Agent 3 couldn't believe herself. She had let her guard down and had a fucking breakdown in front of her friends! She hated the fact that she had cried, the fact that she had shown weakness.
Agent 3 vowed it would never happen again. She couldn't handle being weak, she had to be stronger. She had to be better.
Aside from the whole "doubling over in excruciating pain" and "having an emotional breakdown" however, the meetup actually went pretty well. Callie and Marie both insisted Three go see a therapist, something about needing to work through her trauma with someone trained to handle it.
The only reason Three agreed was because it might help prevent another breakdown, which was her end goal anyways, and she was willing to do just about anything to get there.
Apparently Agent 8 had been going to one as well, Agent 3 had to ask why because she had literally no idea what Eight went through. Upon finding out, Three was even MORE disgusted with Kamabo. The whole test facility? And not to mention the fact that if they gathered the "thangs" (it annoyed her to no end that it was spelled with an "A") it assembled a giant blender that melted the test subject down and then mixed their essence into that awful goop.
So yeah Agent 8 had some shit to work through too.
Agent 3 had also gone to a regular doctor to see if anything could be done about her scar, or at least about the pain it caused. She didn't really have much hope, it was caused by some freak of science and the best she could really hope for was maybe some painkillers to keep from being unable to function when an attack flared up. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything they could do for her. She just had to suffer through the pain.
Part of her wondered if it was partially psychological, the pain was way too similar to when the sanitization goop was actually on her face. But then again, it had seeped in past the skin layer.
What if it was still trying to take control of her?
Agent 3 shrugged that thought off as quickly as it came in. No way in HELL was she letting it take over her again. Her friends meant too much to her to let it happen again. She would sooner splat herself with all spawn points out than let herself be someone's puppet again.
Now Agent 3 was just laying on her bed, her shirt long since discarded but her pants were still on for whatever reason. She stared up at the ceiling and her mind kept jumping from thought to thought. Sometimes she'd think about back when she saved the Great Zapfish from Octavio. Sometimes her mind would wander into the events that lead her to Kamabo. Sometimes, all she could think about was Kamabo. Three let out a loud sigh.
"This fucking sucks." She took in a deep breath, then glanced over to her bedside table. "and I still need to buy a new alarm clock"
Her thoughts didn't linger on her current Alarm Clock situation for very long. Her first visit with the Therapist had gone… well she didn't throw him nor herself out the window so it's a start. He'd given her some advice, whenever she finds herself starting to fall into another depressive episode, focus on the good memories you can find in your mind. She was told it may not prevent the depressive episode, but would at least soften the blow a little.
And here she was, slipping into a depressive episode again.
Agent 3 tried to focus on the good memories she has, but her mind kept wandering back to Kamabo. Always Kamabo. So instead she tried to at least focus on remembering the least-terrible parts of Kamabo.
Their tech was cool, could probably be incorporated into the NSBS pretty well if they put the effort in. She'd gotten to meet Off the Hook properly, instead of just an interrogation like the first time she'd met Marina. (Long story, but as effectively a public figure who used to be part of Octavio's army, questions needed to be asked). Pearl was nice, her voice was destroyed but she was nice. Marina held no ill-will towards Three for the whole interrogation which she was grateful for. Marina understood why it had to be done, sure, but Three had maybe been a bit… intense during it. So to actually talk to her like a PERSON rather than barrage her with questions like a war prisoner was nice.
And then there was the new girl, Agent 8. Gods thinking about her always made Three a little flustered. And she hardly knew the damn girl! To be fair, Eight hardly knew anything about herself either. Amnesia's a hell of a drug. Three had considered getting to know Eight a little better, finding out what she liked, maybe going to see like, a movie or something. But every time she tried to muster up the courage to talk to her, even over text, she could never bring herself to hit "send"
To distract herself, Three decided to whip out her phone and try texting Eight again. She opened up her messages app, and tried thinking of a good opening line. Everything was wrong. Nothing was good enough. Hello was too formal, hey was too casual. 'Sup made her sound like some kind of surfer dude. Three racked her brain, trying to come up with some way to just say "Hi" without being laden with anxiety.
"Gods why is this so DIFFICULT!" She locked her phone and tossed it to the side of the bed she wasn't laying on. "I hardly know her! Asking her to go get coffee should be EASY!"
She rolled over onto her side, it was maybe 4:30pm at the latest. She felt her face warming as she thought about the Octoling that had previously tried to kill her, and then went on to save the world. How her face was beautifully rounded, her ears too came to a rounded end instead of a point like the Inklings. Her tentacles were tucked neatly into a ponytail at the back of her head, and two smaller ones flanked the front of her face. And then there was her smile, dear gods that smile was infectious. Even just thinking about it made Three's own face go from a stubborn frown to a gentle grin.
However, she wasn't able to stew with her thoughts for very long as her phone lit up and made a nice loud "DING" indicating someone had messaged her. Agent 3 let out a sigh, reached over to her phone, and decided to see who it was and what they wanted.
"Oh it's Marie again, I wonder what she wants now."
Marie: Hey 3! I know it's only been like, three days since that whole fiasco but I thought I'd check in. You've been kinda quiet and we're worried about you. Callie wanted to bake you a cake to try and cheer you up but I think she set our oven on fire… again.
That made her chuckle a little bit, oh Callie, never change.
Agent 3: All things considered I'm fine I guess, saw the therapist yesterday like you told me to, he seems nice. Also tell Callie I appreciate the thought.
Marie: Well that's good to hear. Oh, last time you were here we never got the chance to introduce you to Agent 4! You'll like her, she's a lot like you. Except she owns soap ;)
Agent 3: Haha fuck you Marie, I DO own soap. But yeah I was meaning to ask what the big crack in Octavio's snowglobe was about, I assume that's what lead to the recruitment of a new agent?
Marie: Yeah, also Callie being kidnapped, and the great zapfish… again.
Three had to take a pause, the Great Zapfish was stolen, AGAIN? She steps away for 2 years and the whole world goes to shit.
Agent 3: Wow, well she must be pretty skilled if she stopped Octavio, we both know he would've upped his game since his fight with me, so props to her.
Marie: That's the best part, HE DIDN'T! He used the SAME strategy! The damn thing even still had fists!
Now Agent 3 was chuckling to herself. Octavio, the brilliant military leader… re-used a failed strategy.
Agent 3: Wow, W O W, wow. I can't, he seriously did the same thing a second time.
Marie: Yeah, but now that you and gramps are back, he's taking care of looking after Octavio, so Callie, 4, and I are all kinda stuck with too much time.
Agent 3: You and Callie are international celebrities and you have nothing to do? Can't you just like, go out and fuck some fans knowing no one will ever believe them?
Marie: AGENT THREE I AM APPALLED!
Agent 3: … Callie did it tho.
Marie: Callie di- hold on, I'm gonna be cousinless in about five seconds.
Agent 3: Oh fuck, she fucked now.
Agent 3: It was totally with me tho
Marie: I swear to god 3, if you aren't joking I am going to come over there and rip your head off its shoulders right after I'm done ripping Callie's off hers.
Agent 3: Do it, give me the sweet embrace of death. Besides how would you even know where I live? I never showed you.
Agent 3 chuckled to herself. Oh Marie, you're too easy to get a rise out of. Agent 3 then decided that while her bed was comfortable, her stomach screaming about not having food was not. She'd have to tease her friends later.
She made her way out of her bedroom, snagging her discarded shirt and putting it back on, and enters her kitchen. The kitchen was by no means massive, however for just her, it did seem fairly big. Several drawers were left almost empty, and several cupboards actually WERE empty, but she was never short on food. She just didn't need as much space as she had. One of the perks of the Squid Sisters being part of the agency, their agents were never going to want for basic needs.
Agent 3 sighed to herself, did she want a proper meal, or did she want to make food that she'd throw in her microwave for 2 minutes that might give her cancer. She figured cancer couldn't be worse than what was going on with her face, so she opted for the microwave food. Okay, the real reason was because she was tired and didn't trust herself with a frying pan because of how tired she was.
Three grabs some frozen pizza snacks out of her freezer, removes the plastic, then throws them on a plate and into the microwave.
"Fuckin hell my life is a mess." she laughed to herself. "What am I gonna do when I run out of these frozen pizza things? I'm gonna starve that's what."
The microwave beeps aggressively, she pulls the food out, using a cloth between her hand and the plate cuz microwaves loved to make plates hotter than the food on them, and sets the plate down on the table. Once Agent 3 has the Microwave door closed back up, she sits down in front of her meal and sighs to herself.
"These damn things are gonna become a genuine part of me at this point, I'm gonna be like 20% frozen pizza snack" she rolls her eyes at herself before eating her meal, if you can even call it a meal.
Once she's done, she takes the plate over to the sink and rinses it off, then places the plate on the bottom rack of her dishwasher. Just then, Agent 3 heard a knock on her door.
"That's odd, no one buzzed in, and I'm not expecting anyone."
She walks over to her door, looked through the peephole, and saw the single most terrifying thing she has ever seen in her life.
Marie, standing there, smiling.
"Oh fuck, now it's MY turn to be dead" She said quietly to herself.
Agent 3 kept the chain on the door as she slowly opened it.
"Hello?"
"Hi Agent 3? Can we uh, chat for a minute?"
Three audibly gulped, but reluctantly, she closed the door, unhooked the chain, and then allowed Marie into her apartment.
Marie walked in, placed her hand firmly on Agent 3's shoulder, then sucker punched her right in the gut.
Agent 3 collapsed onto the floor coughing, the wind knocked right out of her. It takes her a few moments to get her barrings back, but once she has a moment to breathe again, she takes in a few deep breaths to restore oxygen to her entire body.
"Ah fuck, thank god I don't have bones or you'd have broken a rib!" Agent 3 slowly sat up on the floor, and looked up at Marie, who looked like she was readying for another blow. Three threw her hands up in protest. "Okay! Okay, I probably deserved that one, I take it you reamed out Callie already?"
"Seriously? You two… and you NEVER told me?!"
Agent 3 lets out a nervous laugh and rubs her neck "Well it's not exactly something you bring up in a normal chat!"
Marie rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I can't believe you." she sighed.
"Hey! I was young and stupid, and Callie was, and still is, fuckin hot as hell."
Marie shot her a look that made Agent 3's mouth seal right up.
"Callie wouldn't tell me WHY you two did… that. So now I have to ask you. And I WILL know if you're lying, I know you incredibly well Agent 3."
"Okay okay, but can we sit on my couch at least? The floor isn't exactly nice to sit on."
"Fine, but don't waste any more time."
Once they're seated across from each other, Agent 3 takes in a deep breath, then looks Marie dead in the eyes.
"So, here's the long and the short of it."
