draws in a breath, and then steps forward.

“Sir! I-I’m Mavi Reefseeker.” She fights to keep her voice even and her stutter down. “Agent 9 of the New Squidbeak Splatoon!”

The intimidating aura cracks slightly as the Captain smiles.

“What’s up squiddo! Glad to have you on board.” The Captain merrily calls, killing the intimidating aura entirely. Marie exhales, dropping the serious face for a more neutral one, while Callie beams a smile at her.

Captain continues with a jubilant tone. “It seems you’re familiar with everyone else, so I’ll introduce myself. The name’s Craig Cuttlefish, Commander of the Squidbeak Splatoon, and Captain of the NEW Squidbeak Splatoon! You can call me Craig.”

“Or gramps!” Callie insists, as she and Marie walk back towards the others.

“Or Grampa!” Nora confirms, slowly edging towards the table.

“I call him Mr. Craig!” Clover excitedly follows.

He sends the crowd a withering look with no bite behind it. “Cap’n is also alright, if you insist on being formal.”

“Right! Capt-, um Cap’n. Thanks for letting me join.”

He laughs again. “Ha! Wasn’t just me squiddo.” He gestures behind her.

Mavi turns back to look at Callie and Marie. She watches as Marie smacks Nora’s hand away from the cake with the fly swatter. Her friend’s “ow!” not garnering the sympathy she had hoped for as Marie stares her down. Callie talks excitedly with Clover, the two laughing as they move towards the table. Pearl practically drags Quinn and Marina towards the rest, but the two are so deep into a conversation that they don’t seem to notice.

The Cap’n speaks again. “You’ll fit right in, kid. It’ll just take a little while to get to know everyone. Now come on! We’ve got some cake to eat.”

Mavi follows the Cap’n to the table, where she takes a seat between Nora and Callie. Callie starts cutting pieces of the cake for everyone. Marie stands beside her, waving the fly swatter like a baton on her hand, her eyes locked on Nora. Slowly, slices of cake work their way around the table, until eventually everyone’s got one. Individual conversations die out as a larger group conversation takes hold.

“How’d you get out of shooting today Callie” Nora asks, her slice of cake already gone.

“Oh, it wasn’t hard. We don’t actually film anything until prrrroooobbbaly next week? It’s all introductory stuff, make sure we know the roles, get an overview of the scenes, talk with the director all that kind of stuff. I showed up early luckily, so the moment I got the text from Marie I put the hustle on!”

“How perfect!” Marina cheers. “We managed to get the entire Splatoon here for the party too!”

“It wasn’t easy, Clover had to practically drag Quinn out of Decca tower!” Nora laughs.

Quinn shoots her a glare. “Easy compared to holding you. From the cake.” He sits back with a satisfied smirk as Nora sputters a defense.

“Easy, tiger shark.” Marie calls to her as she passes Nora another plate of cake. “We don’t want you two fighting again. Quinn’s gotta patrol later.”

“I could fight em. I could win, one leg tied behind my back!” Nora insists, a playful tone in her voice.

“No!” Clover picks up the playful tone. “No fighting when there is cake!”

Nora looks down at her plate. “I don’t see any cake.”

Mavi’s eyes bulge. “Wh– I didn’t even see your fork move!”

“It didn’t” Pearl dryly replies, before taking a bite of her own slice.

Mavi just stares, aghast at her friend, while laughs sound from around the table.

“Mavi, I’ve been wondering…” Marie tepidly starts. “Where did you learn to fight? Pretty much everyone here’s received military training to some degree, but you managed to, er, keep up with me.”

“Ah! I learned from m-my dad! It’s mostly turf training, since he was a pro…” Callie mutters to something herself in the background, her finger tapping her chin. Mavi continues. “After a while we finished the turf stuff, but we kept going, so he drilled us on stuff like reaction speeds and situational awareness.”

“STEPHEN REEFSEEKER!” Callie shouts from her seat, finger pointed in the air.

Eyes turn back to Mavi, who smile is equal parts fond and bittersweet. “…yeah, that’s my dad.” Her tone matches her smile.

“Yes! I knew I recognized your name from somewhere! That’s been bothering me all week!” Callie triumphantly calls, oblivious to the sudden somber tone. Marie catches her eye with a frown. “Oh, s-sorry… I just, got excited I got it right… haha.” Callie awkwardly tries to brush it off, her hands combing across her tentacles.

“Oh no! P-please don’t worry! Y-you’re fine!” Mavi quickly tries to dispel the worry on the idol’s face. “I love my dad, he was very sweet. Um, he was a support-skirmisher flex player, but I tend to play closer to an anchor.” Callie, Quinn, Nora, and Clover all share a look.

The Cap’n calls. “I had to train this one from the ground up!” He vaguely gestures to Quinn who just rolls his eyes.

“I had to the same with this gremlin,” Marie concurs, glaring at Nora, though there’s a fondness in her eyes. “And this one,” The glare slides to Pearl, who looks like she’d rather be anywhere else right now.

“I-if it means anything, I’ve technically been Pro qualified si-since I was 13.” Mavi clarifies.

The table stops dead and stares at her.

“I-I was t-too young a-and wasn’t strong e-enough to do s-some of the m-moves!” Mavi squeaks, unprepared for the sudden pressure. She fights to keep herself from ducking away as her face quickly grows red from embarrassment.

Even Nora’s surprised. “That’s impressive… I know some squids who are 19 and don’t qualify yet…”

“N-Nora I t-told you y-years ago!” Mavi pleads.

“I thought you were like, trying to impress me or something! I didn’t think you were actually qualified that young!” Nora defends. The two fall into an awkward silence, neither sure what to say now.

Thankfully, the Cap’n breaks the ice, “Yer practice should make your training a breeze!”

“And thank cod we actually have time for training…” Marie half mutters, as Marina nods in agreement.

“Mavi has got a good brain for tactical operations too!” Clover adds to the pile. “She was really smart during the game, she will make a good mission leader!”

Mavi can only squeak as her face turns a crimson red.

“Stop. She’s going to explode.” Quinn jokes, voice completely flat. The deadpan delivery causes everyone to break into laughter, pulling the attention off of Mavi.

“Oh, that reminds me, of this one time with Ammoses,” The Cap’n starts, a smile on his face.

“Gramps!” Callie giggles, “Not now!”

“Nono, this one’s good.” Nora insists. “Besides, Mavi’s not heard it yet.”

Satisfied with Nora’s permission, the Cap’n continues his tale. “We were about 6… no, 7 months into the war at this point. Ammoses and I had been having a saltine cracker stacking competition when…”

===

The sun was barely visible by the time Mavi and Nora stood on the grate. Over the afternoon, the party goers had trickled out. Pearl and Marina left first, they had news to cast. Quinn had left for a patrol, but returned to the group when he was done. Clover left to assist Pearl and Marina a few hours later, while yhe Cap’n had retired to what Mavi learned was a series of rooms in the back of the cabin.

Still, she, Callie, Marie, Nora, and later Quinn had spent several hours just talking. It was surprisingly comfortable, especially once they had moved into the cabin.

“Well, you ready?” Nora asks.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Mavi answers, before they both drop into the grate.

Nora leads them through the winding path of streams and pipes before they reemerge in the Plaza. Luckily for them, it’s mostly empty, so they crawl out without much hassle.

“So, Agent 9, what’d you think?” Nora asks, a mix of teasing and genuine curiosity in her voice.

Mavi closes her eyes as she quickly runs through the day again in her head. “It’s been a very long day.” But it was nice.” Her fond smile betrays her true feelings.

“Oh, right!” Nora reaches into her pocket, digging around for a few seconds. She pulls out a small green book, identical to the ones Marie and Pearl had given her. She flips through to a specific page, before ripping it out. “Here’s this.”

Mavi takes the paper. Inscribed on it is a bizarre series of L’s, R’s and S’s, and a web link. “That’s the directions to the cabin from here,” Nora explains, pointing to the letters. “And, um the link to our secure group chat. If you can’t figure the directions out, just send a message and someone will come and help.”

“O-Ok! Thanks!” Mavi carefully slides the page into her own book.

“You should still join the chat anyway!” Nora hastily adds.

“Of course!”

The two stand for a few moments, again unsure what to say.

“Well, uh, I’m glad you had a good time. I’ll see you around.” Nora turns, and awkwardly starts to walk off.

“Nora wait!” As Nora turns back to look, she’s caught in a sudden hug. “Thank you,” Mavi says. “I… I think this is something I needed.”

“Yeah, n-no problem.” Nora stutters, caught off guard by her friend’s actions.

Mavi holds her a few moments longer, before pulling away. “I’ll see you around the cabin then?”

“Absolutely. I’m going to enjoy watching Quinn wipe the floor with you.” Nora teases, a smirk on her face.

Mavi’s face pales for a moment, before a smile overtakes it. “I’ll–” she grimaces– “prepare for that, I guess.”

And with a final wave, the two part ways.

– Mavi opens the door to Queen’s house. Tiara had sent her a text a few hours earlier explaining she was staying the night, and Mavi should join them. The inside was as dark as ever, she quietly slipped her shoes off and made her way into the living room proper.

When she didn’t find anyone there, she made her way to the kitchen, where she found Tiara and Queen huddled against each other, watching something on one of their phones. Mavi felt a powerful sense of déjà vu, but chose to ignore it in favor of backing out of the room and making some noise in the living room.

“Hey guys! I’m here!” She shouts.

“In the kitchen darling!” Queen shouts back.

Mavi steps back in, the two hadn’t moved much, just turned to greet her.

“You’ve been out pretty late.” Tiara demands, her face curious. “Where ya been?”

“Out with some friends,” Mavi easily answers.

“Oh how fun!” Tiara excitedly echoes.

“There’s still some wraps left in the fridge if you’re hungry,” Queen tells her. “When we finish this little video here, we were going to watch a movie.”

Mavi walks towards the fridge. “Oh, fun, sure I’ll join.”

A few minutes later and Mavi slots into the couch next to her sister. She doesn’t make it far into the movie before her eyes start to feel heavy.

Tiara explains something to Queen in the background, but Mavi’s not really listening. Her mind drifts over the day as she slowly slides towards sleep. As she lie there, close to her family, thinking about her new friends, Mavi felt excited for the future. For the first time since she was little, she was excited for tomorrow.

A small smile crossed her lips as she fell asleep.