Chapter 2 - A Thrilling Evening

As Mavi and Tiara walk away from their shared apartment, they both felt a chilly breeze sweep past them. Good call on the jacket. Mavi glances over to Tiara. She’s humming some aimless tune to herself, as she confidently walks down the sidewalk leading away from their apartment. Tiara’s uncovered arms swing animatedly at her sides.

“How are you not cold?” Mavi asks. “If that breeze comes by again I might abandon you and hide under a blanket back home.”

Tiara stops her humming, turning to Mavi, “Oh, it’s not so bad! The breeze has a bit of bite but that’s nothing really.”

“Right.” Mavi pauses, taking a sip of her tea. “Where are we headed anyway, I know you go over to Queen’s often, but I’ve never actually been.”

“She lives just up the road a little bit, it’s a suuuuper cozy place Mavi you’ll love it!”

“Up the road, wait in the neighborhood? She has a house in the suburb?” Mavi asks, genuinely puzzled

“Whats wrong with that?” Tiara asks, frowning, a hint of ice in her voice.

“Uhm, nothing! I just didn’t think a little one story house was her style! She seems more a downtown apartment kind of gal you know?”

That seemed good enough to calm Tiara down, a wide smile returns to her face. “She used to live in an apartment, it was super cozy too. But! She left it, saying something about ‘curfews are lame’ and ‘If that sleazy landlord tries anything else he’s going out the window’ and stuff like that.”

“I see, well it’s good that she left that, doesn’t sound like the best place to be.”

Tiara sagely nods, before a massive grin splits her face. “Oh, Mavi! This will be so much fun! We’re going to make such great stuff with you helping us! We’re setup in the living room, that way we have easy access to the fridge in the kitchen, for snacks. Oh! We’ve got all kinds of great snacks! Sodas, and chips and cookies and sometimes we make cake! Mavi! Queen’s cooking is so much better when you get it fresh! Not that it isn’t good when she brings it over, but it’s soooooo super good when it’s hot!” She pauses for a moment, a thoughtful look crosses her face. “Though, I don’t know, aren’t you supposed to not eat before singing? Or was that swimming…”

A small pit of dread forms in Mavi’s stomach. Cod, she’s worse than Rex! At least his tangents are about something. Usually. Well, ok they’re both bad. “I think that was swimming. You said you guys are set up in the living room?”

“Um, yeah, I just said that! Gosh Mavi, were you even listening to me?”

“Yes yes, just verifying. So you guys like, write your stuff in the living room, maybe rough out an idea or something, then what?”

Tiara looks over to her, confused. “Umm… we take a video of it?”

That small pit of dread in Mavi’s stomach grows. “You don’t like, have a dedicated practice room?”

Tiara steps a bit ahead of her, and turns around to walk backwards, facing Mavi with a confused look. “What do you mean?”

This was a mistake. “Where do you set up your equipment? How do you record the instruments?” A blank look from Tiara. “Do you just do it all in the living room?”

“Yeah! Queen’s got her keyboard on a little cart thing so she can move it out of the way when we’re not playing.” Tiara replies with a smile.

Oh, oh no. “You guys do make music right?” Mavi asks, showing more trepidation in her voice than she meant to.

With a slightly annoyed face, Tiara replies in a similar tone, “Yeah! Well, we haven’t finished a song yet, but we do have some cool sounding bits!”

They’ve been at this for years! Nothing?! And they buy more equipment despite not having anything! Insane! Both of them! “Well, what kind of music are you trying to make?” Mavi asks, exasperated.

Tiara is quick to reply, a smile on her face again. “I want to make fun music!” Mavi stares. “Don’t get me wrong Mavi, I know what you’re thinking. ‘Oh the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook host Splatfests with their music! That’s fun!’ Well you’re right, but you’re also not.”

Mavi’s stare turns into a full on confused look, as she tries to figure out what the hell exactly Tiara just said. “Um, I think I’m following” She pauses to try and sort her words. “Their music… makes… fun? But it isn’t fun.”

Tiara’s eyes light up, she’s practically bouncing instead of walking. “Yeah!!! Don’t get me wrong, I loooove the Squid Sisters and Off the Hook, but they don’t make fun music.” With a confident air of finality, Tiara finishes, “They make music that is fun, but isn’t fun music.”

Forget confused, Mavi is absolutely baffled as to what that means, much less the absolute confidence Tiara seems to have in her statement. So much so she actually trips over her own feet. A panicked “Agh!” is all she can do as she falls forward.

Tiara catches her a moment later, stopping her from face planting. The two travel mugs of tea she was holding clatter to the ground, but don’t spill.

Mavi lets out a weak “Thanks” before quickly righting herself. Tiara smiles at her, a small but genuine one, before moving beside her once again.

Tiara poorly tries to hide a snicker as she says, “Geez, Mavi. You’re so clumsy. How do you even play turf when you can’t even walk in a straight line properly!”

Mavi shoots a death glare at Tiara, who smiles back unfazed, then reaches down and grabs the dropped tea, stacking one on top of hers and passing one back to Tiara. After a few moments, Mavi asks, “So, what instruments do you guys play on this, uh, pursuit of fun?”

The smile on Tiara’s face widens again. “Oh! I mostly do singing, I know you all love my voice so much already, but it’s even better when I’m singing! She pauses for a second,”Queen plays the keyboard, she took piano lessons when she was younger so she sounds really incredibly good!”

Mavi smiles back at Tiara, “That’s a nice combo actually. I don’t exactly know what kind of problems you guys have, but I’ll take a look, hopefully it’s easy to fix.”

A flicker of mischief, and strangely guilt passes over Tiara’s face, Mavi catches this but decides it’s not worth the hassle. What are the odds that Queen didn’t actually invite me over? Mavi goes to ask about that, but doesn’t get a chance to as Tiara turns and starts walking towards a house.

It’s a small, off-white house with the window blinds closed, with a moderate sized porch that lacks furniture. The yard is somewhat unkempt but not so much that it sticks out. It looks normal, and that’s weird.

“It’s a nice looking place!” Mavi offers, as she follows Tiara to the front door.

“Just wait until you see the inside!” Tiara says in a singsong voice, as she stops in front of the door. “Now, just a moment.” Tiara turns to look at her. “Mavi, you said you’ll help, but will you hear us out too? Please, pretty please?”

Uh oh. What does she mean. This could go in so many ways. It’s not like I can really say no though, uhhh… “Sure. I’ll hear you guys out. I’m not sure what you want, unless it’s like, on-call tech support. I can probably do that.

“We’ll tell you inside! Come on in!” And Tiara turns and opens the door.

===

Marie Kensaki is a very particular squid. She has very specific ways some things needs to be done. When her alarm wakes her up in the morning, she has to let it beep 8 times. When she places the milk in the fridge she has to tap the shelf 4 times to make sure the shelf can hold the milk. When she hugs her cousin she pats her on the back six times to make sure she knows she’s important. Whenever the numbers are wrong it leaves her feeling very off, leaves her feeling wrong.

She does her best to keep up with all her friends. Asking the important questions “How are you doing?” “Anything big happening?” and so on. It’s important to keep these thoughts in mind, people like it when they get to talk about themselves, and Marie likes to know things about her friends, it all works out. It’s for this reason that Marie likes to think she knows her friends. When they’re happy, when they’re sad, when something’s wrong. And sitting here in Cuttlefish Cabin, looking out the window, Marie knows something is wrong.

She watches as Agent Three makes his way to their small training course. His tall form crouching near the start, preparing to launch himself into action. And something is wrong, she can tell. Marie taps her mug of coffee against the table 4 times, and then heads fully to the window to watch him run.

As she steps up to the window, he launches, his natural ink rocketing from him as he dashes forward. The dummy in front of him pops from the ink as he rushes through the ink on the ground. And Marie can tell something is wrong.

As he dashes around the corner Marie can see just the barest hint of hesitation. As he shoots the next targets she can see how his aim was just ever so slightly off. As he jumps over a gap his jump doesn’t take him as far as it could. All these little things on their own wouldn’t be concerning, but combined it’s enough to spell concern.

Agent Three rounds the last corner and fires at the last dummy, blue Ink spraying from his Splattershot popping it in moments. Wait, Splattershot. Not Hero Shot? That’s not good.

She would be content to ask him about it later, if not for the fact that he just stopped at the end of the course. Not resetting it for another run, not moving to the other set of dummies, just, standing there. That’s REALLY not good. Ok. Callie’s getting off patrol in a little bit, I need to talk to him now.

Mind made up, Marie moves to grab her new coat. It’s a nice, white coat, with a few sections of green in the middle. She fastens the buttons on her coat twice, to make sure they hold, and heads out the door.

“Hey, Three! Good run on the course there! We might need to expand it if you keep that kind of pace up.” He turns to look at her. She waves, flashing him a smile.

“Um, thanks.” He replies slowly, face remaining neutral. No luck, we’ll have to do this more directly.

She rips the bandage off, “You seem like you have something on your mind, do you want to talk about it?” He stares, remaining completely impartial.

She sighs, and walks past him, to one of the raised platforms for the course. She brushes the spot for dirt 8 times, before sitting down. She turns back to him. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but something is bothering you. I’m here if you need to talk.”

Three stares at her for a second, a look of hesitance crosses his face, but despite that he moves to sit next to her. Marie pats his shoulder 6 times in a show of comfort. He sits, a thoughtful look across his face. He’ll speak when he has his words in order, I can wait.

Eventually, he starts in his normal, slow drawl. “I’m… worried. Things here are hard. You and Callie aren’t as available, Clover, Pearl and Marina, are busy with the refugees and Off the Hook, the Cap’n is old, and Nora…” He trails off.

Ah. He’s worried about the future of the Splatoon, not that I can blame him, he’s the most dedicated one here aside from Gramps. “Don’t worry Three, you’re strong enough to keep up with everything. We’ll be here to help you when we can.” The conflicted look on his face darkens. That wasn’t it, there’s something more bothering him. Her left hand moves into her jacket pocket. She begins to fidget with the folds of cloth, rubbing them in a quick back-and-forth motion.

After a few minutes of thought he speaks up again. “I got splatted yesterday.” Oh, shit. “She beat me. She outsmarted me. She ran a corner and then got me from behind.” That explains a lot… “I worry that I won’t be able to keep fighting, that I’m slipping. I don’t….” He trails off again, his gaze sliding over the landscape has he slides deep into his thoughts.

They sit for around an hour, Three’s expression hardly changing has he stares into the distance. Marie hears someone approaching behind them. She lazily turns to look, flashing her cousin a small wave that was eagerly returned.

Callie quickly runs into the cabin to change out of her agent gear. As she exits, and moves towards her friends, Marie catches her eye and quickly makes a series of symbols with her hands. A few select phrases sent in sign language, a skill they picked up during the peak of their time as idols. Being able to quickly send a non-verbal message to each other saved them both a large number of headaches, as they could quickly tell the other the situation at hand.

Such a useful took came in handy here, as Marie sends Callie the signs for quiet, calm, thinking. Callie catches on immediately, toning her mannerisms down as she approaches.

Callie starts, “Hey guys! What’s got you out here on the blocks and not inside? It’s a bit chilly today you know.”

Marie is quick to follow, “We’re just thinking about stuff. Lots of things are happening ya know?” Callie nods.

Three turns to wave at Callie, a look of hesitation in his eyes. He deliberates for a second, before he slowly says, “I’m worried. I have… concerns about the future here.” He turns to Marie, silently asking her to elaborate for him. She taps the ground 4 times with her foot before she stands, then nods to Three.

“Things are kind of rough out here. You’ve got a new gig coming up so you’ll be booked for the next couple months, Clover’s busy helping Pearl and Marina with the refugee operation, as well as general Idol stuff. Gramps is too old to do any work beyond comms, and Nora’s… injury isn’t being kind to her, or us, either. That really only leaves me, and I’ve only got a few hours a day, barely enough for a patrol, and Three.

Callie looks at the two of them, and then thinks for a moment. “I suppose we can scale things back for a while. Let’s shelve investigating the metro for now, we barely have the personal to deal with the surface stuff right now.”

The cousins turn to look at Three, and see his hand resting right above his right eye, right on top of where his sensitization scar is its worst.

Callie leads the conversation on, away from the underground. “We’ll simplify the work up here to, just basic patrols, and of course directing the refugees should there happen to be any.”

Three sits for a moment, his face slowly being consumed by his inner thoughts again. Marie leans over to him and whispers “You should tell her.” Three snaps back to attention.

He hesitates for a second, takes another second to formulate his words, and then simply states, “I got splatted yesterday.”

Callie immediately responds, “Oh no your record! You were doing so well, is that what’s got you so upset?” A glance from Marie tells her that that isn’t it.

Three pauses again, gathering his words, before he continues. “She outsmarted me. Hugged a corner and I ran right past.” A long pause. He continues, in a light, shaky voice, “Hit me from behind, I could barely even fight back” Oh, Quinn. You poor thing. When will you stop beating yourself up over this? It wasn’t your fault.

Marie reaches over and gently rubs his back, moving her hand back and forth 6 times, before leaving it in the center to rest while he collected himself. Callie steps up, and quietly asks him if she can hug him, he nods. As the two embrace, he finds his words again.

“I’m worried that I’ll not be able to keep fighting. That I’ll slip up.” The two go to comfort him but he continues before they can. As a tear forms in his left eye, he says “I’m worried that I’ll not be able to fight, and that I’ll get left behind…” he trails.

Marie joins the hug, holding Three, no, Quinn close as he breaks. This was more than just getting splatted yesterday, this was something that had been bothering him for a while. She gently pats his back 6 times.

After a few minutes, he starts to calm down. Marie pulls back out of the hug but leaves an arm on his shoulder. Callie continues to hug him.

Callie murmurs “We would never leave you behind Quinn. You’re important to us. You helped us when we needed it, and in the time since you’ve become one of the most important people in the world to me. We wouldn’t ever dare leave you behind.”

Marie draws his attention to her by squeezing his shoulder twice. “I know you’ve denied it before,” She starts, “But we would like it if you would join us in things other than Agent work more regularly. Get food with us, come visit our apartment, we have a spare room you can sleep in if you want to spend the night. Hell, we can go bowling if you guys want to!” A hesitant look crosses Quinn’s face, but after a few moments a determined look takes it’s place. He nods, and gently begins to peel Callie off him.

Once they’re all standing, Marie offers to go out for some food, something the other two agree sounds good. A quick stop inside the cabin to grab their things, Marie tapping her bag 4 times to make sure it’s still where I left it before slinging it over her shoulder. She looks around, checking to make sure everything’s in place. As she heads to the door she can hear Callie excitedly bubbling about which restaurant they should go to. A quick flip of the light switch, followed by 8 quick taps to make sure it stays down and she closes the door behind her, intent to join her companions for a meal.

===

Despite Tiara’s attempts to hype up the inside of the house, Mavi finds herself underwhelmed. The first thing she encounters as she steps inside is a small antechamber, inside it a half-full coat rack and rack for shoes. As Tiara closes the door behind them, it becomes apparent just how dark it is inside the house. Tiara moves past her, making a “Shh!” sound as she does, a sign to be quiet. Mavi nods, though she’s not sure if Tiara can see it.

Turning her gaze to adjoining room, the first thing she notices is the entryway to her right, a light from somewhere further into the room spills out, weakly attempting to illuminate the rest of the main room.

From what little she can make out, this appears to be the living room, making the room with the light the kitchen. The first thing she spots is a keyboard resting on some kind of cart. Must be Queen’s. To the left of the piano is an AV cart with a laptop on it, sitting slightly askew, like it was moved recently. In the center of the room a collection of couches makes a U shape with a large open section in the middle. Light reflecting off a screen reveals a TV, on the wall opposite the light, placed where it can be seen from every seat.

Still standing in the antechamber, Mavi starts to walk further into the house before she’s stopped by Tiara grabbing her arm. “Wh-” Mavi starts, before Tiara shushes her again, and then points to one of the couches, where Mavi can see a dark lump

With the help of some squinting, Mavi can see the form of Tiara’s best friend and band mate, Queen. Of the two of them she’s the most mature, which is surprising considering she’s a year younger than Tiara. Compared to Tiara’s boundless energy, Queen is often considered the more calm, rational, and elegant one.

Said elegance is on full display as she sleeps on the couch, curled into a shape that can’t possibly be comfortable. One of her arms, not sure which, has her head resting on her wrist, her elbow jutted out at an odd angle behind her head. The other hand, resting on the floor. Her legs aren’t much better, twisted into an impossible knot and not quite resting flat on the couch. Her usual black dress is wrinkled and pulled in the ways that can only be done through sleep, and her peach colored tentacles are pulled at awkward angles. Her usual black bow is nested right where it always is, on top of her head, as if to spite the chaos the rest of her outfit is subject to.

Mavi nods in understanding, turning back to Tiara only to see a mischievous smile plastered across her face, only broken by her finger resting across the center. Without any further warning, Tiara begins slinking towards her sleeping friend, moving much quieter than anyone would think the energetic inkling could.

As she watches this happen, Mavi thinks to herself, How does she move so quietly? I wonder what she’s doing, maybe she’s gonna try to help Queen get more comfortable? Who am I kidding she’s probably going to scare her. I should really do something to stop that, I hate it when Tiara sneaks up on me. Mavi makes no move to stop what is about to happen.

Tiara draws in a big breath, then moves as close to Queen’s head as she dares. “QUEEN I’M BACK I BROUGHT MAVI SHE’S HERE TO HELP US BECAUSE YOU COULDN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO USE THE COMPUTER!!!!”

Called it.

Queen jolts awake, half of her instincts on fight and the other on flight. A desperate scramble ensues, Queen frantically trying, and failing to untangle herself. Tiara ducks out of the way of the flailing with a practiced motion, and immediately breaks down laughing the moment she’s out of reach.

Queen rockets herself off the couch with a scream, “OOOHHHH TIARA YOU BITCH!” This only makes Tiara laugh harder, her face turning a bright red as she wheezes. Unfortunately for Queen, she hadn’t managed to fully untangle her legs, as fast as she shot up she fell right back down, to the ground this time.

As she falls, Tiara joins her on the floor, laughing so hard her legs can’s support her anymore. Mavi laughs a little herself watching as the two try to yell at each other.

“Tiara… You’re, huff huff, gonna regret that.” Tiara doesn’t respond, too busy cackling on the floor.

Mavi moves over and helps Queen stand. She glances at the writhing, red-faced Tiara. “Is, hmm. Is she… breathing?”

“Hopefully not.” Queen replies with a pout on her face. “I can’t even sleep in my own home without this pest bothering me!”

Mavi fixes Queen with a flat look, “Didn’t you give her a key?”

“it was either that or deal with her crawling through the windows.”

Mavi turn her gaze back to Tiara, who’s spasms finally appear to be slowing down “I don’t… yeah, yeah fair enough”

With a very exasperated sigh, Queen turns and begins walking towards the kitchen. “I’m going to go clean up, don’t let that wretch escape. I’ll be back.”

As queen’s footsteps fade into the background, Mavi fully turns her attention to Tiara, who’s pulling herself into a sitting position, still laughing, but less with each passing second.

Once Tiara’s composed herself, Mavi asks, “Do you do that often?”

Tiara glances back with a delighted grin, “Every chance I get. Though she doesn’t usually fall over when I do, so it was extra funny this time.”

Mavi nods, and begins searching the walls for a light switch. Moments later, light fills the room, letting Mavi take a proper look around. Now with the added light, she can see two bookcases that flank the TV stand, one covered in books and the other crammed with all kinds of miscellaneous other objects; board games, art supplies, a box of various electronics, pillows, blankets, notebooks, among other things.

The wall across from the antechamber is covered in posters, to the point where you can hardly see the original light blue color. Mavi recognizes some of the bands; Chirpy Chips, Ink Theory, High Tide, and others, but there’s plenty of ones she doesn’t recognize as well.

Mavi turns to the wall behind her, the one with the antechamber, expecting something similar, only to stop when she sees it covered in framed pictures of Queen and Tiara. On the far right of the wall, small pictures of Queen at various ages, making silly poses or laughing. The closer to the center, the bigger the pictures get. The scattering remains just as random, the pictures just as sweet. Large pictures of Queen and Tiara together frame the entryway, the expressions filled with joy and happiness in each. Pictures of Tiara line the left side of the wall in the same way, randomly scattered with all kinds of expressions, growing larger the closer to the center they get.

It’s sweet, impressive, and feels very personal to the two, Mavi thinks.

Before Mavi could continue her examination any longer, the sound of Queen’s footsteps can he heard approaching. Mavi turns to look as queen steps back into the living room freshly cleaned up.

Queen’s changed into a much more casual outfit. A black tank top and some long pants replace her usual black dress, showing off muscular, golden almond toned arms. She’s put up most of her accessories as well, though her black bow is still right where it was before. Her tentacles run to her mid back in one big wave, and her square shaped bangs hang right above her eyes. Even without her heels she stands slightly taller than the other two, and the piercing frown she brandishes at Tiara adds quite a lot to her intimidating aura.

Tiara just smiles back, seemingly unbothered by the weight of the stare. Queen sighs and drops the look as she turns to Mavi.

“She got you out of the house this time I see.” Queen starts, a gentle smirk on her face. “Well, regardless, it’s nice to have you over dear. I put something in the oven so we can eat later”.

“Ah, yeah. Thanks Queen.” Mavi pauses and looks around again. ’It’s a nice place, very cozy.”

Mavi grabs one of the mugs of tea off a corner table where she set them, and passes it to Queen, who accepts it with a nod, quickly taking a sip.

“Thanks.” Queen says with an easy smile, moving to the couches to sit near Tiara. Mavi follows and sits across from the two.

The three trade pleasantries, Queen talks a bit about the house and what she’s done with it, Tiara talks about the posters lining the wall.

Silence descends quickly, with all three of them avoiding the primary topic for the night, no one knows what to say.

Mavi breaks the silence. “So, um, thanks again for inviting me over. I can’t say I know the most about music equipment but as my lovely flatmate here can attest to I know some basics. What do you need me to look at?

Queen looks at Mavi with a confused expression on her face, about to say something before Tiara hops up with a shout. “Right! Um, give me a second.”

She hops up from the couch, scurrying over to the cart with the laptop, and wheeling it to the space between them. She follows up with, “Uh, we’ve been having trouble with this”

Mavi slowly moves to open the cabinets, noting the production equipment it holds. “Oh! You want help setting up a production station?”

Tiara nervously stammers out “Well, Um, yeah kinda, but-”

She gets cut off by Queen’s stern tone, “You didn’t actually tell her did you?” Tiara wilts. Queen turns to Mavi, “What did she say?

“Well,” Mavi starts slowly, “She nearly knocked our door off it’s hinges as she ran in screaming, asking for my help, something with you guy’s music. I tried to deflect it, but she pointed out I have some experience with music tech thanks to my job; You and I both know she would not shut up until I came to fix the issue, so here I am. Uh, no offense”

Queen grabs the bridge of her nose, “She got you over here to fix something?” Mavi nods. Queen turns to Tiara, With a chill in her voice, she asks “Darling, why didn’t you just tell her? Now this is a headache for all of us.”

Mavi’s turn with the confused look, “Huh? What are you-”

“I DIDN’T TRICK HER SHE MISUNDERSTOOD ME!” Tiara yells.

“You said you needed me to fix something.” Mavi follows up in a measured voice.

“NUH-UH! I SAID WE NEEDED A SOUND GUY!” She hollers back

Queen stares Tiara dead in the eyes, and with a mock look of surprise, brings a hand up to her mouth. “Ah! I see! So she misunderstood your awful explanation, and then you didn’t correct her at all!”

Weakly, Mavi tries to calm the situation down, “Girls, it’s ok. Why don’t we take a second to breathe, and then you two explain what it is you want to ask me.”

Queen’s head lands in her hands. She mumbles “Oh cod this is an awful start to this conversation.” She turns to Tiara, “You, I just, ugh.” She lets out a frustrated groan.

Mavi lets out a sigh as she looks to Queen. “Ok, we’ll start from the beginning, I’m over to help with something music related, and it’s not equipment repairs.”

Queen stares daggers at a very nervous looking Tiara. “Alright, please ignore this,”she gestures at Tiara”…distraction for the next 8 or so minutes.”

Tiara pouts, and folds her arms over her midsection, but doesn’t argue.

Queen starts. “Ok, so I’m sure you’ve heard that we’re a band. We, and especially Tiara, has had this dream since we were like 8.” Mavi nods. “We played around with the idea for like, 10 years, but, well you know… life.” Mavi nods again. “We’ve ‘officially’ been a band for 6 years., came up with a name; RoyalSea, rough draft of a logo, social media pages, and the works,

She passes Mavi her phone, a crudely drawn black and pink logo reading “RoyalSea” is on the screen. Queen swipes over to various social media apps, all of which have pages for RoyalSea, and all of which are suspiciously lacking posts.

Queen continues “As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we don’t exactly have anything to show for our years of ‘hard work’.” She finishes with a sarcastic tone.

Tiara takes this moment to break her silence, jumping to her feet. “THAT’S NOT TRUE I HAVE STUFF ON MY PHONE!!” A glare from Queen quiets her down, but doesn’t stop her. “We’ve got all kinds of clips, we’ve not been doing nothing!”

Queen’s sigh returns in force, “Yes dear, but some 20 phone clips out of multiple YEARS of work isn’t exactly a good turnover.”

Tiara wilts, sitting back down at the couch.

Mavi speaks up, “So, you buy some new equipment, hoping that having new tools at your disposal will help light that spark.”

Queen nods, and gestures to the keyboard on the wall to her right. “I play the keyboard for our little duo and Tiara provides our lovely vocals.” Tiara perks up a bit at the praise. “It’s not working.” Queen finished with another sigh.

Tiara appears to gather a little bit of strength before speaking up. “I can’t really play anything because, you know…” Tiara holds up her right hand, and mimics a guitar chord. Her thumb moves normally, but her other 4 fingers don’t quite move enough to make the mimic convincing. An injury when she was young left her unable to moves the fingers on her right hand fully, effectively preventing any precise movement or tight grips with that hand.

Tiara continues, “I thought that maybe I could make stuff on the computer, but I just, don’t understand it. It’s so confusing! Queen can’t even turn on a computer without help, so our plans to change things up kinda died when we realized neither of us could use it. Not without taking an overwhelming amount of time, at least.”

A look of understanding begins to cover Mavi’s face. Queen speaks up again, “Mavi, we’re stuck. We’re going to continue to try, we don’t want to give up, but we don’t know what else to do. As much as I loath to admit it, you’re the only one I trust enough to ask this”

Tiara pick us where she left off, “Mavi, will you help us? Uh! You don’t have to be part of the band if you don’t want to! You could, um, just hang out and help us make the songs! If you don’t want to that’s ok too! We’ll figure something out…” Tiara’s nervous rant trails off.

Mavi’s brow furrows in thought. Tiara’s nervously wringing her hands as she glances between Mavi and everything that isn’t Mavi. Queen’s laid back on the couch, seemingly relaxed, but the way she’s not-quite settled into the chair properly, in addition the tight smile on her face betrays how she really feels.

Mavi’s mind is racing; It’s rare for Queen to ask me for help, and if it’s got her this nervous it’s clearly important to her. Tiara’s in an absolute frenzy too, she’s not been this bothered since that really big fight they had a while ago. What do they want me to do though? Guide them? Make backing tracks for them? Be a band member? I need some clarification.

Mavi draws in a breath and straightens her posture, Queen and Tiara both lean in intently as Mavi starts to speak, “What exactly is it you’d like me to do?”

It’s not an outright rejection, an excited glint appears in Tiara’s eyes, Queen’s smile grows genuine, before it immediately turns into a grimace. Queen takes a moment to gather her wits, swallow her pride, and turns to Mavi.

With an obvious reluctance, Queen explains “We don’t know what we’re doing. We don’t know how to make music, how to record, or mix or balance or any of those other technical words.”

Tiara’s quick to interject, “We can write lyrics and play though! We just need, well, the rest!”

Queen takes the conversation back, “We need the brains, an organizer, someone who can help us get things on track.”

That thoughtful look crosses Mavi’s face again. “So, you want me to be your… producer?” The two nod, Tiara very eagerly.

Another pause from Mavi, before she adds with a lot more reluctance, “I don’t have to appear on stage or in videos or anything do I?”

Queen doesn’t hesitate to reply “No darling, not if you don’t want to. Though we will accommodate you if you change your mind.”

More thinking, more pause. Mavi asks “It’s not going to be easy you know. A lot of habits are going to need to be changed, you’re going to need to work the basement into a semi-decent recording space. You’re going to have to start actually practicing, not just spending time occasionally singing something into your phone. At least one of you is going to have to learn at least the very basics of FreshMaker Studio.” Mavi knocks her hand on the laptop still in front of her. She turns to Queen, “Is there any hope of Tiara learning music theory?”

“Hmmm, maybe, actually. It’s not out of her range, its just a matter of getting her still long enough to absorb it.”

“I’m right here you know!” Tiara says defensively.

“See if you can’t get that started, I want to do some research before I really make any important decisions.”

Tiara blurts “What, hold on. You’re saying yes? Because you didn’t actually say yes or no yet.”

“Yes, Tiara, I’m saying yes. At least prohibitively. If this crashes and burns or nothing comes of it I’ll probably stop, but hey, there’s a chance it works too, and if that happens then we’ll see how things go.”

A wide, genuine smile quickly infects Tiara’s face as she jumps out of her seat and entwines Mavi in a strong hug. “Oh Mavi!!! This is going to be so much fun! I just know we’ll make it work It’s going to be so good! We can-”

Tiara is cut off by the beeping of a timer, and Queen’s quick “Oh! Perfect timing, I’ll be about 10 minutes and then we’ll eat ok?”

Mavi nods, and then tries to peel Tiara off her. “Why don’t you show me what you have so far?”

Tiara eagerly slides off and whips her phone out, pulling up the videos and handing it off to Mavi.

Honestly? It’s pretty good. It may only be a melody line, or an instrumental section, or a chorus, but it is reassuring to know there’s actually something here.

Not long after the three sit down around a table deeper into the house, Queen’s fresh cooked meal right in front of them.

Mavi opens the conversation by asking some questions about their situation, “Have you asked other bands what they did or how they’re doing?”

Not a single moment of hesitance passes before Queen responds “The only other up and coming band we have any contact with is Reel 2 Reel, and I’d rather choke than ask those freaks for advice.”

“I see, well you co-” Mavi is cut off by Tiara screaming out in pain

“AAHHHH QUEEN YOU WHORE THAT IS WAY TO SPICY!!! GYYAAAA” Tiara’s screaming cut off by her aggressively chugging at a carton of milk.

Mavi turns back to queen to see eyes very full of mirth, and a smirk so smug Mavi instinctively wants to punch her.

“That’s for scaring me earlier darling!” Queen calls out, as she moves her untouched plate to Tiara’s spot, taking the spicy serving for herself.

Mavi turns back to her plate, “Um, is mine…” Queen shakes hear head no. She takes a bite. Hmm. Tiara was right, it does taste better when it’s fresh.

Not long after Tiara returns to the table with a pout, one that’s forgotten almost immediately as she starts eating.

The three trade ideas and conversation over the meal, and for some time after it.

Ultimately, Mavi has to leave, she has a late morning shift tomorrow and needs to get back to her apartment. Tiara decides to stay the night, leaving Mavi to walk home alone.

A quick round of goodbyes and some aggressive waving from Tiara sees her off at a leisurely pace, while her mind runs at anything but. The weight of what the agreed to begins to settle in. Just what have I gotten myself into? They’ve got no practice, no ideas, no songs. Plenty of drive though. I’m fairly certain if I can just get them pointed in the right direction they’ll do most of the work themselves. I can push them a simple backing track every so often, yeah. I think we can make this work.

She returns home in a surprisingly good mood, despite her quiet evening not going to plan. A quick shower, nightly routine, set up her planner for tomorrow, and finally, sleep.

Yeah. We’ll make this work.