Eight takes a deep breath.
She can do this.
On the walk to their room, she reviewed the Rainmaker rules over and over. Rainmaker's at the center of the stage, Rainmaker explosion kills, the goal is to bring the Rainmaker to the enemy's goal post... Scores are displayed on boards throughout the arena and are designed to be easily seen, and the team with the lowest counter wins.
It's timed, too, but Eight won't explode this time if she screws up. A part of her is worried about that - the lack of explosives, which, honestly, is just a weird thing to be worried about - because if she doesn't have them, she worries she won't play to the best of her ability. Eight would really hate to let Four down, of all people. These past two and a half months have been spent trying to get Four to tolerate her (or, gods forbid, like her) and now that Four seems to (at the very least) not hate her, Eight worries that if she screws up Four would go right back to how she was in the beginning: angry, with hate-filled eyes and a lashing, burning tongue. She had a right to be like that, Eight thinks, because Eight hurt Three. The injuries were both direct and indirect, like the way the ink remained in the raw bits of flesh from the hijacking, or the large cuts and scrapes that littered her body from when she crashed into the blender. There are psychological wounds that Three tried to hide, like how she practically cowered in Four's shadow wherever she went, like the terror-filled gaze she had whenever she was alone (even at the Cabin, when she sat on the couch, when she didn't notice Eight was watching) and how she'd try to hide her blue, bloodshot eyes whenever she was with Eight. Then there was the way her voice trembled and wavered when she spoke.
Honestly, Eight has to wonder if Three ever hated her, and if she still hates her now, if she's just dating Eight to be nice. There's a part of her that knows that's irrational, but... Well, self-awareness doesn't help all that much if you can't do anything about it.
Eight shakes her head.
That's not important right now - there's a match to be played.
Her Octo Shot Replica really just seems like a normal Splattershot, which is... Good. Just a nice, basic shooter. The sub and special with it are ones she's familiar with... Maybe too familiar? They're the ones she had to use when she was escaping from Kamabo. While they definitely bring back some... Less than desirable memories, she can use them well.
The part of it that she's the most interested in is the filter. Eight understands why ink filters are built into ink tanks and everything, because the more venomous cephalopods have an advantage on the others. And, well, if the ink pierces skin (which it always does if you get hit by a shot, really) then the neurotoxins may stay in the body and lead to... Infections and, in more extreme cases, death. If Eight focuses on it, she's able to limit the amount of toxins in her ink. That, in turn, means her filter doesn't have to work as hard. ... And then there's a part of her that wonders if she could force toxins into ink produced from her depositor, but that's both inappropriate and crude and also it could probably kill someone and that's the last way she'd want to kill Three not that Eight thinks about that a lot because that's not a good thing to think about also would they even ever get that far into their relationship? NOT THAT EIGHT THINKS ABOUT THAT A LOT EITHER, because she doesn't, because she's a child of the Elders, and children of the Elders don't think about those kind of things at all ever BUT UH MOVING ON, what was Eight talking about? Filters? Right. Weapon filters.
Eight looks down as the Octo Shot Replica in her hand. Towards the back of it is a series of thin, raised vents. She thinks she can see the white hue of a filter behind the vents, but... Oh, does it heat up ink or something? But that would give the Octo Shot Replica over other weapons, since the shots would be more like tap-shots from a charger, right? Then, maybe the ink is filtered through it once more and compressed like a regular shot, but the excess venom would... Be heated and denatured through that? But, then that's just a great way to burn yourself, right..? Eight will... Ask Marina about it later or something. And not Sheldon.
Screw Sheldon.
So... Right, okay. Rainmaker. Eight skipped a few ranks, making it to A+ over the span of a week, but her average is dragging the rest of them down. Four is S+8, Dana is S+7, and Lucas is S+3. They're limited to rank S games right now, but they might be able to get into an S+0 game if they do well.
"Okay," Four says, taking a right onto Hall D. They were assigned D15(03), otherwise known as Hall D, Room 15, Replica 03. "So, we're on The Reef right now. Paired with four S's... It says here that they've got a Forge, a Rapid Pro, a, uh... Bamboozler? Really..? Aaand a Ballpoint."
"I hate Blasters," Dana mumbles.
"The Bamboozler can be a threat," says Lucas, adjusting his bandana, "If they know how to use it."
"Emphasis on if," Four replies. "Dana, you guard the Rainmaker, I'll play support. Lucas, you watch the Rainmaker, and Eight... You carry it."
Eight nods. "Will do."
They step into the lobby, and Eight takes another deep breath.
She can do this.
"Fuck!" Eight swears, barely dodging a shot from the Bamboozler. The shield is down, but no team has grabbed it yet - Lucas has his chargersight trained on it, while the Ballpoint and Bamboozler are pestering them with long-ranged shots that outrange Dana, Eight, and Four.
Dana's currently fighting the Rapid Blaster, weaving between shots while he continues to step just out of her reach. The Forge Pro also happens to be shooting at Eight - fun - and while he outranges her, his weapon consumes more ink than hers does. Eight's attempting to conserve her shots though, though she shoots at him whenever she gets a chance. Some hit, most don't - this is starting to really be a pain.
She thinks she heard Four say she was going to try to flank them, but she hasn't seen Four at all on the other side of the bridge.
Suddenly, a loud, deep frequency erupts from the corner of the arena - "Booyah!" - from Four, a series of orange missiles flying out from her. "Grab it!" she yells over them, and Eight races forward and grabs it. Four hones in on her position and superjumps to her.
"Which way are we going?" she asks, and Eight replies by inking a path off the bridge before jumping off. The Forge Pro notices this and shoots at her, but Eight narrowly dodges them. The Bamboozler charges a shot that whizzes over her head, and Eight fully charges a shot towards the path on the side. They chase after her, but a loud BANG resounds throughout the arena as Lucas snipes the Forge Pro.
Four trails behind her a little, lobbing a Burst Bomb straight into the Bamboozler's face. In return, she charges a shot and it hits Four in the hearts. She rolls to the side, dodging the weaker shot meant to finish her off, and then another roll back to where she was, using the boost to splat her.
Eight hears a high-pitched, warbling frequency to the right of her - "Ouch..." - so that means Dana's down. Four grits her beak and swims to Eight's side and then passes her.
Eight hears the familiar noise of a splatling charging, so she fully charges a shot. The air on the mouth of the Rainmaker wavers visibly, the ink burning white. She launches it, and the explosion shakes the ground as the Ballpoint swims to the side, her charge lost. Four goes far ahead to deal with her, forming two Burst Bombs and smashing them into her head before she could charge up another shot.
"C'mon!" she calls, and Eight swims ahead, but then-
The Bamboozler unleashes a fully-charged shot into Eight's face again, then follows it up with a weak shot immediately. Four can't stop her in time, and neither can Eight, and the last thing Eight hears before being splatted is her loud, warbling "Ouch..." frequency that's amplified by her ink tank.
Two seconds later, and Eight hears Four's splatted frequency.
"I cannot believe we lost to a Bamboozler," Four mutters.
"It's not really a bad weapon," Eight replies, forming a Splat Bomb and rolling it off to the side to charge her special gauge more. "It's just really hard to use and outclassed by a lot of other weapons."
"So... You're saying it's bad, then?" Four replies with a smirk. Eight rolls her eyes. "Fiiine."
They settle into a game of back-and-forth rather quickly - the enemy team makes some progress, only for Four's team to get the Rainmaker back, only for the Rapid Blaster to shoot blindly and splat them all, and the cycle repeats.
Eventually, the Rapid Blaster just starts splatting them whenever they get close at all. The enemy team is at the 35 mark while Four's team is still at 57, and there's less than a minute left now... Whenever they'd get close, he'd be there and he'd splat them. It's starting to really get on Eight's nerves.
"Hey," she says to Four once they both respawn, "Are you getting sick of the blaster, too?"
Four rolls her eyes with a nod. "God, am I? We should really stop them soon, too..." she mutters, pointing up at the scoreboard on the ceiling. The enemy's counter is currently at 34 and decreasing, while theirs is at 85.
"Charge up Tenta Missiles," Eight tells her before dropping into her ink. She catches a glimpse of Dana valiantly slapping the Bamboozler a few times before the Rapid Blaster shoots her point-blank the face.
Eight hears the Rainmaker charging another shot, and the arc whizzes over her head. The explosion shakes the ink around her, and then the enemy team starts swimming forward. Eight forms a Splat Bomb and rolls it towards them. The Bamboozler pops up and darts back, slamming into the Forge Pro. "Sorry!" she yelps, readying her charger.
The Ramp is an odd place to be at. It's different than other ramps, because it's inconvenient and deserving of a title. You can't ink it and it's far too close to the spawnpoint so people are constantly coming at you. Eight normally hates being at The Ramp when she's trying to move the Rainmaker, but it's not so bad now. The Bamboozler forms a Curling Bomb and gently nudges it up The Ramp and goddammit-
Eight launches herself off the ground with a kick, rolling over to the enemy team and landing two shots on the Bamboozler. She's able to dodge a shot from her, but the Forge Pro charges up a Rainmaker blast while the Rapid Blaster starts shooting at her. She's content with getting splatted by the Rapid Blaster, although she's going to keep shooting nonetheless, but then the full force of the Rainmaker blast hits her entire body and owwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Eight respawns next to Dana.
"You too, huh?" she mutters. Eight nods, feeling her rings glowing in annoyance. "We'll get 'em... Probably."
She hears Lucas's ink tank beep twice as he twists suddenly, the loud BANG echoing through the arena. A second later, and the last of the Ballpoint's long-range shots hits him in the face and then he explodes in a blast of blue ink.
Excellent.
Four ducks behind the goal and then unleashes a barrage of Tenta Missiles, and Dana runs off the side path, trying to flank them. Eight swims straight ahead, then pops up to briefly cover a patch of blue. Her special meter's almost full, but they're right there-
The all-too familiar clapping of the blaster shot gets louder as they move up The Ramp, and Eight skirts back. She wonders if they can see the ripples she leaves in the ink, and she thinks she's safe but then the Forge Pro charges up a Rainmaker blast.
Eight veers far to the right, hitting her head against the wall as the scorching explosion shakes the ink around her again. Four darts out from behind the goal, landing a few hits on the Rapid Blaster, and then her tank beeps twice. Finally!
Still, his shots managed to cover most of the goal, and Eight briefly recoats the blue patch left from the Rainmaker. Her special meter fills and she activates her Inkjet. She feels Dana honing in on her position, but she doesn't know if she'll make it in time. The counter's ticking down - ten! nine! - and the Forge Pro is almost on the goal, so Eight aims a shot and shoots-
Her tank beeps twice.
Four immediately starts shooting at the shield and Eight swerves to the right, shooting at the Bamboozler who manages to get out of the way. She forms a Curling Bomb and swims down the path it leaves, Eight shooting at her all the while.
Five! Four!...
Dana crashes down with a Splashdown, coating the goal in a wave of orange ink. The shield explodes - three! two!
"What the fuck are you waiting for?!" Eight yells, launching another Inkjet shot at the fleeing Bamboozler. "Grab it, hurry!"
There's a brief moment of hesitation before Four swims over and grabs the Rainmaker. The overtime buzzers start blaring and they're deafening. Eight feels the Inkjet start to overheat and fires one last shot at the Bamboozler. As the force from the Inkjet propels her back onto solid ground, her ink tank beeps twice - the Bamboozler was splatted.
Dana slides ahead, the trail of ink from her Inkbrush providing a nice path. The light from Lucas's charger is quickly followed with a beam of ink, making a wider path.
Eight's ink tank whirs loudly when she pops up again near the bridge, seeing the Rapid Blaster in the distance. Her normally hidden rings blaze a bright ultramarine as a warning, and Eight doesn't care enough right now to try and hide them again.
"Rapid's up ahead," she mutters, and Four nods, charging up a shot. The shot lands near the Rapid Blaster, who swims out of the way and tosses a vial of Toxic Mist at them. Four skirts backwards while Eight forces herself through it, ignoring the burning pain in her lungs.
It drained a little more than 5% of her ink, so she still has enough for a Splat Bomb, but she hears the familiar whirring of a splatling charging up. The blaster shoots at her twice, one missing and one grazing her with the explosion, but if she gets a little closer, then FUCK, THE SPLATLING'S CHARGED-
She swears under her breath, darting forward and dodging a shaky shot from the blaster. Eight presses the nozzle of her Octo Shot Replica up to the Rapid Blaster's face and holds down on the trigger for dear life, hoping and praying that the reheating time of the weapon will be enough for Eight to splat him. He explodes in a blast of orange ink.
She casts a glance at the Ballpoint, who had just finished shooting the rapid short-range shots. The long range ones aren't aimed at Eight and rather Four, and shit this is bad. Four's currently pressed against the side of the bridge in squid form, the timer ticking down audibly. Lucas lines up a shot with the Ballpoint's forehead at the same time Eight starts shooting at her, and he lets go of the trigger with an audible BANG.
Eight's ink tank beeps once - good.
Four swims out of her hiding spot and catches up with Eight. "Where's Dana?" she breathes, but a high-pitched frequency echoes through the arena. Splatted, then. "Oh, good."
"I can cover you," Eight mutters as Lucas swims off his perch and onto the small box atop the bridge.
Four nods.
"Follow me," she tells her, swimming off the side of the bridge to reach the side. She charges the shot halfway to make a small path for the two of them. Lucas remains on the bridge. Maybe he sees someone over there or something, because he has a shot charged and-
BANG! - Eight thinks she hears his tank beep.
"Bamboozler again," he calls.
Eight swims ahead of Four, stopping abruptly and shifting back to humanoid form at the sound of gunfire. The shots seem to be actual shots this time, so... It's the Forge Pro, right? Eight catches a glimpse of the blue tentacles as she yells at Four to get back, and then he pulls out his Bubble Wand. Eight knows that she lacks the firepower to shred through them, and even less so when she hears the Bamboozler's fully-charged shots hitting them. She tries to swim backwards but there's not a lot of places to go, and they're about to burst-
"HOWDY, FUCKERS!" Dana roars as she descends with a Splashdown. While Dana's Splashdown armor ate most of the bubbles' damage, the parts it couldn't take were blocked with Eight's face. "Did you miss me?" she coos with a smile.
"Play the game," Four replies with an eye roll, laughing slightly. "Although that was pretty cool."
Eight would compliment Dana if her head wasn't throbbing, but she gives her a shaky thumbs-up and then pops down into the ink. Dana pushes ahead, leaving a path of ink behind that Four covers with another partially-charged shot. Eight swims behind them once she figures out which direction is up, Lucas following suit.
Eight pops up briefly to cover some of the blue ink on the ground, feeling her special meter fill. She casts a glance over at Lucas, whose mantle is also flaring with bioluminescence.
She hears a high-pitched, warbling frequency from up ahead - "This way!" from Dana. And then she hears it again afterwards, so Eight swims ahead because there's probably a reason as to why Dana is yelling at them to hurry up.
The Ballpoint charges up another shot as Four approaches the goal. Eight can hear the Rainmaker's timer growing louder and louder, so they should hurry up. Eight forms a Splat Bomb and rolls it towards the Ballpoint, forcing her to shift into squid form to get away from the explosion. She forms a vial of Toxic Mist and hurls it at Dana and Four, but Dana knocks it aside with the handle of her Inkbrush.
"Is that even legal?!" the Ballpoint yelps as the vial smashes against the wall. "I don't think that's legal!"
"It is," mutters the Bamboozler as she readies another shot, "Unfortunately."
"That's bullshit," she growls, firing a round of short-range shots at Four, who swims away from the barrage. Her mantle then flares up in a dazzling display of blues and greens and she activates her special - Inkjet. Eight activates hers as well, readying her weapon. The heating time is still too slow, and the Ballpoint launches a shot at Four. The shot barely misses, grazing her with a visible stain. She readies it again, and Eight lines up hers with the Ballpoint's face and fires.
She flies higher with a sudden push from her thrusters, swerving right, the shot barely missing.
{Get out of the way!} Lucas barks, and Eight switches to octopus form, dropping suddenly as the Inkjet blast flies over her head. He lines up a shot and fires with a loud BANG, but the shot is slightly off and the Ballpoint fires at him.
Eight swims to the right and fires a shot at the Bamboozler, who lines up a shot that hits Eight square in the chest, eliciting a sharp yelp. She goes to shoot again but a blast from the Rainmaker forces her shot to be off, and she swims backwards. Dana rolls a Splat Bombs towards her, and she's sandwiched against the wall - with two beeps from Dana's tank, that's one less member to take care of.
Lucas twists suddenly and the shot shreds through the Inkjet, his tank beeping twice and Eight's beeping once. That's two down, then...
Eight spies the Forge Pro, shooting at Four. Dana tosses a Splat Bomb up onto the ledge, and he scoots back, not without taking Dana out. The frequency she emits is deeper and more stable... Why is Dana "Booyah!"-ing right now?
Feeling the Inkjet start to overheat again, Eight fires one last shot at the Forge Pro, which misses, and she's then launched back to the ground.
The other two haven't respawned yet - at this proximity, they'd all be able to hear the respawn point ding. Though, that begs the question... Where's the Rapid Blaster?
A loud, screechy frequency erupts from behind Eight. She whirls around to see him erupt in a blaze of blue ink, with the Rapid Blaster standing behind him.
He wipes some of the blue ink off his cheek and readies his gun.
"Shit." Eight isn't sure if it's her or Four that says that. She also isn't sure if it matters.
Eight forms a Splat Bomb and throws it at him as hard as she can, then hooks an arm around Four's waist and pulls her over to the left side of the car replica. She squawks indignantly but doesn't protest. "Follow me," Eight mutters, "And if I tell you to run, you fucking run."
"Okay," Four says quietly, the ticking of the Rainmaker growing louder and louder. "I'd say we have less than fifteen seconds to get this to work."
"Fuck!" Eight yells at a much higher volume, readying her weapon and shooting a path towards the goal. She swims ahead of Four, letting her ink recharge slightly before tossing another bomb at the Rapid Blaster. Four follows behind her, and the Forge Pro leaps down and fires at Eight. The side of the goal is inked, so Four can get up it, but-
A pellet of blue ink hits Eight in the face. Her marks are glowing the brightest they've ever have during her time on the surface, and she raises her gun and fires at him.
Her Octo Shot Replica doesn't have the same firepower as the Forge Splattershot Pro, but it's enough to distract him from shooting Four. Dana's honed in on her position, but she probably won't get there in time...
One last shot connects with Eight's torso, and pain shoots through her body as she's splatted. Distantly, she thinks she hears the clap of blaster shots echoing from behind her, but her world goes dark before she can truly be sure.
By the time she respawns, the overtime buzzers are gone. A loud whistle blares throughout the arena.
Eight looks up at the scoreboard on the ceiling.
The bars on both sides fill up to the 27 count, before suddenly launching forward and colliding. A flash of white covers the screen, and it fades. The bar is- It's entirely orange, which means..!
"We won..!" she breathes, unable to stop herself from grinning. Four, Dana, and Lucas all superjump back to spawn, looking relatively pleased.
"We did it!" Four says. She looks decently beat-up, with large blue stains covering her arms and a small one on her cheek. Those are definitely going to be sore later. "You guys all did really well."
"Wasn't my Splashdown cool?!" Dana gushes, a cloudy pattern of greens and yellows dancing about her tentacles. "It was cool, right?"
"It looked cool," Lucas replies. Eight's still curious about his voice - the accent, sure, she has one too, but the warped quality to it... It's interesting. "Thought you probably could have said something a little better than 'Howdy, fuckers.'"
"Improv's never been my strong suit!" she chirps back, slinging her Inkbrush over her shoulder. "It could have been like last time, though."
Four rolls her eyes. "That was just sad, Dana."
"It wasn't that bad, c'mon." She pokes Four in the cheek, who bats her hand away. "Aaanyways, Eight!"
"Yes?"
"That Inkjet thing? Like, right before overtime? That was really cooool!" Dana's bright smile fades in an instant, replaced with a dark scowl. "What the fuck are you waiting for?"
"... I didn't sound like that, did I?" Eight asks quietly, following them back into the lobby.
"Yeah, you... Kinda did," Four admits. Eight sighs. "You wanna play a few more matches? We've got time, I think."
"Oooobviously!" Dana replies. Lucas merely nods.
"Can I clean my filter first?" Eight asks.
"Already?"
"Well, I played hard that match... And I don't want to get disconnected."
Four shrugs and then nods. "Sure. We still have time between matches, anyways."
Oh. Right. That was a thing.
Four pulls their trackers out from the slots in the wall and hands them back. Eight takes hers and then gets her bag back from the small compartment beneath it. At the same time, the other team walks back into the lobby.
"Hey!" says the Forge Pro with a wave. "That was a good match."
"Oh, thank you!" Four replies in the sugar-sweet disgustingly fake voice that makes Eight's skin crawl. "You guys played well, too!"
They talk for a bit and then he writes something down on a slip of paper, handing it to Four. He then follows the rest of his team out of the lobby, and Four sighs and shoves it in her pocket.
"Friend code," she mumbles, "He wants to play more sometime."
"He wasn't bad," Lucas muses, "Although that Bamboozler wasn't the best... How much Respawn Up do you think she was wearing?"
"Maybe twelve slots," Dana replies. "She's probably better off just using the Nozzlenose or something at that rate..."
"Pathetic," he mutters, rolling his eyes. They follow Four as she rounds the corner, walking further down the hall.
"What is this room?" Eight asks as Four holds open the door. "It's not like any of the others..."
"It's a waiting room," she explains. "Since we're registered and on the queue, we can just wait here for a bit. There's also weapon maintaining supplies and stuff." Once they're all in, she gestures at a few bins lined up against the wall.
"Oh," says Eight. "Okay." Gingerly, she walks over and sits down on the ground beside one. The room is relatively empty for its size, but Eight has a feeling it's pretty packed earlier in the day. She takes a tank cleaning kit from a bin and takes the lid off her tank, popping the filter out. The once-white disc is now mostly blue... She's lucky this room exists then, huh?
Four takes a seat at one of the chairs lining the walls. "We have four minutes before the next match... It's D12(06), so that's Albacore."
Eight nods absentmindedly, scrubbing at a large patch of solidified venom. It flakes off onto the ground. Once her filter is relatively clean, she pops the filter back in and screws the lid onto her ink tank once more. She pulls her phone out of her bag and turns it on.
You, 5:01 PM: Hi, Three!
You, 5:01 PM: How are things there?
Three, 5:03 PM: [image attached]
Three, 5:03 PM: We put it out
Eight taps the image she sent and enlarges it. There's... Something on the counter, covered in a frothy white liquid - oh, and there's Pearl with the fire extinguisher, what? - and it looks like it's smoking a lot... Marina's squinting at the smoldering mess with her hand on her chin, while a very frazzled Three is caught in the corner of the picture. Eight can't really see her face, but she thinks her eyes are very, very bloodshot with how blue they are...
You, 5:04 PM: What?
You, 5:04 PM: Three, what happened?
Three, 5:04 PM: The fucking microwave was on fire
Three, 5:05 PM: Not anymore
You, 5:05 PM: WHY was the microwave on fire?
Three, 5:06 PM: Marina made a floating cube
Three, 5:06 PM: And then the microwave was on fire
You, 5:06 PM: I feel like you're leaving out some important details here...
Three, 5:07 PM: No I'm not that's what happened
Three, 5:07 PM: Ask Pearl if you want she has my back
You, 5:07 PM: I'll... Be sure to
Three, 5:07 PM: So how are things there?
You, 5:08 PM: They're good, I guess?
You, 5:08 PM: But... Are you okay, Three?
Three, 5:08 PM: As okay as I can be given the circumstances
Three, 5:08 PM: Fucking Pearl wants me to get off my phone and help with this *please*
Three, 5:09 PM: So I'll see you later
Three, 5:09 PM: Hopefully not in a jail cell
You, 5:09 PM: Um... Okay
You, 5:09 PM: I'll see you! Stay safe
Three, 5:09 PM: I promise nothing
Eight sighs quietly, shaking her head.
"What's up?" Four asks.
"I don't understand how they managed to set the microwave on fire..." Eight mumbles. A look of resignation flashes across Four's face.
"... Yeah," she mutters, "I don't either."
Eight really loves Pearl and Marina, but... Wow.
She really pities Three right now.
She'll... Hopefully be okay when they get back though.
Right..?
They played a few more matches, and then the rotation ended. They won a good amount of them, while some they lost by a hair, and then one they lost horribly and Eight is still a little bitter because a team of four rollers shouldn't be that good.
As they walk back to Four's car, Eight gingerly tugs at Four's sleeve.
"Um," she starts, still a little nervous, "Was I accepted, do you think?"
"Mhm," Four replies. "Yeah, probably. You're very, uh... Objective-oriented, which is something we can use. And Dana seems to like you, too. Hopefully Lucas accepts the offer..."
"I'm sure he will!" Eight says. "I'm just... Happy it went as well as it did."
"Yeah," Four mumbles, voice soft. "Yeah, me too."
(On the drive back, Four continues playing Warm Ink. Eight can't say she hates it as much as she did last time.)