Ok, here's the summary: (warning, it's not spell checked cuz I wrote it in the code editor)
Chapter 8 serves as our introduction to Marina. It's starts with am ~1000 word summary of her arc and actions in Beginnings, to introduce new readers and/or jog the memories of old ones as we dive into her mind. And we really dive into her mind. The chapter follows her and Pearl as Pearl finally convinces Marina to leave the mountain and come to Inkpolis with her. Along the way, we get Marina's best attempt at understanding the surface through her limited perspective of technology. For example, Pearl shows Marina a picture of a weather map on her phone. What Marina sees is a pager that is capable of sending images, sending FULL COLOR images, with someone on the other end waiting to respond to Pearl's message as soon as she sends it, that also has a field radio built into it. She compares a taxi to the military transports shes used to from the domes, and grows a bit concerned that Pearl has access to all these exclusive technologies. She's wowed by the shillouette of the city as they approach.

Chapter 9 is a bit more involved. Now actually in the city, Marina starts to realize just how MUCH the inklings have. The cab isn't an exclusive service, everyone has cars. Everyone has phones. There's 10 million inklings in the city. That fact there is enough to throw her into a massive spiral, because it essentially means that ANYTHING they would have tried to attack the surface would have eventually failed because of the Inkling's sheer population size. Pearl mistakes this all-but-a panic attack for Marina being stressed out about crowds, and takes Marina to a different hotel a bit further away from the bussiest parts of the city. Just as Marina is starting to get a grip on herself again, she sees an octoling behind the desk in the hotel lobby. This is horrifyingly shocking to her, but it's not explicitly revealed why in the chapter. Pearl leads her into the hotel room in a daze, where Marina falls asleep almost instantly. The scene shifts to Pearl as she gets back in the cab. It's pretty obvious that the cheery demeanor she had with Marina was something of an act, because she's a straight up dick to the cab driver. He drives her to the shady part of town where she gets out at a very shitty apartment. Inside, it's a mess. There's papers everywhere filled with her desperate attmepts to figure something out about how to make a career to get back into her family. There's beer cans all over the floor as well. The chapter ends with a direct parallel to Marina's falling asleep scene a bit earlier.

Waking up was not an easy feat for Marina. Every time she tried, a new, unique wave of exhaustion washed over her, and the bed only seemed to get more comfortable each time. Eventually, though, she did manage to escape the cloud-like clutches of the blankets, though she only did so reluctantly. Even through the half-sleep morning haze, she could tell that she had desperately needed the sleep. Actually feeling rested for even a moment was a luxury she wouldn't have dared to dream of before. As such, the languid soreness from such a deep rest, (and from sleeping in her armor,) wasn't enough to dampen the quiet, pleasant hum in the back of her mind.

She slowly bustled around the room, familiarizing herself with the white and blue decor. It was a surprisingly massive space, the main room alone was easily the size of two or three residential apartments underground. Tiny decorations of little creatures mixed comfortably in with other decorations she didn't recognize, making the whole space feel a kind of... relaxed she wasn't used to. It felt like each little nook had something fun or unique to find, and she busied herself for far longer than she intended looking for them.

What she didn't find, was any food she could access. All the cabinets were empty, and while Marina was mostly sure the inklings weren't plotting to kill her, she still wasn't quite comfortable with drinking from bottles crossed with labels she couldn't read. With all the cabinets explored, she wandered over to her bags, and pulled her final ration bar out. A bottle of water came out with it, one she'd filled at the river on the mountain. Together, it made for the same plain, but sufficient, breakfast she'd grown familiar with over the past week. 

With food sorted, it was time to finally try to figure, well, really anything out. The thing she needed most was information, given that she knew basically nothing about the surface. Unfortunately, gathering said information appeared far easier said than done. given just how deep she'd fallen into Inkling territory. Given this, she decided that the bigger questions like, "What do I do now?" and "Am I still being watched by the Inkling Military?" would have to wait until she solved some of the simpler ones, such as "Where exactly am I?" and "What time is it?"

For the latter, she remembered spotting something earlier that could help. She clamored around her room until she found a small device that she was pretty confident was a clock. It used the same seven-segment display technology to show numbers that  she was familiar with. The only point against it being a clock, was the fact that it currently read 1:27, despite  the sun quite obviously being out and visible through the window. 0200 implies it's early in the morning, but since it's clearly not... maybe the inklings restart their hour count at midday rather than midnight? Or, I suppose the clock could also be broken... She looked around the room, specifically noting the cleanliness and pristine quality of everything in it. I don't know how likely it is that a place this well kept would let a clock be broken though. 

She hesitated for a moment, flipping the small device around to inspect the sides. If I assume their time rolls over at midday, then that means it's about 14:00 right now... A glance out the window saw the sun a little past its apex, which roughly lined up with where it should be. *Yeah, alright, that leaves me with 5 or so hours of daylight? That should be enough to do some preliminary scouting at least.

Marina did feel somewhat cross with herself for sleeping so long, but there was no denying how overwhelmingly better she felt for having done it. If memory served, she hadn't had a proper full night of rest since she passed out during her fight with the Squidbeak Captain, and even that had been involuntary. Every night before or after that was spent either working on the Octobot King, or sneaking out to spend time with Acht.

Acht! Marina immediately dove back into her bags, searching for the field radio. She pulled it out, flipped the switch, and was met with a crackling wall of static. For a moment, her hearts soared, before she realized that the sound wasn't a broadcast from her friend. It was all clutter, static and junk sounds from the surrounding city. Without a clear airspace for the signal to travel through, the radio was completely useless to her.

She sat there, straining to hear even a hint of a familiar voice, as the reality of her situation started to dawn on her. Marina was completely out of the domes. She was as far from the domes as she could possibly be, in a figurative sense at least, here  in the heart of the inkling's biggest city. She had no way of contacting Ahato, the other members of The Hollows, or even Pearl. Not a single other soul knew who, or what she was. 

Marina was completely alone.

That... didn't feel nearly as bad as she thought it would. Sure, a part of her was terrified at the sheer amount of uncertainty and unknowns ahead of her. A part of her was reluctant to do anything in case her newest assumptions about the Inkling military were incorrect, and a single wrong move exposed her completely. A part of her was mad at the complete radio silence from the people she'd been relying on, since she'd waited an entire damn week on that mountain for nothing. 

More than that though, more than any of the hundred other feelings burning through her mind, she felt relief.

The Head Engineer must be willing to sacrifice everything she has for the domes. The position is, after all, a blessing.

A sacrifice she wasn't willing to make for a blessing she didn't want; one she never asked for. A sacrifice she wasn't willing to make for a life that tormented and tortured her with unrealistic expectations and extreme demands.

The Head Engineer has an image she must maintain, as she is a role model for all others to look towards.

A responsibility she hated, playing an idealistic caricature she couldn't stand. Isolation via status and demands that closed her off from everybody she once called a friend.

"Ya've given up Marina! Yer going to let this life KILL YOU before you do a damn thing about it!"

She nearly did. Marina could still vividly remember waking up after the Captain's confrontation. Being so exhausted that so much as moving her arms burned down to her soul with the effort it took. Feeling every muscle in her body cry out in agony as they actively withered away. The excruciatingly monumental task it was to take each breath. She had given almost literally everything to that position, and it would have taken her life without pause.

"Ya have to stop."

I did, Captain Cuttlefish. I finally did. 

She was out of her depth, hopelessly lost, and disconnected from everyone around her, but she was free. 

Marina wasn't the Head Engineer, and she never again would be. This was her chance to live the life she never could have had. Her chance to laugh, rest, and meet people. Her chance to be herself. 

There wasn't a problem before her that couldn't be solved or mitigated in some way; she'd just have to learn how to do it. It was time for something new, and Marina wanted more than anything to embrace that chance with open arms.

With a renewed vigor, she scoured the room, checking every corner, cabinet, shelf, and even under the bed for anything of note. Among the same odd trinkets and furniture as before, she found a few choice things that could help her: A small collection of items presumably left by Pearl, a collection of books tucked neatly on a shelf, and some paper guides that seemed to describe places in the city.

First, the pile of items. They sat on a small desk near the front door. The first thing she noticed was the plastic keycard used to unlock her door, which was sitting right beside a small rectangle of oddly-thick paper about the same size. The keycard was a uniform blue, with white lines cutting around it to make a design vaguely in the shape of a mountain. The back was absolutely layered with text  she couldn't read, numbers, and a thick black bar spanning the length of the key card. The other card, the one made of thick paper, was a shiny white, with swirly pink and gold highlights etched along the edges of the card. Several Inklish words were written on the face in the same gold, with a ten digit number below them in black. The final thing on the desk was a small mountain of gold clad coins. It wasn't hard to figure out that it was the surface's currency. While she wasn't sure exactly how much it was, her gut told her that Pearl left her enough to get her bearings.

The second thing was a small collection of different folded papers with full color images on prominent display. Large Inklish lettering sprawled across the fronts, but a smaller Octarian font sat below each word, providing a translation she could read. These were little guides to places within the city, one outlining all the different 'museums' there were, one highlighting the most popular commerce and cafeteria locations, one encouraging her to travel to a centralized location dubbed 'Inkopolis Plaza' as a starting point, and finally, one about a large subsection of the city near the bay called 'Wahoo World.' Oh, that was the amusing park Pearl mentioned yesterday! I didn't realize that was its actual name, I thought she was just oddly excited about it.

The last, and arguably most important thing she found, was the collection of books. There simply being books at all was a marvel to her. Paper was a scarce, limited resource in the domes, and while it could be recycled, there was still a finite amount that could be recycled in the first place. It didn't matter that she couldn't read what was on the pages, simply flipping through them, the feeling of so many pages against her fingers, the combined weight of them bound together, it bordered on magic to her.

There were many different books within the small collection, but her inability to read Inklish made most of them non-starters. There were a few that stuck out though: what she believed was some kind of location-specific field guide, full of pictures and maps of a place outside the city; one that hardly had any words, instead being filled  to the brim with artworks that made her breath catch;  a guide similar to the first, filled with hundreds of species of birds; and more importantly than anything else, a series of books dedicated to translating Inklish into other languages. 

The language barrier was the one she considered simultaneously the hardest and the simplest problem to solve. Once she found a way to learn the language it'd just be a matter of studying, it was finding that method she was worried about/ That's why her hearts beat like crazy as she held the Octarian-to-Inklish guidebook in her hands. This book was the key, her key to the world of the surface. Hundreds of other books, signs, and most critically, people were suddenly within her reach. 

It made her feel like she might actually have a future to look forward to after all.

With her salvation in hand, Marina turned back to the other items she'd collected. The discovery of the guidebook gave her a surge of motivation. I can actually do this! If memory served, Pearl had only gotten her 'some' nights in this room, so she only had a limited amount of time before having to find a barracks or something similar to stay at. That gave her a few days to get her footing, and draft a plan for what comes next. She have to ask-- probably the... the octoling on the first floor, actually-- in order to know how long she had...

Right. How could she forget. There were octolings on the surface. Ones with family 'up' in 'Octolis', wherever that was. The sense of drive fizzled away as this new thought settled on her shoulders. But I'm not in the same state I was in last night. I'm rested now and have a more level head. I can figure this out. I can solve anything I put my mind to.

The inkling's abundance, both material and population, was easy to explain with how expansive the surface truly was. Lacking the resource scarcity or the walls of the domes, such tremendous growth wasn't hard to understand. Couple that with her limited, likely outdated, and definitely propagandized education, and it made sense why her expectations and reality were so disjointed.

Their technological progress was essentially the same story. While underground, the engineers-- and later Marina-- were limited to the radio technology of the time they'd been forced underground. Material shortages prevented them from attempting to create anything new, limiting them primarily to iteration upon what they had, and what little of the human tech they could understand. Even with those restrictions, they'd bounded forward extensively, up to the point of a complex-wide distributed computing network with enough spare parts that Marina was able to develop primitive AI systems to drive the Octostomp. The inklings had no such restrictions, enabling a much more experimental, rapid approach that the engineers underground simply could not afford. 

Octarians being on the surface was single handedly the one thing she could not explain with the knowledge that she had. That fact tore through everything she'd ever learned about history and the surface with a single claw.

As Marina was taught, one hundred years ago, tenuous peace talks between the Inklings and the Octarians started to break down as tensions grew. Things reached a breaking point when the Inkling's Squidbeak Splatoon took the Harolen Assembly Hall hostage. They held all of the octarian ambassadors and negotiators, including General Octavio, long enough that the remainder of the inkling forces were able to charge through the hills of Octaria, capturing and killing civilians in their mad dash to the capital. It was immediately clear that there would be no peaceful resolution; the inklings were so dedicated to domination that no trace of Octarian culture would survive under their control. In a desperate attempt to preserve what they could, the military leaders gathered everyone they were able to, and fled to the domes.

At least, that was what she'd been taught. In reality, no one believed things were quite as violent as their teachers made it out to be, but it was common knowledge that the inklings were the aggressors, hellbent on stomping out Octarian culture. But that girl could fluently speak Octarian. And Pearl too! Her eyes fell down to the guide book in her hands. Destroying our culture would mean destroying the language, wouldn't it? Not leaving materials to learn it out where anyone could easily find them... 

There was a gap in her knowledge. A serious, world-redefining hole in her understanding of the world. 

Has it been a lie this whole time?

She didn't have anything she could rely on. Her current understanding of the surface wasn't only disjointed with reality, it bordered on being outright wrong. This was something she had to remedy, and she couldn't do that by staying here.

The feeling of drive started to return, but it was different this time. It wasn't a bright-eyes, hopeful push to go out and be herself. Now, it was a much deeper seated desire. A fundamental need to right this wrong in her mind, to understand the world of the surface so she could be herself. 

Marina looked over the papers again. Based on the images, it was clear that the museums were buildings full of Inklish writing, ruling them out as useful destinations for today. The Wahoo World park didn't seem to have any information at all, which did make sense given its purpose was exclusively amusement rather than education. That left one location, Inkopolis Plaza, as her best option for exploration.

With her mind made up, Marina got about preparing to go. She'd need a way to carry the coins that Pearl had left her, and the backpack would probably work best. Out came Ahato's music equipment, the batteries she'd hotwired to power it, and many of the larger, more cumbersome tools like the welding supplies, climbing gear, and after a moment of hesitation, the field radio. In their place fell the coins, the room's key card, and the language guide book. 

She hesitated for a moment, looking at everything she'd taken out to leave behind. I'll be back here in a little bit. It'll all be alright here. I don't need to worry about it. I don't.

When she finally drew the courage, she marched through the door, down the elevator, and into the lobby. Said courage immediately fled her system as she locked eyes with the inkling attendant behind the counter, but she didn't let that stop her. They have no reason to suspect you. No reason to hurt you. They do not know who you are. 

The Head Engineer is a position that demands respect. She should expect to be treated as such.

No. That wasn't her anymore.

With a deep breath, she steadied herself, grabbed the papers about 'The Plaza' and took the final step towards the counter. The inkling behind it was taller than she was. His tentacles were a bright yellow, tied back in a small ponytail, accented by small yellow rings hung from his ears. He wore the same uniform robe-thing that the Octoling had been wearing the previous night.

He gave her a chipper greeting in Inklish. She tried her best to smile back, before holding the papers out. It's ok. People know Octarian up here. This should be as easy as asking a question. Marina opened her mouth, and found she couldn't make a sound.

Her heartbeat echoed in her ears as she froze. *An Inkling! I'm talking to an inkling!* Why was this so hard all of the sudden? She'd talked to Pearl just fine, a day ago! Pearl is different. That wasn't a helpful thought. Why was she freezing up now? Was it because she had to initiate this conversation? Maybe she was feeling intimidated? Or his ink was too bright. There had to be something.

The attendant watched her with a raised eyebrow, but otherwise didn't react. 

Mentally, Marina took a step back. She needed to get a handle on this situation. She had three core problems: Her inability to understand or read the predominant language, her limited and very likely incorrect knowledge about the surface, and only having a singular out-of-reach connection with anybody up here. Talking to people were the quickest way to solve the first two issues, and the only way to solve the third. See, this is easy. It's just solving problems, and I can do that.

She patiently took another deep breath before trying again. Just solving a problem. "Could you h-help me get to, uh, here?" She spoke as formally as she could bring herself too as she offered up the paper guide.

The inkling looked at her, his brow creasing. Oh stars, did I mess it up!? What did I do wrong, can I fix this, save this? 

"Uh..." The inkling gave her a nervous smile. "No.... no Octarian, uh, good?" He cringed a bit at the words before rubbing the back of his head. "Here." He pointed at her boots, before holding up a single finger. "Please?" He asked, before giving her a thumbs up and power walking from behind the desk to a door at the far end of the lobby.

Marina watched him go, unsure exactly what he was asking. I guess he wants me to wait here? Since she didn't really have another option, she stayed where she was, at least for the moment. So not all the inklings can speak Octarian... but even still he knew some words. Knowledge of Octarian wasn't universal. She'd been pretty confident in that. It was nice to have confirmation though. That did leave the question of how exactly she was going to get her question across. I've just got to, oh, what did Acht always say, 'spin with the punches' or something like that.

"It's you!" A voice cried from the far end of the lobby.

Marina's head whipped around to the voice. From the same room the attendant had disappeared into a few moments before, came the octoling who had been behind the counter last night. The inkling followed behind a few beats later, closing the door and hurrying back to the desk.

"Hey!" The octoling smiled and gave a little wave as she approached. "Sorry about Dash, I hope you could at least understand him, I keep telling him he needs to study more, but he never does." She tisk'd and shook her head for a moment, before fixing her gaze on Marina. "Anyway, he said you needed help?"

"Oh, um, yes!" Surprisingly, Marina didn't stumble or hesitate like she thought she would have. Being able to actually talk to someone did wonders for her confidence, even if she did feel a bit silly talking so slowly. "I'm trying to get to here, but I don't know where exactly it is." She held out the paper about The Plaza as she spoke.

For just a moment, the attendant looked at her, brow furrowed, before she looked up with another smile. "That's a good starting choice. The Plaza isn't far from here, and it's got a lot of shops for turf n stuff if that's what you're after."

Marina didn't know what that meant, but it sounded like the attendant could help her get there, so she nodded. "Yes!" 

"Alright, so, getting there isn't that hard." The attendant opened the folded paper and pointed to a map on the inside. It was about 20 minutes by foot, and apparently now was quite a good time to go, since the crowds wouldn't get bad for another 2 hours or so. Marina verbally confirmed the directions with her, before carefully folding up the paper and sliding it into her bag.

With her hearts only beating a little fast, she walked up to the front doors of the hotel, and pushed her way through. One tepid step in front of the other, until she was out in the sunlight again. 

"Wait!" The attendant called as she rushed out the door. She carried a piece of paper with her, which she thrust out towards Marina the moment she was close. "You've still got a few nights here, and I'll be on staff, but if you need anything, let me know, kay?" On the paper was another 10 digit number scrawled in loopy handwriting. It  reminded her of the one on the pink and gold card Pearl had left her.

While Marina was caught off guard by the offer, she didn't hesitate to tenderly grab the paper and slide it in with the others. It was... odd... that so many people were offering to help for ostensibly no reward, but it was a strangely comforting feeling, especially compared to how things were in the domes.

Still, that didn't mean she knew what  to do with the number. "I'll... try my best! Thank you..."

"My name's Cammie Crestwind! Proud host at the Nantai Lodge, here to help!" Cammie did a cute little bounce on the balls of her feet that quickly transitioned into doing something that distantly resembled standing at attention. After a moment of that, she thrust a hand forward, making Marina jump slightly.

"Eh... Marina... Ida." Marina hesitantly answered, before slowly reaching her own hand out in turn. 

When it was close enough, Cammie grabbed her hand and gave it a firm shake. "I mean it. Anything, big or small. I have some people I can gather if there's something, or uh, someone, causing you problems. Just give me a call, ok?"

There was a deeper implication to the words, but Marina wasn't quite sure what it was. "I'll keep that in mind." 

After a few beats of silence, Cammie suddenly wheeled in place. "Well, I gotta get back inside, my break is almost over. See you around!"

"Oh! Uh, bye!" Marina watched the girl walk back into the building, before making her own way to the sidewalk below, her sights set on Inkopolis Plaza.