The next morning, back in the bottom-feeders' district, a sound caused Bella to begin stirring in her sleep. The sun had not quite reached the horizon yet, and the streets below the girls' apartment were still mostly desolate. Inkopolis was fast asleep at the moment, save for the few early-risers that sluggishly traveled the districts on their way to work. It was too early for any disruptive street activity outside their window, too early for any footsteps on the floor above them, and certainly too early to expect any noises inside their apartment.

And yet, Bella's sound slumber on the comforting cushions of the loveseat was rocked by the sound of voices. The voices initially snuck their way into the dream she was having, but it wasn't long before their persistence nudged the sleeping octo into a groggy, hypnopompic state. It sounded like two male acquaintances, perhaps a pair of inklings or octolings, having a room-volume conversation. Their idle chatting was accompanied by an abrasive, bluish light, the likes of which also worked to pull Bella out of her pleasant rest.

She groaned begrudgingly, around the same time her tired eyes peeled open to survey the room. Immediately, she noticed that the TV was on, playing some early-morning sitcom that featured two octoling characters having a debate. That explained the voices she was hearing, as well as the light that was rudely shining in her face, but it quickly raised another question. Who the hell had just turned the TV on?

Bella shifted in the loveseat a bit, her comatose mind struggling to gain its bearings after being ejected from its dream so suddenly. She lifted her head as far as she could to get a glimpse of the couch, and once she did, she found the culprit to be none other than Ula. She was sitting straight up with her legs sprawled out on the coffee table in front of her, her hair mashed in weird formations atop her head, and a steaming mug in her two cupped hands. She didn't seem to acknowledge Bella, even after hearing her loud groan and fidgety movements.

"Mmmmm…muhhh…Ula…" Bella mumbled, reaching outwards with both arms to purge the stiffness in them. "…you're awake…"

"Uh…yeah. Not like I died or anything." Ula griped back at her. Already, it seemed like she didn't care much that she had just woken up her friend.

On top of having disturbed her slumber with its noise, the TV also shone brightly in Bella's sleep-drenched eyes, causing her to pinch them back shut after identifying Ula on the couch. She straightened her limbs a second time, stretching with every ounce of energy she could muster and emitting another deep, elongated grunt. Ula stared straight ahead at the TV, ignoring the friend she had just carelessly forced awake. She silently raised the mug to her lips and took a sip while Bella meandered through the process of waking up.

It wasn't until Bella had managed to fully sit up and rub the crust from her eyes that she caught a whiff of the room. Sensing a familiar smell wafting between herself and her grumpy companion, she sniffed a few times to confirm, and a confused expression crossed her face.

"Do I smell…coffee? Are you drinking coffee?" She asked Ula upon reaching behind her head and fixing her ponytail.

"Yes." Ula answered swiftly. "And no, you can't have any. If you wanted some, you shouldn't have slept in."

Bella's confused expression turned foul. "Wha…I…I don't even think the sun is up yet, Ula. You're never awake this early. The only reason you're not the one being woken up by me and Ophelia is the fact that you stole our seaweed and then slept through all of yesterday!"

Ula shrugged mindlessly. She took another sip from her mug and refused to look at Bella. Bella wasn't taking their encounter well so far, considering Ula had wiped out their seaweed stash without asking, wrenched her from sleep at an ungodly hour, and then had the gall to tell her she "shouldn't have slept in." Frankly, after also being used by Aurora for her own selfish deeds, Bella was beginning to run short of trust in her own friends.

"Where did you even get coffee?" She blabbed. "Last I checked, we don't own a coffeepot."

"The neighbors across the hall left their door unlocked." Ula answered, still staring at the TV like nothing else existed.

Bella put a hand over her eyes. "So, you're telling me…that you just strolled into the neighbors' apartment in the wee hours of the morning and made yourself a pot of coffee in their kitchen…all without waking them up?"

Ula took another sip. "They're heavy-ass sleepers."

"What are they supposed to make of that when they wake up and see that someone had ransacked their kitchen? …And is that even our mug? I'm not trying to get kicked out of this apartment, Ula." Bella scolded, glaring at her friend through the hand she had just moved to her forehead.

"Of course it's our mug, Bella, don't you recognize it?" Ula replied with a roll of her eyes. "You must think I'm a savage."

Bella scoffed. "Like the coffee not being ours is any better? It's not like it's much of a stretch."

Just then, before Ula could dispense another disinterested response to Bella, a voice piped up from the bedroom behind the couch. As the girls' apartment only had three occupants at the moment, the voice was obviously that of Ophelia, making her recent wakefulness known to the bickering pair the way only she could: like it didn't really matter.

"Early-risers today, aren't we?"

"One of us, you could say!" Bella chimed back. "See if you can guess which one!"

Ophelia stepped through the bedroom doorframe and into the glaring light of the TV, which was the only light that filled the room, before answering Bella's somewhat-playful query. Having enjoyed the privilege of sleeping on the bed that night, her night clothes looked rather ruffled, suggesting that her sleep had been restful and complete. Her ponytail was even undone, which was extremely uncommon for both her and Bella.

"Was it our favorite little free-loader?" She cooed in a cute voice, smirking cheekily in Ula's direction. "Good morning, Ula."

Ula's eyes were still defiantly glued to the TV, so she didn't see Ophelia's snooty gesture. She grunted and took a deliberately noisy sip from her mug. "Lay off the carp, girls."

"Well, you did suck down all the seaweed I had worked so hard for last week. It's only fair that we get to yank your ropes a little bit. I also think it earns you a few more chores for the next few days."

Bella nodded her head vigorously from the loveseat, while Ula grumbled about it under her breath. Once again, she was left unable to argue. Her actions the day before were the result of nothing but poor self-control, and with her friends riding the same wavelength, she didn't exactly have any leverage. It seemed like her day of blissful baking was going to be paid for dutifully, whether she liked it or not.

"Yeah, and maybe, since you helped yourself to all of our goodies, we should get to have your share of them the next time we smoke together. Who knows, maybe when Aurora decides to stop being a sociopath, she'll want to take your ration for herself." Bella mentioned.

Her statement caused Ula to snap her head towards the loveseat, finally breaking eye-contact with the TV to shoot her a threatening glare. The surly octo's gaze boiled with fervorous detestation, the likes of which even Bella was not used to seeing. Bella raised an eyebrow at this display, while Ophelia shook her head in disagreement to her suggestion.

"No, Bella, we're not going to take it that far. Ula also doesn't have any money to help contribute to our living conditions, but you don't see us kicking her onto the streets for it. Keeping our place shipshape is a good enough trade for us to be able to settle on." She cupped her hand at the side of her mouth for the next part, as if she were going to spill a secret, despite Ula being able to hear it clearly. "…You know how much Ula can depend on our goodies."

Bella sighed as her two friends stared her down, unable to formulate a good comeback. She wasn't quite as witty when her brain was still trying to wake up with the rest of her body. "Fine, Ula. Since you're our friend, and you didn't totally screw us over like Aurora did, we will show you mercy. I still don't know why I bothered to answer her texts yesterday…"

Her mention of Aurora caused Ula to adopt a curious expression, realizing that she had not heard from, nor even seen, her bumbling companion around the apartment since waking up. She remembered seeing her whale plushie on the counter next to the sink while grabbing a coffee mug from the cupboard, but after hearing Aurora's name mentioned a couple times, she took notice of the juvenile octo's absence. She took another intrigued sip of her stolen coffee.

"…Where is Aurora, anyway?"

"That's right, you had missed all the bullshit from yesterday." Bella remarked. "Well, to fill you in…you know that rematch she had set up for us with those miserable inkling brats?" She waited for Ula to nod her head before continuing, which she did after a brief pause. "Basically…Aurora fucking used us. She had us believing that the rematch was to regain our freshness after being stomped by the boys in the t-shirt line the other day, but the real reason she had set it up was to score a damn date with their Squiffer guy."

Ula's eyes widened. She was in the process of sipping more from her mug, and when she heard the news spill from Bella, she nearly spat it back out. "Whaaaat, are you fuckin' serious?! You can't be serious right now."

"I wish I were joking. To make matters worse, we actually won that battle. And now, instead of sitting atop those inklings' smug, stupid faces, we're stuck in the same lowly position we were in before while Aurora prances around in preparation for her big date. She's over at Eight's apartment right now, probably with a fresh new outfit waiting for her when she wakes up." Bella explained begrudgingly. She watched Ula's mannerism seem to transform again with each word of her unfortunate summary.

"I can't believe it…that little bottom-feeder caught feels for an inkling. And, as if that's not bad enough, she made you girls fight for her dirty little crush!" She quivered slightly as she said this, clearly digesting the same level of anger that had plagued Bella back at the skatepark after the whole thing had been revealed. "That's exactly the type of twisted shit I would expect from Aurora. I'm glad I decided to sit that battle out, because I would've wrung her out like a damn dish towel if I had been part of her little scheme…"

Bella nodded in understanding while listening to Ula's venting. From the moment she had first discovered Aurora's plot for herself, she knew Ula was going to share her opinion on it. She and Ula took their dignity, as well as their autonomy, way more seriously than the other girls, so having them both violated by Aurora put them on the same page with each other: a page of disgust, betrayal, and…in Ula's case…minor vindictiveness.

"Yeah, I'm pretty pissed off too. Aurora becomes freakin' feral when she gets her mind on something. This isn't even the first time she's violated our trust, and what is she gonna have to show for it? A dumpster-fire of a date when the bystanders at Albacore Hotel realize an octoling is trying to date an inkling?" Bella pondered aloud, rolling her eyes with several of her statements.

"It's what the bitch deserves." Ula scoffed. She held a finger up to Bella while gulping down the remainder of her coffee with her other hand. "Y'know…maybe it's not such a bad thing that you answered her texts yesterday. Her little fantasy world is gonna come crashing down on top of her when she's seen strutting around town with an inkling. Let her figure that out for herself."

"I suppose you're right…" Bella babbled with a hint of uncertainty. Neither of them paid any mind to Ophelia, who seemed to shoot Ula a dissatisfied look after hearing her call Aurora such a name. "She really tossed us aside to get in that dude's shorts, and I think she deserves to feel bad for it. Still, though…you girls don't think the inklings at that hotel are gonna treat Aurora too harshly…do you?"

Ula threw her arms up in the most blatantly careless shrug imaginable, communicating to both Bella and Ophelia that her hearts, as usual, were not of the most loving and understanding variety. She kicked her feet beneath her and stood herself up, presumably to go rinse out her mug.

"Get a load of Bella over here, acting so noble." She sneered. "Personally, I don't think they're gonna treat her harshly enough. In fact, when I go take this thing to the sink, I think I'm gonna tear her precious little whale plushie a new blowhole."

As Ula took her first step in the direction of the kitchen, Ophelia suddenly grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back down against the couch cushion, causing her to elicit a startled gasp. She then reached around and plucked the coffee mug out of her hand before she had a chance to turn her head and ask her what the hell her problem was. Ophelia, now holding Ula's mug with the intent of bringing it to the kitchen to wash it herself, looked down at the acrimonious octo with a rebuking glare.

"No, Ula, no one is going to lay a tentacle on Aurora's Wah-Wah. I think you need to tone yourself down a bit. While Aurora does have some issues getting her priorities straight, she's still our friend. In case she does end up getting grilled during her date, we shouldn't be doing things that are going to make her scars deeper." She declared strongly, reminding her embittered friends of the important precedent by which she wanted them all to live. After all, in the sprawling, first-world city of Inkopolis, they were each other's cornerstones. They needed to be able to depend on each other.

Ula opened her mouth briefly to protest, but ultimately, she wound up slumping herself further into the couch cushion and relenting to Ophelia once again. Ophelia took the defeated gesture as proof that she had defused the situation, and with that, she turned from the couch and began marching towards the kitchen to wash out the coffee mug. Bella trailed her friend's path with her gaze and watched her disappear through the doorframe, while Ula stared straight ahead at the TV with slouched posture and a pouty temperament. A few minutes went by without any interaction between the girls, the only sounds in the apartment coming from the TV and the running water from the kitchen sink. Were Ula to be given the decision, she probably would've chosen to spend her entire day like that.

Bella, however, had other plans. Eventually, she cut through the silence by speaking at a volume she knew would be heard by both Ula and Ophelia. "So, uh…girls! The Splatfest is tomorrow night. Do we wanna spend the entire day here at the apartment, or do we wanna do something about it?"

"That depends on what you're talking about!" Ophelia called from the kitchen.

"Yeah…" Ula added, tossing Bella a skeptical glance from the couch. "…what are you talking about?"

"Well, we're about…thirty-six hours from the biggest night of our lives, give-or-take a bit. And as of right now, Aurora is the only one with a potential date for that big night." Bella reminded the girls. "If we really wanted to get back at her, we should hit the town today and find ourselves some hot dates of our own, don't you think? We can't truly represent Team Looks until we show up to the shindig in the arms of some macho octos!"

Ula shifted uncomfortably on the couch. "Oh…you're saying you want to go…mingle. That sounds…fun."

"Um…yeah! Don't you want a looker to help you steal Aurora's thunder on Splatfest night? I'm sure you could find a total freak to throw you around a little bit, like you said the other day." Bella offered with a wink.

"Ehh…maybe, but that means I would have to go out and interact. Socially. With octos I haven't met before." Ula shuddered with each of those statements, as if she were disgusted by the mere thought of them. "Plus, we know you're just gonna steal the spotlight from us. If I had a coin for every dude that tried to pick you up back in Octo Valley, we certainly wouldn't be living in this shithole right now."

"It just takes confidence, Ula. That's all. I mean…yeah, it's obviously easier when most guys seem to find you attractive, but even if you average a five-out-of-ten, you can get boys to eat out of your hand simply by taking ownership of your appearance. And, of course, if you really wanna turn up the heat on them, it never hurts to use your body to your advantage, as long as you understand your own limits." Bella explained. She maintained eye-contact with Ula to get the seriousness of her point across, and to her surprise, Ula kept her undivided attention on her in return. Ula was typically dismissive about everything that wasn't related to seaweed, so it spoke volumes to Bella to see her so invested in her advice.

At the end of her friend's short spiel, Ula gave a huff through her nose. "I wear thick, black clothes for a reason, Bella. I don't give octos much to look at."

"Oh please, Ula, you are a goddess. You gotta start believing that for yourself." Bella cooed, causing Ula to turn away and give a hearty snort. "And I think black looks sexier on you than the rest of us combined. Tell you what…let's go to Arowana Mall together later today. We can grab you some black clothes that show off your curves a bit more, and then we can try our luck finding mates for tomorrow night! How does that sound?"

While Bella was giving this suggestion, Ophelia trekked back into the room on her way to the shower. "Just make sure to take it easy on the spending, girls. I don't wanna have to cut back next month, and I'm sure I'm not just speaking for myself."

Bella ignored her warning. "What about you, 'Lia? Wanna come vibe with us at Arowana Mall today?"

Ophelia stopped at the bedroom doorframe for a moment. She shook her head. "No can do, ladies. I gotta work today. The Grizz needs his sparkly salmon eggs, and I need money to keep this roof over our heads. You know how it goes."

"Aww, damn. Well…maybe you'll at least find some hot coworkers to flirt with!" Bella grinned hopefully.

Ophelia simply chuckled. "Nah, I ain't got the game for that. I'll be rootin' for you gals, though!"

The placid octo didn't stick around for long after that, retreating back into the bedroom to take a shower and prepare for her shift out on the oceanfront later that morning. Bella's eyes returned to Ula after Ophelia's egress. Ula's focus, likewise, was still on her, having never left during Ophelia's brief passage. As soon as the room was returned to them, she gave a sigh and met Bella's gaze directly.

"You drive a hell of a bargain. Fine, I'm in."

Bella beamed from ear-to-ear. Ula could feel a bit of her exuberance from her spot a few feet away. "I think you're gonna have a good time, Ula. Just don't let yourself overthink."


All three of the girls decided to start their day around lunchtime, for various reasons. Obviously, none of them were keen on leaving the apartment too early in the morning, especially after waking up in ways they had not intended. Ophelia, grateful for Mr. Grizz's generous open-schedule policy, opted to give herself a slow, leisurely morning before heading to the docks to grind out the rest of her day. As for Bella and Ula, their plans were dictated by the day's venue schedule, which they had caught from Off the Hook's morning broadcast before turning off the TV. Arowana Mall was poised to host battles for the entire afternoon, with turf wars transitioning to Clam Blitz skirmishes at the start of the evening. The abundance of activity was almost certain to attract plenty of onlookers, increasing the girls' chances of scoring a flirt session with an octo boy or two.

Knowing they would be changing into different clothes at some point, Ophelia and Ula chose to don their usual outfits before departing. Bella did the same thing, in fact, but only because she already felt confident in her ability to win suitors without the help of a special ensemble. Ula resented her slightly for her cockiness in the matter, as she had a few times before after witnessing some of her flirty "encounters," but since Bella was going to be helping her land a date this time around, she found it easier to shrug off.

The trio left the apartment at the same time, with the intent of traveling to Inkopolis Square together before going their separate ways. Ophelia locked the door behind them on their way out. Since she was in possession of their only apartment key, she promised Bella and Ula that she would arrive back home before them to prevent them from having to sit on their doorstep all evening. That, of course, depended on them spending an adequate length of time at the mall before returning home, which they were quick to promise their friend in return.

They walked about as far as the metro station, chatting idly amongst themselves while absorbing the late-morning atmosphere of their district on Splatfest Eve. They were continuously amazed by the bulging population of the city around them, which, from the repeated uptick of squids and octos sharing the sidewalks with them, was more plainly evident than ever before. Even Eight's apartment building, which had come into view across the street from a few hundred feet away, spewed tenants from its doors at a steady rate. Bella and Ula paid close attention to this upon reaching the station itself, wondering to themselves if they were going to see Aurora or Eight step into the sunlight among the fray. Alas, they did not seem to have the right timing. Considering Aurora's current standing with them, though, it was probably for the best.

With that, the girls collectively decided to super-jump to the square together, an obvious choice over dealing with the shoulder-to-shoulder cram that was likely to plague the metro until sundown. Alongside handfuls of cephalopods with the same idea, they morphed into their octo forms nearly simultaneously and, after a brief pause, propelled themselves through the air at breakneck speeds, their sights honed on the landing pad at the center of Inkopolis Square. It was never the smoothest experience, especially when having to aim the jump to avoid colliding in the sky and flopping onto a random skyscraper, but it was infinitely better than having to deal with alternative transportation on the second-busiest day of the year.

Bella was the first to land on the ground, as gracefully as was possible with the force exerted. Ula and Ophelia landed immediately after her in much the same way. Just moments after making their arrival, the trio gave a large gasp at the eye-popping spectacle that was Inkopolis Square on the day before the Splatfest.

To the girls' astonishment, the city's most ravenous hotspot was now under an active transformation. Little-known to them, except from what had been briefly mentioned in Off the Hook's broadcast earlier that morning, the battle tower was newly becoming the first piece of a frantic puzzle that would rapidly come together over the next twenty-four hours to form the ultimate Ground Zero for the biggest party of the year. Unlike what the girls had seen the day before, the entrance to the tower was now overcast by an extended ledge, supported by beams that spanned the underside of its circumference. Atop the new ledge sat a plethora of premium-looking musical equipment, including a synth keyboard, a portable mixing station, a microphone stand, and a giant grid of bass speakers. The familiar grand monitor that had always adorned the front face of the tower was now enhanced on all sides by pristine, crystalline banners, sporting diamond designs that struck their eyes and brought the whole ensemble to a new level. The changes were absolutely dazzling, and that was before even considering the rest of the square.

"Wow…" Ula muttered in shock. "…holy shit…"

"Oh, it's starting to get real now! Ain't it, girls?" Bella spouted eagerly. The excitement in her voice was supported by jumpy body language that truly exemplified her jubilance for the upcoming event.

Ophelia simply stared at the grandiose setup with an intrigued expression. "Damn, I can't believe they managed to put all of that together so quickly. That's impressive!"

The trio began walking in the direction of the tower to clear space on the landing pad, which was still receiving numerous arrivals with each passing moment. The square was already more crowded than the octos had ever seen before, and at the current rate, there was no telling how busy it would get by the time the midday broadcast rolled around. From what they could see, the majority of the squids and octos filling the street seemed to be either standing in line for a Splatfest t-shirt or waiting beneath the newly-constructed stage for an opening in the battle tower. Inkopolis, as the evidence continued to reveal, would absolutely not rest until the Splatfest's conclusion.

"It is impressive, and it doesn't even look like they've finished building everything yet! Just imagine what this place is gonna look like tomorrow!" Bella exclaimed with an oversized grin on her face.

"Pssh…I'm almost afraid of the square becoming a health hazard tomorrow. We're gonna show up here and have heart attacks from the atmosphere before we can even dance to the music." Ophelia mused, shaking her head.

"Who cares, we'll each have two more!" Bella rebutted. "If anything's gonna kill me tomorrow, it's gonna be my hunky date accidentally biting my neck during foreplay."

"Alright, Bella, chill the fuck out. It's a Splatfest, not an orgy." Ula grumbled, rolling her eyes and shaking off a disturbed tingle that had formed at the base of her spine.

"That depends on who you ask!" Bella winked. "Besides, with something like 'Looks versus Personality' as the theme this year, everyone is gonna be looking for opportunities to get raunchy with their dates. Well…everyone on Team Looks, at least."

"How do you know? When did you suddenly become the expert on Splatfests?" Ula quipped.

Bella opened her mouth to answer her friend and keep the somewhat strange debate going, but just then, the girls passed by the entrance to Flow's hat shop. The shop almost went unnoticed by the traveling trio, thanks to the overwhelming quantity of inklings and octolings coating the sidewalks. The girls even saw some of the square's visitors carrying their friends around in their squid and octo forms to save space, and in cramped areas like the shop entrances, the occurrence was actually quite common.

Ignoring these sights completely, as well as the response Bella was about to give, Ula suddenly perked up and pointed her finger at the hat shop.

"Hey, 'Lia, look! Time for a detour, eh? How 'bout it?" She pleaded.

Ophelia glanced reflexively in the direction of Ula's finger, but she caught herself as soon as she recognized the place they were passing. She shook her head. "We ain't got the money for that right now, Ula. That's part of why I'm putting in work for the Grizz today. If my coworkers and I can pull a good haul, I'll use the bonus to buy us more seaweed. Otherwise…we may have to wait until after the Splatfest to have another smoke."

She did not need to repeat herself. As soon as the first part of the rejection had rolled off her tongue, Ula's outstretched arm dropped back to her side, and her head fell to the ground in front of her. Knowing that their lack of goodies was her own fault, she didn't mope nor carry on about being turned down, but her disappointment was still evident in her body language. Ophelia frowned slightly upon seeing this, feeling bits of sympathy for her despondent companion. Bella, on the other hand, stared straight ahead and ignored the display as the trio continued to approach the battle tower, the alleyway on the left of which housed Mr. Grizz's humble consulting outlet.

The transition from the bustling, decorated environment of the square to that of Mr. Grizz's infamous alleyway was stark. In all the time the girls had spent in the city since their big exodus, they could never figure out just how the mysterious, gruff-sounding employer managed to hold down a location so close to the most expensive avenue of the entire coastal area. Ophelia knew Mr. Grizz much better than her friends did, and even she couldn't understand how his salmon egg business could be so lucrative. Whatever it was, it paid their rent, so she never bothered to pry.

The girls stepped around the inklings and octolings that loitered against the surrounding buildings until they reached the outlet's entrance, where staticky radio music could be heard spilling into the alleyway. Ophelia separated herself from her friends and took a few steps toward the open doors before turning around and facing them one last time. Bella smiled at her, while Ula squinted to catch a better look at the stacks of crates and computer monitors that littered the interior of the outlet behind her friend.

"Well, 'Lia, enjoy your shift. Wish you were able to spend your Splatfest Eve having fun like the rest of us!" Bella sighed.

"Who says work can't be fun?" Ophelia shrugged. "Sometimes there's beauty in the grind. Gives me a sense of purpose to be the breadwinner for y'all."

Ula cackled slightly. "More like the weedwinner, am I right? Couldn't live without you, 'Lia."

Ophelia grinned and shook her head, charmed once again by her favorite little free-loader. Now that everything was in order, it was time for her to depart into the outlet to change into her uniform and receive her dock assignment. She waved to Bella and Ula, who waved fervently back at her before watching her turn around and dip into the store, disappearing around the corner in less than a few seconds. Just like that, they were on their own, and the next leg of their journey could officially begin.

"So, Ula…" Bella began deviously, turning slowly in place to present the drug-craving octo with her aroused expression. "…are you ready to go consummate our standing on Team Looks?"

Ula stared blankly at her, unsure of how to interpret the weird energy she was giving off. Her friend seemed…deeply excited to get the show on the road.

"Uh…whatever you say. Lead the way."


Arowana Mall, a cultural epicenter rivaling the likes of Inkopolis Square itself, presented its visitors with a backdrop much resembling the loaded sidewalks of The Reef, with towering buildings, miles of perimeter roadways, and mighty blimps sporting the logos of various big-name clothing brands. While The Reef enjoyed the density of its district and the proximity of Wahoo World as means to bolster its unrelenting population, Arowana Mall had the advantage of residing just a couple blocks north of the square, making the battle tower a commanding presence in its horizon, and allowing the booming hangout to accommodate more shoppers than its many businesses could even handle. Every day, hundreds of free-spirited squids and octos took pleasure in walking to the mall from the square, reveling in the city's temperate climate while carrying themselves to yet another one of its premier hangouts.

Bella and Ula could've done this themselves, but they were not exactly the most patient individuals. Bella, especially, was too absorbed in the enthralling prospect of capturing a Splatfest companion to bother walking to their destination. Her thoughts swirled with countless fantasy scenarios for the evening as she morphed into her octo form and blasted towards the mall, landing rapidly before Ula could even realize that she had been left in the dust. Of course, with the mall being so close to the square, Ula was able to arrive and catch up to Bella before falling too far behind. She could only imagine how far her somewhat-delirious friend was going to stretch her before either of them scored a date.

"Oh man, Ula…where should we even start? It looks like half the city is here today."

"Well, yeah. The Splatfest is tomorrow, obviously, so…"

"Exactly, and do you know what that means?" Bella tapped her fingers together as if all the pieces to her maniacal plan were beginning to come together. "It means everyone in this mall today is desperate for a Splatfest date. All these luscious octo boys…they should be nothing but juicy, low-hanging fruit!"

Ula raised an eyebrow. "'Desperate for a date,' huh? You mean as desperate as we are?"

Bella turned to her. "Hey, I am not desperate. I could get any octoling under the Zapfish to bend backwards for me. I'm just biding my time for the perfect-ten to arrive at my doorstep."

"Uhh…I don't think that's a very effective strategy, Bella." Ula countered, rolling her eyes slightly. "You're lucky the guys find you so beautiful, but I still think you should be casting a wider net."

"Look at you, all of a sudden!" Bella cooed. She strolled up to Ula and placed her hand gently on her shoulder, grinning nonchalantly. Ula frowned crudely back at her. "I appreciate your concern, Ula, but I'll be alright. If you remember, I'm actually here to help you find a date, yeah?"

"You don't have one either, though, and you've been out a lot more than me since the Splatfest was announced." Ula mentioned with a huff.

"Listen, if my goal was to grab a boy of any shape and size to take to the Splatfest, I would've found one already. I am simply a queen that likes to be picky with her subjects. You don't need to be a catch to land a date, but if you do happen to be a catch, you might as well wait to fetch the best date your looks can get you!" Bella's grin remained on her face, the cockiness of which caused Ula to scowl internally.

"Fine then, don't let me get in your way. I'm not a 'queen' like you are, so let's just get to putting some better clothes on my body to help improve my chances."

"Have you forgotten what I told you earlier? You're not a queen, Ula, you are a goddess. When it comes to clothes, I think you'll find that you can do more with less." Bella paused for a moment to allow her friend's self-esteem to marinate in the compliments for a few moments. In her pause, she noticed a few subtle changes to Ula's expression, which grew to exemplify a bit of…uneasiness.

"Um…how little are we talking? Like I said earlier, Bella…this is a Splatfest, not an orgy."

Bella guffawed. "And like I said earlier, Ula, that depends on who you ask. You even said yourself that you wanted an octo who could throw you around a little bit!" She paused a second time, but Ula's expression did not change. "Look, I'm not calling for anything crazy, so don't worry. Just some thinner leggings, a crop-top, and a push-up bra, and you should be off to the races! Sound good?"

It took quite a bit of time for Ula to respond, which was unusual, given her typical blunt nature. She sighed quietly and bit her lip, staring soulfully at Bella through her concealing shades. "Okay. I'm trusting you a lot for this, though. Don't give me a reason not to."

"Veemo!" Bella exclaimed, her cocky grin morphing into one of delight. "You know me, I would never try to steer you the wrong way. Once you catch your new look in the mirror for the first time, you'll thank me. Just watch."

At the end of her spiel, Bella swung around on one foot and commenced her stroll through the bustling crowd. Ula was quick to follow her, knowing damn well that her chances of finding a date for the Splatfest rested entirely on her smug, ponytailed friend's shoulders. She could tell that Bella was not in a hurry of any sort, as her departure from the landing pad seemed rather slow and relaxed.

The girls walked along a ridge that overlooked the length of the mall's linear-shaped arena, with roughly an equal distance between the two teams' spawning platforms. Thanks to the roaring popularity of ink-based sports within the city, it was common for the big hotspots to place landing pads near their respective splatting arenas. After all, in as little as thirty hours, hundreds of eager squids and octos were going to be flocking to Arowana Mall in droves, along with every other arena in the greater Inkopolis region, specifically to spectate intense, emotionally charged turf-war battles. Bella and Ula were already experiencing a hint of this pent-up excitement in the frantic mobs of onlookers that were clogging the railing along the edge of the ridge. They could certainly hear the events of the current, ongoing turf war loud and clear through the crowds, but they could not see any of them.

Ula's eyes were constantly scanning the area as they walked, glaring cynically at nearly every one of her fellow mall-goers. "There are a lot of inklings around here…"

"Arowana Mall can be a mixed bag sometimes." Bella replied idly. "But don't worry, there are plenty of octos here too. You just gotta know where to look."

Bella kept her leisurely stride as she led the two of them to a fork in the walkway and turned left, directing them away from the ridge between the adjacent shop buildings. Mall-goers still lined the sidewalk in good numbers, and as the girls traveled farther away from the arena, they observed an increasing frequency of shopping bags hanging from the denizens' arms. Likewise, the prevalence of weapons fastened to denizens' backs seemed to decrease.

Seeing the trend as they went, Bella held her hand out in front of her. "Y'see, these are the folks that came to Arowana to trade glances. The crowd back there only came here to scream and watch ink fly."

Ula surveyed as many of the passing shoppers as she could, due partially to her natural wariness, but also to a budding curiosity of the fashion scene. She did, in fact, notice an increase in the number of octolings since escaping the landing pad, though it was still clear that the streets of Arowana Mall were mostly dominated by inklings.

"I see quite a few couples around too." She grumbled, throwing her hands in her pockets. "Looks like much of the scene is already snatched up."

Bella scoffed slightly. "That's funny, because I'm looking at groups of singles almost everywhere I turn. This place seems to be teeming with them."

"…How can you tell that they're single?" She raised a brow behind her shades.

"Ula, Ula, Ula…who's gonna be out here in public without their dates the day before the Splatfest? Any octo I see that isn't visibly gluing themselves to another octo is getting marked as single to me."

Ula, once again, scowled at her friend's flamboyant flair. Were she not intrigued by the direction of their outing so far, and somewhat appreciative of Bella for trying to prop her up, she would've ceased tolerating getting subtly derogated by her rhetoric. Nonetheless, when she trailed her eyes up and down the street one more time…she could admit to seeing a decent count of octo boys with wandering eyes not much unlike Bella's and her own.

"Aren't you gonna go after someone? We all know the drill by now…it's not like they're gonna say no." She queried.

Bella turned her head and glanced at Ula while she walked, giving her a cheeky grin that, like many of her friend's grins, kinda got under her skin. "I could ask you the same question! If any guy you see happens to catch your eye, Ula…don't be afraid to make the first move. As for me…I just haven't found one yet."

"Are none of these guys good enough for you?"

"Hey now, when you put it that way, it makes me sound kind of stuck-up, doesn't it? But…yes, I would say that I'm looking for something better."

Ula shook her head. "Suit yourself. The best ones were probably taken days ago."

"Enough about me, I'll shoot my shot when the time comes." Bella waved her hand dismissively. "We're at a mall, so…aside from the splatting arena back there, shops and restaurants are the only places for folks like us to collect and hang out. With that in mind, let's get our asses into one and start browsing some fresh looks for you!"

The restless octo took a sudden turn toward the other side of the street in pursuit of a mid-sized department store that had appeared in her view, forcing Ula to stumble in her quest to keep up. Despite maintaining a calm pace in order to appear laid-back, she knew that her posture couldn't quite compare to Bella's. Bella knew what they had come to the mall for, and her focused demeanor made the fact known to Ula.

Upon reaching the entrance, next to which several octos were loitering, Bella eagerly threw open the door and ushered her friend inside. Ula was presented with a relatively open shopping space, adorned with plenty of shelves containing a gaping variety of clothing types. Rather than organizing the clothing types into different areas of the store, the items appeared to be arranged in sets, with matching merchandise residing near each other beneath a couple of mannequins.

Throughout the store, inklings and octolings alike explored their options, chatting amongst themselves with a Splatfest-Eve zest that filled the duo's ears as they took in the environment. Bella nodded in approval, her smirk growing wider as she looked around. Ula put her hands on her hips.

"Can't remember the last time I stood in a place like this…" She uttered.

"Couldn't have been that long ago, girl." Bella replied. "We haven't exactly been living here that long."

"Alright, alright." Ula griped. "Now, what am I supposed to be looking for here? You're the one with the money. And…I guess…the fashion sense."

Bella clapped her hands together and rubbed her palms, scheming her pessimistic friend's imminent rise to freshness. "Isn't it obvious? We're looking for something your body can actually breathe in. Preferably something summery, because summer means skin, and skin means boys."

"You couldn't drop a boy in my lap right now to wear something summery, Bella. We're gonna have to draw the line somewhere." Ula bluntly stated.

"Hey…I can still work with that." Bella yielded, putting her hands up. "Gotta get rid of that thick leather thing you wear, though, unless you're trying to woo a biker dude. Just follow my lead, and we'll have you transformed in no time."

Ula took an uneasy breath as she began to follow Bella further into the store, tailing her closely on the official introduction to their retail adventure. All the while, she kept her jittery thoughts concealed behind her usual, lethargic expression. Never had she considered changing her appearance a second time after her initial move to the city, especially in a manner that would expose more of her octoling physique. Her dependence on Bella's judgement was stronger than ever at this point, much to her discomfort.

As the pair walked the linoleum floors of the department store, their eyes darting around in search of an eye-popping mannequin, Ula began to notice a few gazes from the corners of her vision. She glanced warily at each one of them, taking advantage of the subtlety her shades gave her.

"Ooh, right over here!" Bella exclaimed after a moment, pointing somewhere ahead of them. "I see a lot of dark colors in those collections. Perfect place to start, huh?"

Ula nodded and turned back to her friend. "Uhh…sure, now you're speaking my language."

"Looks like the Tentatek section. I bet some of that shit would fit you like a glove…"

Bella power-walked her way over to the shelves and promptly began scanning everything on display, leaving Ula to saunter up to her a few seconds later. Running her finger along each item as she went, she hastily assessed the various colors and styles of the collection while stealing several glances at Ula to imagine them on her figure. Ula watched her intently in the meantime, noticing how quickly she seemed to skip over items that looked too baggy or wintery. Once again, she sucked in an uneasy breath and let it out in a sigh.

"I thought Tentatek was a Splattershot brand." Ula noted idly, scratching her temple. "They make clothes too?"

"C'mon, even I know that Splattershots are just their side-gig. Most of the Tentatek shit I've seen around the city is pretty bright-colored, but it looks like a lot of the stuff in this collection is closer to what you'd enjoy." Bella mentioned in reply. Almost immediately after saying this, her face lit up, and she scurried around to the other side of the adjacent mannequins. "These leggings, for instance, you gotta come see these!"

Ula raised an eyebrow. Reluctantly, she stepped around to the row of shelves that were currently under Bella's scrutiny. A part of her expected to find ultra-thin, translucent fabrics when she glanced down at the folded items, knowing Bella's recent insistence on the girls using their bodies to get their way. However, when she examined the first few displayed variants of Tentatek's take on legwear, she wasn't immediately turned off by what she saw.

"Hmm…" She droned, taking off her shades for a closer look. "…interesting. Do these have…tears in them? It looks almost like someone wore them already."

"Exactly, that's what you're paying for! Both fresh and rebellious at the same time, and it shows off a little bit without going overboard. Tell me I'm not right." Bella beamed in her usual, alluring way.

"…They do look kinda fresh…"

"You girls need help finding anything?" A male voice suddenly piped up behind them. Bella and Ula instantly stopped what they were doing and turned around, surprised to see a pair of octo boys dressed head-to-toe in Toni Kensa's latest lineup, each sporting a rather inviting gleam in their eye. "Assuming that you're…here with a goal in mind, that is?"

Bella gave her visitors a brief once-over. She didn't answer the guy right away, as she needed to take a moment to decide whether he and his friend were gonna be worth her time. Ula, on the other hand, recognized the boys from a few minutes prior, when they had been checking her and Bella out from afar. She glared at them a little more intently, observing their body language and somewhat pretentious fashion sense. Unlike Bella, she didn't mind the pure black-and-white of their outfits, and from the way the boys carried themselves, she could easily tell that they meant business. They each had the apparent freshness of an S+, at minimum: something Ula considered far out of her league.

Bella's skepticism also began to diminish as she took notice of the boys' dapper hairstyles and, in spite of their snooty attire, attractively smooth confidence. Her jaw slightly opening, she let her gaze travel up and down their figures a second time before glancing back at Ula. Ula returned the favor, leaving both of them in a brief, awkward state of silence. The boys stood patiently, their smiles growing as they found amusement in the girls' faltering response.

"Uh…I don't know, Ula. Do we need help finding anything?" She uttered, sending her friend a clear signal.

Ula glanced repeatedly between Bella and their potential dates. To her, everything had happened too quickly. She hadn't been expecting anyone to make the first move on her during her outing, let alone so early into it. Swallowing a nervous lump that had formed in her throat, she looked back at the boys and tried to imagine herself at the mercy of either of them, arriving before the raving Splatfest crowds in Inkopolis Square as a proud, powerful Team Looks couple. It was difficult for her to pick a favorite.

The boys, however, seemed to be paying a bit more attention to Bella than they were to her. Before she could give her response, the second octo boy cut into the exchange with his eyes also on her ponytailed companion.

"I'd say you could use some help! A fresh slice of veemo like you shouldn't be wasting her potential on such a loose-fitting jersey."

"That's what I'm sayin', it's like you chose to protect your fellow octos from slippin' in their own drool!" The first boy added, biting the side of his finger as he checked her out further. "Mm…you look like you would know how to handle a Goo-Tuber…"

"I'm actually a lot better with dualies." Bella teased with a lidded expression, glancing between the boys' trousers and flexing her eyebrows. She was an expert at flipping her provocative rhetoric on and off like a light switch, and the boys' lustful attitudes had presented her with the perfect opportunity.

Both of the boys howled at her innuendo, signaling to Bella that she had hit her mark. The first boy craned his head back and let out a whistle. "Hooo boy, you sure don't mess around, little miss. We're forming a Looks squad that would be a perfect fit for you. What do you say?"

The second boy crossed his arms in front of him and fervently nodded his head in approval. "Hell yeah, she's a dirty little mollusk!"

Ula watched the flirty interaction happening before her with increasing dissatisfaction. She was beginning to feel certain that, despite them having addressed both the girls when they first walked up, the boys were interested solely in Bella and not her. She wasn't surprised by the fact, to an extent, but it still hurt to have her hopes dashed after a seemingly promising double-date invitation.

It was true, however, that she hadn't managed to break her silence at all since the boys had approached them. Therefore, she figured she would at least speak up and test her theory before throwing in the towel.

"I get to join too, right? I do know my way around a blaster, y'know." She eyed the boys directly and lowered her shades, giving them a taste of her intent. "They're much bigger than dualies."

Bella smiled at Ula, delighted to see her coming out of her shell with her own tease. The boys, on the other hand, did not seem as impressed by it. As Ula continued to eye the two of them with everything on the table, the second octo boy gave her nothing more than a dismissive glance, while the first one sank her spirits by eliciting a demeaning chuckle.

"Squad's full now, sweetheart. We already got a third guy back at the square who would love to meet your crazy hot friend here." He sneered. "If you can't wait up, though, we could let you join as our attendant!"

The second boy snickered at his snide remark, while Ula appeared to absorb the rejection without reacting. She continued to glare at Bella's admirers for a few more seconds, unmoving, before returning her shades to her face and assuming an upright stance. She placed her hands on her hips.

"Alright, fuck you, then." She finally spat, turning her head to the side. "You don't know what you're missing."

The first boy smirked, producing a vape pen from his pocket and powering it on with no regard for the department store's policy. "No need to worry about us. With Miss Dualie-Expert here on our team, we're gonna have a Splatfest you couldn't pay for."

"Okay, let's slow down for a second." Bella cut in, stealing the spotlight back from their rude visitors. "First of all, unless there's seaweed in that pen, y'all just dropped from a seven to…like…a five. Also, Miss Blaster-Expert here is my friend, and the baddest bitch in the entire city, so don't think I'm just gonna let you toss her aside like that and snatch me up in the same stride. If it's a gangbang you want, then we come as a set. You take either both of us, or neither of us."

"C'moooon, no need to be like that…" He drawled, taking a pause to bring the pen to his face for a hit. While doing so, he checked out both girls' features another time, still captivated by Bella's charm and unfriendly to the idea of letting her slip away. "…I dunno, dude, what do you think?"

The second octo boy scratched his chin for a moment before nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders. "Meh, I mean…It's more action, ain't it?"

"Alright, fine then. So be it." The first boy declared rather quickly. He traded glances with both the girls.

"Wait…you'll take us both?" Ula babbled in surprise.

"Sure, whatever. Two is better than one, I suppose, and you girls seem like you're gonna be wild to have together." He asserted, sounding slightly inconvenienced to have Ula haggled back into the deal, but willing to do it for his Splatfest intentions.

Bella flashed the boys two thumbs-up and gave them a fake grin that lasted about two seconds. "How kind of you fellas! Unfortunately, Ula and I are officially not interested. Beat it."

Both the boys blinked a few times, not expecting the sassy octo's sudden curveball. The second boy's cheeky grin seemed to disappear for the first time since the pair had approached them. Even Ula turned to give Bella a curious look.

"You're turning…us down? After all that wicked banter earlier?" The first boy uttered. He and the second boy looked over at each other like deer in each other's headlights.

"Yep. The clothes, the vape, the attitude…none of that is doing it for me. No wonder you kids are still searching." Bella retorted, dismissing the duo with a simple hand-wave. "Thank you, but…next."

"Pfft, wow…" The first boy scoffed. With a light shake of his head, he turned his back on the girls and ambled off, prompting the second boy to follow him a moment thereafter. As the second boy followed his friend to another part of the store in the distance, he flashed them a petty middle finger.

Bella and Ula both watched the boys' exeunt without a flicker of care in their hearts for the send-off they had just received. If anything, the gesture had only served to cement the soundness of Bella's judgement in steering the girls away from them. However, in the wake of the tactless octos' disparaging remarks towards her, Ula felt strangely at fault for the bitter way in which everything had gone down.

"Bella…"

"They weren't worth it." Bella stated, still staring in the direction of their departure. "I had my bar set way higher than them from the very beginning."

"Ah, got it." Ula glanced at the ground. "Though, at first, you did seem…kinda…"

"Ehhh, I was mostly just testing the waters with that 'dualie' talk earlier. I was already turned off when they tried to push you out of the picture, and then that guy had to go whip out a damn juicer…" Bella remarked, shuddering.

Ula grinned slightly, but the expression didn't last long. Stuffing her hands in her pockets, she stared down at the torn leggings she had been eyeing earlier and let out a huff. "Y'know, if I'm being real…I really don't think I would've wanted to join a gangbang. The sound of it is…just…"

"Don't worry, Ula, I know. Showing up on a Splatfest-after-dark website was never my intention either." Bella assured. "I'd still like to get lucky for my first Splatfest, don't get me wrong…but it's not like I'd have room to enjoy myself if my face is stuffed with three other octos."

"Yeesh…thank you for that imagery. Not getting that out of my head anytime soon." Ula grumbled.

Bella giggled at her comment, which worked nicely to ease the tension that had arisen from the boys' visit. Ula glanced back up at her friend from behind her shades and grinned again, this time with more fervor. The girls shared a lighthearted moment while they stood beside the Tentatek shelves in the wake of the incident, shaking off the stresses of boy-hunting with a good laugh. To Ula, perhaps getting out and seeing the town a bit before the Splatfest wasn't so bad. As long as she had friends by her side, that was.

"So, anyway, how about we get back to what we were doing?" Bella offered with renewed gusto. She reached over to the shelf and picked up the folded pair of ripped leggings. Then, as Ula watched with interest, she unfolded them and held them out in front of her for a toast. "To Splatfests, not orgies?"

Ula beamed brightly at the offer, probably for the first time since Ophelia had arrived at the canal with the bong the other day. To Bella's surprise, instead of grabbing a second pair of leggings with which to return the toast, she took off her leather jacket and held it up against the leggings instead, leaving her stained undershirt exposed to the open air.

"To Splatfests, not orgies!"


Ophelia's dock assignment was not one she had been hoping for, but it certainly wasn't the worst one in the city either, at least in her opinion. After changing into her slop suit and stuffing her day clothes in one of the outlet's available lockers, a jellyfish wearing an orange Grizzco polo pointed her on the map to a jump pad that was located just shy of the peninsula off the western outskirts of downtown Inkopolis. Ophelia had already launched from that port several times in the past, and she knew that the dinghy posted there would transport her and her coworkers to the infamous Spawning Grounds for their afternoon of hazardous egg-fetching.

The jellyfish also slapped one of its wriggly arms against a clipboard that was sitting face-up on the counter, prompting her to look down at it and see that she was the last worker joining her crew. Realizing that her coworkers must've already been waiting for her at the dock, she wasted no time in rushing outside, morphing into her octo form, and blasting herself back into the sky. The squids and octos sitting nearby in the shade of the alleyway watched her as she disappeared, completely indifferent to the familiar, daily operations of Grizzco Industries.

It was a rather long jump to get all the way out to the dock from the heart of the city, so Ophelia had to catch her breath for a moment after arriving on the landing pad. As usual, the weather was much drearier on the side of the bay they were launching from, but the sedulous octo knew from experience that their shift wasn't going to get rained out. The Grizz knew the weather better than the best reporters in Inkopolis, after all, so the simple fact that she had been assigned to this spot was all the assurance she needed.

Adjusting her hard hat and her earpiece as she went, Ophelia marched up the dock to where the boat was waiting and caught sight of her three coworkers, all leaning against various support posts. They didn't seem to be interacting with each other much, presumably as they were psyching themselves up for their high-risk excursion to one of the city's most notorious salmonid-migration spots. From what she could see as she approached, her colleagues consisted of two inklings, a boy and a girl, and an octoling boy.

All three of them glanced up at her on her way towards them, allowing her to see their faces and get her first impressions of who she would be working with. The octo boy looked rather friendly to her, returning her gaze with a relieved smile after seeing that she was, in fact, an octoling like him. The inklings, on the other hand, seemed to have the opposite reaction to her arrival. As she made her way up to the group and introduced herself with a gentle wave, the stuck-up squids each rolled their eyes and turned their heads elsewhere. The octo boy, of course, waved back eagerly and flashed his teeth.

Ophelia wondered, silently to herself, why her luck seemed to be so poor with inklings lately. In order to get her job done, though, she knew she had to get along with them. She was about to open her mouth and break the silence by offering the group a proper greeting, but as soon as she reached the end of the dock, her earpiece suddenly came to life. Everyone else's earpieces did the same, causing their stances to shift as they gave their attention to the faceless voice of the boss-man himself.

"Good, you made it. I almost sent the crew out without you." Mr. Grizz commented in his distinct, throaty voice. "Alright, everyone, hurry up and get in the boat. We're on a tight schedule here."

The octo boy was standing closest to the boat, so he turned around and threw himself onboard as soon as the order was given. The inkling pair boarded close behind him, and to Ophelia's surprise, she saw the boy laugh and slap the girl squarely on the ass while she was pulling herself over the side of the hull. Ophelia expected the girl to be agitated from it, but rather, she gave the boy a puffed-up look and slugged him playfully on the shoulder. From this, Ophelia could gather that her inkling coworkers had probably hooked up for the Splatfest. As long as they were productive on the job, she figured, their public displays of affection wouldn't be a big deal.

The boat engine roared to a start just as the inklings were making it over the hull, before Ophelia had even moved from her spot. She had been deliberately giving the inklings extra space to board in order to avoid any confrontations, but once the sound of the engine hit her ears, she kicked into gear and scrambled towards the bobbing vessel. Placing her hands on the rim of the boat and hoisting herself up, she swung her legs around and managed to plant her feet on the dock just as the boat had started to move. The sudden, premature movement of the boat caused her to stumble and throw her weight against the wall of the cabin to avoid falling over.

Now that they were in motion, leaving the shoreline that had just hosted them drifting steadily into the distance, Mr. Grizz was quick to begin briefing the crew on their shift. Ophelia's earpiece woke up yet again while she was still regaining her bearings from her rough departure.

"Welcome back to Grizzco, everybody. I've seen most of your faces at least once before, so I trust that you know how this works." He began, going as lightly on the formalities as Ophelia had always remembered. "Your weapons are located in the cooler by the stern of the vessel. Anchorage at the Spawning Grounds will be in ten minutes, sharp, so I am expecting full super-jump readiness by that time."

Ophelia realized that she happened to be standing near the stern. Upon hearing the start of their briefing, she turned to her side and noticed the weapon cooler a few feet away, looking as enticing as ever. Part of the fun of working as an egg-runner for Grizzco was the "lottery" aspect of receiving the assigned weapons, since the Grizz didn't seem to have the logistical means in his company to assign the same ones consistently. Ophelia's weapon was always different in every shift she worked, and sometimes, she would even get the privilege to bear a Grizzco-exclusive arm with powerful mods and an even more powerful appearance. As she stepped briskly up to the cooler and placed her hands on the latch, eyeing it desirously, she pictured what it would be like to see it filled with Grizzco chargers and sloshers.

Mr. Grizz was still speaking into their earpieces, but naturally, once the weapon cooler had been mentioned, everyone's attention had promptly shifted to the lottery. Ophelia could already hear the footsteps of her coworkers approaching behind her while she fiddled with the latch and eagerly pulled the box open. Right off the bat, the glitter in her eyes went away when she saw that they had not been given any Grizzco weapons, but once she had a chance to peer around and inspect the crew's options a little more closely, the glitter quickly came back. Their weapon choices consisted of an Undercover Brella, a pair of Tetra Dualies, a Rapid Blaster Pro, and…a Hydra Splatling!

Ophelia gasped with delight and immediately reached into the cooler with both her hands to extract her titanic prize from underneath the smaller weapons. Before she could take hold of the Splatling's handle, however, the inkling boy slapped her hands away and shoved her aside with his hip, causing her to reel over and fall on her ass with a startled cry. Both he and his apparent girlfriend stared down at her with contemptuous glares, while the octo boy put a hand to his face in shock.

"Wait your turn, octo. The missus and I get first dibs." The inkling boy snarled. He reached up to his ear and pushed the small talk-button on his earpiece. "Yo, Grizz, is a Hydra Splatling all you got? These other weapons don't look like they're gonna do shit."

As soon as the inkling boy spoke words to her, a trigger in Ophelia's mind went off. She actually recognized his voice. Thinking her mind was playing tricks on her, she fought her instincts and glanced directly up at the inkling's face while he was looking off in another direction. She studied him for a moment, staring through the transformative appearance of his hard hat and his slop suit. Once she was able to make note of his eye color, and a bit of his hair underneath his hard hat, her hearts sank. It was the Splatling guy, the ringleader of the racist inkling gang that had been tormenting her and her friends. Suddenly, the poor welcome she had received from him and his new girlfriend made perfect sense. Her luck really was bad when it came to inklings.

While Ophelia was making this discovery, Mr. Grizz answered the Splatling guy with an irritated tone. "If you don't like the weapons, feel free to stay in the boat while your coworkers pull the haul for you. Just don't expect a paycheck, kid."

"Hey, weaker weapons means fewer eggs for you, old man. Not sure why you don't invest in some better equipment for your employees." The Splatling guy fired back, clearly unfazed by the possibility of getting blacklisted from Grizzco.

"You try running a business, little squid, and maybe you'll learn to appreciate when things are being given to you." Their gruff boss rasped through their earpieces. "Our premium weapons were handed off to a crew at Lost Outpost just earlier, because they were supposed to face the full brunt of this season's migration head-on. Your task at the Spawning Grounds is to intercept what remains of the wave of salmonids that are moving in from Lost Outpost as we speak."

Mr. Grizz continued to spit more things into their earpieces, most of them directed at the Splatling guy, but Ophelia wasn't hearing any of it. Her mind was still frozen on the revelation that her long afternoon of grinding was about to be made infinitely worse by the worst inkling she and her friends had ever met. His new girlfriend didn't seem like she was going to make matters any better, considering the way she had been death-glaring at Ophelia since her late arrival. The bullied octo couldn't figure out how such a cruel and uncaring squid could attract the likes of anyone in the city, but she had to admit…if his choice of Splatfest team was any indication…it was probably because he was a good lay. Not that she would ever want to know.

"Hey, miss…need a hand?" A voice behind her chirped, cutting off her disturbed thoughts.

Ophelia turned around and looked up, forgetting that she was still sitting on the ground. In doing so, she faced the octo boy, whose arm was held out in front of him. She reached for his hand and graciously accepted his offer. "Oh, yes…thank you."

"I noticed the look you had when you opened that cooler." He mentioned idly as he helped her to her feet. "You looked like a little octopus opening her first ink-shooter on Squidmas morning!"

Ophelia chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck. "Eh, well…it's not often that the Grizz shells out on our weapon assignments. I was just thrilled to see something good for once."

Just then, with rather unfortunate timing, the Splatling guy hoisted the massive Hydra Splatling out of the cooler and swung it around in a quick motion, nearly hitting the two octos. Ophelia's eyes trailed him with quiet envy as he marched past them with the weapon, the smirk on his face making his selfishness ever more apparent to her. His girlfriend followed closely behind him, having just swiped the Tetra Dualies from the box without acknowledging her coworkers. During all of this, the octo boy ignored his inkling colleagues and opted, instead, to study Ophelia's expression.

"You a Splatling girl? You like big weapons?" He asked.

She chuckled again, glancing at the ground. "…Guilty, I suppose. Guess I didn't hide my disappointment too well, huh?"

"No, not at all." He smiled. "I could tell you were interested in that giant piece of metal. It's not for everyone, I must say."

"Yeah…I've always been a back-liner. I like to fight my turf wars the same way I fight my life wars, y'know? From a comfortable, passive perch in the background." She explained, eliciting an impressed look from the octo boy. "That, and…I'm not nearly as nimble as my friends."

He nodded. "Not bad. I can get behind that."

"How about you? You sound like the anchor-type to me as well, if I'm being honest."

"I skirmish, mostly. I like to get in the action, but I also like to feel in control, if that makes sense. Hand me a Sloshing Machine, I'll vibe, but something like an Aerospray?" He scoffed and waved his hand around. "Squelchers are my favorite, though. I could've still vibed with those Tetras in there, but…you know."

Ophelia looked over from him to the cooler with a saddened expression. Neither of the remaining weapons really matched their fighting styles. They both knew, being veterans of the status quo, that disputing the matter with either Grizz or the inklings wasn't going to get them anywhere. While it did seem like the inklings had left the pair with the weakest links in the lineup, one thing was still certain to them. One weapon was definitely better than the other.

"You can have the RBP. I'm cool with the Undercover Brella." The octo boy said dutifully, shortly after giving her his weapon background.

"Hey now, you don't have to do that. Big-weapon girls can still adapt!" She rebutted.

"Ridiculous, of course I do. You said yourself that you're a back-liner, so that blaster would suit you way better than the shitty Brella. You can call it chivalry, but it's also good strategy!" He flexed his eyebrows at the end of his statement, turning away from Ophelia to retrieve the Brella from the cooler before she could react to it.

Ophelia pondered their conversation for a moment, remarking at the octo boy's relatability and polite temperament. Interestingly, his dedication and propensity for planning kind of reminded her of Bella. It was also a stroke of luck that their weapon preferences were so different, as they were both still able to split the lame-duck weapons in the lineup without drifting too far from their comfort zones.

Just as she was about to put her thoughts to rest and step forward to grab the blaster from the cooler, the octo boy turned back around and held it out to her with one hand, having retrieved it for her while he was hunched over it himself. His other hand was now holding the Undercover Brella.

"Oh…thanks!" She babbled.

"Name's Eli, by the way." He stated. He flashed his teeth again, which she didn't fail to notice.

"Ophelia." She answered cordially. "My friends call me 'Lia, and you can too, if you want. Fewer syllables and all."

"Ophelia?" He repeated with awe, letting out a long sigh. "Damn, that sounds great. Haven't met anyone with a name like that before."

"If you're trying to butter me up for the Splatfest, mister…" She grinned, keeping herself and her body language reserved. "…you're gonna have to try harder than that."

He laughed and put his hands up. "Hey now, no one said anything about the Splatfest! I'm just being a friendly neighbor, since you seemed like you could use one. …Good to know where I should be aiming, though."

Having distributed the last of the weapons between himself and Ophelia, Eli reached for the lid of the cooler and flicked it shut. Despite there being much more room to stand over by the bow of the vessel, where the inklings had gone, neither of the octos felt the least bit compelled to walk over there. Eli could tell from everything he had witnessed that the inklings in their crew were no good, and Ophelia, well…she had already seen enough of the Splatling guy prior to being pushed onto the deck by him over a weapon choice. Whether they liked it or not, the boundaries of their upcoming shift had already been drawn for them.

Ophelia grew slightly quieter over the next couple minutes as their boat ride wore on, as she often did in the moments leading up to an egg-running shift. The tranquil, candid life she lived in Inkopolis with her friends was paid for in large part by the stress she endured off these shores for a few afternoons each week. Her performance on the job had a direct effect on the gear she and her friends could buy…or the nutrition they could get in their diets…or the amount of seaweed they could smoke together. She expected the pressure to be especially strong in this particular shift, considering Ula's recent consumption of all of said seaweed, as well as a work crew that was almost certainly destined to go down quickly without much swinging. Thus, as she steadied her mind to the sight of the murky waves drifting by, she stood in silence with her blaster in-hand.

In her silence, however, she could very easily hear the Splatling guy and his girlfriend muttering between themselves over by the front of the boat. She and Eli both took a peek in the inklings' direction and saw them leaning against the boat's outer railing with their thumbs sliding over their phone screens. They seemed to be rather pouty, like they really didn't want to be spending their Splatfest Eve answering to the Grizz alongside a couple of octos, at least until the Splatling guy guffawed at something he was looking at.

"Heh…babe, check out this shit Midas sent me." He held his phone out to his side for her to see.

Ophelia recognized Midas's name when she heard it. He was Aurora's date. Her expression changed as she listened more closely.

A moment passed as the inkling girl leaned toward his phone and examined the screen. In spite of what the intrigued octo was expecting, the sound the girl made was not a laugh, nor a snide remark, nor even a shocked gasp. Rather, it was a disgusted, rebuking scoff.

"Ugh, what a whore!" She exclaimed. "What the hell is a loose bitch like that doing at Albacore Hotel?"

Ophelia raised an eyebrow. At this point, she turned her head slightly in the direction of the inkling pair, her attention fully assigned to their conversation. It wasn't yet clear whether the girl was talking about Aurora, and without the ability to see the Splatling guy's phone for herself, Ophelia doubted she would ever know for sure. Regardless, she began putting all of her energy toward her eavesdropping. Her instincts told her that the girl's remark could not possibly have been directed at Aurora, since Ophelia did not know Aurora to be a whorish type, and the timid octo had also elected to join Team Personality for the Splatfest. If anything, Aurora's date was either going perfectly smoothly, or it was already over after Midas had refused to show up. How could there be an in-between?

The Splatling guy shook his head. "Midas knew that the crowd at Albacore wasn't likely to give that pit-dweller the time of day. But this? Looks like he's getting way more than he bargained for."

"Yeah, she looks so skanky! I feel bad for him…octolings are such a terrible tease." The girl groaned.

"Exactly, and they especially have no business trying to date inklings. I hope the regulars at that hotel teach the little bottom-feeder to stay in her lane." He griped. "Midas could be out there in the city finding himself a real date for the Splatfest…instead he's stuck on that rooftop having to humor her."

Ophelia definitely didn't like the sound of that. She couldn't deny that the inklings' remarks did, in fact, seem likely to be about Aurora. She was pretty sure that Midas had requested Aurora to meet him at the hotel sometime before lunch, so the way she figured, Aurora had to have been at least an hour or two into her date by now. What did she get herself into? Why was the Splatling guy's snobbish girlfriend calling her such names?

"Hey, you good? You got kinda quiet there." Eli cut in.

The sound of his voice shook her out of her trance. She started to answer him, just as their earpieces rang to life once more. "Oh, sorry, um…"

"Look alive, everyone, the Spawning Grounds are approaching along the port side. You all know the drill; super-jump is in less than sixty seconds. No slacking!" The Grizz barked over the wire, killing Ophelia's chance to explain the situation to Eli. The inklings stood up from the railing and shifted towards the launch side of the boat, causing the two octos to slowly begin moving as well.

"Never mind, we can talk more later." He assured her. "For this, let's try to move together and watch each other's backs, because I have a feeling our coworkers won't be doing the same."

"Agreed. I'm trying to have a first-Splatfest that doesn't suck, so my friends and I really need this dough." Ophelia declared wearily in response. She nodded her head once while sharing her gaze directly with Eli.

He grinned. "You and me both, sis."

Right at that moment, the inkling couple morphed into squids and took off from the boat to their workspace a half-minute early, leaving the conversing octos still standing on the deck in preparation for their own jump. They weren't able to for long, however, before the boat horn suddenly sounded around them, blasting their ears with its assaulting volume until they finally flopped into their octo forms and jettisoned themselves toward the Spawning Grounds in pursuit. Ink from the inkling girl's dualies was already covering the ground when the duo made contact, and when they emerged from the mess with their weapons firmly in hand, they put aside their prior conversations and joined her and the Splatling guy in spreading as much turf as possible over the little island before the creatures of the sea came to terrorize them.

Mr. Grizz, who had most likely triggered the boat horn to get Ophelia and Eli to pick up the pace, leveraged a few more of his bells and whistles to summon a large, netted receptacle from beneath a protected hatch in the center of the island. The Splatling guy positioned himself on the raised ledge directly adjacent to it, firing the monstrous Hydra Splatling in all directions to drench the island in ink for easier movement.

"The egg basket is ready and waiting. Don't let me down!" Their grizzly boss ordered.

As Ophelia popped shots from her long-range blaster onto some nearby walls for her coworkers to use as escape routes, her mind remained glued on the stuff she had heard from the Splatling guy and his girlfriend a few moments ago. Aurora liked to look cute, sure, but she was not a "loose bitch," by any stretch of the term. Even when dirty topics would arise amongst the group during their trademark seaweed sessions, Aurora was always the one to get uncomfortable and avoid participating. However, at the same time, her flaky friend also did not understand the concept of restraint, so if her crush for Midas happened to be overwhelming enough, then the sheer thought of what she was capable of made Ophelia shudder. And that was before even considering the fact that she was fending for herself at Albacore Hotel.

Ophelia had said herself that she liked to fight her life wars from a comfortable, passive perch in the background. Unfortunately…sometimes even that was more difficult than she gave it credit for.

To be Continued…

Author's Note: Wow, look at that, I'm not dead! Honestly, after finally closing off a two-year hiatus with this story, I'm not even sure what I want to say. October 1st, 2020 was the last time anyone got to read new content from me, which is something that has plagued my conscience almost every day since. The hiatus began when I entered my final year of college, but ever since then, my life has remained extremely busy and full of huge transitions (graduation, new career, new home, engagement to my fiancee). My writing hobby got hit the hardest…and it's quite sad to think back on.

But right now, I'm super delighted to be writing this note after capping off the pivotal chapter that will lead us into the story's harshest conflicts. While it may have been difficult for me to actually put words-to-screen in the last couple years, don't think for a moment that I ever forgot about this little tale. I've had a lot of time to deliberate over how I want the remainder of the plot to play out, so while I apologize for ending the hiatus on a chapter that only features side-characters, I think the stuff that still awaits is gonna be quite an adventure to read (next chapter is The Date, get hyped)! If you happen to be a loyal reader that has stuck with this story since its inception, thank you so much for your dedication to my humble little project! It means the world to me. :)

And if you're a new reader, probably surfing through fanfics to satisfy that Splatoon 3 itch, welcome! This story may be kind of old, but I hope it still captures the spirit of the Splatlands!

Lastly, even though my Tumblr and Twitter accounts are effectively dead-zones, I still use them exclusively for fanfiction updates, and I'm still continuing with my tradition of uploading an SFM poster to them for each chapter. I did go ahead and create a poster for this chapter, as well, so that can be found over on my Tumblr/Twitter (mikeanthony321) if that sounds intriguing!