Marie was back on her stroll, feeling a lot calmer now that she had gotten some lunch and coffee. Beating up that red squid who had attempted to steal that tri-slosher felt nice as well. She was heading for a nearby apartment complex not, caring remotely for the heavy rain. She had stashed the three files away in the bag on her side, though the white inkling tried to recall the correct apartment number, seeing the five floor building before her.
"Let's see… Apartment D4 if I remember right," Marie muttered. She hated going to high places, having never been that big of a fan of heights, but she could handle them quite well if she paid little attention to it. She carefully made her way up the steps. However each floor she passed gave her a growing feeling of nervousness, not just from the fear for heights. The white squid was coming here with a big reason. Unbeknown to her though, she was being followed by someone. Once Marie finally reached the fourth floor, she began to head down the hall, looking over all the doors until she found D4.
"Ohh… how can I be so excited nervous and afraid at the same time?" Marie asked herself. She tried to calm herself down, not wanting to seem like an insane person randomly going door to door. She knocked on the door a few times and waited patiently. However that same funny feeling she was being watched set off her nerves. Her tentacles were feeling odd, so she looked back the way she came.
"…I'm getting paranoid…" Marie muttered. Maize was hiding in the stairwell. He was horrible at stealth tactics, but this was one of the times he had to do it. He did owe the white squid a lot after all.
"Hello?" the door suddenly opened. The Squid Sister smiled, seeing the very squid she saw from her files. Amaranth was wearing a sleeveless white shirt that had black stars on it in random patterns. His arm still showed that huge scar running across it that caught her off guard, but she kept up a brave face.
"H-hi, I'm Mari… Mario. I came to talk to you about your part in the donor program," Marie sighed, introducing herself under the same disguise alias that she had unfortunately gotten used to.
"Oh! Come inside, I guess…" Amaranth awkwardly stepped aside, opening the door wide. The Squid Sister stepped inside, aware of the awkward atmosphere. The donor program usually was kept very anonymous between donor and receiver. That was one of the things Marie gained from her bribe. She wanted to check out the donors more personally before she decided who to accept to donate. Maize groaned, seeing them go inside and the door close. He wondered what to do to keep an eye on her. He looked over to the nearby fire escape he began to carefully make his way across it to try and find a window to spy through.
"Sorry for the mess, Mario. I had a lot to do to prepare for a demonstration tomorrow," Amaranth apologized. Marie was surprised by the state of this apartment that it was an absolute confusion. The living room had a long couch in it, but the television looked busted. To the right, there was a very long table that was full of all kinds of beakers and chemistry devices. Underneath it were a lot of odd items in variously sized jars. Some were solid, some were liquid, and some were just insects.
"Demonstration? Are you an inventor?" Marie quirked curiously, though honestly his apartment gave a mad scientist vibe to it.
"No… just a mere contributor to a brighter tomorrow," Amaranth said, shaking his head. He seemed quite positive for someone with his huge scar. Beforehand, he had nothing but constant pain that would be simply unbearable, but he seemed to have a grasp on it now.
"I know that donors are meant to remain anonymous, and you're just supposed to pick one of us from files… so you must be pretty paranoid if you went out of your way to come find me," Amaranth guessed. Marie was surprised by his accusation. She gathered herself mentally for a moment, sighing.
"Afraid… paranoid… nervous… all of the above. I want to make sure I'm making the right choice," Marie honestly answered, not wanting to lie to one of her possible donors. Amaranth removed his headphones from around his neck and rested them on the table.
By the living room window, where the fire escape rested outside of, Maize was secretly watching them. He did not care about the heavy rain that was pelting down on him. Trying to make sure his friend was alright was the bigger priority.
"First time, huh? I understand your worry… so what do you wanna ask me about first?" Amaranth reassured it was alright and she could relax here. He was not going to take offense to her own fear that he might be a horrible donor. She had quite a few questions to ask, yet she thought it might be best to start simple.
"So… you have a record of cancer, right?" Marie began. Amaranth nodded, showing the long scar on his arm.
"You guessed it. When I was six, they found four tumors in my arm. They had to cut out a lot of my muscle before they could do treatment. I was cured a year later, but I've had two reoccurrences of my cancer from seven to ten, but I was cured at eleven after another set of treatment, and since then, I haven't had any more reoccurrences. But it still hurts like a lava burn," Amaranth explained. His immense pain was something that was going to follow him his whole life, if it was not for Cornell anyway.
"Oh… jeez, I'm sorry… you have a criminal record too?" Marie continued her questions, wanting to keep this professional, but she was aware they were far beyond that point.
"You mean that splatfest incident that happened a while back? I had a part in that, but I turned over toward the end against Cornell, so when I got arrested, they gave me just a 20,000 coin fine and a week in jail," Amaranth explained. He got off lightly for the attempted sabotage of the splatfest, and he was very happy to have had it happen. His life was changed from there on. Marie was stunned hearing all of this.
"You helped Cornell? …I mean I'm glad you had a change of heart, but still you helped that lunatic?" she had to ask. It was a shocker, and he assumed she knew very well what had happened. Maize had informed the Squid Sisters of Cornell after what happened.
"I know it was pathetic. I got addicted to the drug he offered, because it stopped my pain entirely! …but some yellow squid beat me in a fight and opened my eyes. He promised me everything would be fine without Cornell, so I wanted to make sure they would be. I took his medicine and found the way to make it. In fact, that's what the demonstration tomorrow's about. I'm showing the medicine to a drug company," Amaranth exclaimed. After Maize had made a huge impact on his life, the pink squid wanted to make sure that all those in pain wrangled in by Cornell by the offer of his pain relieving medicine would not have to worry anymore about the constant pain, and could relieve all fears with the medicine being still available.
"…sorry, I overreacted… I hope your demonstration goes well" Marie apologized, feeling guilty for how shocked she acted toward him. It appeared Cornell's desire for his grandfather's medicine to help others in the world would go on.
"I don't blame ya. Anything else you wanna know about me?" he asked while walking over to the counter and twisting a lever on one of the small heating pans, which began to boil the liquid in the beaker. This was supposed to be a conversation about his medical condition and family history.
"Is cancer a common problem in your family?" Marie hesitantly requested to know if more than just him had suffered from cancer before, aware that sometimes it can be a condition that can increase in rates from family members.
"…I'd like to say no, but to be honest with you, some of my relatives would say I got it from my parents, even though they don't have it. I haven't seen much of my family outside of my parents and cousins," Amaranth answered. He sounded not too shy about bringing up his family.
"How can you get something from your parents if they never had it?" Marie chimed, finding that statement nonsensical. He chuckled lightly, going over to her and pulling a photo from his wallet, presenting it to her. She looked at it confusedly, seeing two other bright pink squids. The picture seemed to show the two at a wedding.
"They're brother and sister," Amaranth simply stated. Marie kept a straight face, despite her surprise in the matter. She understood what he meant now. Being born from an incestuous relationship must not have made any of their family happy.
"Thanks for giving me your time," Marie nodded, returning the photo to him. He put it back in his wallet, seeming quite cheery of it all.
"It's no problem. I hope it helps your choice of who you want to be the donor," Amaranth told her. She shook her head to be truthful. She had only been made a bit more uncomfortable with the option. He was one of the only two donors she had selected from.
"A little… thanks again. I'll let you get back to your work," Marie told him goodbye before beginning to leave the apartment room and making her way out of the complex. Amaranth shook his head, going back to his setup.
"Huh?" he quirked, hearing a tapping on his window. He smiled, seeing Agent 3 there on the fire escape. He went over and opened the window, watching the wet squid fall onto the floor.
"Oof! Ow… h-hey there," Maize greeted, being helped up.
"Hey! If it isn't the splatfest hero," Amaranth happily greeted, seeing the yellow squid trying to shake off some of the water. He found this awkward, but the pink inkling seemed very overjoyed to see him.
"That's in the past now. I see you're holding up well for yourself," Maize commented.
"Yeup! Just like you promised. Everything would be alright without Cornell, so I wanted to make sure it would be alright for everyone as well," Amaranth exclaimed, looking ready to give the same speech he had given to Marie just a moment ago. Sometimes the yellow inkling hated how polite he was.
"That was my friend that you just were talking to. Can you please let me in on what's going on?" Maize requested. He could barely hear anything through the window, but this talk of donors and other subjects made him paranoid. Marie was getting some emergency surgery soon. The whole talk about picking her donor was confusing.
"Wow… I wish I had a stalker for a friend," Amaranth joked. Maize facepalmed just trying to brush that aside.
"Look, can you just tell me please? It's really important. Our friends are really worried about her," Maize repeated. The pink squid scratched his head with a grin.
"Will you help me test a few of my batches of the pain reliever? I know the recipe, but tests still need to be made to make sure it works right," Amaranth explained the offer between them. If agent 3 would test the medicine, then he will gladly talk. Maize groaned and held his hand out, being handed a small glass tube with a cork in it.
"I better be able to move after this," Maize chugged it down quickly. He felt nothing.
"Did it work?" Amaranth tilted his head confusedly.
"I'unno… I don't really have any real pain, but I didn't have any before I came in here," Maize answered. Now he wished he had Cornell's medicine back when his tentacle got bitten off. That would have helped a lot. The pink squid sighed in disappointment.
"Alright. Well I'll tell you then," he nodded, wanting to keep up his half of the deal like he promised, having no intention of going back on it. Amaranth began to go into detail about what was going on with Marie and what exactly she needed a donor for. The more he talked, the more lost Maize got in his thoughts. It looked like Callie was far from right when she thought Marie was jealous, and Maize was wrong about her being depressed. While the explanation continued, Marie was heading to her next stop to meet the other possible donor.