As I slowly walk forwards, what I've done truly sets in. "I'm an outcast now, I killed a kid, I don't know if they've found out, and..." I mumble, before I remember something. "Oh! I have my phone on me, I can just check!" I say, before pulling it out, and seeing the big news headlines... "Oh.. there was a camera there, huh..." I say, while looking at my phone, and just looking at the headlines, I already know it's bad. "No tentacle freak kills girl... Unknown species mauls girl after being aggravated... X-Rank player has no tentacles!? Geez, these people are just soo original, huh?" I say while scrolling, not even bothering clicking on the news stories, knowing that they're all the same.
Soon after, as I wander towards Octo valley, I start to think of how I'm going to ration food. "I can't eat it too much, but it's going to bad sooner or later..." I say, while walking towards octo valley. "Aha!" I say, with resting the side of my fist on my palm. "I can sleep more often! Sure, it'll slow me down, but I'll have to eat less!" I say in a stroke of genius. I am a former octarian engineer, but sometimes even my genius scares me. So putting my plan into place, I get to work on a portable shelter, something like a tent, but I don't need anything to hang it up. I suddenly remember That i packed a piece of tarp, a blanket and a pillow, as long as I have a tree, I can sleep.
After wandering for another hour, taking a few light sips of water, I encounter a tree looking over a cliff, that stares over octo canyon, despite it being miles away. "It's... a nice view." I say, while relaxing, setting up a tarp on the tree, and putting down my blanket and pillow. "Heh, good thing I don't roll around in my sleep." I say, before laying down and going to sleep, completely forgetting my tendency to have nightmares...
"Man, being an engineer is hard work, have to come up with all these designs, and then build them." I say, while sitting down with a sandwich in one hand, pencil in the other, and blueprints laid out in front of me. "The last design for ink turrets didn't work, I'll eventually get them down..." I say, before crumpling up some blueprints I made, for small turrets with a flat top, held up by a metal tripod, that can shoot ink at an incredible rate. Well, it would... if it actually worked. The design was too small, and it had no place to actually store the ink to begin with, making the design a bust.
"Well hey there Derek, what are ya makin?" I hear a voice behind me say, while I jump up out of shock.
"O-Oh! Hey Lucille, I was just trying to come up with another ink sentry design, when-" I manage to say, before Lucille interrupts me.
"Are you still working on those? C'monn Derek, the elite training programs have gone into overdrive, we're learning so many new moves, anyone who tries to fight us won't stand a chance." Lucille says, with a smirk on her face, feeling like she's on top of the world, which she has a right to be, she's the top of her class, scoring the best out of everyone. "I'm even being told I might control the OctoGiga mech when it's finished, while the others get delegated to manual labor and mid-fight repairs." She says with a glint of joy in her eyes. The OctoGiga mech is a project that's been going on for decades. Before we were even created, it's been being built by generation after generation of engineers, all of us adding our own contributions to the gargantuan robot.
"That's... great news!" I say, before turning back to my, admittedly, cluttered workspace, with a bunch of crumpled up blueprints all over the floor. "But I really think if I can design it right, these new ink sentries will make it so, so much harder for enemies to intervene, especially because they're supposed to be portable." I continue, with a shine in my eye. "If I can do this, then so many lives will be saved!" I finish, while holding up my arm with the pencil in it high up in the air.
"Heh, alright Derek, I know it's important to you, so I'll let you continue your work." Lucille says, before closing my door and walking back into the hallway.
"Now I can finally get to it." I say, before lowering my arm, and putting it up against a piece of paper. "I always sketch it out before finalizing it don't know whether or not it'll even look realistic, and blueprints aren't readily available" My first sketch is a dual splatling wielding turret. Mounted on a tri-pod with a metal platform on top of it, it has one splatling on each side, with a foldable compartment where we can store canned tenta missiles for it to use. "That's way too expensive first off, and how would it even know to USE the tenta missiles. Scrapped." I say, while folding up the piece of paper, and tossing into the trash bin.
The next design I scribble down is a 2 barrel turret, but this time it's a lot smaller and more compact. It has an ink tank stretching all around the back of it, which each barrel will fire at different times. There's a compartment that lets you fill up the tank on the top, so we can always run in and quickly re-fill it. "Ok, this is a lot more small and compact, and could actually work, now the problem is re-filling it. Even with the compartment, we don't have a reliable way of getting there." I say, while tapping my chin. "AHA!" I say in a stroke of genious. "I can design the first ink-impervious suit!" I say, with excitement in my voice.
I quickly get to work, whipping out multiple sheets of paper. "The helmet will be the easiest, it just needs to fit the head perfectly... oh." I say, while drawing it out, before I realize something. If I make a truly ink-impervious suit, it'd have to be air tight, and if it's air tight, you wont be able to breathe. "Dammit. I was so close, I just want a functioning turret to less lives are at risk." I say, with a defeated look on my face.
"Hey Derek, I got you a tacticola-" I hear Tyrone say as he walks in, before seeing me with my hands over my eyes. "Hey, Derek, what's wrong, buddy?" I hear Him continue while putting the tacticola on the ground, quickly running behind me and putting his arms on my back.
"I-It's nothing, Tyrone, just... I want to make a turret, so less people have to die, y'know?" I say, taking in a shaky breath. "But-but if I do, I'll have to design so much, like something to let people breathe without air readily around them, a way to carry the turrets, it's... really demoralizing, when you realize your project can't work, right?" I finish, with some light sobs coming from me afterwards.
"Hey, Derek, calm down buddy. Everything is gonna be alright." Tyrone says, while crouching down next to me. "Trust me, not everything can be made. You're definitely not the first person to try and make a sentry, and you won't be the last." He continues, still crouched down. "Just... don't let it get to you. Some things are impossible, and some things are possible. I guess the ink turret is impossible, at least not without a glaring flaw." He says, while looking me in the eyes, with a smile on his face.
"Yeah... yeah, you're right!" I say, with my mood lightening up a bit. "I'll just work on something even better, besides, we clock out in an hour anyways." I continue, with a smile on my face. "Thank you for helping me with this, Tyrone." I finish, while letting him help me up, a smile beaming on my face.
"Any time, Derek. Any time." Tyrone says, while he finishes helping me up, before grabbing my tacticola, and handing it to me. "Just... promise me what you'll be able to continue on, even if I'm gone." Tyrone says, before walking out the room.
Yawnnnn "Man, that was some good sleep, and my prediction was right, I'm not nearly as thirsty as I would've been normally." I say, before packing everything up and heading down the cliff I'm on, Desperate to find a place I can call home. "Tyrone... Lucille... I'll never forget you two, even if you both didn't make it out... I'll continue on your legacy. I'll make it so octolings can get accepted into inkling society, for you, Tyrone. I already fulfilled my promise to you, Lucille. I got to X Rank, and showed everyone that it's not only females who can become the best of the best." I say, before walking further towards Octo Valley, further towards my old home, and further towards my old friends...
