Maize had made his way through Octo Valley, having took his helmet off and left it back with the pile of trinkets Captain Cuttlefish collected. He pulled his octoling goggles off his face and pocketed them before he put his glasses back on.
"Ohh, how it feels good to have you two free again," Maize smiled while rubbing his tentacles. They had not felt a good breath of air since he first entered Mollusk Metropolis. He could then see his captain and DJ Octavio still playing their board games, or at least the octopus was being forced to play, even if he could not reach one tentacle outside of that snow globe.
"'ey, squiddo, how'd your visit go?" Captain Cuttlefish greeted, Agent 3 gaining a salute in return. From what he could see, they were playing chess. DJ Octavio gave that angry glare. It was almost like he never blinked.
"It was everything but peaceful," Maize answered, wishing he could have had just one simple calm visit, but he was happy to have been able to help out in the end. He watched the elderly squid move his queen chess piece over.
"No matter how much ya hear it, the calm comes after the storm, not before it," Captain Cuttlefish stated. He was quite happy his grandsquids and Maize had all been doing great. Their website was flooded with requests, but he swore it was hard to sort out. When there weren't ones that were worth looking into, there would be others who would abuse the service or play pranks on the agents, or just waste their time on the simplest of things. Maize wished he could get something that simple.
"You got that right. I'm going to go visit Callie and Marie. You take care," Maize bid the captain farewell before he headed off, Captain Cuttlefish waving to him as he left, glad there was good youth out there able to help others. However, when he turned back to the chessboard, he had to fix his own spectacles, looking up at DJ Octavio in surprise.
"…how in the world did you get checkmate?"
The day seemed pretty nice in the Squid Sisters' apartment. Callie was trying to prepare a late lunch, enjoying the calm day so far, despite it beginning to get cloudy outside. Marie was in the living room with their current guest, Fallow, the older sister to Maize. She seemed unfazed when she realized that the two cousins were the famous Squid Sisters, which was more of a shocker to them.
"You're so sweet! I'm so glad I came to meet you all!" Fallow's rhyme happily rung out while she was sitting in the floor. Bondi was in her arms, and she was happily playing with the squishie. The white inkling was watching, though she couldn't help but focus on the light red inkling's oxygen mask and whatever those cords were running under her shirt. She seemed like she needed those desperately. The Squid Sisters did not want to rudely inquire about it.
"Squee!" Bondi laughed, having quickly grown attached to the new visitor. Callie was glad to have her as a guest so far. Hearing her son laughing really kindled some pride inside her.
"You giggled! You must love being tickled," Fallow hummed as the squishie kept giggling and laughing. They soon heard a knocking at the door, Marie getting up from her seat and letting their guest continue playing with the squishie. The white inkling was glad to then see their dear friend through the peephole. She opened the door.
"Hey, Marie," Maize smiled before stepping inside, letting the door close behind him. Fallow immediately stood up, handing Bondi over to Marie before she came over to Maize. The squishie appeared saddened to be out of his new friend's arms.
"Squee…" he sadly said.
"Bro! Where did you go?" Fallow wrapped her arms around her little brother tightly. Maize laughed, almost being picked up off the ground. He returned her warm embrace.
"I had a mission to take care of. Thanks for helping my friends, sis," Maize answered, seeing Callie coming from the kitchen. She was happy to see the siblings like this. It sure seemed different, yet Maize acted more mature than his sister, as far as the Squid Sisters could tell, which was odd, considering the age difference. The embrace came to an end.
"I was worried, they said you were sick," the yellow inkling exclaimed. Fallow shook her head.
"Sick? Nope. I got a little prick from my cactuses yesterday, but despite the pain, it did not seem like much to me anyway," Fallow continued her rhyme to her answer. She felt as good as usual. The Squid Sisters had to actually wonder if this was normal for how their family unit functioned.
"Fallow, how about you go set the table. We need to talk to your brother privately," Callie requested. Fallow agreed, going off to the kitchen to do as asked, aware she would find her way around the kitchen soon enough. Callie had made some potato soup for lunch. Marie returned the squishie to his mother.
"You girls really like to scare me, don't you?" Maize commented. The Squid Sisters really had only one way to respond to that.
"She really isn't sick?" Marie could not believe it essentially.
"Fallow looks rough, but she seems so… odd, too," Callie put it as nicely as she could put it while cradling her son in her arms. Maize quirked an eyebrow, but understood their confusion. At first glance his sister probably did not seem one bit healthy.
"She needs that oxygen mask a lot of the time, and those cords go into a machine on her chest. She can take them off for a couple of hours, but she otherwise needs them," Maize started trying to explain it to his dear friends, aware he could have probably told them a long time ago about his sister. It was not like he did not communicate with her often, but he did at least once a week, usually with text messages.
"You said her rhyming is a… adaptive coping mechanism for her brain?" Marie tried to repeat what he had told her.
"Yep. That's the thing. She's brain damaged, so her speech process is different than ours," Maize claimed. Those looks from the Squid Sisters were what he expected. He tapped a finger on his chest, thinking it was better to just tell them everything instead of answering line of questions like it was an interrogation.
"You see, Fallow got adopted when she was four. I came around a year later. When she was eleven, she had a bad habit of eating raw meat. Dad told her a million times to not eat it, but she did anyway, and she caught a parasite from it," Maize started telling them the story of what had happened to his sister to damage her. A parasite had gotten into her body and wreaked havoc, slowly ravaging and damaging Fallow's insides overtime.
"The doctors would not let us in her room. The parasites got in her brain and were eating away at it. When they gave her the medicine, the bugs began to die in her head and caused it to swell," Maize began to grow more and more upset. It was hard to recall the traumatic events that had hit his family when he was quite young. The Squid Sisters felt guiltier for forcing him to recall this.
"The doctors had tried to focus only on her brain, though. They never checked the rest of her body. So the bugs had begun to eat away at her heart and her lungs," Maize finished the retelling of his sister's traumatic past. He remembered his younger self could not go one day without thinking he was going to never see his sister again.
"Maize… I'm so sorry…" Callie extended her condolences. She felt horrible for prying into his family history. He shook his head.
"Two months later, my sister got out. She couldn't talk or walk, so they had to plant a machine in her chest to force her heart to pump and make her lungs breathe. Even so, she needs those to help," Maize finally finished the story of how Fallow came to be. The Squid Sisters were not sure how to respond, and not sure what they could say. It was safe to assume rehabilitation had restored her walking capabilities.
"So… the reason she rhymes is because it's all her brain can do for talking?" Marie asked.
"Exactly. It's not all bad, though. She rarely gets depressed, and she's still able to live on her own," he nodded, adding to this. There were some perks to what had happened to her, but the constant joy was about it, and brain damaged or not, she still was able to take care of herself without needing help from anyone or anything but her oxygen and the power supply for the device in her chest.
"I hope you're all ready for brunch! Lunch is ready," Fallow chimed, exiting from the kitchen, seeing the group all looking at her. She could sense her sibling's distress easily, but saw him force a smile on his face.
"Hey, Fallow! Did you tell them your motto?" Maize asked.
"Motto?" Callie chirped, looking at Bondi. He seemed alright, aware that she had to make him a bottle of formula to eat. Marie did like a good motto. They were always better than puns. Sadly she had to make a lot of puns with her cousin on the Inkopolis news. Fallow almost seemed ready to explode upon being requested.
"Oh! No matter what they say, or how rough they play, day or night, dark and bright, I'll let them know I'll never slow down! I may not be smart, but I'm proud to be a Dagenhart!" Fallow practically chanted her motto, the same way a proud military soldier would say it. Callie and Marie both smiled hearing that, but the last part did catch their attention.
"Dagenhart?" Marie quirked. This seemed to have Maize embarrassed.
"Dagenhart is our last name. I gladly accepted it, even though it holds no fame," Fallow claimed.
"So… your name is Maize Dagenhart?" Callie asked. Maize looked absolutely unsure how to feel with having his last name revealed. He did not hate it per say, and all of his friends who knew about it complimented it. But for some reason, Dagenhart felt like it had a creepier undertone to it than he liked. Besides that, he did not want anyone to go around referring to him as 'Mister Dagenhart'.
"Err, anyway, I'm starving! Let's go eat," Maize insisted they forego the last name of his and his sister's. The Squid Sisters thought they could tease him about it another time. Callie followed them into the kitchen, wanting to prepare a bottle for Bondi. Her cousin however had come up with a great idea.
"I have an idea. How about we all go out for a turf war after we eat?" Marie suggested. She imagined it in a second; the four of them made a full team, each with two chargers and two rollers.
"Huh… that sounds great!" Maize agreed happily. Fallow was up for it as well. They approached the kitchen table, Maize seeing the bowls and nicely set table. Each bowl was steaming warm, holding delicious appearing potato stew. He was ready to eat, and there was plenty to go around for everyone. Marie took a seat with her friends, Callie soon joining them while feeding Bondi. She loved the idea of fighting in a turf war. Bondi was chugging down a bottle of milk in his while resting in his mothers lap, while the others began to eat the potato stew. Each bite felt warm and filling, almost like it was forcing the consumer to rest more, but they all still were enjoying it immensely. Callie was a great cook, mostly because there were only a few restaurants in town she had not visited.
Maize looked around, seeing part of his family and his best friends all around one table. It filled him with determination to handle future missions. He hoped one day, maybe Special Squid Services could grow and gain a lot more agents than they had available. While the group continued to enjoy their lunch, he decided to ask his sister about becoming an agent later.