Chapter Text
Burning midday sunlight shines on the desert floor
An octoling, unknowing of where she has arrived
Lies within a crater, the future fast approaching
The bright light is almost blinding off of the desert floor, shining white. An octoling squeezes her eyes shut tight. Her limbs command her to stand up, cramped and strained. So bright…
She shoves an arm in front of her face. The light doesn't leave, not fully, but she can at least adjust to wherever she is.
Where is she, anyway?
She runs her hands over her body, brushing familiar-feeling clothing and accessories, fingers wrapping around something smooth. Glasses, probably? Assuming that they're glasses, she flips them open, dropping them over her eyes. Much better. With shades now on and body checked, she starts to look around.
Dust. Dust and dirt, from ground to sky. Boring… Her head darts around, hand reaching up to mess with her tentacles, running into a horribly lopsided hat. She spots something. She isn't quite sure what, but it looks like a path. Dirt crunches beneath her boots. Soon enough, the half-paved path has an octoling walking on it. She feels strange. Incorrect. Isn't this… Wrong? This isn't where she's meant to be, she's meant to be in her cramped little room making music. It's just what she's supposed to do.
She doesn't notice she's running until the ground turns to metal.
A series of abandoned platforms. She starts to climb, mind still swirling with impossible wonders. Why is she questioning so much? Perhaps she was told to. That must be it! Newly invigorated, she sets off wondering to her heart's content. Why doesn't she have a heartbeat? Ah, she's wondering already! She's so good at this.
But soon enough, curiosity fades, back down to a dull hum like the rest of her thoughts and feelings. A starless sea, wrought with oil and sludge. Suddenly, an idea. She just has to find her way back. She assigns herself the temporary direction of "find a way back to my room" and keeps walking, skin glistening with inky sweat.
Dirt kicks up from her sudden run. The clanking metal echoes around the spiraling crater, as the octo climbs up some rocks on the side. Hot winds start blowing. With each little handhold soon falling out of sight, she rolls onto the rocky cliff above. Her darkened eyes scanning, she sees splotches of yellow ink, splattered all over the ground. Careful steps let her pass without struggle.
Suddenly, movement! Her head snaps towards whatever it is. A tumbleweed. Bouncing from the wind, now nestled against a little box. Walking over, she pulls open the box, revealing… Nothing. There's a little splotch of ink on the box's floor, she supposes that's something? She brushes it off. More walking, off through a series of concrete walls and ramps. She doesn't focus on how she gets through. How did she make it through that grate when she couldn't ink the wall? Not important. She has to get back to her room, after all, and thinking too much would just be a distraction.
A gate swings by a rusty hinge, a red-tipped hand pushing it open with a silent grunt of effort. Her quiet steps lead her down a small hill, suddenly becoming steep, nearly making her fall. The desert floor has no path, but she walks straight forwards regardless. She tugs at her shades.
Across the blank sands, she sees something she knows well. Tracks. She hears a bell, that ding-ding-dinging she's so used to hearing far down in the metro. A small station platform is beneath her feet in a flash. She gives a wave, the train car screeching to a smooth stop in front of her, doors sliding open. In a few strides, she pushes into the nearly empty shuttle. She takes a seat on an old bench, the doors closing, and in just a moment the world begins to speed by. Blurred desert falls sideways out of sight. She sits still, mind blank, awaiting the eventual stop of the train car.
* * *
A high-pitched screech. "Everyone off!" The conductor says, or at least that's what it sounds like. The octoling stands up. This is her stop.
…Apparently.
She walks off the train car, beginning to climb up the stairs of the underground station she's found herself in. She sees inklings and octolings wander around. Walking together, talking together, enjoying each other's company, not fighting… She feels something. Happiness? Whatever it is, it's definitely positive, but so muted she can barely make it out. The feeling remains as daylight reaches her shades once again, arriving in the heart of a massive city, people milling about every which way, barely paying her mind.
This is not the metro. And strangely, the octoling isn't concerned.
* * *
`Yeah, yeah, I'll call ya back later, 'kay? There's probably a manhole 'round here that I've never noticed. Alright, see ya-y-yes, Three, I'll be there at dusk! Cya!` A short-haired inkling known as Four hops off a bench, closing her phone with a tiny click. She rolls her eyes. Typical Three, overworrying about her, not even trusting her to find a manhole. She can handle herself just fine! She wanders around the square, looking at all the new arrivals. An octoling or two, a few clams and jellies, a new anemone, some kind of coral, and-
Who is THAT?
A tall, green-skinned octoling, wearing a pair of octo shades? Her shirt is almost falling off too, left shoulder exposed. Normally Four wouldn't pay much attention and write them off as a cosplaying octo who's late for their con, but…
Four had killed seen enough enemy octolings to know those shades are real.
Her hand shifts to her phone, but she stops. "Wait," She thinks, "I'm an agent! I can decide if she's an enemy myself!" Flipping open her camera app, she hops up on a wall nearby the stairs, and prepares to disguise her "very important recon" as a simple selfie-taking session.