Reflect

Okay, your worst splatfest idea, go.

That's easy. Off The Hook VS Squid Sisters.

You're joking, right?
Squid Sisters would win all the way.
Off The Hook's just too new.

Yeah, but they're actually here.
What have the Squid Sisters done lately?
Disappear?

Ouch. Point taken.
They're probably salty about it, too.
Out of the news, out of mind.
Still, how'd that be so bad?

I just... after their final fest,
I don't wanna see performers
Pitted against each other.
I think they'd be friends.

You think they'd be fans of each other.

For performers, isn't that the same thing?

"All right, Off The Hook, that's your sound check," announces the producer, what's-his-name. "Next up is Chirpy Chips..."

Marina and Pearl stumble off stage, laughing a little with pre-concert jitters. "You two were looking fresh out there," Callie says, leaning against the wall. "Think you're ready?"

"This is gonna be so fresh." Pearl does a fast spin. "Shark Bytes, Nasty Majesty, Ebb and Flow, then Calamari Inkantation—our version, yo. We put in a rap."

"It was a fun exercise," Marina agrees, bobbing her head. "Taking the best song ever, and putting our own spin on it. I never would've done it if you hadn't suggested it as the theme for this concert."

Right.

Sounds like Marie's idea really took hold.

"Well, since I've got you now, I'm supposed to drag Marina off for..." Callie glances at the piece of paper in her hand. "Levelling? Like a video game?"

"Ugh, it's some techno-crud," Pearl grumbles. "Want me to come with?"

Marina shakes her head. "Nah. You can head back to the room, take a nap, text the cap or whatever. I'll be back in a bit."

"Coolios. Later, Cal. Good to see you doing all right." Pearl gives Callie a fist bump and takes off.

Callie swallows the lump in her throat and nods at Marina. "Marie said that would work," she says, the first Octarian she's spoken since... anyway. "The levels don't actually need anything."

Marina's eyes widen the tiniest bit. "May we talk someplace more private?"

Callie eyes the stage manager, grumbling at his clipbeard nearby, and agrees. "My dressing room?"

"Certainly. Just let me grab my jacket."

Fair enough; Marina's outfit must leave her chilly. Still, Callie trails along behind her, as she leads Callie not even to her dressing room, but a coat rack in the hall. Marina's jacket falls to her knees and looks wonderfully warm, and Marina rolls her shoulders twice before taking a deep breath and looking back at Callie. "Lead the way."

Callie swallows hard, fighting down the panic, and takes a deep breath. Releases it slowly. Another, like she's done for years. She turns her back on Marina and fumbles in the pocket of her own sweatshirt, tossed over her dress, until she comes out with a tiny sparkly caramel. Callie loved these things before she left, and when she unwraps this one and puts it in her mouth, it tastes just like it should. That helps.

Leading Marina into her dressing room helps more. Calamari Inkantation plays on repeat from a small stereo in the corner of the room, letting Callie know everything's okay. In addition to the twin vanities in pink and green and all their make-up stuff, there's also twin couches for them to relax on between sets.

Marie is nowhere in sight. She said she'd give Callie privacy for this.

So Callie shuts the door behind Marina and flops on the green couch face-first. She squirms forward, ignoring Marina's muted chuckles, until she's properly lying across it. Then, her face still in the pillow, she says, "Marie told me she told you. About our other identities."

Marina stays quiet for a long moment. "Yes," she says at last. "Agent One."

Callie waves a hand and sits up. "Stop that. I'm still me. It's just..." Callie fidgits with the ends of her tentacles. "The whole time I was missing, I was wearing hypnoshades."

Marina sucks in a breath.

"And for quite some time before that, too," Callie continues. She can't look at Marina for this. Her tentacles are kinda ratty, with the ends losing that smooth curve she likes. She hasn't seen a stylist since she got back. "I had no idea I was wearing them, I was just wandering Inkopolis with them on, and I know Marie took off the things I forgot I was wearing more than once. So did the director at Legally Squid a couple times. So I was never filmed with them. But..."

"You're wondering," Marina says, "how you know anything is real."

"I mean, I know it is if I hear Calamari Inkantation, with all the measures they took to keep me from singing it, and I've figured out something because none of the food tasted right there but it does now so I'm trying to always keep some snacks on me or a way to get some easily so I can tell but I have a tattoo now that's not going away like I was told it would when I was hypno-what but maybe that was a lie and I really want the shades again even though I know I shouldn't and I'm sorry I'm babbling it's just—" Callie closes her mouth and shoves one of her own tentacles in it. She's never been one to chew her tentacles, but right now, she needs to do something to shut herself up.

Marina sits beside her and puts her hand over Callie's, pulls the tentacle from her mouth, then takes Callie's hand alone and squeezes it. "To this day, I still—I'm only ninety percent sure I'm not still down there," Marina says. "I know the shades are just that good. And I escaped when I was supposed to get my own pair." She releases Callie's hand. "Marie scared the shit out of me, because she showed me a pair of hypnoshades and asked me to disable them for you."

Callie's mouth goes dry. She reaches for the nearest pillow, one of five or ten pink ones Marie insisted on bringing to make things 'homie', and hugs it.

"That's something I never learned, though," she says. "I refused to touch the things."

Oh, how Callie wishes she could do that.

"But you've already figured out two ways to know what's real," Marina continues, glancing away from Callie. She fiddles with her jacket's long sleeves. "I've got one—can't repeat it as easily as you can with Calamari Inkantation, since I never wore shades myself. Just goggles. They said the shades were better so I have no proof myself the Inkantation fixes those and... but all the things they try to put through the shades are supposed to be real." Marina nods, just once, and looks at Callie again. "They'd never try to put anything too strange or weird through, because that stuff doesn't happen in Octo Valley. Honestly, 'Squid Sisters as Secret Agents' is pushing it. And I still need to get your autograph."

Callie snorts. She can't help herself: it's something so normal, so Marina, in this whole mess.

Marina covers her face with her hands. "I'm botching this," she says. "Sorry. It's just—you and Marie are my heroes, you came down below and sang your song and freed me, and I can't even help you." She takes a deep breath and pulls her hands from her face. "Maybe I can, with the tattoo, though. Did they have you lie on your stomach when you got it?"

Callie nods.

"Okay. There's no inkling word for this procedure, and it's permanent."

Callie sucks in a breath, because, no.

"Well, sort of permanent." Marina grabs Callie's hands, tugs them away from Callie's side—shell, Callie was scratching that spot again. Lucky the sweatshirt was in the way, or she'd've torn off some sequins "When you're in kid form, your ink only shows through on your tentacles. Sometimes gills, or other spots, if you've got firefly squid in you or something. What they did was added another spot your ink can show through, which means you have to learn not to make it show."

Callie blinks. That... "Like Marie had to, when we were little, and she was too bright for me to sleep?"

"Or me with my fingers and toes," Marina says. "Once you've learned, you'll be able to choose if it glows or not. But... right before a concert probably isn't a good time for lessons."

Marina has point, but Callie's eyes are wet. She can get rid of this. She swipes at her tears before they can dry. "Thank you," she whispers.

"I just wish I could do more," Marina says. "I know what it's like, questioning what's happening all the time."

"You've already been a huge help," Callie says, wrapping an arm around Marina's shoulders. "You're such a good pancake, Marina."

"Uh," Marina says. "Thanks?"

Callie gives her shoulders a squeeze. "Do you think anything that happened was real, when I was down there? Because I think I met your brother."

Marina recoils, breaking out of the hug and almost falling off the couch. "I never want to see Harbor again," Marina says.

Callie frowns. "Must've just been a trick to make me relaxed, then, because the Harbor I knew was very nice."

Marina lets out a noise that might be a laugh, despite the tears on her cheeks. "He and a couple other Octolings tried to drag me back below about a month before you returned," Marina says, and Callie gasps. She gave him her address. "He wasn't a bad brother, but if—the only way I'll see him again is if—I'm not going back."

Callie hugs her. Calamari Inkantation plays around them, but it's still strange, the feeling of moving tentacles instead of still ones, and she bites the inside of her cheek because Calamari Inkantation is playing this is real. "You're not," Callie promises. "If you vanish, I'll bring you back. On my honor as an Agent."

Callie feels her nod. Marina's voice is thick when she asks, "They didn't... splat him, forever splat him, because I didn't go, did they?"

The mountain, Harbor kneeling, Callie's decision to be redeemable. "I'm sure he's fine." She holds Marina just the tiniest bit closer as the octoling shakes with a sob. "He's just fine."