Fan
Never do that again, understand me?
I don't care how angry you were,
We're family.
If you need something, tell us.
Don't just run away.
Callie lets down her tentacles with a sigh. "Someday, the energy drinks may taste good."
Marie snorts. "Salmonids might fly," she retorts, grabbing her phone off the vanity and opening it.
Callie grabs hers as well. "I had to delete, like, a thousand texts to make sure I had enough space for a recording as long as our break."
Marie glares down at her phone. "I have to get rid of at least three more videos, still."
Callie sits up straight. "Mar—"
"I can't just delete Judd!"
Callie laughs and holds out her hand. "But I can, and I know which ones you sent me, so they're stored online. Hand it over."
"Of course you could delete cuteness," Marie grumbles, but gives Callie her phone all the same. Callie flicks through it, trying to remember which of the fifty videos of Judd eating tuna she'd seen before (and if Marie could really tell the difference) when Marie says, "I hope she's on your team."
Callie selects three Judd Eating vids at random and deletes them, then moves to videos of Judd Sleeping to do a couple more, for Marie's peace of mind. Marie ties Callie's tentacles back up as she says, "I don't. You handled the first time much better than I did, Mar."
"Yeah, but this time I have to pretend to be normal." Marie lets out a long breath.
Someone knocks on their door. "Go time," Callie mumbles, handing Marie back her phone. Callie flicks to the recording app, sensitivity set to max, and turns it on. Her phone's thin enough not to leave a bulge in her pocket, though she'll have to be careful dancing later; they're never supposed to take anything they can lose onstage with them.
Then, with a deep breath to calm her racing nerves, Callie accepts her food a breath behind Marie and the two make their way outside.
The plaza is packed, like always. Callie stands there for a moment, scanning the crowd. There's a chance Pearl and the octoling aren't here right now, but if either one is wearing her t-shirt, she needs to—
At a small square table with a clear view of both vans sits a small pink inkling with a tall, dark-skinned girl wearing headphones. Different teams, sitting together. Pearl and Marina.
Callie nudges Marie. "Follow me."
Marie raises an eyebrow at her, but Callie doesn't wait, just makes her way through the crowd. Pearl is staring at her, wide-eyed, but the octoling seems determined to devour half a gallon of ice cream and hasn't noticed them. Callie can respect that.
Marie moves around to the other side of the table, the other empty chair, but Callie plops herself down and drops her burger plate and soda on the table. The octoling looks like she's having at least one heart attack, the inkling like Squidmas came early. "Whew. Looks like you two know how to party!" And they do: they have crabcakes and shwaffles and drinks and dessert and what appears to be enough fries and chips for two splatoons crammed into every spare space on their trays.
Marie clears her throat, and they both whip their heads around to look at her; Callie eats a chip off the octoling's plate. "Is this seat taken? We don't see squids from different teams eating together that often, and we'd love to spend our break chatting with you."
If Callie didn't know better, she'd think the octoling was having a classic fangirl freak-out. Pearl's reaction is more in line with what she's used to; the girl grabs the edges of the table with both hands and starts to babble. "C'mon, siddown! You can totally eat with us!" She pauses for a half-breath. "We're in a band too, ya know, and we're gonna be even better than you soon, so you'd better!"
The octoling blinks and flushes even darker. "Pearl!"
"What?"
Callie bites on her lip, trying not to laugh.
The Octoling fiddles with her short tentacle. "You can't just-"
"Just did. Face it, Rina, we're awesome."
Calle takes another chip and chews it. Sure, this is their enemy octoling, but Pearl doesn't know that. And they're acting like any others Callie's sat with during splatfests, excited and shy and babbling and nervous and trying to show off all at once.
Marie giggles as she sits down. "Fellow musicians, even. This is going to be a good meal." Callie raises an eyebrow at Marie and takes another chip. Marie responds at once: "Callie, stop stealing their chips."
The octoling starts, turning to Callie with a scowl that morphs almost immediately into a sheepish smile, her whole face stained ink-teal. She fiddles with her headphones, adjusting them over her ears again and again, and her one short tentacle as she stutters like the best/worst of the fans Callie's dealt with.
Interesting reaction, too. Octarian society has enough food for everyone, according to Gramps, but only just; eating off another's plate like this would get threats of violence, which is precisely why Callie did it. That, and she really likes chips. But the immediate reaction change was more than an enemy spy catching herself and trying to act like an inkling
Still, with her stuttering like that, it's clear this'll go nowhere unless someone starts it, and Callie knows the plan. "So, you might know already, but I'm Callie!" She takes another chip, just to see the response; the Octoling blushes harder.
"And I am Marie." Marie tucks her napkin on her lap and picks up her first slice of pizza, as though this is just another meal. Callie needs to work on her acting if she wants to match that. "You?"
"M-Marina," the octoling squeaks. Marina. Callie has to remember to use that, now; this needs to be like any other splatfest meal.
"And I'm Pearl." The inkling stuffs a chunk of shwaffle in her mouth, leaving her lips and chin coated in whipped cream. "Marina's your biggest fan."
"Pearl!"
Their fan?
An Octoling?
Oh, that's too good to be true, and Callie grins at Pearl, because seriously how did that one happen? No way is an octoling—how'd Marina even hear their music?
"You can sing Calamari Inkantation backwards," Pearl says, spewing crumbs, and pauses to swallow while Callie's eyes widen, because yeah, there was one time an octoling could have heard that song. "You told me it changed your life."
"Because it did," snaps Marina, but Callie's staring at Marie, her expression mirrored.
It only lasts a moment before Marie gives a fast shake of her head and puts down her pizza, gives Marina a pat on the hand. "It's always nice to hear we've made a difference in someone's life," Marie says, and she sounds so normal, but the look she shoots Callie is anything but.
Callie has to keep this going. "And that's seriously high praise!" She nails a chunk of Pearl's shwaffle with her fork. "How'd it do that?"
If it's a lie, it's a great one, but it might not be a lie. Calamari Inkantation has always had some sort of power—the original song was used in ancient times to give inklings a boost of power and luck for hunting, and they know their own version energizes inklings, gives them optimism and hope, pushes them to their limits and beyond. The odds of it having some other effect, too... well, it's not impossible.
Especially not with Marina twisting her hands together, her cheeks getting darker by the moment as she babbles, "It was—it was the first time I heard anything that—that—it was just so happy, and determined, and hopeful and—and—it's how music should be, not just praising someone or about doing what you're told or—I ran away," she finishes, dropping her eyes to the table.
Callie knows Octarian, learned it from Gramps before she even grew legs, and she's heard Octarian music before, pumped through every kettle. The jerky beats and harsh sounds, Gramps told her once, are meant to make Octolings more obedient; the few words she has heard have been about working for the greater good. Callie's tried not to pay attention to it.
"I don't know if I—no, I wouldn't have even thought of it without—but..." Marina covers her face with her hands.
It makes sense. It could still be a lie, and Marina herself is a possible treasure of information on Octarian society and plans, but it makes enough sense to be true and Callie believes her. And it's a far better explanation for her behavior—and her bedroom—than figuring out their secret identities.
Callie chews her way through the bite of shwaffle. Pearl's staring at Marina wide-eyed, like she never heard this before and doesn't know what to do about it; Marie shrugs at Callie from across the table. Callie swallows and tries to be her usual positive self. "Well, you're here now, and that's what matters." Marina doesn't move, everything is still, time to change the subject! "And you're in a band! Have you put out any singles yet?"
The conversation veers away, letting them all catch their breaths, and much as Callie tries to pay attention anymore she can't. Ignoring that Marina is an octoling, the two of them are delightful: optimistic and cheerful and Marina just a bit desperate, but Callie can't focus.
It's a good thing her phone is recording all this, because all Callie's capable of is eating her burger and their chips and crabcakes while Marie questions Marina. When Marie relaxes back at last, Callie's recovered enough to steer the convo in a different direction: "So how'd you two become bandmates?" Because squids, does Callie need to know how an Octarian and an Inkling formed a singing group.
"Pearl has the most amazing voice," Marina says, looking at Pearl as she says it, and Callie can't help but grin at Marina's sincerity. "We met by chance, on a hike, and then I went back there every day for a week after hearing her hum, because it's just—it's got something really, um, really..." She trails off; trying for the Inklish word? "Special. And the next time I went up there, she was singing, and, cod, I—I mean—she's just really good, is all," Marina finishes, playing with her straw.
On a hike—a hike where? Marina ran away from Octo Valley, and wound up somewhere, and probably followed Pearl—Pearl, flustered and insisting Marina's the one with the voice—back to Inkopolis. Latched on to the first inkling who was nice to her, no doubt.
But knowing all that gives her and Marie something to work with, and it really doesn't seem like Marina's a threat. Callie takes a chance and winks at Pearl. "Sounds like you two have a great partnership. Maybe you'll even rival us someday."
Boy, did that set Judd among the sparrows, and Callie munches one of their crabcakes while they flail. They have to go back on stage in a minute, but it's never too late for some dinner theater.