The first thing that my mind registered when I stirred awake were the birds chirping outside the nearby window. The second was the hand splayed out on my face. A big hand was slightly gripping my face and smushing my cheeks, completely invading my personal space. I crinkled my nose and tensed my brows as I pried it off my face.

I enjoyed a couple seconds of a hand-free face before it plopped itself right back on, startling a grunt out of me. I huffed out of my nose and pried off the hand again with a bit more force before absentmindedly pulling up the blankets covering me to my chin. The chilliness of the room was only thought of for a split moment before being again put off to the side by the same, damn hand practically slapping my face.

With a soft growl, I cracked opened my eyes and glanced to my right, spotting Tenta right next to me between the fingers on my face. He was completely passed out, mouth open and drooling all over the white sheets as he snored quietly. It didn't look like he was playing games, just instead somehow being an annoying asshole even when unconscious.

It was funny how innocent he looked asleep compared to when he was awake, though. His usual shit-eating grin wasn't there, his mischievous eyes were closed shut, and his brow was twitching lightly every so often from some random dream. His tentacles were untidy as usual, one of them attached to his cheek and the other to his forehead in a semi-ridiculous, semi-adorable manner. Overall, compared to the usually sarcastic, energetic bastard that he was when he was awake, he had a surprisingly mellow appearance when he was passed out.

Switching my focus back to the appendage on my face, I gently tugged it off once more and placed it next to Tenta, hoping it'd actually stay there like a normal, good hand does. After a few seconds of holding my breath and staring at the hand, I slowly exhaled once I realized it wasn't moving and I could relax. I wanted to try and get back to sleep for a little longer, but unfortunately, being smothered and abused by a hand was a great alarm clock.

With an exasperated sigh, I sat up from the bed and felt the snuggly blankets that were up to my chest fall to my lap, the cool air around us attacking my torso and briefly making me shiver. With that in mind, I turned back to Tenta and reached over to the blankets that were doing a shitty job covering him since he'd likely kicked them off during the night. I slowly tugged the blankets up to his shoulders in a small but kind effort to keep him warm.

Then, he promptly kicked them off and rolled over the other way onto his stomach.

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion and reached for the blankets again, pulling them up to Tenta's torso in a second attempt to keep him warm. They managed to stay on for two seconds before the pink inkling kicked them off again, making a small and agitated noise. I stared at him incredulously for a moment, wondering how the hell he didn't want blankets when it was so chilly in the room.

As I accepted that Tenta wanted to become Frosty the Snowman in his sleep, I slid my legs off the side of the bed and stood up as slowly as possible to not disturb him. After a couple of careful steps out of the room to make sure Tenta was still asleep, I ambled to the bathroom to get the day started.

A small chill coursed through my body as I shut the door behind me, prompting myself to spew out a couple of complaints under my breath about the air conditioning. As I absentmindedly took care of my business, I started to faintly recall memories from the night before. After a few moments of thinking, I couldn't help but grin the giddiest of grins as I remembered that I practically had x-ray vision now (kinda) and I could change my ink color. And I still had so much more to learn.

After I washed and dried my hands with a small hand towel, I made my way back to Tenta's bedroom to either wake him up, try to wake him up and fail so I end up going back to sleep too, or he'd already be awake and we can get the day started faster.

I laid my eyes on Tenta as I stepped back into the room, the other inkling laying on his back with his limbs sprawled out all across the bed obnoxiously as usual, taking up all the space I had previously inhabited. He was staring up at the ceiling with a rather blank look, which made me glance upwards myself and wonder what was so interesting about the popcorn texture that was in almost every house ever. He probably was just spacing out, though, since I could never imagine him actually having any interest in the ceiling.

"Earth to Tentaaa." I sang out to get his attention as I shoved his stray arm and leg out of my spot on the bed and plopped down next to him.

"Hmm?" He hummed in a slightly disinterested tone, glancing at me for only a second before looking back at the ceiling with that same blank look. Though, I could see the edges of his mouth curling upwards ever so slightly.

"What you thinkin' 'bout?" I asked, pulling the covers back over my body and nestling myself into the warm sheets to protect myself against the chill around us.

Tenta momentarily closed his eyes and sighed, fully turning his head to face me. He was trying to hide it, but I could tell that he was a little worried about something.

"Just thinking about what we're gonna do today." He eventually muttered back, slowly sitting up on his elbows. "Did you have anything in mind?"

I splayed out my arms to my sides, staring up at the intriguing popcorn texture on the ceiling as I pondered on what I wanted to do. There was a lot I wanted to do, to be honest. Choosing something to do first was the hard part, there were so many options that seemed so fun and exciting, but…

"I have absolutely no idea what I wanna do first...What's your plan?" I frowned, unable to pick one activity to do first.

Tenta sat up even more, kicking off some of the blankets that somehow made their way to his feet, "I don't really have much to do other than go to Inkopolis and meet back up with-...wait."

I glanced up at him and noticed him staring at the bedroom's windows with a curious look, ears perked up and twitching as if he was intently listening for something. He sat there for a couple seconds, slowly leaning closer to the windows and craning his neck at an odd angle, as if they were whispering to him.

Then he promptly launched himself out of the bed, not giving me any time to react as he bolted out of the bedroom and into the hallway with alarming speed, still in his pajamas (which were just a pink tank top and black shorts). I sat in stunned silence as I heard the faint slam of the door to the apartment, still laying back on the bed with my arms splayed out like I was in some sort of ritual on a pentagon.

After a moment of wondering what the hell just happened, I slowly sat up and pushed the blankets off of my legs, whining under my breath yet again about the surge of cold air that liked to harass me. Once I adjusted to the room's temperature, I slid myself off the bed and stepped out of the room, too.

I didn't know where Tenta had gone too so suddenly, but I didn't feel too comfortable going out to look for him. I didn't know this whole apartment complex like the back of my hand like he did, so I knew I'd get lost immediately and would probably find myself all the way across the city or something. Plus, it was literally a whole new world out there. New people, new culture, new...everything. There was no way I could go out there and not thoroughly embarrass myself and become the laughingstock of the city without Tenta's help.

So, I decided to simply just sit in the apartment and wait for the other inkling's return. I had made my way into the living room and sat on the couch for a couple seconds, but found myself squirming with an itching temptation to wander around and explore the apartment a little more. Despite the tour Tenta had given me the night before, I hadn't really absorbed my surroundings too well and only remembered where the kitchen and bathroom was located. Thus, I took it upon myself to explore as many nooks and crannies the apartment contained before he came back.

Standing up from the couch and walking towards one wall, I could see a couple of posters featuring different bands, some of which I recognized and some I didn't. One of them I recognized was Hightide Era, the band was standing in front of a simple and calm background rather nonchalantly, but at the same time looking pretty cool. It really fucked me up knowing that the guy on the left existed now. He was real. He was real and he existed and he's actually part of making the music instead of just being a character representing the music. He was...what was he?

I found myself squinting at the poster, a growing dread in my stomach as I realized I had absolutely no idea what the fuck that dude in the poster was. He was brown with some fins coming out of his cheeks, and he had...hair? It was dark brown and had a border and it was on the top of his head, so I had no real other options other than hair. Fins? Dark brown fins at the top of his head that serve no real purpose other than being hair. Dude also had what looked like purple teeth, which added so many more mysteries. Was he an angler or something? Wait, no, those things linger in the deep sea...Were the deep sea creatures in human times surface creatures now?

Choosing not to dwell on it too long, I shook my head and reminded myself that I could never aspire to be a marine biologist. I instead went to study the other posters in the room, managing to lay my eyes on a cute one featuring the Squid Sisters in beachwear when the door to the apartment flew open, banging against the wall and jolting me from my thoughts.

"I GOT ICE CREAM!" I heard Tenta shriek to a near deafening degree, and spotted him still in his pajamas, but holding a cone of ice cream in each hand. They both were a murky, dark green with some lighter spotting that was slightly tinted light blue, which piqued my curiosity about the flavor while simultaneously looking disgusting. Much like chocolate ice cream, except it was disgusting.

"Was that what you ran out of the apartment without shoes for?" I asked him jokingly as he jogged up to me, holding out one of the cones for me to grab.

"Listen, I hadn't gotten ice cream from that truck in ages. I've been highly malnourished and borderline starving this entire time." He deadpanned with a somehow newly grown dark green mustache on his upper lip.

I snorted once I noticed the green "hair" on his lip, which prompted him to lick it off with his tongue. Then he licked his ice cream again, and got a goatee.

"You look ridiculous." I chuckled as I grabbed the ice cream Tenta was offering me from his hand. It looked kinda funny up close, since it was just dark green with a bunch of weird light blue spots.

"...What flavor's this?" I asked with a slight curious tilt of my head, gently pressing my tongue against the strange ice cream for a taste test.

"Algae!" He answered, somehow fully growing a green, algae flavored beard in mere seconds after shaving just a bit ago.

I peered down at the ice cream, which had melted a little bit onto my hand and was starting to drip onto the carpet. It wasn't a bad taste at all, very...zingy. The taste was a weird mixture of lettuce, baked apples, and...something else that was indescribable. It was a great combo, though. Definitely better than chocolate ice cream by far. Then again, any flavor ice cream is better than chocolate.

As I absentmindedly slobbered all over the ice cream, I glanced back at the posters on the wall and pointed to the Hightide Era one. Specifically, the brown...fin dude. He stood out the most.

"I don't wanna sound racist or...speciest by saying this but- what is he?" I asked in a quiet voice, pointing at the brown fish, "I was never good at knowing sea stuff back at home, and being in a world full of people like that is gonna be the death of me if I don't learn soon."

Unfortunately, I had caught Tenta in the middle of absolutely mauling the shit out of his ice cream cone. His dark green cheeks were puffed out as he chewed on the remaining bits of that poor cone, I would hate to ever be out in public with him looking like this. Then again, I probably wasn't much better.

"...Their name's Kuze, they're a stonefish." He answered after he swallowed the ice cream cone, thumping his chest firmly with a fist after some of it went down the wrong pipe.

"What's a stonefish?"

"Kuze."

"Thanks, smartass." I rolled my eyes as I finished up my own ice cream, then began nibbling on the cone. Definitely wasn't a regular waffle cone, but it was absolutely better than a waffle cone.

"Actually, though, that reminds me- You should only ask stuff like that to me, okay?" Tenta instructed, looking stern, "Other people here don't know your situation and wouldn't be afraid beat your ass into next year if you said something stupid. And don't stare."

I scowled, offended by Tenta's assumption that I would be a socially inept asshole, "I know basic decency, Tenta. I'm not gonna be a weird social creep everyone laughs at."

"Yeah, sure. The way you walk will definitely be enough to get a couple people pointing." He smirked, tilting his head upward so he'd be looking down at me with a painfully smug look.

"That's not-!" I immediately got flustered, painfully recalling all the awkward moments I tripped over my own feet when I had first transformed, "I walk just fine!"

"You do this weird shuffle that looks awkward and makes you wobble, most inklings just do one foot after the other! Don't even get me started on your run-"

"Good thing I won't need to run, right?" I interrupted with a huff, "We'll just speedwalk when going somewhere so I don't become the first inkling in Inkopolis to have solid stone up his nose thanks to a faceplant into concrete."

Tenta frowned and cocked his head to the side, "Running is a major component of turf wars, though. Half the time you're gonna be sprinting from point A to point B while also dodging the shit out of everything."

I gave a half-hearted shrug, "I don't think I'm really cut out for turf, though. Maybe I can just get a job somewhere instead, like at a random fast food place or something."

Tenta gave me an odd look as he sucked on one of his fingers, licking it to get rid of the lingering ice cream, "Anyone can play turf, though. Every inkling our age usually plays at least a couple rounds a year."

"Yeah, but-" I started, gesturing to myself, "I'm far from an athlete like you. I also have a gut, and my cheeks are definitely chubbier than yours."

Tenta waved a dismissive hand, "Lots of inklings starting out are like that. Baby fat melts clean off pretty fast after a couple of weeks of turfing, it's like our bodies were pretty much made for it. Plus-"

He stepped a little closer and smushed my cheeks on my face with his grimy hands, playfully sticking out his tongue, "It looks cute on you and your chubby-ass cheeks."

I sent him the best pissed off look I could muster with my face being squished, though I highly doubted that it actually had any effect, "I sure love being manhandled against my will thanks to my adorableness."

He snorted and removed his hands from my cheeks, backing away from me and turning towards the bathroom, "Get used to it, some people here don't have the best respect for inklings due to our looks."

"The hell does that mean?" I called out as he shut the door behind himself. I didn't receive an answer, so my guess was that he was too busy taking a morning dump to respond.

As he did his business, I pivoted back to the couch and flopped back onto it, dully staring up at the ceiling as I waited for him to finish. I exhaled a soft sigh as I felt myself slowly sink into the cushions, stretching my legs ever so slightly when I felt a slight whirl of cool air run over them. The ceiling in the living room had that same, dumb popcorn texture that the bedroom had, mocking me with its weird and sporadic appearance.

The longer I laid down on the couch and stared up at the ceiling, the more I started thinking about the future and what it has in store for us. What were we gonna do? Inkopolis was a major city with loads of activities to do left and right, nothing like the rural and quiet neighborhood I lived in back home. All we really had to do for fun when we wanted to leave the house was either play on the trampoline at Cassidy's place or go to McDonald's. And only one of those places didn't make me shit my brains out after going there.

Turf wars, of course, were the main attraction that I wanted to try out first. I knew for a fact that I was gonna suck at them, but I still wanted to take advantage of the opportunity since I was in my favorite video game. Then again, I'd have to wear that odd starter's uniform and everyone around me would instantly be able to tell how 'moldy' I was. Plus-how long would it take for me to 'level up' to earn more gear and weapons? Is leveling up even a thing here? Are all the gear that was in the game in this universe, too? Are there more gear that I'd never seen nor heard of before here as well?

What about the single player? How's the Squid Sisters? Cap'n Cuttlefish? ...Were they all worried about Tenta? How would we explain Tenta's disappearance and sudden reappearance out of seemingly nowhere for them? How would we explain...me?

"Good God, I'm a human in the body of a sea creature in a universe of a bunch of sea creatures." I exasperatedly muttered, draping my forearm over my face as I started to think of all the ways my weird secret could get out and ruin my (or Tenta's) life.

I mean...how would you explain the fact that you're a human possibly from either the past or an alternate universe and you and your family took in the inkling that went missing for almost three months? The police and whatever the FBI is here would be on my ass within two seconds. Then I'd likely be put into a mental institution for extreme deliriousness or something. Maybe Tenta, too. Our freshness levels would drop from Sitting Out On Counter for 3 Hours to Rotting Corpse Eaten By Vultures in an instant.

I snorted at the last thought once it came to mind. I really was starting to think like an inkling, though. So maybe I wouldn't actually have any issues as long as Tenta and I didn't speak to any blabbermouths about the whole ordeal while out and about.

Still, though...How exactly would we explain this to the Squid Sisters? Callie may have a ditzy personality and Marie may come across as lazy, but they were smart. They were agents One and Two of the New Squidbeak Splatoon, they definitely knew how to investigate mysteries and trace certain evidence back to different sources, especially with the aid of Cap'n Cuttlefish. They'd see through any lie we'd attempt to fabricate and would grill us until they got the truth. But would they even accept the truth as the truth? It's a pretty far fetched one that hardly anyone would believe. Even I probably wouldn't accept it if I heard it coming out of my own damn mouth.

I could feel my left ear twitch as I heard the bathroom door open and I sat up to see Tenta stretching his arms as he stepped back in the room.

"You ready to get your new life started?" He grunted mid stretch, exhaling rather roughly once he released his arms and let them fall slack to his sides.

"Yeah, I'm up for it." I shrugged, swinging my legs off the couch so he'd get some space to sit.

He did exactly that, plopping down right next to me and leaning back against the cushions with a second loud, exaggerated sigh, alreading sounding exhausted.

"Okay, first we should try and find a way back to your home, then we can head back and…"

The first couple things we did weren't all that interesting, so it's better to just give a summary.

First of all, as part of the plan, we tried to find a way back to Earth with no such luck. We couldn't find a way to get back to Earth/my home no matter what we tried, even after searching every single nook and cranny in the apartment, so we reluctantly had to accept that everything Tenta left back there was gone for good, which included his phone, his agent gear...and not much else. I personally chose to ignore the fact that I'd possibly never see my family again, since I wasn't in the mood for an emotional crisis and to ruin my first day of hanging out in Inkopolis Plaza. I could always address that whole thing later at a better time. Plus, I highly doubted that some weird-ass portal wouldn't open up at some random, convenient time for us. Maybe it just wasn't time for us to go back yet. I liked to think that we just haven't "unlocked" the portal back home yet, like in a video game. Optimism.

Second of all, there was no real second of all. Tenta really had no real plan after going back to Earth. And since that was a bust, we goofed around a bit in his apartment and then decided to try and head outside for some fresh air and whatnot. When we were preparing to go out, however, we were faced with a...predicament. Tenta's clothes were all either too big, way outside my tastes, or straight up just fucking weird. Like, why the hell was there a goddamn football helmet in there? A top hat? A Whole Ass Samurai Costume?

Those clothing being gear is one thing, but I never actually expected them to just be nonchalantly hanging out in the back of his CLOSET. Who the hell does that? Why a whole fucking samurai costume? Tenta doesn't even play football! How does he even effectively play turf with gear like these? You couldn't possibly be anywhere near the description of agile and nimble with them on. Them being in a video game is one thing, but I never expected it to actually be a thing in the real ass Splatoon world. Good God. Do the inklings here all just have closets that make them look like they regularly attended trashy costume parties?

Either way, I couldn't use any of Tenta's clothes for shit. Most of them were too big, but some of them were too flashy for my style and I couldn't even imagine myself wearing them. By the end of the search for a temporary wardrobe, Tenta was beyond exasperated with my tastes and simply just tugged an oversized, thick, pink sweater made of some really, really weirdly soft fabric over my head. It had a logo on it I didn't recognize from the game with a stylized picture of Judd doing a peace sign with his paws.

After I idiotically bitched about the sweater due to being startled over it being forced over my head, Tenta threw a balled up pair of pink socks at my face and looked like he was dead set on throwing some cleats at me too. That didn't happen, thankfully, but he was a little disgruntled as I put on random, "low class" (as he called them) white sneakers that he'd received years ago and when his ability to "sense freshness" was shit, apparently. Supposedly, he'd meant to throw them out a while ago but never got around to doing it. They looked passable enough with some scuffs here and there.

Eventually, we both managed to get ourselves dressed and out the door. My outfit was better than nothing, while Tenta's outfit outshined me tenfold. He kept his natural pink ink color, but decided to don that one red jacket with the zapfish on it, along with some red and white shoes that had straps instead of laces like mine. "Strapped Reds" I think they were called? Who the hell knows. Either way, he was evidently trying to dress a little more on the fresh side to one-up me.

I paid little mind to it once we actually stepped out of the apartment, though. All of my thoughts changed and I could feel my anxiety spike up as dread fought to put a full sized crater in my stomach. I felt myself involuntarily press up against the wall behind me once I was outside the door, suddenly overcome with the realization that holy shit I'm about to explore the Splatoon universe and I could make myself look like a complete loser since I know little to nothing about being an inkling.

Ah, shit. Two seconds outside and I was already sweating up the armpits of Tenta's sweater.

The clinking of Tenta's keys thankfully distracted me from my thoughts of publicly embarrassing myself, the other inkling locking up his apartment's door and shoving the keys into his jacket's pocket. I looked near the top of the grey tinted door and read what looked to be apartment "320" in big black symbols. The numbers themselves didn't have the same exact appearance as ones written by humans, but they looked alike just enough for me to tell what each of them represented.

"So what's the game plan?" I asked him once he turned to me, matching his pace as we started walking down the brightly lit hallway. It looked really nice and clean, too. The walls were almost perfectly white, with black baseboards and a black and grey zigzag carpet to match the weird minimalist style. Stools with plants were scattered around the place, too. Though, I wondered if some of the plants were just for show, since they looked (and felt) like plastic as I passed by a couple of them.

Tenta rolled his head a bit and stared up at the ceiling as he thought about what to do for the day, "Well...I was thinking we'd just make it up as we go. But, I'm starving, so breakfast is definitely priority number one. I've got enough change for us to get a bite and for tickets to Inkopolis, but I need to pop by Octo Valley to get my wallet and stuff since I usually change there."

"Oh, yeah. That makes sense." I agreed with a nod of my head, recalling that he'd flown in through the TV in his Agent 3 outfit….Wait.

"Shit." I hissed under my breath, unconsciously slowing my pace once I remembered something important.

Tenta kept going for a couple paces as if not noticing I was several feet behind, but then turned around with a bemused expression, "What?"

"Your agent outfit. It's back at home."

He shrugged his shoulders and turned back around to continue walking, "It's fine, we'll figure out how to get it back. If not, I'm sure we could find a way to get a new one tailored. The others will understand."

I snorted as I jogged back up to him, "Oh, yeah. Totally. 'Hey, guys! I lost my agent outfit after I mysteriously disappeared for who-knows-how-long after going on a mission in enemy territory and I now have this random inkling as a friend who acts rather unusual and somehow knows your names and everything about you! Anyway, could I please have a new suit tailored? By the way, I am absolutely not under mind-control or any-mRMFF!"

A hand had managed to shove itself right on top of my mouth, Tenta furiously shushing me with a wide grin as he struggled to avoid laughing.

"You're being too loud!" He informed me in a not-so-quiet whispery voice, removing his dirty hand from my mouth and shoving it in the pocket of his jacket. That grin was still there, though, so I didn't think he minded too much.

We both eventually reached some stairs that were at the end of the hallway, descending them step by step at a rather annoyingly slow pace. Tenta sighed as we eventually reached the second floor, stopping for a moment to speak, "I'm sure that they won't care once they see that I'm alive in the first place. For all they know, I'm probably dead and have been dead for months."

"Well," I started, trying to lighten the mood a bit, "I bet that'll be a great reunion. Would the sisters or Cap'n beat your ass for being gone and worrying them for so long?"

He chuckled with a weak smile, "Cap'n and Marie probably would, then they'd lecture me afterwards and keep tabs whenever possible. Callie's too nice to do the ass beating, though. She'd just try to keep messaging me to make sure I'm okay..."

There was a slight pause, the both of us still standing awkwardly on the stairs with the gentle whirr of a nearby air conditioning system acting as white noise. I found myself glancing around the small space we were in, looking out one of the windows up high to see a bunch of clouds slowly passing by as boringly as possible. The stairs also looked boring, mostly grey with black at the edges of each of them. I did see a couple of little doodles of jellyfish doodled in what seemed to be permanent marker on one stair, though. All of them were waving! Hello, jellyfish!

Okay, that's enough stair time.

I glanced back at Tenta to figure out why the hell we were still on these stairs and found him staring off into space with a somber expression, obviously still thinking about his friends that we'd just talked about. It was kinda sad, to be honest. How long has he not seen the Squid Sisters? A month? Two? I hadn't been keeping track too well. It was somewhere in late summer vacation, at least. He definitely hadn't seen them in a long time and it clearly was wearing down on him.

"Hey, we're in Flounder Heights, right?" I interrupted the silence with a question I actually didn't really care about. Just something to get Tenta's mind off of whatever he was thinking of.

Thankfully, he seemed to snap out of it, "Huh? Oh-Nah, this is a different complex that's a couple miles away from that one. Flounder's bigger and more popular since it's also a battle site." 'The rent's also stupid expensive'...I heard him mutter under his breath.

"I never understood that, actually," I continued on the conversation as we started making our way down the stairs again, "Why is an apartment complex an optimal site for battlegrounds?"

Tenta shrugged, chuckling with an awkward tinge to his laugh, "We kinda just turf wherever until they kick us out. Most of the stages in the video game are places that technically have rules against battling, but are shit at enforcing them, so we just go there anyway."

"Isn't it kinda a safety hazard, though?" I pondered as I reached the last step of the staircase. Except, I didn't realize it, so I went to take another step down a 'stair' and ended up tripping over myself, almost right into a small, red crustacean girl that was entering through the staircase doorway right in front of me. She gave a startled squeak as I fell towards her, then huffed as I managed to right myself before we collided and started muttering something at me with a pissed off glare.

My face grew painfully hot as I felt her judging gaze on my back when I hurriedly speed walked right past her, mouth pinned shut as I refused to say anything in fear of absolutely ruining my already tainted reputation here. Less than 12 hours in and I was losing it!

Before I knew it, I was in a small lobby with the doorway to the staircase right behind me, a small receptionists' desk to my left and sliding glass doors to my right that led to the outside. A couple of empty black chairs were scattered around the area, with matching tables that were covered in various magazines right by each of them. The receptionist was a pale blue jellyfish with a large, woven sun hat covering their head, the jelly clacking away at a keyboard sitting in front of them. The weird part was that the sun hat was absolutely covering their eyes, but they just kept clicking and clacking at the keyboard like it wasn't a big deal.

"Saying sorry probably would've helped you with that whole thing back there." I heard Tenta snicker from behind as he walked up next to me, jokingly elbowing me in the side.

"Me tripping over myself was one screw up, but almost tripping into her and splurging out an unintelligible apology would've been on an entirely different scale." I replied, shamefully placing my head in my hands as the incident burned itself into my memory for weeks to come.

"...That was a dude. He's my neighbor on the fourth floor."

"Cool. Cool. Great. Yeah. I'm Lovin' it." I muttered under my breath, marching myself right to the front doors of the apartment building. To my annoyance, I could hear Tenta cackling right behind me as I went to shove the doors out of my way, only to see them quickly split to the sides due to in fact being electric doors, further increasing my embarrassment. It never ends.

As we both walked out the front doors of the building, the jellyfish clerk looked up from their computer and tilted their head in a confused manner. It's been a while since that pink inkling had come in. Had anyone filed a police report about him? The jellyfish hadn't seen one. And who was his friend? When did they both get inside?

Choosing not to ponder on it, the jellyfish receptionist chose to simply adjust their giant sunhat, and keep on clacking away at the keyboard, filling out important and boring work emails.

...The pink inkling's lucky his mother at least stepped in to pay for his rent, though, otherwise he'd be evicted by now.

Sorry for the long wait. Prepping to go to college and all that. Could you believe I started writing this when I was maybe 14? And now I'm 17. Years go by so fast, y'all.

I'm more vocal and active on my twitter chubbidust, follow me there if you wanna see my art.

Forgive me if things seem weird or anything's off in this chapter, I kinda got sick of working on it and I really wanted to get working on the one after it since that's where things start picking up.

Thank you so much for reading.

Please review with constructive and helpful comments, those are the ones that really motivate me to keep writing. Tell me your thoughts on the story so far. What do you like? What do you hope to see? What do you predict?