Care
Your aunt and uncle,
Well, things are complicated right now.
We can't make them less complicated,
But we can clean their house
and make dinner.
It won't uncomplicate anything,
But it lets them know we're there.
"Love you," says Drown.
Marie freezes. "I, uh, that is—"
"You don't have to say it back," Drown says, and boops her nose with one finger. "I know you're not touching your tangled knot of emotions at the moment. But I need you to know, and 'end of a date, dropping your gorgeous girlfriend at her apartment' seems like the right time."
Marie feels herself flush and she kicks one foot against the carpet. "I... thanks. It means a lot."
Drown kisses her forehead and walks off, used to her goodbyes by now, and Marie lets out another breath and slips inside.
She doesn't stay long. The clock shows it's after midnight, and sure she washes up and changes clothes, and once Drown texts that he got home safely she texts back a good night to him and Sync. Then she sits and records another two radio episodes, and then she can't sit still any longer. Marie grabs her gear and goes out again.
Callie is out there. Callie is alive, and she's in Octarian hands, and she's telling Marie to stay away. The logical answer is hypnoshades. If Marie can pry them off, it might take five, ten, even twenty minutes for Callie to shake off their effects, since Marie can't sing Calamari Inkantation alone. But Callie will shake them off and she will be rescued if Marie has to go in there and splat every Octarian that ever lived.
But she has to make sure she can get those glasses off Callie, and if Callie's surrounded... Marie's back to that shoot-them-off idea. Time to revisit those special ink tanks and her notes. And the pile of cheap sunglasses Four promised to carry down for her.
It's past two in the morning when Marie squids through the drain and looks around. The dummies haven't been set up yet, ink tanks lined up, Four sleeping on the bench, sunglasses stacked neatly by—wait. Marie walks over to the hut to see, yes, Four is sleeping on the bench in front of the outpost, shivering a little. Marie will have to get to the bottom of that later. Right now, though, she props open the door and transfers the squiddo to the couch and retrieves a couple ratty blankets from the cupboard to tuck her in.
That done, she flicks on her phone's flashlight and settles in by the tanks. Time to review her notes.
This is the high tide ink—and Marie grimaces, remembering the way the dummy's skin melted, and she sets that aside. The low tide ink she marked as useless, but if it doesn't hurt at all, it may be a possibility. Then there was the—
"Can I help?"
Marie jumps. She looks up to see Four standing in the cabin's door, the blanket Marie covered her with wrapped around her. "You should be at home, asleep."
Four shrugs. "I get up this early every day so I can sign up for ranked before all the spots are gone. With the power shortages, there's not enough slots, and I'd never play otherwise."
That explains why Four falls asleep at lunch so often. And a lot of other stuff, too, that Marie is going to put a stop to right now. "If you're short on money because of this, I'll cover your rent and food for a couple weeks. Now go back to sleep."
Four goes back inside.
By the time Marie's decided three of the tanks might be worth investigating, Four emerges again. She's got on her hero suit, the hero roller in her hands, and hops in front of Marie. "So, if Callie's got those things on like you thought, you might have to snipe them off when she's running," Four says. She grabs a pair of sunglasses out of the pile and slips them on. "And you said she uses roller, so get your charger and hit me."
Marie almost drops her tank. "Four, this stuff is—"
"Experimental, I know, but if you splat me I'll just respawn," she says. "And you won't. I know it. So come on, Agent 2, let's do this!"
Marie is... she's lucky. She is so lucky this little squid wants to help her.
They'll get Callie back. And Callie will be safe.