Chapter Text
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Mid-September, 2023
“The Octo-Shack” – 1.5 miles away from Inkopolis
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An octoling girl with familiar-looking speckled blue tentacles lies on the floor, holding her phone above her head as she mindlessly scrolls through social media.
“What was the world saying now?” she thought, as she continued to slide her finger up her phone screen.
Inkopolis newsletters were back to having unspectacular headlines about the stock market, the state of the Mushroom Kingdom, and paparazzi capturing Callie having lunch. It’s almost as if what happened just two weeks ago never even happened.
Just 2 weeks ago, Pazra Lin, a Splatfest champion with the Octoposse, admitted to being a former Octavian soldier molded by way of DJ Octavio himself. The social and political implications of this you’d think would be enormous. The public would be outraged. An Octavian, the enemy, lived inside their walls for a decade.
The amount of controversy this could have sparked, the potential for this to snowball into something massive. Who knows what information DJ Octavio’s forces gained from this potential spy? Pazra Lin was to be tried for treason in high court, the Ink Agency was to take her into custody right there on live television. She admitted to being the enemy on live television, in front of dozens of reporters. Hell, she said this while Callie herself, yes THE Callie, Agent 1 was less than 3 feet away from her. Surely her trial would last potentially for years and would become the most infamous case in Inkopolis history. But it didn’t. After 3 days of coverage, the noise died down and the world moved on.
No, Pazra Lin was not taken into custody. After her public announcement of her actual identity, she wasn’t to be seen again. The Ink Agency publicly pardoned her less than 24 hours later and the only thing that was cracked down on was Inket activity, which rose shortly after Pazra’s announcement.
After those 3 days of Paz’s name being on the title of every news headline, podcast title, and post on social media, the world moved on. There was more support than controversy as the only hatred came from conservatives and Inket supporters. Any title, comment, or work condemning Pazra for coming forward was hit with more backlash than Pazra herself did.
She had admitted to betraying the enemy and fleeing to the other side. If she had just left Octavia and arrived in Inkopolis then maybe there would be cause for mass speculation but she was admitting to something she did a decade ago. Was there any reason to criticize her for something that would take a lot of bravery to do?
Perhaps her going off the grid was the key contributor to the story’s dissipation. As mentioned before, she seemingly vanished without a trace shortly after she broke the news.
Two weeks of complete radio silence was enough time for the world to forget what happened, but where was Pazra? What was she doing over these past two weeks?
Well…she was doing exactly what she was doing now: mindlessly scrolling through social media locked away in the Octo-Shack outside of Inkopolis.
After a while, Paz grew tired of scrolling. Turning off her phone, she became fixated on her reflection on the black screen, the light scopes on her goggles the only thing looking back at her. How long has it been since she took her goggles off? At this point, they were a permanent feature on her face with how she wore it. She wore it to sleep, she wore it every time she went out, she hadn’t taken it off in years.
*Knock Knock Knock*
A gentle knocking sound alerted the relaxed Pazra to the door. A bright voice emerged from the other side.
“Pazzy? It’s me. You there girl?”
Paz raspberried her lips before grunting her way to her feet. Now standing she outstretched her body and pushed up her lower back to crack it into place before shuffling her way to the door.
After a series of unlocking about a dozen locks, Paz opened the door just enough so she could peek to confirm who it was. Standing there was another octoling girl, slightly shorter in stature than Paz, with light purple tentacles and navy blue eyes.
With the door slightly open, the girl held up a decently sized plastic grocery bag and shook it.
“I brought you a little something. Can I come in?”
Paz opens the door, making sure to allow just enough room for the girl to come in without showing herself. Once the girl made her way into the shack, Paz gently closed the door behind her.
The girl rolled her eyes as she watched Paz individually lock each of the comically numerous locks on the door from top to bottom.
“Gee Paz, the big bad wolf isn’t coming to get you.”
“Very funny Andrea…”
“Quick, did you remember to lock the walls to the ground? Be careful he might huff and puff and blow the shack down.”
“Enough…Andrea”
Giggling to herself, Andrea placed the plastic bag down on a shelf before turning to hug her colleague.
“Dina’s worried about you Pazzy.”
“Tell her she shouldn’t as long as I’m breathing.”
The two share a moment embracing each other before Andrea decides to sniff, prompting Paz to gently push Andrea away from her
“You need to wash your tentacles,” Andrea said, retreating to where she placed the bag she came in with.
“Why? I’m not going anywhere.”
Andrea looked back to her friend in disappointment before opening up the plastic bag, revealing the 2 takeout mealboxes she had brought.
“We’ll see,” Andrea said, holding out a mealbox for Paz to take. “When’s the last time you ate?”
“When’s the last time you came here?”
“Pazzy…”
“Calm down Rook I’m messing with you. I’ve been making my own food.”
Suspecting Paz was lying, Andrea made her way over to the cool box (Fridge substitute) located at the back left-hand side of the shack. When she opened, she looked back at Paz in disappointment.
“So why is the fridge still stocked?”
Paz ashamedly looked away, guilted by being caught in a lie.
“Pazzy…”
Andrea closed the cool box and once again wrapped her arms around her friend.
“Pazzy…you need to eat…we’re worried about you…”
“I swear, I’m fine. I just…haven’t been hungry, that's all.”
Andrea hugged harder. “Hmmmm…you still need to eat, Pazzy…”
Paz noted the dripping concern in Andrea’s voice as the shorter octoling dug herself further into Paz’s body. She tried to squirm away from her grasp the tighter Andrea’s grip became.
“Well…I can’t eat if I’m being bear-hugged now can I?”
Andrea broke her hug before excitedly twirling around victoriously.
While Andrea went back to get the other meal box, Pazra opened hers.
Inside the box was a small container of lentil soup with naan bread and yellow rice with cannellini beans on the side. One whiff of the soup hit Paz with a wave of nostalgia, noting how much Desti loved soup and commonly served naan bread with it.
“On second thought…” Paz said, “I take back what I said before. I’m utterly famished.”
Andrea’s face lit up, as she expressed a moment of almost child-like joy.
“YYYYYES!” She exclaimed, jumping for joy.
Andrea’s animated response garnished a rare moment of laughter out of Paz, and Andrea cherished it.
“AWWWWW THERE IT IS! There’s my favorite smile in the world” She said.
Still smiling, Paz rolled her eyes. While Andrea still found joy and cherished the smallest things, Paz couldn’t help but think to herself, ~some things never change~.
The two began digging into their respective meals, audibly enjoying the taste and flavors of each part.
In the middle of eating, Andrea attempted to stir up a conversation.
“Y’know…” She said, munching down on a piece of naan, “Considering you wear your goggles all the time, you still manage to make it incredibly obvious whenever you roll your eyes.”
“Mmmph” Paz waited to swallow most of the food in her mouth before responding. “I thought the whole point of rolling eyes was to be visible. It’s body language.”
“We–*cough*.”
“Don’t talk with you’re mouth full Drea.”
“*clears throat* Drea? Haven’t heard you call me that in a looooong time.”
“That’s your contact name on my phone”
“Rweolly?” Andrea said, once again talking with her mouth”
“Girl, what did I just say?”
Andrea quickly swallows a spoonful of rice before apologizing.
*BUZZ* *BUZZ*
The sound of vibrating interrupts the eating conversation as the duo’s attention is averted towards a small black rectangle sitting on the windowsill of a boarded-up window.
“Well…” Andrea placed her meal box on the floor and moved toward the source of the buzzing. “This might be Dina.”
Picking up her phone she smiled and showed off who was calling her. It was in fact none other than Dina Facetime calling Andrea’s phone.
Paz moved up and swiped to accept the call while Andrea held her phone out towards her. When the call connected, Paz was met with the Image of the eldest octoposse member driving around with her phone being held up by a phone holder on the dashboard. Of course, Dina was sporting her natural light blue tentacle color and her trademark black glasses.
Despite her Phone being within her peripheral vision, Dina remained completely oblivious to who appeared on the screen, assuming it to be Andrea.
“Please tell me Paz is alive.” She said, her eyes transfixed on where she was driving.
Pazra chuckled to herself before responding to Dina’s comment.
“I am, thanks for asking.”
It took a moment for her to register whose voice just spoke but Dina quickly realized who it was.
Dina lets out an exaggerated gasp before screaming out to the phone.
“SHE LIVES!” Dina Exclaims.
“Yeah yeah,” Pazra replied nonchalantly. “Eyes on the road, Dina.”
“I know how to drive, silly. Hold on, let's see if I can catch this red light.”
“Why would you want to catch a red light?”
“I wanna stop so I can get a better look at you, dummy.”
“If you really wanted to see me, you’d come over and join me and Drea.”
Successfully catching a red light, Dina halts her car and darts her eyes to face the phone camera and get a better look at Paz.
“Wow, you calling her Drea…that’s a throwback”
“I know right?” Andrea interjected. “It’s like we stepped back into 2016.”
Staring at the phone screen, Paz became transfixed by how her friend had looked. Her brightly colored tentacles seemingly danced in the sun and her brightly toned skin glistened in the late summer sun.
It was at that moment that Paz noticed something a bit different yet all too similar about her eyes while they sparkled looking back at her.
“Speaking of throwbacks…I see you’ve stopped wearing your color contacts. Nice to see that you’re rocking the green again.”
Dina smiled and blushed. “I know you always loved my natural eye color so I said why not.”
She looked away from the camera as the light she stopped at had turned green.
“Maybe you should join me and Andrea in going all natural again. You de-tonized yourself already…might as well go all the way, right? Maybe take the goggles off for once?”
Paz scoffed. “Dina…I love you…but that’s gonna be a hard pass for me.”
Paz’s refusal was met with a united “COME ONNNN!” from her 2 friends. The last thing Paz wanted to do was argue about her appearance but she knew that needing to defend her stance was inevitable whenever she dealt with these two.
Dina paused to glance at the image of Pazra sitting criss-crossed.
“Well…” She said. “...looks like Andrea didn’t tell you yet.”
“Tell me what exactly?” Paz questioned.
“I actually am making my way back to the shack as we speak…because I have plans for the two of you.”
“Are we playing UNO again???”
“Paz, I know you love UNO but last time we played, Andrea won a round and celebrated by nearly breaking her hand.”
Andrea didn’t appreciate being called out. “HEY! I did NOT break my hand!”
“She didn’t say you did, she said you nearly did.”
“Did I ask you Pazzy?”
“Just saying…”
Paz sighed.
“Dina…” She rubbed her eyes. “If you suggest we play the Game of Life again…”
“No,” Dina replied. “I don’t need Andrea winning another game.”
“Hallelujah,” Paz chuckled.
Andrea got impatient with Dina’s building up to the announcement so she blurted it out.
“Dina’s coming to pick us up! Meggy invited us over to the new castle!”
…
Paz thought to herself for a minute…
But then…
“ NO. ”
Andrea sighed.
“C’mon Pazzy, you need to go outside again…”
“The fuck I don’t,” Paz said aggressively. “You know, in fact, BOTH OF YOU know why I will not be leaving.”
The pleading began and Dina would try to push her to it first.
“Paz the new castle is far away. Inkopolis and the mushroom kingdom will be at our backs. You have nothing to worry about.”
“ The answer is still no. ”
“Meggy said we have permission to shoot Bob whenever.”
“ Mmmm…tempting, but still no. ”
Dina sighed. “Andrea…can you…”
Before Dina could finish, Andre had already moved her phone back to the windowsill. Only this time she had set it standing up, thinking it would be able to capture everything.
Dina sighed in frustration seeing that the phone had fallen over. A black screen became the only thing visible on her end.
Andrea didn't even bother noticing the phone had fallen over. The only thing in her mind was Paz, sitting down in front of her.
Andrea bent down, taking Paz’s hands in hers.
“Pazzy…”
Paz looked down and then up at the ceiling, staring at a singular crossbeam on the roof. Andrea didn’t want Dina to miss anything so she grabbed her phone off the floor and placed it facing upwards in between her and Paz. Dina was confused by all the shuffling commotion that was coming from Andrea’s end but being stopped at another red light allowed her to see it too.
All 3 posse members were now starting at this one beam on the roof. Their full family names are permanently inscribed into the wood:
Pazra Achara Lin…
Andrea Rook…
Dina Cassandra Naray de Lyona…
and the big one…Destiny Serena Sinawe…the leader, whose signature was so big it dwarfed the other 3.
Paz stared at Desti's name and smiled. “You guys remember why she built this place?”
Paz paused while Andrea began desperately trying not to cry upon seeing her fallen leader’s full name.
Dina sighed. “Paz…”
“She built it…” Paz Interrupted. “...to protect me…to protect us…”
A tear rolled down her face as she began reflecting.
“She sold her apartment to build this place…We were just a couple of castoffs. Misfits even…She invested enough to make it unnoticeable but secure enough to protect us. Hell, she added a basement…a BASEMENT BUNKER to this place in case we needed to hide. And even after we won Splatfest we still came back here…back where it all started…”
Andrea looked down back towards the phone. While Paz still stared at the ceiling, Andrea and Dina just looked at each other.
Andrea took a breath. “Pazzy…you’ve been alone in here…don’t you think it’s time you see the sun again?”
Andrea’s question seemed to confuse Paz in a way.
“Alone?” Paz chucked, wiping the tear from her face.
Paz stood up, getting a closer look at the signature, and sighed.
“...I’m never alone…I know she’s still here…I know she is…we just can’t see her…and with her here…I know she’ll keep me safe…just like she promised…”
Dina chuckled. “I know she didn’t leave Paz…trust me…I can feel her too…”
Dina grinned. “And guess what? She’s still bullying Andrea for being shorter than her.”
Andrea was unamused by Dina’s seemingly uncalled-for comment. “Ok, Behave now.”
The three friends share a laugh and they start recalling their favorite moments together as a team.
Andrea, as always, opened up the conversation.
“Pazzy, you remember when me and Dina tried convincing Desti to go on a hot air balloon and she kept making excuses why she couldn’t go?”
“Ok but to be fair you and Dina don’t mind heights, she did.”
“Paz, c’mon admit some of those excuses were bogus.”
“Dina, shouldn’t you be focused on driving?”
“You ever heard of multitasking, Lin?”
“Pretty sure that's what made me a great splatter.”
Paz loved talking herself up but…leave it to Dina to bring her right back down to earth.
“I have a question…who is in the Hall of Fame?”
Paz grew silent while Andrea giggled at her quiet frustration.
Dina had been inducted into the Splatfest Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2022. A class containing Meggy Spletzer, Danny Travajo, Kori Simpson, Jacob Bilta, Gianna Brajovich, Mianca Gaudreau, Steven Ajax, Deuce Haunt, Lance Rippart, Ateef Udima, Marina, and of course the one and only Dina Cass.
“I’ll get in eventually!” Paz shot back in frustration. “I just…have to wait to make the final ballot is all.”
Dina chuckled to Paz’s annoyance.
“You’ll see. Mark down the date, in 2025 I’ll get in with a Hall of Fame class with Juni Olivia, Diana Salem, Stevey Hornett, and Lucio Wallace.”
Paz felt prideful of her hopeful class of Hall of Fame graduates. Well…that is until Andrea said the only thing that could kill her ego at that moment.
“Dina’s class Solos, no diff.”
Paz shot a look of disapproval towards Andrea, while Dina pulled over to avoid crashing because she was laughing so hard.
“Really Drea…no Diff? Seriously?”
“Pazzy…Is a 3-person class. What did you expect me to say?”
“JUNI OLIVIA MADE THE ALL-DECADE TEAM??? SALEM BEAT US IN THE 2018 FINAL??? HELLO???”
Andrea looked at her and scoffed.
“What?” Paz asked, completely baffled.
“Dina…” Andrea said, calling for backup. “...you’re the Splatfest analytic. Back me up”
Dina was still laughing at this point but tried to poise herself so she could speak up on the subject at hand. Regaining her composure, Dina went full nerd mode.
“Look, Paz…I’m not gonna say you or any of the other people you mentioned don’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Except for Lucio Wallace…me thinks he won’t make it.”
Paz begrudgingly accepted that statement…Lucio was Hall of Very Good but wasn’t elite for long enough to be given a gold jacket.
“Honestly you’d be the best person in that class unironically. The only one who I could see was maybe better than you was Juni and I say that because she was a monster when she won MVP in 2016. My class had Me, Mianca Gaudreau who won a bunch with BLINK and was One Shot Wren’s best teammate according to him, Marina who was a 5-time octo-cup winner, Ajax who had one of the best non-MVP seasons along with me although I had better stats…”
“OK! I GET IT!!!” Paz yelled, already bored of Dina’s nerd talk.
Andrea was laughing after the fact but she couldn’t deny hearing Dina blabber on about stats and accolades of other splatters sounded more like the teacher speaking in Charlie Brown than anything else.
Dina turned back onto the road as the three sat in awkward silence for a minute…
And then Andrea thought to ask Paz something personal.
“Hey Pazzy…If you do get into the Hall of Fame…would you consider going up for that award in…”
“My natural form?” Paz interrupted.
Andrea stared for a minute, registering what she had just heard, and slowly nodded. Dina had turned up the volume of the phone speaker all the way up, not wanting to mishear Paz’s response.
“I-” Paz struggled to even say what she wanted to say. “I guess…”
Andrea’s eyes gaped open wide, but nowhere near as open as her ears were.
Paz sighed.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think about it…In all honesty…I kinda wanted to de-tonize myself entirely and return to my original color and tone…but I was…scared…”
Paz took a moment to lie down next to Andrea's phone which still lay on the floor.
“Not even Desti got to see what I actually looked like…but I know she would have loved to see me anyway…no matter how ugly I looked as an Octavian.”
Andrea chucked. “Octavian girls are kinda hot. I don't think you’d be any different.”
Andrea’s indirect compliment was enough to make Paz’s face go red underneath her goggles…
“EEEEEEEEE!!! Dina get over here, her blush is still just as cute as her smile!”
Andrea’s joy did not end there, Paz began giggling too, and Andrea was beyond jubilant upon hearing it.
Dina smiled. “I’ll be there in 30 minutes. Is she still blushing…”
…
“Uh…Andrea?”
Andrea had frozen and was staring at Paz with teary eyes.
“uuuh…Dina…remember when you told me that eyes tell a story…”
“Yeah…like colors tell the person but the eyes tell the life story.”
Dina got confused by Andrea seemingly having a happy and shocked tone of voice.
“Um…what are sunburst orange eyes?”
“Oh orange eyes are normally for commitment and motivation. A person with naturally deeper shades of orange is more serious and…”
Dina gasped in shock realizing why Dina would have asked that…
Paz…for the first time in years…had taken the goggles off…
Her eyes were gorgeous…dark sunburst orange with an almost bronze metallic flair. Dark, but could seemingly glow in the darkness. Her eyes contrasted with her black natural eyemasks perfectly as they danced together in joy and emotion. They were so pretty Andrea couldn’t help but get lost in them.
Dina pressed on the gas…for once she was impatient…but Paz’s eyes weren’t going anywhere.
Dina was right…those eyes did have a story…those who she saw using them had a story had them too.
After 15 Minutes, Dina arrived driving her black BMW wagon and dashed out of the car without even closing the driver's side door. Dina bashed into the door to find that it had been unlocked.
Slowly, Pazra turned to meet Dina…Dina couldn’t believe what she saw…
Who she saw was nothing like the person she met…she was beautiful…
Paz’s skin was no longer bleached and pale…it was now a goldish maybe bronze brown so pleasing to the eye. Her Tentacles were a dark almost blood-speckled red which despite the eerie color, still danced harmoniously with her skin tone.
And her eyes…her sunburst orange eyes…a dark yet glowing orange wish somehow seemed brighter than the sun itself…
Dina’s eyes started to water.
“You’re beautiful…” Dina said.
Paz smiled and embraced her friend in her new form as she marked the newest chapter in their story…
As the three engage in a group hug…Paz monologues in her head:
~The Octoposse story doesn’t start without Paz in this state…but this isn’t the start of our story. The Octoposse’s story started long before the Splatfest…Long before memes became our world…~
~A story of Escape and security, of ups and downs, of victims and culprits alike…~
~A story of heroics and crime all the same…a story that only their eyes can tell us…~
~Our story…begins with a flashback…~