"…ggggoooood MORNIN' EVERYBODY!"
The door to Callie's room practically exploded and the pink squid was already shaking Delta awake. "Time to get up, it's a big day! Lots to do!" Agent 4 cracked an eyelid open to find a bright-eyed Callie staring back at her, apron already smeared in doughy spills. The pop star flashed an energetic wave and whirled around to barrel through Marie's door, whose many muffled complaints sounded throughout the entire apartment.
"…What time is it?" Delta pulled at the tentacle wrapped around her eyes and risked a peek at the floor-to ceiling windows in the corner of the living room. It was still dark outside.
"Four forty-five!" Callie called from her cousin's room. Marie's protest grew into an agonized groan as if she'd been stabbed with a fire prod.
Callie reappeared and hoisted a half-awake Delta from the sofa. "C'mon Four, you can't be lazin' around on the first day of a new job! You need a big hearty breakfast before your shift!" Delta was already at the kitchen table before she could realize it, sitting before a plate of clownfish and eggs with a fork already shoved into her beak. Callie was gone by the time Delta dazedly pulled it out and started chewing on something that tasted like pancakes. She had no idea how the pancakes got there.
She had gotten a few more bites in when the pink squid returned with a very unhappy cousin trapped in a headlock. Callie deposited Marie beside Delta and plopped another plate onto the table with a pat on the green squid's head. Marie only glared back.
"Coffee." She demanded.
"Okay, okay." Callie slipped around the kitchen counter to fiddle with the coffee machine. "Your favorite latte's comin' right up—I'll even throw some chocolate in, too! It looks like we're in one o' those 'moods' today."
"I wonder why." Marie growled back with as much of a death glare as her tired eyes could muster. "I got into bed at 3 AM last night... I. Am going. To strangle you. One of these days."
"You can try!" Callie fearlessly beamed back with another pat on the head, then her golden eyes landed on something inside the tote bag underneath the table.
"…Oh," she pulled one of the thickest binders Delta had ever seen out of the bag, "I guess I accidentally took Eight's notes without noticing."
Agent 4 kept staring at the thing as Callie slammed it onto the table. That binder had to be at least ten pounds; how on earth did the pink squid carry it all the way to her apartment without noticing the extra weight? How many weights did she need to lift in order to not notice an extra ten pounds?
Marie curiously grabbed her latte and thumbed through a few pages. "Did…did he seriously write an entire analysis on the kind of muffin they found on her kitchen counter?"
Callie leaned over the table to take a look. "…Yup."
"They didn't even find her in the kitchen…" Marie breathed as she kept flipping through the two-hundred-and-forty-eight color-coded sections. "I'm starting to wonder if Gavin has nothing better to do with his life. I mean, wouldn't watching ink dry be more entertaining than counting the number of blueberry pixels—dear cod what is this twenty-paragraph essay between the margins."
"I don't think I wanna know, but…" Delta smirked as she leaned over to point at the messy scribbles crammed between Agent 8's near-perfect lettering. "That's not his handwriting."
"…Oh cod." Callie quickly covered her beak with a snort. "It's Sheldon's."
"NO!" Marie slammed the entire binder shut. "I was wondering why that crab was so quiet! Did he seriously steal Eight's notebook and start ranting to himself…who on this cod-darned earth let them sit next to each other?"
"How 'bout you give it a nice long read?" Callie mischievously shook Marie's shoulders. "He started right at the thing about the splatter patterns—and we're gonna need a Sheldon if we wanna beat the Lightfisher's smoke an' mirrors."
"Nuh-uh." Marie hastily backed away from the binder, hands raised in surrender. "It is way too early for that squit; I'd sooner cauterize my own eyeballs than stare at that boredom-inducing abomination for another cod-dang second." Her eyes happened to fall on her protege. "…Four, you read it. That's an order."
"…Cod dang it." Delta groaned as she reluctantly pulled the binder closer, desperately wishing for a ctrl + f function in real life. An order from a superior officer was non-negotiable, and Marie was known for using and abusing her seniority; it honestly wasn't that surprising that Agent 2 had passed the dreaded reading off to the first subordinate she could find.
"That's…gonna take a while." Callie offered a sympathetic chuckle. "And you've gotta meet the boys at the docks for your first shift. Sheldon's gonna have to wait—we've gotta get you on your way."
"Great point." Delta was on her feet in an instant—thank cod her mentor taught her how to eat fast. "I'll grab my stuff and get going."
"Y'know what, I'll come with." Marie quickly stood from the table, pushing her chair back in. "I've got an…errand—yeah, totally an errand—in that direction, so I can walk with you for a bit."
Delta glanced over her shoulder to find Callie grabbing the binder as she called after the two retreating Inklings. "…You guys do know that just 'cause you left me with this thing doesn't mean I'm gonna read it, right?"
"So," Marie began after they left Flounder Heights. "How does it feel to juggle multiple jobs at the same time?"
"Eh, it's not too bad yet." Delta offered a shrug. "The Zapfish nursery called yesterday and said they don't need me on tonight's shift, so it's not like I have to manage two of them in the same day yet."
"Ah yes." Marie cracked a mischievous, reminiscent smirk. "The ruthless Nationals champion has decided to stop terrorizing hapless squids and cuddle baby animals instead."
"…Shut up." Agent 4 frantically scrolled through her shellphone's texts in an effort to hide her embarrassed blush.
Marie broke into a knowing chuckle for a bit, until her silver eyebrows began to furrow. "…Why did you stop playing Turf Wars, anyway?"
"It's just…" Delta's tone faltered as she happened to catch one of the older entries scroll by—a group chat titled "Entrenched" that hadn't seen new texts in over eight months. "…It's not the same. Not without the guys."
"No?" Marie's tone was gentler when she dipped her head below her parasol for a better look at her protege. "How so? City slickers play differently?"
Delta shook her hand between "yes" and "no," stowing her camo shellphone back into her pocket. "They just don't get it, I guess. Whenever I see an opening and I radio that I'm making a push, I feel like I have to sit and wait for the whole team to argue about whether or not we should. Entrenched was all on the same page; we all had the same military upbringing, we knew each other's quirks inside and out, and we all had each other's backs without protest. We were a unit that understood we needed to work as one, and these guys are just…" Her shoulders raised in a wordless shrug. "Four players that happen to spray the same color, I guess. I don't really know how to explain it."
"I think you explained it pretty well." Marie spoke in that same older sister tone that Delta had heard more of in the past year. "Things ran more smoothly with your old team that understood your militaristic obsess—I mean—lifestyle…" the green squid cracked a small smile before her features returned to serious, "…and you miss them."
"Yeah, I guess." Delta allowed her own smirk at Marie's harmless jab. Just before she'd met the idol and joined the New Squidbeak Splatoon, Delta had traveled to Inkopolis as a contestant in the National Turf War tournament the city held every year. Entrenched had been the first team to qualify from Echo's Edge—a very rural town close to the dead zone between Inkling and Octarian borders—and won first place. But instead of returning to defend their title like the previous Indigone, the team unofficially disbanded as its members went their separate ways. Delta the Splattershot-wielding centerfielder had stayed in the city to fulfill her secret NSS duties, eccentric leader Kai had returned to Echo's Edge to start bringing Ranked Modes to the town, quiet Splatling Addam had made it big in the Squid Beatz community and started traveling for esports tournaments, and Dylan had stayed in Echo's Edge to assist Kai—but he'd ride the train into Inkopolis every couple weeks for dates with his now-girlfriend. But Marie was right: Delta missed the whole team, and she couldn't even remember the last time she'd heard from Addam.
"I know you've still got Dylan." Marie's golden eyes vanished under the parasol again. "But two squids don't make a splatoon; it'll still do you some good to check in on the others and talk about old times. Don't want to wait until one disappears off the planet, gets squidnapped, and then you have to retrace their steps and figure out what the carp they've gotten themselves into." Her shoulders rose into a mock, dismissive shrug. "But it's not like I have any experience with that or anything."
"Heh, yeah." Delta cracked her own smirk.
"Trust me." Marie scoffed at her protege. "With a relationship plus two jobs and some volunteering on the side, you're gonna need to become very familiar with this little thing called 'time management.' Fortunately for you, being friends with a world-famous popstar grants access to infinite masterclasses on the subject." Her beak reappeared with a sly but sincere half-smile. "You had my back last year, so now I've got yours."
"I appreciate it." Delta's smirk morphed into an embarrassed smile as they stopped at the hill overlooking Manta Maria's harbor—she could see the rest of the Salmon Run team waiting for her. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it." Marie shrugged her off. "You could also try playing with those hooligans—" she pointed the butt of her parasol at Gavin and Quinn waiting near one of the piers, "—they should have some awareness of military protocol."
"…Yeah." Agent 4 admitted a frown. "But we'd still need a fourth."
"True." Marie pursed her lips as she tapped a finger on her parasol, deep in thought. "…All right, well, that's another problem for another day. I'll leave you guys to your Salmon Runs, and don't forget to keep an eye out for anything that might be related to the investigation." Marie offered a knowing wink, and then Delta's mentor turned around and began walking back to the city proper.
The first half of the ride to Ayla's very first Salmon Run passed in silence, and the Octoling had taken the time to read through Yuri's manual once again. She might've felt confident after they'd signed up yesterday, but the glowflies in Ayla's belly had begun to churn when they left the safety of Inkopolis' harbor—and taking the time to read through what she could expect on the job helped quell those nerves. She especially liked the part that said her lifering doubly functioned as a respawn machine; that was a super helpful line to reread over and over again.
"Wait." Delta finally spoke when a floating buoy slipped past the boat, and Ayla jumped out of her manual with a startled meep. "That was the green marker."
"Uh huh." The captain didn't take his eyes off the sea.
"We're in the Restricted Zone." Delta spoke slowly, as if the captain hadn't understood her words. "It's against the law to sail through here."
"Tell that to the Salmonids." The captain's reply was nonchalant, dismissive. He took his hands off the steering wheel to casually scoop up a coil of rope, as if nothing was amiss. "I'm sure they'll be happy to move their nestings somewhere more convenient."
Delta said nothing, closing her beak and rubbing at her collar.
"Catfish got your tongue?" The captain smirked. "Good—you learn quickly. If ya keep quiet and do your job, you'll be moving through the ranks in no time." He leaned over the vessel's edge, tying sailor knots around the railing. "Most new gills gimme a whole tirade about how what we're doing is illegal and whatnot, but they shut up when they hear 'bout the bonuses."
"But why run all of this risk to begin with?" Gavin tapped an interrogative finger against his chin. "Surely there has to be some sort of reason."
"Mr. Grizz wants Golden Eggs, no matter what." The captain's voice was a bored grumble, as if he'd spoken those words a million times already. "If that means sailing into the Restricted Zone, then that's what we do. It shouldn't even be restricted, anyway."
"Why's that?" The other Octoling's follow-up was swift, tilting his head to the side in focused curiosity.
"The feds and science folk'll say 'it's to protect the tribal culture' or 'the debris there is unstable' or 'there's a whole buncha abnormalities so its unsafe,'" the captain rolled his eyes. "But that's a whole wad o' codswallop. I've made this trek six times a day for two years, and each time I've still lived to tell the tale. The law really comes outta a cockamamy, vestigial superstition from an obsolete religion."
"Religion?" Gavin echoed, pink eyebrow raised. "I didn't think this spot had any connection with Madaism."
"We've got a real chatty cattie over here." The captain glanced over his shoulder to cast a knowing look at Delta. "You'll wanna shut that beak of his if you don't want trouble with the big bear. Y'all should be like this one—" He pointed to Ayla's seat near the bow, "—quiet as a speck o' algae."
Ayla took that as her cue to return to her manual.
"It'll be the last one, I promise." Delta kept insisting, much to Ayla's consternation; she hadn't seen enough reason to press the captain so hard. "Doesn't even relate to Grizzco."
"…All right." The captain grumbled, turning his eyes back to the sea. "Most of the medieval pinkfish believers were 'fraid o' this place. They thought the devilfish would come 'ere to feed and gain enough energy to overthrow their treasured deity. Nowadays we know that's a load o' bull, but over the years those loonies turned into today's government, and…" he shrugged, "…old habits die hard, I guess."
Ayla lacked context. She pulled up her shellphone's search engine and typed in "devilfish"—she was stunned there was service out here—and was met with images of weathered tablets depicting a mobula ray bearing a reptilian sail down its spine.
"The devilfish is a mythical beast now thought to be a natural phenomenon that ancient civilizations couldn't understand." The Inkipedia article read—thank cod for web translators. "At the time, the event was interpreted as a large black beast eating the sun god and subsequently overthrowing the pinkfish's domain. Dissidents of the ancient Madist dynasties worshipped the devilfish as 'the agent of change,' and used it to form Mobulism: a religious philosophy focused on overthrowing Madaism. However practices were limited to isolated pockets of dynastic rebels, and Mobulism gradually diminished as science learned of solar eclipses."
Ayla splayed her thumb and forefinger to zoom in on the tablet's half-worn drawing, observing the intricate lines chipped into the creature's upturned wing. A crudely circled eye stared out from the screen, 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?
She scrolled down in a vague attempt to escape the ray's judgement, which rewarded her with a passage from one of the ancient tablets:
"-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."
The Octoling's periphery could watch Delta gesture at the boys to write…something…down; Ayla couldn't make out exactly what. Quinn pulled his shellphone out and started typing away with Gavin looking over his shoulder. The other Octoling pointed at something on the screen and Quinn began nodding with him, but Ayla couldn't understand what any of her teammate's behaviors meant. But she didn't really care that much this time around.
She was just happy to be doing something right for once.
"Awright, here we are." The captain slowed the boat to a stop not too far from the rusted remains of an ancient building. "Welcome to the Spawning Grounds, where most o' the Salmonids lay their Golden Eggs. Good place for first-timers." He heaved an anchor into the sickly green water and kicked an orange chest at his passengers. "Here's today's weapons; you're allowed to pick from these but what ya see is what ya get. I ain't driving all the way back to shore just 'cause someone's too special a snowflake to roll with the tide."
"Don't worry, rolling with the tide is our specialty." Quinn answered as he lifted the container's lid, pausing for a pointed look at his friend. "…Right, Gavin?"
The aforementioned Octoling crossed his arms with an irritated sigh, his red eyes glaring their way through the four weapons: a Splattershot and its junior variant, a charger, and a Slosher. "…Give me the Bamboozler and I'll let it slide."
"Proud of ya, bud." Quinn tapped Gavin's shoulder as he handed the stick of bamboo over. "You'll be wrecking Salmonids even without your favorite brella." Gavin gave a disgruntled mumble and Super Jumped away to wait for his team at Spawning Grounds, while Quinn began to reach for the Splattershot Jr.
"You should take the bucket." Agent 4 interrupted him as she picked up the Splattershot, then gestured at Ayla. "She's used to semiautomatic stuff."
"Will do, will do." Quinn reached into the chest to scoop the Slosher up, then turned around to offer Ayla the Splattershot Jr with a friendly grin.
"…Thanks." She shyly accepted the weapon, looking down to examine the white barrel. Delta…was right; Ayla's time in the military left her preferring shooters over the less conventional weapons at Ammo Knights. She wondered how her old adversary knew that, or why she even cared to accommodate for it.
"Radio check," the captain's voice sprung through the transmitter in Ayla's ear as her feet slammed the waypoint at Spawning Grounds' center. "Scanners say the first wave hits in T-minus-ten seconds; got a pro tip for you new gills in the meantime."
"10-4 go ahead." Quinn pressed the button on the receiver just above the collar of his waders, leaving Ayla to absently ponder how the Inkling could use the proper terminology so readily.
"Y'all might wanna use the same color." The captain's voice replied with a cheeky chuckle. "Just sayin'." The team glanced at each other—from Ayla's purple to Gavin's pink to Delta's blue to Quinn's orange.
…Yeah, they were about to accidentally murder each other, weren't they.
"Just go orange." Quinn muttered at his oversight as he switched hands on his Slosher. "Should have enough contrast with their green." Ayla had just enough time to suck in a breath and will the switch before a foghorn blared in the distance.
"They're over here!" Gavin waved from his perch facing the site's conveyor belts. Ayla ran up and wasted no time shooting at the first Salmonid she saw. The Chum burst into ink, leaving Ayla to stare at the orange puddle it left behind. She got one. Holy carp she got one! Maybe this job wouldn't be so bad after all.
Her legs bursting with renewed vigor, Ayla spun around…and was promptly met with a Cohock's frying pan to the face. The weapon collided with a metallic clang and the Octoling was pulverized into her life ring.
Okay never mind, this shift was going to be horrendous.
The first group had morphed into a horde by the time Delta mowed her way through the encroaching mob, splatted Ayla's Cohock, and revived the Octoling like it was nothing. She gave Ayla a bit of a crazed nod and dashed off in search of more Salmonids. Someone was having a little too much fun.
Ayla found a Flyfish and her feet skidded to a stop, reaching behind the life ring for a Splat Bomb. She did just what the manual told her—wait for the missile launchers to open and chuck the bomb inside—except her throw only made it about halfway before it unceremoniously fizzled against the ground. Ayla looked at her feet with a defeated sigh and simply watched as the Maws erupted to swallow her whole.
…So it was gonna be one of those days, apparently.
And it was. The other two waves went similarly—with Delta constantly destroying and Ayla constantly getting destroyed. The Octoling had become intimately familiar with every splat the liability waiver warned about and made a beeline for New Albacore Hotel the second they made it back to the docks. She curled up in her bed and hadn't moved a muscle by nightfall, and Ayla didn't have any plans to for at least another 2,325,153,453,543,548,493 years.
Ayla jumped a little when she heard a knock on a door. The scout had half-risen from her bed when she heard her neighbor's door open and Valerie's voice in the hallway. Ayla assumed her neighbor had been expecting company and settled herself back onto her bed, content to keep hiding away from the rest of the world. Part of it was from the ginormous amounts of bruises she was sure to develop, but the other part was out of embarrassment from constantly failing in front of Agent 4.
Because even though Ayla was terrified of Delta's wrath, deep down she secretly admired the agent. The Octoling had lived a life where "can't" seemed to be life's favorite word. Higher-ups were always saying she "couldn't do this" or "couldn't do that," and eventually Ayla got the message: she should just go with the flow and do what the big octopus said. But then came this sole agent who single-handedly wiped Ayla's entire troop and splatted the scout herself…after being disarmed. That…wasn't supposed to happen. You were supposed to give up when the win felt too far from reach. Once you're there, that's it—the game's over. It was time to give up and do what the victor wanted.
Except Delta never did the whole "giving up" thing, no matter how distant that victory was. She never accepted the loss, and somehow—through some magic voodoo—ended up winning instead. It had probably felt duck easy to the agent…
…but to Ayla, Delta had done the impossible.
Because all Ayla ever did was give up. When things looked impossible, she stopped—simply because they were supposed to be, well, impossible. Was Ayla wrong? Delta had proved so.
But was Delta simply supersquid, or were the circumstances different in Inkopolis? Was the only thing holding Ayla back little more than a smuggled boat trip to the city?
And that was the real reason why Ayla had left for Inkopolis. Maybe—just maybe—she could build the life she always dreamed of in the big city. Except…it was much easier said than done.
A muffled bang stirred Ayla from her thoughts. She waited another second and heard another bang, and then another—all coming from the direction of Valerie's room. Ayla hugged her whale plushie and turned over with an irritated huff; if Ares had stopped by for another "visit," she swore she'd…do nothing about it, probably. The dude looked like he could sever a head from someone and sleep like a hatchling—and Valerie had mentioned he was a higher-up in Grizzco's staff. Ayla wanted at least a five-minute break from Grizzco-related beatings.
Ayla's gaze shifted to the spray-painted pictures on the wall. She loved to make things—poetry, sculptures, drawing, spray-painting was a particular favorite—but now that she had autonomy over her life, she didn't exactly know where to take it. Should she try to become an artist that dabbles in many forms or specialize in just one? Would it be better to work for a company or just stick with freelance? How does one get into Inkblot Art Academy, and why do the students there always seem much better than her?
And given that moving to the city, living alone with barely enough money to make ends meet, not being able to look to anyone for help, and trying to survive 16-hour shifts had barely left Ayla with a chance to breathe—let alone create—she was inclined to conclude that Delta was simply a genetically engineered super squid with magical, impossibility-defying powers. And now the Octoling was stuck far from home in a very foreign city, cramped inside the basement floor of a hotel that never wanted her, desperately struggling to make ends meet with a skeletal support system that she felt she was taking advantage of. Ayla was starting to believe she'd have been better off in Octo Canyon.
But there was no going back now—the Octarian government saw to that. Every refugee had been blacklisted and branded as a traitor; even if she did somehow convince them to take her back, none of Ayla's family or friends would ever look at her the same way. She'd be a pariah, an evil scourge to be cast aside and shunned with the utmost diligence. Crawling back to the Canyon would be an absolute last resort.
A disquieting silence made Ayla's purple brow furrow in genuine concern this time. That…didn't seem right. Maybe the visitor wasn't Ares after all; was something wrong? Valerie hadn't seemed like the type to get herself into trouble—but Ayla had to admit she didn't know very much about her neighbor. She really shouldn't pry into Valerie's affairs, and the scout shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions…
But Ayla's feet still heaved her off the bed and into the hallway in front of Valerie's door. It would be crazy embarrassing to start breaking Valerie's door down and end up in the middle of private matters, but maybe…maybe she should just check.
Yeah, maybe she should just check.
"Hey Valerie?" Ayla knocked on her door. "Is everything okay?"
Nothing.
"…Valerie?" The Octoling knocked again. "You in there?"
Nothing.
A muted shuffle slipped its way through the door before an unnatural, inexplicable feeling began to course through Ayla's veins. She tried the knob but the door gave half an inch before it jammed. Ayla drew a breath and drove her shoulder into the door, half-expecting it to push back…
…But the entire door shattered off its hinges instead.
Ayla was met with a room streaked dark green and warped well beyond ordered normalcy. Thick, wet ink dribbled down the shattered cocktail table before it pooled over the spilt magazines scattered across the floor. Chairs were overturned only to be hurled across the room, curtains were torn off their rods and abandoned under the window…
And someone was standing over her dead neighbor.
Ayla had wanted to shout, scream, do something, anything—but every muscle in her body froze as Octoleet Goggles met hazel eyes. He had frozen too—Ayla could almost watch the Octoling's thoughts spin into damage control below his dark green mohawk. The murderer only held her gaze for a heartbeat before he leaned down to punch a fishhook through the threads of Valerie's shirt, then stood and rolled the gray duffel off his shoulder with an aggravated huff.
And then—the Octoling started to move; Ayla could watch his feet glide towards her even though the gray hoodie stayed perfectly still. A shot of adrenaline finally broke her trance and thawed Ayla's legs at the realization that she was about to become his next victim. The murderer's tiptoe burst into a sprint and the girl barely had time to flinch under a right hook. His knuckles hit the wall and he recoiled with a pained hiss, but Ayla's body had already propelled her out the door. She could watch Octoleet Goggles turn back to her before she jammed the crumbling door back into its frame, desperately hoping for any kind of defense.
A shoulder slammed against the wooden slabs and Ayla braced herself against the door to keep it steady. She held her breath as he charged the door again, and again, and again…and then it suddenly stopped.
"What the heck is going on?" Gavin's frame jogged up to Ayla in the hallway—he must've heard the commotion from his own room. "Are you okay?"
"S-someone's…in there." Ayla barely managed to choke out. "He killed her." The sound of glass shattering onto the floor made Gavin's eyes widen with realization.
"Get behind me." He barked as he nudged himself between Ayla and the door, voice suddenly serious. "Call the cops—now." Ayla's shaky fingers were already dialing on her shellphone when Gavin kicked the door down and barged inside—only to be met with the ravaged room and Valerie's newly broken window.
And the killer Octoling was nowhere to be found.
A/N: Well, I hope nobody liked Valerie XD
Jokes aside, thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed and fave'd the last chapter! This chapter was much more straightforward than the last one, so this time I only have a few things to say here:
-I lost a bet with a certain deepcauldron so I have to tell you that bobbit worms are adorable and there's nothing wrong with their looks and they improve the quality of this universe by their mere existence and I love them. These are all genuine opinions and I am absolutely 100% undeniably NOT forced to say them. At all. Not in the slightest.
-There's a virtual cookie for anybody who caught the Slosher/bucket reference.
-"10-4" means "hear ya loud and clear" in radio speak.
-Part of me has always wondered how much of Marie's crabbiness was her actual personality and how much of it was just that she went to bed late and Callie woke her up early XD
-Madai is another term for pinkfish, which is another term for red sea bream: a fish that is highly prized in Japan and often has religious/cultural significance. So I intended Madaism as the religion that's referenced in the Sunken Scrolls.
-Remember that squids and octos can change their color at will in the game—and there's a big emphasis on fashion. So there's a difference between wearing a color just because you like it versus wearing a color because you're currently using it. Therefore more than one character currently fits the Lightfisher's physical description; so have fun guessing who he might be ;)