Chapter 5 - Moving Into Play

Today isn’t going to be that bad, and this time Queen was sure of it. Of course, that wasn’t entirely true, she has to do things after all. _Tiara will be back soon, and Mavi’s coming as well. I guess that means I need to cook something for tonight.

She pulls herself to a sitting position, head resting against the back of the couch. She had laid down as soon as Tiara left that morning. She loved her friend, but cod, Queen was just so tired all the time, she just couldn’t keep up sometimes. As long as she can remember she’s struggled to take action. It wasn’t an issue born out of laziness or work. Acting on any thought, be it as simple as a taking a shower or complicated as a day out, was a battle against herself.

She slowly drags herself to her feet, the same protest as all those years ago still fighting her every move. She thinks about her situation often, when one is paralyzed by the inability to perform basic maintenance acts, it leaves a lot of time to think about it. She meanders down the hallway, a change of clothes, I can manage a change of clothes.

She had heard about the whole “spoon theory” thing from a friend, she can’t remember who. The basic idea that a person has a number of “spoons” in a given day, and different actions use up those spoons. Cleaning the dishes spends 3, workout at the gym spends 8, talking to friends uses 4 etc. and when a person is out of spoons, they struggle to do things. Personally Queen thinks the entire thing is kind of bogus, there’s no point in assigning spoons to things when a shower, the dishes, and an afternoon with friends all leave her so tired she wants to pass out afterwords.

A quick outfit swap later, Queen stops in front of her collection of turf gear. She slips her signature bow off her head and turns, grabbing her turf bandanna off its hook near the door. Not like I’m going out today. She runs her hands along the inside of it, stopping when she comes across three small buttons. She presses her finger up against each one in turn, feeling for something. Damn it, two empty. She sighs as she bends down and opens a small box on the floor underneath the rest of her turf equipment. Inside is several small packets of ink, similar to a laundry pod, of light purple and lime green. A couple second’s worth of shifting reveals a single pink packet hidden under the others, she grabs it. Shit. Of course I’d be out. I can make this work today, I need to. Just means a shopping trip soon. Need one of those anyway.

In her hand she held a packet of special ink, meant for the Run Speed Up ability chunk. When full, it slowly trickles a small amount of the special ink into her own ink supply. Since there wasn’t a real way to just make someone run faster, the Run Speed Up chunks were designed to provide a very slight energy boost. The idea being that the little bit of energy given would encourage one to run slightly faster, and generally that was true.

However, despite the benefits, most people didn’t use their chunks outside of turf. The little packets of ink cost money after all, and while one packet lasts for a good day’s worth of battles, the cost adds up fast.

She sets the bandanna against the palm of her right hand with the ability chunk buttons up. She positions the packet directly over the middle button, and brings one of her claws down on it, poking a small hole in its side. Carefully, she empties about half the packet into the button, which absorbs the ink readily. She quickly empties the rest of the ink into the left button, before she tosses the emptied packet into a small waste bin, overflowing with similar packets.

She quickly rolls the bandanna into a tight strip, and wraps it around her head, tying the knot with a practiced motion. She hooks a finger around the side with the ability chunk buttons, keeping it from lying flat against her head, before slipping a pin perpendicular to the bandanna to hold it in place.

She slips her finger out, and as soon as the buttons make contact with her skin she can feel a subtle tingling. It persists for a few moments before it fades away, and in it’s place she’s left with that slight energy boots, three times over. Queen wasn’t like most other players, she made frequent use of her ability chunks outside of turf. That little boost of energy served a two-fold purpose for her, it both gives her energy, something she’s usually lacking, and it gives her an excuse.

While Queen lacked any internal motivation, she found that external motivation is usually good enough to get things done. Tiara coming over as often as she did was usually a good enough motivator to keep the house clean, mostly. Mavi’s insistence that she join them in turf wars was enough to keep her going out. Tiara’s not here now, though, so she has to make the excuse herself. I’ve got two friends coming over for dinner, I need to get the dishes done.

She weaves her way through the cluttered hallway, mind working through some of the other things she needs to get done. I need to get the garbage out of this hallway, need to clean my room. I’m Running low on groceries, need to do the laundry, sweep the living room, the entire second bedroom still needs set up and the basement needs cleaned… She won’t admit it but inside she feels guilty, she’s lived in this house for a few months already, this was all such simple stuff and yet she’s fighting an uphill battle to even do the dishes. Maybe I should have stayed in the apartment…

She sends a scornful glance to the dishes surrounding the sink, before she pulls out a slow cooker. 20 minutes of preparation later and dinner’s set up to be ready in a few hours. Begrudgingly she drags herself to the sink and begins working through the buildup.

Ok, this is good. I’m making progress today. I’ll start some laundry when I’m done here… cut up a few vegetables for dinner later too. It doesn’t take long for her mind to betray her, sending her right to the very thought’s she’d been trying to avoid all afternoon.

The meeting tonight… I guess we’ll work out some plans for the band… that’s good! I’m excited for it, really! It’s been our dream since we were kids! I can do it, I can do anything for Tiara…

But a part of her, the same part that fights her every time she gets out of bed, fights back like it always does. It’s going to take so much work though. It’s going to take time and energy I don’t have.

But I want to do this!

Will I even be able to? I can’t even make myself eat breakfast without Tiara here, how am I supposed to be the cornerstone of a band?! Her doubts amplify her existing feeling of guilt.

She spends the rest of the afternoon like she thought she would, brute forcing the basic maintenance chores while ignoring the bigger issues throughout her house. She’s about ready to throw the broom she’s holding through a window when she heard the telltale sounds of Tiara barging through the front door.

A singsong call of “Queen!” echos through the living room as Tiara tips her way through the front door. “I brought snacks!”

“Hello darling, welcome back,” Queen smiles in spite of the exhaustion already lacing her body. It’s always nice to see her.

Tiara closes the door then dashes up to Queen, ending with a little hop. She thrusts her left hand forward with a grocery dangling from her fingers. “Snacks!” She echos in the same enthusiastic tone as before, a wide smile across her face.

“I see that, thank you very much.” Queen says smoothly, taking the bag from her friend’s hand and leading her to the kitchen.

“Oh that smells so good!” Tiara says as she follows.

“That’s for later dear, now let’s see what you got.”

While queen moves to set the bag on the counter, she doesn’t notice Tiara’s eyes scan over the clean dishes in the drying rack, or how they fill with pride as she looks.

“You got lucky” Tiara starts, “They were almost out of Squish! Some squid in a pink beanie grabbed the last case of cans, but there was a bottle wayyy in the back!”

“Lucky me, indeed” Queen half chuckles, opening the bottle to pour herself a cup. As she’s pouring, a quiet chirp sounds from her bandanna, one of the chunks is out of ink. She can feel the subtle decrease in the energy almost immediately, and her resolve decreasing with it.

“We’ve got like, an hour until Mavi’s on her way, she’s meeting Nora for lunch,” Tiara informs her. “Yooouuuu… got anything you wanna do?” Tiara turns to her eagerly, excitement evident on her face.

Conflict flickers over Queen’s face, before coming to resolution. A heavy sigh filters out, “Honestly, I’d love to take a nap. I’m just…” she trails off.

Tiara turns to look out the window, taking a few moments to watch the birds outside, before she turns back to Queen. “No, that’s ok. You do seem tired, and I see it’s a bandanna day.”

Queen nods, “I’m going to lay down on the couch, you’re welcome to join me in the room, though please keep the TV off.”

“Sounds good. I’m gonna scroll the SeaBand forums. Rumor has it a new band’s gonna premier later tonight.”

“I don’t understand what you and your little internet rival have going on.” Queen deadpans to her.

“You don’t get it-”

“I don’t”

“I have to beat MC.Princess here! She’s out complimented me on the last two bands debuts!”

“How do you even out compliment someone?” Queen asks, with an exaggerated raise of her hands as she walks into the living room.

“She does it better!”

“Right.”

Tiara grabs the laptop sitting near Queen’s piano before as she walks back into the living room. “I’ll wake you up when Mavi gets here.”

“Hopefully it won’t be too long, I’d like to sleep in my bed tonight.”

“Don’t rush them,” Tiara responds as she settles onto one side of the couches., “Nora’s been having a rough time recently. She only just got out of the wheelchair, I imagine she’s having a rough time adjusting.”

“I– yeah that’s fair,” Queen sits on the couch across from Tiara, and sighs. She sends a despondent look towards the piano on the edge of the room. I should play something. Figure something out, I don’t know. She stares at the piano.

Tiara tracks her gaze. “Go to sleep dummy, you sound so tired you’re making me sleepy”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t rush me I’ll fall asleep when I get to it.” Queen hooks a finger around the bandanna and pulls it off without untying it. She tosses it to the nearest table while she lays down. She’s asleep almost as soon as she closes her eyes.

Queen’s awoken some time later by the sound of Tiara’s voice. It takes her a few seconds before she’s able to make out what her friend is saying.

“-re almost 20 minutes late!” There’s several seconds worth of pause before Tiara continues.

“No, that’s ok I understand, go help her out. But tomorrow I’ll drag you here myself if I have to!” Tiara playfully shouts into the phone. Another pause.

“Bye!” Tiara waves goodbye as she hangs up the phone, as if the other person can see her.

Queen pulls herself to a sitting position, hardly daring to open her eyes, “I take it Mavi’s not coming tonight.” She half slurs out.

“Good evening, and no, she’s gonna help Nora with something.”

Queen just sighs.

Tiara continues, “You know Mavi though, she practically never cancels plans. Whatever it is, it’s probably important.”

Queen’s mind goes to war over the news. Part of her is upset, she already did so much preparing, building up her strength to brute force her way through the meeting. Part of her is relieved that she doesn’t have to do it. Part of her feels guilty that she feels relieved. More fuel for the fire, I suppose.

Tiara watches as Queen’s eyes slowly try to glaze back over with sleep.

“Uh, hey…” Tiara starts, drawing Queen’s attention back to her, “Could you maybe start showing me, uh, what music theory is instead?”

Queen blinks the sleep from her eyes as she processes the question. “I guess Mavi did mention that last night,” She mutters to herself.

Tiara responds with an innocent smile. “Yeah! I know you’re tired right now, but if you nap too long you won’t sleep tonight, so I think this is a good compromise!” Damn she’s smart, fine, the nap gave me back some energy anyway.

Queen returns the smile with an easy one of her own. “Alright love, grab some paper and some pens we’ll start.”

“Yay!” Tiara cries as she jumps to her feet, scrambling over to the bookcase on the far wall, grabbing the requested supplies.

Queen shifts to the side on the couch as Tiara scoots the table in the center of the couches close enough to write on. She slides into the spot right next to queen a moment later, wrapping the octoling in a side hug as she does so.

Queen fights through the butterflies flying through her stomach, trying to hide the blush rapidly forming on her cheeks by turning away. “Ok! Uhm, darling you need to let go I need my arms for this.”

“Mhhh, fine,” Tiara fake pouts as she lets go, before she straightens her back and looks down at the paper on the table. Queen takes a moment to compose herself before she turns to write.

“Ok so… do you know what a time signature is?”

Her bandanna stays on the table for the rest of the night.

===

What the hell have I gotten myself into Mavi thinks as she hangs up her phone. “Tiara and Queen were ok with it, thankfully.” she calls to Nora, who grunts in affirmation. The two walk in silence, all the while Mavi’s head spins, trying to figure out what exactly she’s about to see.

‘I’m scared… I can’t help the splatoon…can’t run missions or patrols…’ Just what does Nora do for work? It’s not exactly peaceful whatever it is. Does she do illegal turf games? Is she like a guard or something? Do they run drugs, or some kind of crime gang? She mentioned Quinn too, is that where he got so good at fighting? That makes sense, she mentioned training at one point…

“Would I know, or I guess have heard of this, uh, ‘splatoon’ before?”

“Not by the names we use” Ah, well, 10 points to the crime theory.

She mentioned ‘Agents One and Two’, or well more mentioned ‘One’ and ‘Two’ but later mentioned an ‘Agent 3’… who are these people? Are they the bosses? Lead field operatives? I’m glad I keep my brella in my bag, I might need it. What’s that that dad used to say? ‘A squid who sleeps with a knife under their pillow is a fool every night but one?’ It’s not a knife and I’m not asleep but the same idea applies I guess.

They walk in silence. Splatoon… a military term. Is is a code word? There’s no way it’s like, an actual splatoon of soldiers hidden under Inkopolis. She also said something about the metro? But we’re going to the Plaza, the metro station there isn’t even under construction yet! Do they fight in the metro? I’m not getting anywhere with this train of thought. Heh, ‘train’ of thought…

Really, Mavi was just glad the cafe owner was so understanding. She wasn’t sure how she would have managed to get Nora outside in the state she was in otherwise. “Where exactly are we headed to in the Plaza? Somewhere in Booyah Base?” She asked out loud.

“Oh, it’s not so much a building as it is a specific place” Nora unhelpfully responds.

“I work in the Plaza Nora, you can be a bit more specific, I’ll know what you mean.”

“It’s a little section right near the entrance to Inkopolis tower.”

“…Right” Mavi settles. There’s nothing there. I’m going with the crime theory. Hopefully, and I can’t believe I’m even thinking this, but hopefully it’s just Grizco illegal and not like, a fully out gang violence scene or something. I heard her mention ‘Octavian’ I think is how she said it. She also mentioned Octavio at early on too, said she ‘beat him and saved… someone’ I would have thought she just mispronounced ‘octarian’ but she said it several times. The only thing I can think of that would make any sense was the old general from the Octarian Civil War like 100 years ago… but there’s no way she’s talking about him. He’d be ancient at this point! She’s not breaking into retirement homes or something is she?

“Honestly, Nora I have no idea what you’re about to drag me into.”

“Oh! Right, I guess I should explain it huh?” Mavi nods, they’re getting close to the plaza. “Ok, so, you remember how the great Zapfish went missing twice a few years ago?”

“Yeah… I figured it was like, a maintenance thing or something. I dunno, they gave it a spa trip or something.”

“For years?”

Mavi shrugs. “I don’t know man, the city’s able to run without it, maybe it was recharging or something!”

Nora pauses for a second, “Well, it wasn’t recharging, it was stolen. I’m part of the group that helped get it back.”

“Weren’t you still moving here when the first one was returned?”

“I’d been here for several months by then, but you do have a point. I didn’t help with the first one, though me and you met around then. No, I was recruited after it got stolen the second time, and I helped get it back that time.”

“Sure…” Mavi answers, unsure. This gets more insane by the minute. I feel like it’s return would have been much more of, i don’t know, like, a bigger deal? All the news said at the time was like ‘oh look! It’s back, isn’t that great!’… wasn’t it The Squid Sisters doing the news at the time? Does this group have the power to bribe the most successful celebrities at the height of their careers? Oh cod this keeps getting worse and worse.

The two step into the rapidly emptying plaza. Ever since the Square took over as the hottest spot in town, the plaza’s taken to actually closing at reasonable hours, so the plaza tends to empty out fairly early. Mavi traces her eye across Booyah Base, the host of shops in the square. She scans over Inkopolis tower, over the studio-turned merch shop where she works, past the Battle dojo, she still doesn’t see where exactly Nora’s taking her.

“Nora, I think you should know this is probably the most suspicious and shady thing I have ever done in my life.”

Nora pauses, a look of confusion paints across her face. “Huh, I guess it is… I swear it’s not that bad, I just suck at explaining things!”

The two continue through the plaza, straight through the middle of the plaza, stopping right before the pathway into Inkopolis tower. Nora pulls Mavi to the side, a small little side yard with a few vending machines, and more obviously, a large grate on the floor. ‘a little section right near the entrance to Inkopolis tower’, we’re right where she said we’d be. Mavi was wrong, there was something there, a grate. A grate Nora was standing right on top of. She’d better be stopping to get a drink. If what I think is about to happen happens I’m not going to be happy.

“Nora this had better not be what I think it’s going to be.”

“You don’t mind a short swim do you?”

Coddamnit. “Coddamnit Nora, your cryptic bullshit is only making this feel even more suspicious!”

Nora pauses for a moment, “I mean I know I can’t change your mind about that, so I’m having some fun.”

“You jerk.”

Nora beams a smile back in a manner frustratingly similar to Tiara. “Grab my hand, there’s a few turns you have to watch out for or you’ll just get dumped out in the sewer system.”

“That’s nice.” Mavi grabs Nora’s free hand with her left hand. Before the two of them enter squid form Mavi clutches her brella in her bag with her right hand. In the moments before they turn to swim form Mavi’s mind is racing. Oh cod, honestly would the sewer system be so bad at this point? Is that what she meant when she mentioned sanitized earlier? There’s no chance there’s anything sterile down there!

“Lets go!” Nora cries, as she turns into her bright yellow squid form, already slipping through the grate. Mavi hesitates for a moment, before turning into squid form herself and following Nora down. Nora holds her tentacle in one of her own, and the two plunk into the stream of ink flowing below.

===

Marie was resting against one of the porch’s support beams when she heard the tell-tale gurgle of someone approaching via the grate. She counted to 12 seconds– roughly 3 seconds before they would emerge– before she opened her eyes. The grate gives a small shake as two figures emerge. She turns to glance at them, one a dark blue and the other a magenta.

Marie quickly turns her head to the open cabin door, “Quinn and Clover are here!” she calls inside before pushing herself back fully onto her feet. She walks down two of the small steps leading to the porch, and quickly taps the ground 4 times with her foot before she continues down towards the grate to meet them. She stops a few feet away, near the plastic tables Callie had set up earlier. “Hey guys!” she calls as she waves to them, 6 waves each. “We just finished setting out the snacks, and Callie should be out in a moment.”

The two start towards her, Clover calling out, “Oh, good!” Marie analyzes the two as they approach, Clover’s in her usual good mood. Holding bags, went shopping. Quinn looks a bit better than he did yesterday, though that could change in an instant. They spent time together today. “How was today so far? Looks like you went shopping”

Clover responds quickly, “Oh yes! A friend working in your store said she would save me new things in the back of the store so I can always get one!”

Marie’s eyes narrow. Clover’s hands fly up to her mouth as she worriedly tries to backtrack. “No! I should not have said that. Please forget you heard me say anything, my friend is NOT saving me items.”

Hmmm… I guess it doesn’t really hurt anything. if anything it’s a guaranteed sale. Eh, I don’t really care. Clover’s fretting is cut short by the sound of Marie’s gruff chuckle. “Don’t worry about it Clover, I don’t really care what happens with the merchandise, really.

Clover’s face retains its worried expression for a few seconds, before she relaxes back into her usual smile. “Oh thank you!”

“Don’t mention it.” Marie smoothly replies as she turns to face Quinn. She looks him up and down a few times, while tapping her foot in quick 2-tap intervals. He meets her gaze with friendly challenge in his eyes and a small smirk. “And how about you? I don’t see any bags in your hand but you’ve been out and about all day.”

Quinn just shrugs as he walks towards the snack table. “Just getting out,” is his answer, spoke in his usual slow drawl. He grabs one of the bags of Shoritos, and makes his way over to the meeting table.

Marie keeps a half eye on her agents as they move about gathering more snacks. Officially the meeting was still 10 minutes from starting, but really we’ll get started as soon as Nora gets here.

Callie comes bounding out of the cabin. “Quinn! Clover!” She excitedly calls! “Hey guys! How are you?”

Quinn returns the same shrug, but with a little smile as he opens his bag of chips.

Clover, on the other hand, matches Callie’s energy eagerly. “Callie, Hello! How have you been doing? it has been a little while since we last saw each other!”

“You’re damn right it has! These loafs over here can’t ever get excited about anything! Always moping around everywhere.” Callie exaggeratedly sags her shoulders as she chides the other two.

Clover’s hand runs up to her mouth as she giggles at Callie’s antics. In sync, Marie and Quinn share a look, then both turn to give Callie a flat stare. This in turn makes Callie start laughing, which makes Clover laugh harder, which makes Callie laugh even harder, and so on.

Marie’s the first to break her stare, looking away with a fond smile, as she makes her way over to the drink table. A quick grab into the cooler under it and 4 quick taps on the can later and Marie has a can of Squish. Not the biggest fan of Orange flavor but I can see what Nora likes about it. Quinn just sighs and continues eating his chips. Marie is about halfway through her can of soda before the two noise machines start to calm down.

“You guys are funny” Callie calls back to the other two.

“Yes! very.” Clover echos.

“We try.” Quinn fires back in the most deadpan voice possible, sending the two back into hysterics. Marie catches his eye and nods in approval, and he flashes a rare smile in return. Well, rare these days. Hopefully we can get some of the weight off his shoulders tonight.

Another few minutes pass as the laughter subsides. Once the conversation is finally able to move on, Clover speaks up

“Pearl and Marina send their regards, but they can not make it. Though, they are excited to know what we come up with.”

Marie’s response is quick. “I’d be surprised if they could make it to be honest. Tight scheduling is the only life any idols will know. We’re only here these days because we’re not really idols anymore, just celebrities.”

Clover takes a moment before she smiles. “They are very busy these days…”

“Also, we called it on pretty short notice too, so this many of us being free is kinda impressive.” Marie adds.

Clover looks around at the others around her, “Oh, Nora! Right, she will be here soon she said.”

“Mhm.” Marie pulls out her phone with 4 quick taps to the back as she checks the time. “Heh. Speaking of short notice, guess we should start the meeting.”

The others take a moment to look at the time for themselves. Callie’s the first to break the silence. “Huh. I guess it is.”

Quinn makes his way over to the big meeting table, and unceremoniously drops himself into one of the chairs.

“Um, should we not wait for Nora to arrive?” Clover tepidly asks as she grabs another can of soda on her way to the table.

“She’ll be here in a few minutes I’d bet!” Callie calls to her as she takes her own chair.

“Besides, you know she’d hate for us to wait for her.” Marie helpfully adds as she passes the table, moving to the front door of the cabin. She quickly swings it open and scans the front room. Not seeing anyone, she hollers deeper into the house. “Gramps! We’re ready to start,” before ducking her head back out and closing the door. She gives it 8 small pushes make sure it closed behind her, and then quickly makes her way to her chair.

Idle conversation doesn’t last long before the door to the cabin opens again. Cap’n Craig Cuttlefish, steps outside, closing the door behind him and making his way to the table.

In a commanding, gruff tone he shouts to them, “Alright kids! We’ve got some problems to figure out. Namely, why you’re all leaving me! Except you, Agent Three,” he adds in a slighter voice.

Quinn smiles as Marie sighs and Callie chuckles. The Cap’n closes the remaining distance to his chair, before he takes a seat with a huff. “Phew! Alright. So we’ve got some problems. Whattya got as answers, eh?”