I cried myself out like a baby in Penny's arms until my wails turned into sobs and my sobs into sniffles. I'm surprised Penny was able to stay there not saying anything for that amount of time because I felt like I was crying for ten straight minutes. After crying for so long I felt much better and my head was clearer.

"Penny," I said getting up off the ground, "I want to stay with you."

I said it so matter of factly that besides the blotched blue ink stains on my face, you wouldn't have been able to tell I was crying. It seemed a bit silly to suddenly revert so such normalcy.

Penny was ecstatic, maybe she still wasn't expecting me to stay with her, "Really? For eel?"

"For eel." I replied.

I wanted to live with Penny. My mind started to fill with rosy images of two friends trying to hit it big in a big city. Funny, I never thought I would get excited over such things. I was still in shock...Penny was a friend, a true friend. I didn't need to keep secrets from her. She didn't care if I didn't neatly fit in as an inkling or octoling. My mind swam with possibilities. There was so much I could do with her, so much more options.

You know what? Solitude kinda sucks, I like this much better.

Penny also helped me realize something important. Disguise isn't going to answer my problems. I hated hiding myself from her. Any relationships I would have as an "inkling" would be inherently limited with how far they could go and worst of all...fake. Either people would accept me as a hybrid or not. In fact, everyone else could jump in the ocean for all I cared. As long as I had Penny, I would be satisfied.

"Mollie," inquired Penny, "Are you all right?"

I realized I was so lost in thought that I was just staring into empty space like a dazed jellyfish.

"Nothing," I replied, "just thinking…"

"So," questioned Penny carefully, "You're half octarian and half inkling?"

I could see Penny was noticeably nervous at asking the question as she realized she was tackling a touchy subject with me. That's fine, I like it when people are considerate.

"Yeah," I replied, "My mom was octarian and my dad was inkling."

An octarian falling in love with an inkling was pretty unusual actually. For one, most octolings are homosexual. The whole race used to be all female so I mean...why would it not be normal to like females. However, there was a mutation or something, I don't remember, where male octolings began showing up. Apparently the females didn't take too kindly to males and ostracized them. What's surprising is that according to my mom males weren't even allowed to join the military. For a race so desperate to destroy inklings, you think they would take anyone they could get. Then again, what the difference between male octolings being hated on by females and a hybrid being hated on by inklings?

Prejudice I guess. Funny how things repeat themselves.

Either way, I heard there's some male octolings who escaped all the sexism and got into Inkopolis now. There is such a minority among octolings though and even though most male octolings prefer other females, there isn't a whole lot of breeding with inkling kind. That's why my mom was unique. She actually liked males and managed the feat of birthing a hybrid. I'm sure there are other hybrids like me out there but they're probably few and far between.

Penny decided it was safe to press on and asked, "Are people...mean to you?"

Yeah. I mean I only got kicked off a bus and have some little brat in a bicycle helmet gossiping about me to all of Inkopolis right now.

"Unfortunately yes," I sighed, "Got kicked off a bus."

"When?" asked Penny.

"Today." I replied casually, "Had to walk for a couple of hours."

"WHAT?!" gasped Penny, "That's so far though! That's awful!"

"It's no big deal," I said trying to downplay it, "It was just a bit boring."

Total lie. Even now, my legs were killing me. All that walking to Inkopolis as well as running for my life against Soldier Girl had taken its toll. To be honest, I was exhausted and it was night at this point. I just wanted to go to bed.

"They've got no right to do that though!" yelled Penny in frustration.

"Yeah, but it was legitimate in the bus driver's eyes." I sighed, "Some jerk attacked me and blamed me for starting a fight."

I swore under my breath. I hated the girl in the helmet. I wanted to deck the little punk. She was causing me a lot of trouble. Just who did she think she was? Can't guarantee that helmet is going to protect her if I see her again and lose it. Hopefully, that would never happen and I would never see her again and everything would be just peachy. I doubt it though.

There was also Soldier Girl to worry about but I'm assuming she would be in jail within the next day. After all, the cops would totally find that creepy shack and bust them in whatever illegal stuff they're doing down there. The place was creepy though. That girl herself was creepy with all her crazy gear. I have no doubt that she could have easily splatted us if we hadn't had the advantage of surprise.

Thinking off all this was tiring. I really was longing for our hotel room

"Hey," I suggested, "If we're done then with all this then let's move on and get ourselves a room."

"Okay." Penny replied with a reserved happiness. It had been a long day.

We began to walk back and Penny noticed I wasn't putting my hoodie back on or anything to cover my eyes.

"Mollie," asked Penny as she stared at my exposed octarian tentacles on the back of my head, "You're not putting on glasses or a hoodie?"

"No," I replied, "I'm through hiding it. There's no point."

I immediately felt guilty. Hiding my octarian side caused a lot of problems. I realized I had acted very immaturely and a bit mean to Penny earlier. She didn't deserve me yelling at her.

"Hey…" I started awkwardly, "I'm sorry for yelling at you. You didn't deserve that."

"Oh no, no, no!" Penny responded, "It's fine! I'm fine! Don't beat yourself up about it!"

I smiled. Penny's politeness was kind of funny, not to mention considerate.

"Seriously," continued Penny, "I really should be thanking you to be sharing a room with me?"

"No," I replied, "Thank you."

"What do you mean?" said Penny confused.

What do I mean? Where to start?

"Listen," I said as I slowed my walking, "I was expecting you to hate me. I...I didn't know that you could be so kind like that."

Penny's face turned deep red as if not used to all this kind of praise. She immediately began humbling herself.

"I-It's nothing really," she blurted out, "You've been kind to me and it would be stupid to judge you just because your a hybrid."

Penny's flustered and panicked reaction to my compliment was hilarious. Some people just can't accept phrases.

"Even so," I replied, "Thank you."

We got to the lobby and happily asked for a room as if nothing had happened. I could tell the sea urchin was staring at me but he didn't pry. I liked him and felt bad for yelling at him earlier. We worked out the paperwork and within 15 minutes, he handed us our keys.

We headed to the elevator and punched the third floor in. It was a bit of a challenge getting Penny's oversized bag through the door. The elevator was just as nice as the lobby. Tinted metal railings, swanky music, and a clean carpet. I was starting to wonder if I did get the price of this place wrong. I suspect it was changed on me but still...the place looked pretty luxurious.

The elevator door opened and we made our way down a dimly lit hallway to our room number. I jabbed the key in and stopped.

This was our apartment. We owned it. It was our living space.

Well, technically no. We were renting but still we could basically do what we wanted as long as we didn't annoy the neighbors.

Something about that was momentous.

"Well this is it!" I grinned as I flung the door open.

I was half expecting some sort of luxury suite by how nice the lobby and elevator was but I realized that was all an illusion. The place was pretty standard, even a little cramped looking. But I was not disappointed, oh no, this was awesome. Our own place.

Somehow, the tiredness Penny and I were feeling faded away as we explored the room excitedly like little kids. We opened every single door, every single cabinet, and examined every object.

"Oh my cod!" squealed Penny, "This is amazing!"

We had a pretty good setup. Entering the room, you had a small living room with a simple set of tables, chairs, and a couch. A sliding glass window would let light in and made way to a small balcony. Linked to the left of the living room was an ungodly small kitchen with a pretty squalid looking stove but who cares? It's a stove! It's a kitchen and it's all mine (as long as rent is paid)! I would make do. To the left of our room was a single bedroom. It was empty like much of the house and it was a bit small for two people since we both got a room meant for a single person. It also had one bed so I didn't know how that would work. We would just have to share the space.

The crown jewel, however, was an entirely functional TV set on a cabinet facing the bed. We would always be able to check Inkopolis News whenever we got up to check the stages for the day. Linked to our room was a pretty standard bathroom and that was basically it.

Despite the small space, Penny and I were still psyched. After running around a bit, tiredness suddenly overtook us again and we both collapsed exhausted on the floor.

"So," I asked breathing heavily and staring at the ceiling, "What about dinner?"

"I guess we could order something..." replied Penny.

"Pizza sounds good?" I asked.

"Yeah…" muttered Penny breathlessly.

Normally, I would try to go for something healthier but screw healthy eating right now. It was my first night in Inkopolis. I wanted pizza. I dialed it up and no more than half an hour later, a small jellyfish knocked on the door with our order. The chairs we folded up on the table and whatever fool got this apartment ready decided to tape them down for some reason. It was such a pain to get it off we just gave up, got our paper plates and ate on the floor.

"What's the plan for tomorrow?" asked Penny through a mouthful of anchovy pizza, which we both coincidentally liked.

"Go to the area in front of the turf lobby and see if anyone's willing to let me on a team."

Fresh inkling teams would usually sit around the turf lobby or some other popular place on cheap fold out plastic tables and put signs up to let people know they were hiring. I realized that I was at a huge disadvantage being a newbie AND a hybrid that nobody seemed to like. I'm sure somebody would accept me. There was an endless amount of turf teams in this city. With any luck, things would work out.

Besides, I was more worried about Penny. Having no turf experience, it would be really difficult for her so I guess it was good for her to only be paying half of the rent. I mean, it wasn't unusual for someone to come to Inkopolis with little experience and learn the ropes from there but Penny didn't seem like she knew the basics of turf war. Growing up on an isolated farm was an unusual case. Maybe I could give her some tips or something.

We didn't talk much after that besides the occasional quips about the craziness of the day. Soldier Girl, falling through a sewer, me being a hybrid, the works. After we finished, we were so tired and full that we mutually agreed not to unpack.

The only problem was the sleeping situation. We only had one bed.

"So," I asked, "How is this going to work?"

"I can sleep on the couch or the floor." offered Penny.

That felt wrong. I would feel greedy having an entire bed to myself.

"No," I shrugged, "I can do it."

"Please," insisted Penny, "Don't trouble yourself."

"Seriously," I fired back, "It's fine!"

We both glared at each other. We were both too polite. This was stupid.

Penny sensed my reasoning and suggested, "Why don't we just sleep together?"

Penny then immediately turned beat red as she realized how creepy that sounded when said aloud.

"I-I mean...if that's okay with you…" she stuttered, "I didn't…"

Okay screw this politeness crap. This was getting ridiculous. I didn't care, I just wanted some sleep. That was a perfectly reasonable suggestion.

"That's fine!" I said quickly cutting her off, "Let's do that! I just need to sleep!"

"Yeah…" yawned Penny, "Me too…"

We just basically crashed after that. No changing, no cleaning up, not even brushing our teeth. I was beat. Our room was cramped but cozy. The air conditioning system was right near the bed and made such a soothing sound and the covers were soft. I found Penny's presence strangely comforting as well.

Yeah, this is me. I have a friend who doesn't care that I'm a hybrid, I'm tired and stuffed with pizza, and I'm lying with my eyes closed in a comfy bed in my new apartment.

For all the crazy stuff that happened today, things were pretty good. Penny mummered something happy in her sleep. I was content.

I fell into a deep satisfied sleep.

So here we are! Penny and Mollie now have a place and are out to conquer Inkopolis! But what about the girl in the helmet of Soldier Girl...Only time will tell…

By the way, about the lore regarding Octarians and hybrids...

I'm assuming that most octarian females choose the same sex. Until the Octo Expansion, they were all female and I never understood octarian based stories before then that had them engage in f/m relationships (but hey this canon is weird so do what you want) I'm assuming because of that and the relative newness of male octolings in the splatoon universe, there is little to no breeding with Inklings because the females are all gay and the males are too infrequent. That's why I think there's no hybrids in game. Although, I can see the octoling males preferring females because there would really be no reason for them not to given the abundance of females in their race. Honestly, this is all theory but this is just my interpretation of it. The Octo Expansion changed up the canon in a lot of confusing ways (I'm still waiting for Nintendo to tell me why playable octolings look different.)

But hey, that's the beauty of Splatoon fanfiction and stuff. Everything is up to interpretation and it's fun to see people interpret it in different ways.

Stay Fresh and Fight for All Fiction!