Christine P.O.V:

2 days before the mission:

"You what?!" screamed Jessie as I told her what I was going to do with the Squidbeak Splatoon.

"I'm going to save the octarians with Agent 4." I repeated.

Jessie plumped on what had basically had become my couch in the living room and tugged her tentacles in frustration.

"Christine," said Jessie as she clenched her head like she was having a headache, "Let me get this straight, you're going to work with that jerk Shelly!?"

"Yes." I said simply.

"But she nearly splatted you!" protested Jessie.

"Yes she did but Marie promised she would keep me safe." I countered.

"I hate to say this about the Squid Sisters but I'm not sure I can really trust them anymore," said Jessie, "I mean don't you remember what Marie did to you?"

I winced at the memory of nearly being sent back. The fear. The sense of loss.

I never wanted to be in that kind of situation again.

"Yes, but I think she truly regrets that." I replied, "I think she's been trying to make amends."

Jessie sighed, "Christine, are you really going to do this?"

"I'm sorry Jessie but I've made up my mind," I stated, "I couldn't stay up here knowing there are so many octolings still suffering at the hands of Octavio."

Jessie nodded her head in understanding as she got up off the couch. She then took a deep breath, the one that you do when your about to say something important, and leaned against the wall.

"Christine, listen, this is kinda gonna sound a bit cheesy but I feel that I should probably say this if you are truly dead set on doing this." she said seriously.

"What's that?" I said.

"The first time I saw you, y'know when we first met," said Jessie as she twirled her tentacle awkwardly she couldn't find the right words in her head to convey what she was trying to say.

"E-Everything that happened since then has been has been pretty...awesome I guess. Even when we were in that feud with Shelly there were still a lot of good things that have happened since then."

Jessie looked much more emotional than she usually was. It was really weird to see her just be so direct like this. I continued to listen.

"What I'm trying to say is...is that you've kinda changed my life and since you're my bestie…" said Jessie as she then looked up at me with a grin, "It would really suck if you got splatted so don't okay?"

"I don't intend to get splatted anytime soon." I smiled, "Beside's who's gonna be your fourth team member?"

"C'mere." said Jessie as she gave me a hug.

"Thank you Jessie," I said, "For everything."

"Are you kidding?" said Jessie, "It was a_!"

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Jessie and I practically feel on the floor in surprise at the strange noise.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

It was coming from the doorway. This was really strange if not slightly suspicious because in all my time at Jessie's we never got visitors.

"Who is that?" I turned to Jessie wandering if she ordered a new weapon or something.

"I'm not that Super-What's-His-Chops or whatever that character is in those human comics that can see through walls." said Jessie, "How would I know?

"Whatever," I said, "I'll get it."

"Who is it?" I asked through the doorway.

"Hello, Christine is that you?" said a familiar voice.

It was Blue!

I looked through the peephole and sure enough, standing in front of our door was a short and ironically pink inkling.

I immediately opened the door.

"Blue!" I said happily, "What are you doing here?"

"Hi Christine!" said Blue coming in, "I'm sorry if I'm barging in but I was going to do some friendly Turf War with my friends and I thought you would like to come!"

I looked at Blue in disbelief. I had never been invited to play turf outside of Jessie's team, let alone casually. To think that an inkling would let me be on their team willingly let alone seek me out was amazing.

"I would love to!" I replied.

Jessie meanwhile looked at the two of us dumbstruck, she first turned to me then the random inkling in her house.

"Sorry," said Jessie with a small hint of hostility, "First, who are you? Second, how the heck did you find my house?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," said the diminutive inkling as she extended her hand to Jessie, "My name's Blue, I met Christine back in Salmon Run."

"Blue…" murmured Jessie as she tasted the name for some familiarity. "Oh wait!" said Jessie as it finally clicked, "Christine told me about you! Now this makes sense! I'm Jessie!"

"I'm sorry I couldn't give you a heads up that I was coming but I never got Christine's number," said Blue, "I had to ask around for your address but luckily Lavender was able to tell me."

"Wait Lavender?" asked Jessie suspiciously.

"Yeah," said Blue a little apprehensive as if she did something wrong, "The inkling who works for Sheldon. What about him?"

"Nothing," siad Jessie dismissing it, "Just surprised he gave my address to a stranger, no offense."

"None taken!" beamed Blue.

I could tell Jessie was a tad bit suspicious of Blue considering that I told her what happened last time but Blue was my friend now. I was thrilled to see she was actually following up with me.

"Let me just get my stuff." I said as I donned my mesh cap from Flow and grabbed my personal Octobrush. Oh thank Cod, I don't have too barrow Jessie's weapons anymore. I kept worrying that I was going to break them or something but after Lavender gave me this thing for free, I could finally have a weapon to call my own. Besides, while inkling weaponry is nice, I still can't seem to distance myself from the old octarian weapons.

I gave Jessie a hasty goodbye and went with Blue. As I paraded out of the apartment with Blue, I could tell this was going to be a great afternoon. I mean sure I would be going into potentially mortal danger in two days time but we all deserve to treat ourselves from time to time don't we?

We were just about to go out of the house when Blue stopped me. "I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you I have some friends who are coming with us!"

I froze. Friends? Meeting a bunch of random inklings particularly only a few days after that big match with Shelly did not seem like a good idea. However, Blue just seemed so happy and considering that she was going out of her way to do me a favor, I kept quiet and just smiled.

"That sounds...great!" I said trying to hind my apprehension as we continued.

When we got out of our apartment, we went down the streets to Crusty Seans. It was about mid-afternoon and the weather was perfect. I think this is what the inklings have referred to as...summer? I noticed a steady increase in temperature lately. It's so interesting of how the surface changes in temperature and weather throughout the year. It must be nice to get some variation. I mean, underground it's always the same. It becomes almost maddening seeing the same old rocks, same old lighting, and no breeze and no wind.

We went over to Crusty Seans, it was pretty crowded considering it was midday and I was immediately greeted to repeated glances from all the inklings there. This was the first time I really went out in Inkopolis when it was crowded since the match with Shelly. There was no doubt in my mind that that was all the inklings were talking about. I caught a few dirty looks but I didn't get an intensely hostile reception. Most of the inklings just seemed to be gossiping but no one yelled or stared me down. I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing…

"Hey Blue!" yelled an orange girl with headphones who was wearing a white shirt. She looked...familiar?

When I saw the girl I immediately froze. I remembered the orange headphone girl as one of the inklings in the crowd! I waited for it. The inevitable hatred. She would probably be disgusted and stomp off. Maybe she would start screaming at me. Why was Blue so naive? I didn't need this for today. I have had my share of hostile inklings.

"Hey Sarah!" said Blue as she high fived the girl, "This is Christine. I thought she would enjoy doing a couple of casual rounds with us."

The girl turned to face me with a smile.

"Nice to meet you!" said Sarah as she extended her hand in greeting.

I looked at the inkling as if she were crazy. Where was the hostility? Where was the icy stare? I quickly eyed the inkling over, suspecting some sort of trick but everything from her posture to her eyes suggested she was perfectly happy and relaxed.

I quickly seized her hand as not to look suspicious or unnatural and shook it.

"It's nice meet you to!" I said in the kindest tone possible. This situation seemed too perfect. It seemed so perfect that if I did one thing wrong, one mistake, and it would instantly shatter.

The inkling smiled. I couldn't believe it. Here I was, meeting a random inkling, just totally normal. I may have just been another inkling to her because she gave me no hint of finding me unusual.

Maybe...maybe Blue did it! Maybe Blue convinced some of the inklings in Inkopolis that they have nothing to fear from me? Maybe this inkling was just a close friend of Blue's and Blue was able to convince her but this was a big step! Perhaps...the tides are changing? Maybe people are actually starting to see me in a new light.

"Hey Blue," said Sarah, "Where's Finnigan?"

I reasoned Finnigan must be the fourth person for our squad.

"Don't know," replied Blue as she shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe he's_?"

"OH MAN! IT'S AN ACTUAL OCTOLING!" said the loudest voice I had ever heard in my life. I'm pretty sure people all the way at the turf lobby heard that. All the inklings who were eating turned to the voices direction and then to me.

I looked to see the source of the voice and saw a dark blue inkling from across the plaza jogging toward me.

"Hey Blue!" said what was an actually blue inkling which I could only presume was Finnigan. I tried to ignore the stares of all the inklings around us.

"Hey Finnigan!" said Blue, "This is Christine! Christine Finnigan!"

"Hello!" said the inkling as he shook my hand vigorously, "Are you really an octoling?"

I didn't know what to make of this inkling. He wasn't mean...just really...outgoing?

The inkling then gently grabbed my tentacle with his hand and handled it gently it as if it were something to be dissected or examined. I blushed furiously as I moved away from him. That was a line. I'm not some kind of science experiment and I certainly don't need strangers touching my tentacles! This inkling was lucky I didn't give him a good whack upside the head for that. The only thing stopping me was the thought that I may be actually getting somewhere with these inklings. I'm not sure how inkling culture views grabbing someones tentacles but I'm going to go on a whim and say it's probably not normal judging by Blue and Sarah's dumbfounded expressions.

In octarian society, grabbing someones tentacle was not only a violation of privacy but it was also considered seriously disrespectful if you did it to an octoling, or more specifically an elite. Elite octolings take serious pride in their tentacles, particularly the kelp that they adorn them with. It's a sort of status symbol really. I mean, it's the only thing that really distinguishes them from normal octolings so grabbing an elite octolings tentacle is severely insulting. I remember as a young octopus, I playfully grabbed an elite octoling's tentacle and I was beaten until I saw stars.

I immediately moved far away enough from Finnigan so he would let go, which he did.

"Uh excuse me," I said as politely as I could muster, "Can you...can you not do that?"

"I'm sorry," said the inkling confused, "Did I do something wrong?"

"Of course you did you idiot!" yelled Sarah as she slapped Finnigan, "That's rude!"

"O-oh sorry." said Finnigan as he turned to me. "I didn't mean to be disrespectful."

"Of course that was disrespectful!" yelled Sarah, "You don't just grab a person's tentacles!"

I looked at the inkling who just reeling from the blow from Sarah. He...he didn't seem like a bad guy or anything. He just seemed...confused or not sure how to express himself. He probably just never saw an octoling before, so as advertently rude as grabbing my tentacle was I decided to forgive him.

"It's all right," I said, "You didn't know."

Finnigan immediately lit up at that.

"Well that's cool!" he said, "Let's go turf now! Come on guys!"

The inkling immediately ran off with an angry Sarah trailing behind him.

"Sorry, about that," said Blue as she watched them run off, "Blue was pretty excited when he heard you were an octoling. He probably didn't know how to introduce himself."

"Well it's better than a lot of introductions I've experienced." I replied.

"Well that's just go have some fun and play some turf!" said Blue cheerfully as she tried to brush it aside.

And with that we ran to the turf lobby.

As we traveled over there, I wondered, do more inklings trust me as much as Sarah and Finnigan? I can hardly believe I just saw two random strangers who were totally okay with my race. Does this mean things are changing...for the better?

Well it's been awhile since the last update and I apologize. It looks like things are changing for Christine! Thank you for the continued support! Potentially for the better! Keep writing, keep reviewing, and Stay Fresh!

Fight for all Fiction

-Octoreader