"Isn't it almost five?" Gavin muttered as the group stopped at Shellendorf Institute's glass doors. "Where are they? Someone double-check the time they'd said."

"Relax." Quinn shrugged calm shoulders beside the Octoling. "There's still ten minutes left. I know Sheldon's your boss and all, but there's no way he's that strict." Ayla paused halfway through retrieving her shellphone. Gavin worked at Ammo Knights? She hadn't known that…although now that Quinn mentioned it, there was a now-familiar Octoling sitting in the background waaaaaay back when she still went to the store. She hadn't met Gavin until months after she stopped visiting—and stopping Turf Wars entirely.

Ayla finished digging her shellphone out of her pockets, unlocking the screen and tapping on a group chat with exactly one message so far:

"Yo listen up,

Y'all realize you've been sitting at the exact same cafe for the entire day, right? Don't think 'Rina and I haven't noticed—y'all are like twenty feet from our window. We've decided you three need a life so we're taking you on a tour of Shellendorf Institute—and I don't wanna hear no excuses! Be there by five or be shot out of a cannon from our helicopter.

Also 'Rina wants to hear it from Sheldon so deal."

"She said five." Ayla seriously doubted civilians had access to firearms that could be mounted onto helicopters, but considering it was Pearl who sent the text…she didn't really want to risk her life by questioning the crazy rapper.

"See?" Gavin jammed his hands into his coat's pockets. "It takes twenty seconds to walk through the door, six minutes to get through one of the six lines, a minute and a half to explain to the receptionist that Sheldon's waived our fee, and about five minutes to find the short crab in a crowded lobby. We're three minutes and forty seconds late—and that's assuming everything goes optimally."

"What kind of productivity're you expecting to miss in four minutes?" Quinn replied with a scoff. "That kinda time is only useful when Ayla has to fill two extra-large orders of blackcurrant mocha-macchiatos with extra sweet honey, caramel drizzle, specially buttered almond cream—whatever the carp that is—and three shots of three different espressos. At the same time." Gavin huffed a reply, but otherwise stayed quiet.

"…That was annoying." Ayla muttered from the sidelines.

"That was incredible!" Quinn turned a shoulder to look at her, eyebrows raised in amazement. "You were making drinks like nobody's business throughout the whole time we were with you today. I thought Four was over-exaggerating when she said you spend pretty much all day working, but nooooo she wasn't. And it shows."

"Thanks…?" Ayla couldn't tell if that was a compliment or the product of one very sad life.

"'Eeeeeey!" Pearl waved from her seat atop Marina's shoulders, then her hand dropped into a disappointed frown as she scanned the fully-present group. "…Aw dangit, y'all chickened out. I don't get 'ta shoot anybody."

"Like I'd actually let that happen, Pearl." Marina lifted her arms up to set the rapper down, turning her attention back to the group. "But yeah, dear cod you guys need something better to do than just sitting in the same cafe all day long. There's a whole city right outside the window! You guys should be out enjoying it."

"In our defense," Gavin pulled a protesting finger from his pockets. "All of us were working. Quinn and I want to keep an eye on her until we know for sure the Lightfisher's moved onto other targets."

"Yeah, I…" Ayla raised a tentative hand. "…Kinda have a job there."

Marina's features shifted into knowing sympathy as her teal eyes settled onto the ex-scout. "I know. I see you there every day, and I feel bad that you have to work so hard you miss out on all the good opportunities Inkopolis has to offer. So…" The DJ folded her arms, hiding a small smile behind black tentacles. "I paid your boss off. He agreed to give you a few days of vacation but without pay, so I'll be covering whatever money you might be missing out on. Plus a little extra."

"Wait really?" Quinn's shocked blurt spoke for Ayla, who was faaaar too stunned to speak. "That's, like, too nice of you Marina. You don't have to do that."

"T-thanks, but…" Ayla managed to stammer out. "…What he said. I can't accept this." Ayla's initial shock faded into touched…but also troubled. First she'd been overstaying her welcome at Eight Open Arms, and now Marina was personally sending her money Ayla hadn't earned? The refugee's guilty conscience might've been a nagging voice in the back of her mind before, but it was a loud yell at the forefront of her thoughts now.

"It's no trouble, really." Marina waved her off. "I know what it's like—the beginning is always hard. Think of it as…" the Octoling paused as her eyes trailed off, thinking hard. "…I'm hiring you to get out there and experience the city. For some new album or something—I'll come up with an excuse later." Ayla opened her beak for another protest but paused. If Marina could gain some benefit out of her own gift, then it should be fine, right?

"And your new break starts now—with a tour of Shellendorf Institute!" The museum's doors swung open to produce a horseshoe crab about as tall as Ayla's waist. "Man, I am SO PSYCHED to tell you all the fun facts about every single little exhibit in here!"

"Yeah Sheldon, we're…" Quinn replied with a wince. "We're…psyched to hear it all…too…"

"I'm actually kinda pumped." Gavin tried to hide the excited bounce on his heels. "I haven't been here yet either."

"Y-you haven't?" Sheldon blinked back at him. "…How long have you been working for me?"

"At least…" Gavin's shoulders slowly rose into a sheepish shrug. "…Nine months?"

"Good cod we need to rectify that—STAT!" Sheldon sped through the museum doors, leaving the others to follow.

"Ta-daaa!" Sheldon hopped onto one foot as they walked through the glass doors, shaking his stubby little fingers into jazz hands. "Ladies and gentlesquids, welcome to Shellendorf Institute! Fun fact the whole museum was named after my grandfather because of his contributions to its construction rather than his role in the—"

"That's great Sheldon, but how about we get started on the tour." Quinn calmly shoved a hand into his pockets before gesturing the other at the exhibit floor. "Let's not exhaust our newcomers with the first round of deets, okay?"

"Uh, right!" Sheldon dropped back onto both feet and began walking down the museum's steps. "Good idea. What do you guys wanna see first?"

Ayla however couldn't even begin to answer that question. Everything looked so…new; from the preserved butterflies to the odd DNA twirls to the—dear cod she hoped whatever that giant skeleton belonged to was still extinct.

"…Is that a sarcophagus?" Gavin began wandering towards the adobe box in the center of the museum.

"Yes indeedy-do!" Sheldon answered as the rest of the group began to follow. "That was a tomb for a warrior responsible for fighting against Salmonids—which shows that fetching Golden Eggs was a crucial part of Inkling society since before Judd's awakening some two thousand years ago! Of course Golden Eggs couldn't have held the same technological value it does today since that time period hadn't even built walls around their cities yet—which made Salmonid rushes even more dangerous—but some historians theorize they might've played some sorta cultural or even religious role…"

Ayla tuned the crab out. Dear cod, his reputation wasn't kidding about the whole "rant your ear off" thing; how could Gavin work even five minutes around Sheldon without wanting to melt his own brain into oblivion? Her eyes absently wandered over the nearby surroundings in search of more interesting entertainment until they landed on three stone tablets encased in glass not too far away. When Ayla squinted at the tablets she could make out faint scribbles etched onto the stone, but the Octoling was too far to make out what they said.

Curiosity found Ayla pointing a finger at the exhibit. "What's that?"

"…Eh?" Sheldon turned in the direction of Ayla's finger. "Oh. Those are our tablets on the ancient devilfish legend, which popped up right around the same time as this sarcophagus here. You know, science actually dispr—"

"'Ey, shut it crab!" Pearl catapulted herself toward the glass case in an instant. "I got this one; only a real rebel's gets to talk 'bout the agent of change itself!"

"'Agent of change?'" Marina echoed as the group made their way over to the tiny squid. "Oh, right—you love this thing, don't you?"

"Dang straight!" Pearl snapped a ringed finger at the central tablet. "Somebody read it already, will ya?"

"'Beware the devilfish that rose from the sea and ate the sun,'" Gavin read aloud, "'casting the pinkfish's land into usurped shadow. Light was held hostage; and only used to conduct death.'" His slim beak curved into a thoughtful frown. "Huh."

"This thing was straight-up sloppy back in the day!" Pearl's gold chain swayed with her excited flailing, fueling Marina's amused grin behind her. "Madist kings thought they were the squit back then—but along comes a huge monster tha' pops outta the ocean and blocks the sun, gobblin' up their 'invincible' pinkfish god in one bite. Heh, I wish I coulda seen the look on their stuck-up faces…"

Ayla sidled next to Gavin for a closer look at the exhibit. The stones on the left and right sported nothing but nearly-faded text, but the Octoling could make out the faint edges of a drawing scratched onto the central tablet. It looked like some kind of mobula ray, save for the reptilian sail protruding from its back and the odd, intricate lines chipped into the creature's upturned wing. A crudely circled eye stared out from the stone, and Ayla could almost feel it judging her for the amount of stuffed animals hiding under her bed. Because really, who the carp does that?

Hazel irises flicked downwards in an attempt to escape the eye contact, only to find that there was more to the inscription than what Gavin had read:

"-Warnings twinkled from darkness deep, titans vanished from nighttime's nets, the devil swam through abyssal depths.

-Sun overthrown from hallowed throne, the devilfish enforced its reign through savages of bone.

-It feasted on beasts blessed with pinkfish's light, sent courageous warriors into flight, rallied subjects against ruler's right, banished kings to dungeons with fright.

-Only when the demon had engorged its fill did it wander away and leave the land astray."

"POP QUIZ—" Pearl's sudden shout snapped Ayla's attention back to the group, and the Inkling's crown swung around to face her best friend. "—What happened next, 'Rina?"

"Uh…" Marina's wide eyes frantically searched for the answer. "Oh yeah! The devilfish supposedly vanished and life returned to normal, but the incident gave rise to Mobulism: a religion that worshipped the monster as an agent of change destined to annihilate the pinkfish's influence. Mobulism obviously gained popularity with dissidents unhappy with the Madist regime, and the story of the devilfish emboldened them to stage rebellions against the royal family. But even though they were unified by a new religion, they weren't unified by land—and the small pockets of resistance here and there were no match for the king's army."

"And then scientists later realized the devilfish was probs just a solar eclipse and a whole bunch of people felt really stupid." Pearl crossed her arms with a shrug. "So it's totally dead now. But hey—at least the myth is super sloppy, amirite?"

"Huh, so it was actually an eclipse that had them so freaked out." Gavin tilted his head back with a thoughtful frown. "That makes sense; we're less afraid of cryptic monsters and unexplained events the more we understand how the world actually works."

"Truer words haven't been spoken!" Sheldon bounced in agreement. "Science might be the art of guesswork, but it's dang good at it. Now where was I…"

"So what's up?" Delta rapped two knuckles against the Cabin tunnel's wall. It didn't make any sound and left her wondering why she knocked on dirt to begin with.

"The Canyon." Marie didn't look up from the three monitors she'd plugged into her laptop, fingers still clacking away at her keyboard.

"Glad to see you're as sassy as ever." Delta overturned an empty bin and kicked it to Marie's desk, mildly surprised it held her weight as she sat down. The whole alcove was originally extra storage for rations and emergency flares, but had since turned into Marie's makeshift office as the piles of evidence grew and the analyst slowly moved in. "What did you want to talk about?"

Marie froze as the clacking halted to a stop. Delta heard her draw a deep breath as she rose from her chair and leaned against the front of the desk.

"I've been thinking a lot about what Callie said a few days ago." Agent 2 started fiddling with her collar—something she always did when anxious. "Remember when she mentioned the Lightfisher couldn't be McNotme? Because the police had already detained him the night Summers was killed?"

Delta nodded, encouraging Marie to continue.

"Well…" Marie's hand went to the back of her neck. "Remember we always thought Octavio was responsible for Callie's brainwashing? …How is that possible if he was in the snowglobe the whole time?"

"I…" Delta's voice trailed off as she tried to think. Octavio's snowglobe was held at Octo Valley's Cabin before last year's campaign, but the Octarians couldn't have found found him without inside help from the NSS. So Callie had to be brainwashed before Octavio was rescued—that's how Delta knew the idol had been working for the enemy to begin with. But Marie was right; how could Octavio have brainwashed Callie if she needed to be brainwashed in order for Octavio to brainwash her?

…What even was that last sentence?

"Uh, Two to Four?" Marie's fingers snapped Delta's broken brain back to reality. "You still with me?"

"No," Delta confessed, still reeling from trying to follow logic far above her nonexistent pay grade. "That's some weird chicken-and-egg paradox."

"Exactly!" Marie snapped her fingers again—but this time her eyes gleamed with relief. "You see it too! Okay, glad I'm not just going crazy. There's definitely something going on here."

"How…" Delta paused again. "How did Octavio brainwash Callie? If he was in the snowglobe the whole time?"

"I'm starting to think he didn't. At all." Marie was back to her monitors. "That's the only way this makes sense. We always assumed it was his idea since it's such a huge move, but…" It was Marie's turn to trail off as her mouse frantically scrubbed through a video. "…But I've been looking through your camera's footage, and Octavio never actually claimed credit for Callie's brainwashing. He didn't say 'I remixed her.' He said 'she's the best remix I've ever seen.'"

"So you're saying…" Delta began, tentatively. "Someone else gave the order."

"Bingo." Marie replied, straightening her back into a stretch. "And once they used Callie's knowledge of our bases to find and rescue Octavio, they handed control back to him and you know the rest." The sound of exuberant footsteps made the strategist freeze, closing her beak and clenching her jaw as the sound paused on the other side of the earthen wall. It was only once the footsteps started fading out of earshot that Marie continued talking. "But someone else had to have the political power to pitch the idea and send a unit to squidnap Callie."

"…Holy squit, that's huge." Delta shifted in her seat, almost blown away by how something so crucially obvious had slipped past them for so long. "But why bring all of this up now? Is this Octarian sending more forces our way?"

"Not…yet, at least." Marie tilted her head to the side as her eyes narrowed in consternation. "I've been watching the Canyon very closely and I've seen next to no activity—nothing indicative of an intent to attack. Attacking now would be very stupid of them, and whoever this is definitely isn't stupid." Her golden eyes flicked into a sideways glance at her protege. "This mystery Octarian also had to organize rushing the Cabin and stealing the Great Zapfish; you remember how frighteningly well that went."

Delta said nothing. That was the first time she'd heard Marie had been "watching the Canyon very closely," and she wasn't sure if that was a good sign for the Squid Sister's sanity. Some of the old veterans back at Echo's Edge were still scanning the ground for Great Turf War mines out of sheer hypervigilance.

"But last year's campaign started with Octavio in custody, and it ended exactly there—with Octavio in custody." Marie continued, straightening her neck back out. "Whoever ordered Callie's abduction is still out there, and nothing's stopping them from doing it again."

"And if they dare try again," Marie jabbed an angry finger at the screen. "I swear to cod I will personally slice this octoslob into tiny little pieces and deep-fry them so hard even their grave will be caked—" The green squid stopped herself, regaining her composure with a deep, steadying breath. "…My point is we've eased symptoms. Not solved problems."

"That…makes sense." Delta had to concede. Marie wasn't exactly looking for boogeyfish; there was reason to worry, and plenty more reason to be upset about it. "So what do you need me to do?"

"Right now I need you on recon." Marie folded her arms again. "We need info, for starters: who's in charge when Octavio's not around, what kinds of stuff can they order, how those orders are carried out—yadda yadda. Then we can start figuring out what to do, but it'd be a crazy bad idea to plan an attack with no idea of what we're getting ourselves into. Besides…" The green squid paused for several seconds, fidgeting with her collar again. "I didn't realize all this until recently, and that really bothers me. I should've seen it earlier. I'd feel a lot better if we turned all this unknown into known."

"…Understood." Delta nodded, more to herself than to Marie. Her mentor's behavior was starting to make sense; getting blindsided by loose ends about the old campaign had to feel disquieting. "I can round up the other agents and we can observe Cephalon HQ from the Canyon's rim."

"No!" Marie was quick to protest. "No, I just want you—not anyone else. This isn't related to the case and I don't want to pull cephalopower away from the investigation. Don't tell anybody about this, okay? Especially the cap'n. If Gramps catches wind of even a single hint that I found a loose end in Callie's capture, he'll throw a fit and drop the entire investigation to focus on this. That's not necessary, and he feels enough guilt already."

Delta opened her mouth but paused. Marie's words sounded outrageous, but…then she remembered the heavy tone in Cap'n Cuttlefish's directive: "Keep an eye on them." There was an invisible, guilty weight on the captain's shoulders when he spoke those words; perhaps it did make sense that the grandfather's reactions would be a concern.

"But I still don't think I should do this alone." Delta calmly rebutted; just because she agreed about the captain didn't mean she liked Marie's idea. "I know it worked last time but we shouldn't tempt fate twice. Waltzing into Cephalon myself isn't a good idea."

"Right, and I don't think we'd find much info spying in the Canyon anyway." Marie nodded back. "So I'm not sending you into Cephalon again. Our best bet is Inkopolis, actually."

Delta didn't respond, letting her raised eyebrows do the talking for her.

"Our best source of information isn't someone currently in Octarian service." Marie explained with a tiny, proud smile. "They're too hostile and too inaccessible—like you said. We'd have better luck with an Octoling who's defected and no longer under Octavio's influence. As far as I know, Callie's the only one who's lost memory of their service."

"Oh…" Delta smiled in understanding…finally. "You want to farm the refugees for inside information on their old superiors. That's smart."

"But we run the risk of getting outdated information; politicians tend to change things up faster than a game of musical chairs." Marie circled back around her desk to grab her latte. "Someone who's just heard the latest Calamari Inkantation would be best. Like that Ayla girl—she might be perfect." She paused for a sip. "Marina too. She might've come to the city after Three's mission, but Gramps' dossier states she was in Octavio's personal guard. If anyone's seen the inner workings of Octarian politics, it'll be Marina."

"Um, how…" Delta lifted a hesitant hand. "…How am I getting this info?" Agent 4's formal NSS training hadn't begun until Cap'n Cuttlefish returned from the now-pacified Deepsea Metro, and only touched on military interrogations in case an enemy soldier had been captured. Civilian questioning was an entirely different boardgame—about as similar as chess to the game of go.

"Right." Marie glanced to the ground with a smirk. "I forgot you prefer to shoot things instead. Catch 'em alone—ask for a hangout or something. Ask who's in charge when Octavio's not around. Who gives the orders? How were they carried out? But be discreet." Marie sent a stern glare back to her agent. "I wasn't kidding when I said Gramps'll freak if he hears about this, and I don't want our interviewees snitching on us."

"Understood." Delta rose to her feet. "At least I don't have to wear the stupid yellow jacket for secret missions."

Marie smirked at the old memory. "You still haven't let—"

"There's the 'lil squiddos." An ancient voice stifled Marie into silence. "I've been looking for you tykes; it's almost time for tonight's meeting."

Marie quickly shut her beak, shifting towards her grandfather as a hand came up to adjust her purple hairclip. "…Right. Don't worry, we'll be there in a few."

Cap'n Cuttlefish hovered in the doorway as his eyes glanced at Marie's desk. "Everythin' okay? You know you're runnin' this meeting, right? Got everythin' all set?"

"Yeah, I think I know what I'm gonna say." Marie crossed her arms against her chest.

Cap'n Cuttlefish's caring yet concerned eyebrows hadn't budged. "Do you and Callie want more crabby cakes for the apartment?"

"It's okay Gramps, you don't have to make more." Marie dipped her head into a gentler reply. "But if you want to, then I'm sure Callie won't say no." A small smile crept through the captain's beard.

"'Course, you got it!" The grandfather exclaimed before heaving his cane out of the room. "How could two growin' girls inspire the whole country without a healthy helpin' o' crabby cakes…?" His voice faded away as the captain shuffled his way to the conference room.

"…See what I mean?" Marie spoke in a much lower tone once he was out of earshot, throwing another sideways glance at Agent 4. "He's been especially nurturing lately, constantly asking Cal and I how we're doing and if we need anything. There's no need to make him feel any worse about last year than he already is."

The idol circled back around to her desk to gather some papers. "But I've gotta finish getting ready so we'll pick this back up another time. You take Ayla, I'll handle Marina when I get the chance."

"Roger." Delta replied with a nod. "See you in a few."

"All right guys." Marie began as Delta took her seat between Callie and Cap'n Cuttlefish. "We've still got ourselves an invisible enemy bouncing from murder to murder before we can find him, and the Lightfisher's practically invincible until we do. We've been working in teams for a while now, so please tell me we've found some sort of lead somewhere."

"…We might have something." Gavin opened his personal notebook, now twice the size as the one from their last meeting. "Quinn and I have been trying to figure out what's been going on with these toxicology reports. Marina thinks the Lightfisher might be using some kind of poison—hope it's okay that we've brought Off the Hook into the investigation."

"Marina?" Marie echoed, pausing to sneak an excited grin towards Delta. "…That's perfectly fine."

"If we can trace the poison back to where it's coming from, then the Lightfisher shouldn't be too far away." Quinn added. "That's what we're working on at this point."

"Good—keep that up." Marie was back to business. "But I'd like another avenue if I can get it. What else do we have?"

"Oooh!" Callie's hand shot into the air and started waving frantically at her cousin. "Pick me, pick me!"

Marie's palm hit her forehead. "Cal, you can just tal-"

"So I forgot to mention this last time," Callie's hand vanished under the table as quickly as it had appeared. "But remember when we were wonderin' if the Lightfisher was one of Elizabeth's friends? I was thinkin' 'bout all that and I realized—you didn't have to be one of her friends to know when she was alone. You just had to follow 'em long enough to keep tabs on who walked into the apartment and who walked out. Then once they're gone you could just slip in and do the deed."

"So you think Elizabeth and her group had to pick up a tail at some point that night." Delta scratched at her chin.

"Exactamundo!" Callie beamed back in her iconic, full grin. "And my best bet's the bar they'd stayed at just before walking home. A bar's always got one or two creeps hangin' out in the shadows."

"That…makes Valerie's death interesting." Gavin swiped a pensive thumb across his nose as he began flipping through pages. "Ayla didn't make it seem like the victim had gone to any bars that night, but I also did some extra research and Elizabeth and Valerie's social lives don't seem to overlap."

"Putting all that together paints a new picture." Quinn spoke up next to his friend. "Sounds like the Lightfisher isn't a friend but a third-party who cases the dwelling to ensure the victim's alone before making his move."

"Which means he's going to loiter around the victim's house just before the kill…" Marie's hand stroked at her chin. "…Interesting."

"But hold up." Delta raised a hand—she wanted to stop Marie's scheme before things got out of hand. "That theory's consistent except for one thing: if Valerie didn't go to any bars then how did the Lightfisher tail her?"

Quinn paused for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe he doesn't tail his victims if he doesn't have to." He elbowed Gavin's shoulder. "Ayla mentioned something about an acquaintance showing up at Valerie's house a day or two before the murder, right?"

"…Right." Gavin narrowed his eyes in consternation, then he started flipping through pages. "His name was Ares, Ayla said Valerie knew him from her job at Grizzco. But I don't think he would've stuck out to her so much if he was a common visitor."

"Which means he's not a friend." Marie dropped her hand. "And if the friend groups don't share a connection then the link is likely between the victims themselves. What do Elizabeth and Valerie have in common?" The boys shared a perplexed glance at each other.

"They're both girls?" Quinn shrugged his shoulders.

"They're both Salmon Runners?" Gavin scratched at his mohawk.

Delta finally narrowed her eyes, drawing her hands to her chin. "…They're both asking the same questions."

That got the room's attention.

"What makes you say that?" Gavin asked.

"Grizzco's lack of cooperation with the police has always bothered me." Delta's hands tapped against the table. "Someone's been murdering their employees and they don't seem to care. In fact, they seem to care more about keeping their secrets secret—especially from the cops. And then this 'acquaintance' from the company shows up at Valerie's house two days before she's murdered?" She shifted her attention to Gavin and Quinn. "Remember that boat captain who was so tight-lipped he barely answered even innocent questions about the Restricted Zone? Remember all his emphasis about keeping quiet and not asking about the company?"

Gavin and Quinn nodded.

"What if…" Delta leaned forward. "What if Elizabeth and Valerie weren't keeping quiet? What if they were shoving their noses in places Grizzco didn't want them to be?"

"Oooh, look at Detective Delta over here!" Callie wrapped an arm around the Inkling and shook Agent 4's shoulders. "That makes sense. We'd have to do some digging through Elizabeth's files to make sure it checks out, but we can totally run with this."

"…Yeah, actually." Gavin finally dropped his hand. "And it shouldn't be hard to talk to Ayla again to see if she knows specifically what they were meeting about—wouldn't be surprised if the topic is related somehow."

"Then it's settled." Marie laid her hand on the table. "Quinn and Gavin—you two keep working on that poison and make sure to ask Ayla if she happened to hear what Valerie and Ares were talking about before the girl was killed. We'll tackle things from Elizabeth's side; hopefully both leads'll bring us to the same Octoling. And in the meantime…" She pushed her hands off the table. "I think it's high time the police paid this Ares a visit."

A/N: I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT THIS NOW

Holy smokes, you have no idea how long I've been waiting to post that paradox reveal! Caught in a Lie's last author's note mentioned that there were secrets in the story that I hadn't gotten the chance to talk about, and this is one of them. Octavio's availability to brainwash Callie in the game was already a big stretch to begin with, but my adaptation made it straight-up impossible. So, instead of trying to sweep the plothole under the rug, I leaned into it:

Octavio was never really the main antagonist of Caught in a Lie. It was always someone else who set everything into motion.

I'd hinted at this a few times but never fully came forward with it until now. I'm so excited to talk about everything this little subplot is going to cover, but I'm gonna save it for when the story gets there.

For now, huge thanks to everyone who's stayed with the journey thus far.