Chapter 3: Rendezvous
Her ears were still ringing. Yuri/Marina covered the phone's speaker, attempting to shield her new octopus ears from the screeches of the damned. Those damned, appropriately, by her friend and apparently ex-member of the literature club, Natsuki.
"Are you okay?" Yuri tentatively asked. "It seems that you've just had an epiphany about something."
She visibly recoiled at Natsuki's loud response. "Yeah, I guess?! Besides the fact that we're both suddenly squid people?! No, of course, I'm fine." Yuri could practically feel the sarcasm dripping in Natsuki's voice.
"Look. I know our current situation is... unwarranted, but you have to stay calm. I read about a similar situation in this book I read. The worst thing that can happen to you when you're somehow someone else is to embarrass them by acting completely off. At least... I think."
Natsuki burst into laughter, causing Yuri to flinch in annoyance. "Yuri, do you really think that your melodramas could help us? As far as we know, nobody's ever swapped bodies, much less species with anyone. I'm just as freaked out as you probably are, Yuri, but I'm pretty sure that your books aren't gonna help us."
Yuri, now flustered, shot back, "At least I'm still my height. You, on the other hand, seem to have gotten even shorter."
"How would you know?"
"Ah, so you are shorter."
"Okay, stop," Natsuki retorted. "We aren't going to accomplish anything standing around insulting each other." She paused. "What are we going to do?"
Yuri stood up and moved to change. "Why don't we try resolving this in person? I'll meet you," she said, glancing at the schedule on her new phone, "somewhere around the studio these two do their daily... news report, I assume. It's in Inkopolis Square." Yuri read it off the smartphone, or should she say squidphone, screen. "I think you can use the maps app to find your way there."
"Speaking of which, how is it that we can understand these squiggles? I don't ever remember learning an alien language."
Yuri shook her head. She was still quite perplexed that she could read this strange language. "I don't know Natsuki."
"Ah, whatever. We'll figure out this later. See you, Yuri," said Natsuki, hanging up the phone.
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location, a young Sayori lied on the ground, unconscious in some kind of cell. Despite her shifted appearance, her distinct sighs as she exhaled in her sleep could be heard. Any observer would note that the current person residing in that cell, despite paradoxically being the "same" person moments before, seemed to be much more relaxed, breaths deeper and fuller. If only they knew the troubled thoughts dancing around in her head.
An octopus opened the door to Sayori's cell. She was still asleep, though the light from the door that fell on her face caused her to shift slightly and mumble in her sleep. Something about an MC. The octopus paused for a second. What other rapper could she be referring to?
Pushing the thought from his mind, the octopus slipped a pair of glowing shades onto the squid girl. After activating the shades, the octopus slipped quietly out of the room, the lights from the shades mixing with Sayori's thoughts. As the day went on, lights and thoughts danced together in a painful slurry.
Yuri nervously shuffled into the square, barely visible. She was leaning against the corner of a building placed at the edge of the square. Yuri could see, if she so dared to peak, a colorful myriad of Inkopolis citizens milling about the square, simply doing whatever sociable people unlike her did in their spare time.
Yuri could see, out of the corner of her seemingly masked eye, a short figure that she now attributed to Pearl sauntering up to her. Breathing a sigh of relief that Natsuki wasn't as irresponsible as Yuri thought she was, Yuri ventured forth out of the shade to meet Pearl in the middle. They continued moving until they stood nearly face-to-face.
She looked Natsuki up and down, memorizing what Natsuki looked like in case Yuri were to somehow lose her.
"You ready to find out what happened to us, or do still want to keep ogling at me?" Natsuki remarked. Yuri was still befuddled that, despite only hearing what amounted to a bunch of watery noises, she could understand, and more importantly speak the language with ease.
Anxiously turning from side to side, Yuri placed a hand on the shoulder of Natsuki's real form. "L-let's just go already," she said, forcing a smile somewhat. "We've got, uh, to get ready for out show later on."
"I swear to Salvato, you are the worst at lying."
"Shut up! I'm just feeling a bit high-strung about this whole thing."
"Me too, but you don't see me doing whatever you were doing."
And so on and so forth. The duo ambled past the various shops and houses of Inkopolis into the square, chatting and poking fun at each other the whole time. They, after a couple minutes, finally reached their destination; the back alley entrance to the Off the Hook studio. Natsuki produced a key from her dress pocket, unlocking the metal door for the two of them.
"Are you ready for this?" said Natsuki somewhat timidly, striding inside.
"As ready as anyone would ever be if they were in our shoes," Yuri replied, stepping into the brightly lit hallway and shutting the door behind her.
Monika stood on her grate, ready to jump back in at a moment's notice. She took careful watch of a spot in the center of the square, right in front of the food truck. Crusty Shawn's, she recalled. Monika looked out once more, surveying the thin crowd of Inklings meandering about Inkopolis Square. Some were simply chatting, others were hanging around the various shops, while still others trudged into the lobby of the Inkopolis Tower. Monika would have joined them, as their battles seemed pretty fun, but her current form inhibited her from doing so, both socially and digitally. Brushing her inky hair back, Monika popped her lips and observed once more, twirling her umbrella a bit for good measure.
She was looking for the main character. Specifically, whoever owned the console she was currently residing in. She wasn't doing it to try to negotiate or anything, no, it was simply just so that she had something to do while she had her vacation, away from the LIterature Club and standing around in Inkopolis. Hoorah.
She closed her eyes, head feeling heavy. Monika originally thought that this was going to be a fun venture. She would be jumping around, fighting the bad guys, something similar to that. At the very least, she'd be advising her player in the heat of the battle, guiding them along the way. But no, here she was, trapped watching from the sidelines while everyone else got to frolick among whatever this digital realm had to offer. Which was probably a lot.
Suddenly, Monika's eyes snapped open. She sensed something. Quickly turning her head to the source, she excitedly got ready to jump into the grate, initiating the start of the singleplayer campaign. Unfortunately, this was no such case. Her eyes automatically drifted to a pair of people who had just rounded the corner from behind the Crusty Shawn van. The pair consisted of a tall, dark-skinned Octoling, and a short, pale Inkling. They were chatting quietly, as if in an attempt to remain discreet. Monika recognized the two as the titular pair of news hosts from this game: Off the Hook's very own Marina and Pearl, of course, yet something seemed off about them. She watched them enter the side of a building that Monika remembered to be the set for Off the Hook's daily report.
Monika was about to turn her head back to sulking, when she then realized that they were the ones that seemed to emit the weird signals Monika was getting. Disruptions from the original code, she recognized. She herself was, of course, emitting one, but she'd made sure to filter hers out.
Yet here she was, still staring at the closed metal door that the pair had gone through a minute before. The way the two show hosts had been whispering to each other, yet snickering slightly a few times, reminded her of a certain relationship between two people, after her whole game world came crashing down. It beckoned her, piquing her curiousity. For better or for worse, Monika made her way across the square, and, after knocking once on the metal door, entered.
She was determined to find whoever else was in her game.
AN: Hello again! I've got another new chapter for you all! People start the interaction! The plot thickens... I really love writing the banter between Yuri and Natsuki, albeit being a bit OOC.
Nothing much else to say here, so, see/read you/me later!