Chapter 18:Thursday
Luke was walking up through the plaza gates as he thought about what happened to him the other night.
He had woken up to a suffocating sensation of a sore neck and chest and had to look around his room this morning, looking for his assailant.
There was nothing but his own shadow, yet he couldn't help the feeling of eyes boring into him even as he weakly stumbled out.
He sat at a bench and pondered the wondering what he saw. In his dreams, something was after him. What it meant, he'd no clue.
The way it took HER shape though, he'd couldn't swallow his fear of what had just happened.
He witheringly sighed and held his hands to his cheeks.
It was probably nothing. He was probably just being anxious about tomorrow.
He would talk to her and ask for more advice before tomorrow.
Tomorrow…
That was going to be the day they clashed with Aeolia's team. Were they even ready for that?
He stumbled out of bed to open his curtains and let the rising sun leak through.
He wobbled back onto his bedside, fatigue wearing him down. While he felt better, he still felt exhaustion from waking too fast. He wanted to fall back into the normally sweet caress of slumber, but the last few attempts weren't exactly the best incentives.
With a sigh, Luke slipped off the bed in squid form. All the dizziness was churning his stomach so he hoped that less vertical height would at least alleviate the problem. Unfortunately, his body wasn't having it; he reverted autonomously when his body began to twitch and heave as soon as he made contact with the ground. He had to take a moment to ease the dull aches and sudden nausea.
While calling it a day would have been great for him, he didn't exactly want to be hunted down and grilled for it later. Maybe if he had Deborah's number, that might have been mitigated
…
Oh well.
Putting his phone into his pocket, Luke carefully made his way to the couch, every step making him feel like he was lost in a maelstrom with how much his vision swirled around.
Why was this happening to him? Did he catch something? He didn't want to go to the doctor, but maybe he had to consider it if he didn't feel well soon. Maybe he'd ask mom on what he could do help him feel better first.
Yet the idea wasn't appealing. If he went to get treatment, he could miss everything: the match, the Splatfest, everything. Was he going to throw all this work away? Furthermore, he couldn't really help but feel an anxiety about the sterile white halls he'd seen in movies and his mother's concerns of them taking him away. If he went, he might never see his family again.
Wearily out of the apartment, he finally hauled himself up to the rooftop. He didn't dare sit closer then a few feet away from the edge in fear of toppling over. Just because Inklings had no bones didn't mean the impact could hurt or even kill him-not that he wanted to think about that…
He fell onto and let his aching muscles rest. He felt so much better letting the nighttime breeze hit his skin… which was…
so relaxing…
He almost nodded off completely before the sound of water rushed into his ears. He jumped, his hearts almost immediately pounding in his ears.
His surging adrenaline and the quickly amassing thoughts suddenly swarmed his head and he tried to abate the overwhelming sensation of the world spinning away by grounding himself.
He focused on the rooftop he was now sprawled over, his vision swimming till it finally managed to settle. He was pretty shocked he didn't feel like heaving out the contents of his stomach, but appreciated the luck; he wasn't eager to be turning his insides outwards.
The deafening winds of loneliness began to whisper in his ears as he calmed down, and here he was slowly regretting the isolation he used to be familiar with.
By now he got about midway through his training with Aeolia. She had really helped him, though he wasn't truly sure why she was doing this other than it being a random whim of hers.
The training was to help him improve and the only reasoning she really gave was that she wanted this to be an actual challenge, but there had to be more then that, right?
A reason why he felt drawn? He barred himself from that line of thinking and thought about something else that he had noticed
The several times she had guided him, there was something on her mind. She had been keeping a focused eye on him ever since she had acknowledged his presence and it wasn't lost on him: She had a reason. Maybe it had to do with this weird feeling he was having? An inexplicable pull her presence had on his consciousness whenever she was near? It wasn't attraction, right?
Right?
Suddenly he could feel his face ignite into embarrassment as the possibility hit him. He really only had tv to go off of and the closest relationships he had were familial in nature. It was a foreign concept to him; he had never really imagined himself to be one to really like someone like this and he didn't even know where to start if he did like her enough to have such an odd attraction.
If anything it was something to keep him up and he was thankful for that at the very least. By now, the sun had begun to peer over the cityscape horizon and the first rays of sun silhouetted the left of his face. He shut his eye in order to keep the light from blinding him and made an attempt to stand. Seemingly, his aches and pains were beginning to dull, so it was a lot easier to get up from the ground than it might have been prior to coming up here in the first place.
He didn't linger for too long in the apartment, opting to get moving before his sister could wake up today. As he strolled out of the complex, he was met face to face with a familiar face.
He jumped so hard, all the color on his tentacles threatened to spill over. "Aeolia? What are you doing here?"
She barely shifted her expression but he was sure that that might have been a glint of concern in her otherwise stern face.
"I overheard your teammates discussing it yesterday when they were in the plaza. I figure you might've been ok, but I figure I would check in the next day, just in case we needed to discuss a forfeit."
He made a sour face, "Oh…I don't think it's necessary. What made you think I wouldn't be well enough today?"
She answered almost too promptly, "It would be a good idea to be prepared in case it was a serious malady. I suppose while that answers one question, it leaves another in the air."
"And…what is that?"
"Assuming you aren't still well, will you push yourself still?"
Any awkwardness between them seem to have been pushed up, second to the sheer amount of tension he felt. Her unrelenting gaze seemed to be burrowing into his mind in an attempt to drag an answer out of him early.
"I-i…um, yeah…I'm not stopping just because I don't feel well…if that."
He was barely looking in her direction, if only to spare himself from her harsh golden gaze. There was barely any reaction if he could discern any betrayal of one.
"Very well. Then our training will be concluded as of right now," Luke, only then, focused completely on her again. She had her hands behind her back and her posture was straightened to the degree of one of authority. "I look forward to seeing what you can do, Mr. Vernon."
Despite her facial expressions never once showing anything, he could glean all he needed to from the changing of her posture: 'It's all up to you now, don't forget what you've learned.'
He gave a nod of affirmation as well as forming a nervous semblance of a smile, "Can't say the feeling is mutual, but I hope I don't let you down."
For once, and probably the only time, he saw her lip curl into the most subtle smile he had ever seen. "I hope so."
Before he knew it, she had disappeared into the crowd, leaving him on his own.
When Luke arrived at the square, he wasn't too surprised to see the whole team gathered in the café nearby. He wasn't even halfway through the door before Nova nearly tackled him to the ground, being saved only by his grip on the door. He was threatened still from the fact Nova was using her momentum to drag him to the table they were based at. Stumbling into the joyful inkling's embrace.
"I'm so glad you're here!" she beamed, before placing him on a seat.
His eyes glanced around at the table disoriented from the grappling and trying to figure out what all this was, "Uh…"
Noticing how puzzled he was, Deborah straightened her body, her eyes half-lidded and her upper beak grazing her lip which were upturned in a rather mischievous grin.
"It's time we discussed the plans for tomorrow's match against Death's Tide."
Not wanting to stay quiet for this, he decided to attempt some for of contribution. "Ok then…what did you guys talk about?"
"So glad you asked." Deborah's lips split her face in a way that resembled an amused snake. "Thanks to Cassie, we have the rotation locations for the timeslot."
When Luke said nothing, she continued. "The stages coming up are Kelp Dome and Bluefin Depot."
"Never played on either of those." Luke muttered to nobody in particular.
"Well," Nova interjected. "Kelp Dome's been a turf war scene for a bit and actually was in the rotation yesterday, but… y'know…"
"Yeah…" he figured Nova probably wasn't comfortable talking about the incident, given her expression, so he changed gears. "So-uh…what's the plan then?"
"Recon." Was Deborah's answer as her upper right lip curled back in a vicious snarling smile. "Since they aren't being used at current, we can sneak around and get a lay of the land before the match starts." Now that you're here, Captain , we can begin.
With that, Deborah stood and strided away, Tytus faithfully following behind her.
Well the plan seemed simple so far. It couldn't have been as easy as that, could it?
The group had super-jumped to the Kelp Dome's entrance, which felt considerably farther without Inkopolis Tower's respawn transit system. With Luke crashing down last, everybody had made it there a sweating mess.
Luke could see spots swimming on the edge of his vision and the churning in his stomach had spiked back into existence. He was barely able to abate the ill feeling before Nova and Brodie were at his side, looking prepared to catch him if he fainted.
"I-i'm…fine…" he croaked. "J-just...just…not used to…j-jumping that far…" he collapsed onto the greenhouse structural support in order to keep him from tumbling to the floor. "Just...go ah-h-head."
Nova was going to insist on staying put but Luke gently pushed her away. He made a rotating gesture towards the dome's entrance. "Keep an eye on them. Please?"
She sighed, but nodded. "Only if Brodie can stay behind with you."
Luke clicked his tongue in annoyance, but relented his judgement. "Ok, just go." he slurred.
The moment Nova had walked out of view, Luke inevitably felt himself get on his hands and knees, panting and coughing. Brodie immediately moved to give his friend a bottle of water. The taste of metal graced the roof of his mouth as he resisted the urge to throw up blood. Luke hurriedly grabbed the bottle and guzzled down a 3rd of the bottle.
"You ok?" Brodie eyes concentrated on him, as if to determine whether his actual condition by looking at and through him and into every muscle in his body.
"Yeah. Just g-give me a moment…" his stomach began and churned as if to chide him for continuing to move. Once the storm in his stomach has become manageable he was guided into the dome.
The other four had spread out amongst the Kelp Dome: Nova was admiring the growing crops lined near the concrete walkways, Deborah was mapping out the dome with pen and paper on the deactivated spawn pad closest to the door, Tytus was standing below her as a guard dog, while Cass' figure was peering above a plant-filled partition and was noting everything from the centerpoint area.
Nova had sensed them not too soon after they had walked in and stepped towards them, watching Deborah scrawling down something down on a notepad.
"Doing better?"
"Yeah."
"Good. We've split up to try to assess from different vantage point any strategies we can deploy against Death's Tide tomorrow. Look around and see what you can find."
With that, the trio split to cover more ground. Nova insisted on covering the perimeter herself despite Brodie offering to stay with her while Brodie had wandered onto the grateway above.
Luke wandered aimlessly, taking in the massive bubble of plant growth in its entirety. So many plants reminded him of the home garden; Though they didn't carry the same fragrance as the flowers back at home, they, nonetheless, made him contemplate the return home.
He looked past the planter and noticed the indication of a platform jutting out over the plastic tarp. The stages picked out for turf war were often picked for their symmetry so it should be like that on the other side. Sure enough he saw a ramp in the exact place the other would be.
"That would be a good place to invade from..."he mused. As long as the enemy team didn't know you were coming, they could deploy an ambush strategy here. He made a note of it and look for anything else.
It had been an hour since they entered the Kelp Dome and Ocean's Sonata regrouped at one of the spawn points to compare notes for strategizing.
"Alright I'll go first." Deborah said somberly. This was probably the first time Luke didn't hear her sound any form of snide or condescending. "The Spawn Point, as you can see gives both team's a bird's eye view of the stage. From there you can descend onto the ground and go one of three ways: the grates, the ramp into enemy turf, or walk normally to the other side of our turf which is partially sectioned off by the planters."
"Oh," Luke looked over to see the giddy grin on Brodie's face. "So a plant-tition, if you will?"
He was silent as soon as the death daggers being glared into him by Deborah made contact with his own.
Despite him looking away somewhat sheepishly, he seemed proud of the titter Nova made. Luke looked at him somewhat suspiciously as the goofy grin and the darker inkling's sparkling eyes lingered on the display.
Deborah was quick to interrupt. "As. I. Was. Saying. The planters partially keep base protected as long as they don't throw bombs over the walls. This makes a decent stage to hold down the fort if they have us pinned."
Deborah immediately flipped her switch to something a lot less hostile as she turned to address Cass. "And I'm sure you'd have something pretty good to add to my points, right?" Luke couldn't help but glance at Nova after that, and was silently relieved to see her keeping a neutral expression, though he could see the corners of her mouth twitch in displeasure.
Much to the disappointment of everyone else, Cass went ahead with his assessment without really picking up on Deborah flirting. "As she said the are three different grated paths. On top of that, the middle offers the most area for ink coverage so most of the conflict is going to happen here." his brow knitted themselves together with the seam in between deepening with every thought "If we're going to win, it'd be best to go for the center but watch our back...and front."
"Right, right! I was totally thinking the same thing!" Luke had the suspicion that Deborah, in fact, did not think of the same thing. And the rest of them shared his thoughts through varying levels of grimacing. "A strong offense is a tight defense!"
"That being said: we probably should make sure to take the middle and hold it so they can't get a foothold."
"An excellent idea!" she beamed at him before easing down from her verbal indulgence to look down at the others. "Whose next?"
Nova was the next to speak up, although she wasn't really keeping any animosity out of her voice. "After admiring the actual scenery, I took a look around the perimeter of the map."
"Yeah, so?"
Nova sharply inhaled to keep her inner volcano dormant, "So, because of the square shape of the turfing stage, as well as the the one-way ramps, they may be great places to corner opponents and pick them off."
Once more Luke found himself gauging reactions between everyone, but mostly the girls.
Cass gave a supportive clap and told her that was a great idea and surprisingly Deborah followed with her own support, though he couldn't tell if there was anything malicious there or if she simply was agreeing with Cass again.
Brodie was looking down at a notepad app it looked like at this point, though judging by his nervous glances, Luke had to wonder if he was also doing it for a bit of solace.
Nonetheless he offered his own observations. "Well, it's not much. The grateways have a decent height off the ground to make evasion and navigation a lot easier," he clicked his tongue and took a glance behind him. "Doesn't really outweigh the con of being a sitting duck if you don't know what to do. You only have down if you can't move on the grate."
For the briefest of moments he got the most scorn-filled look from her before she lolled her head sluggishly towards Luke,"...right. Your turn now." she stated flatly.
He gnawed at a flake of skin on his lip in irritation, "You could sound a bit more enthused…" he pointed towards the ramp closest to spawn. "I think the best play is to infiltrate via the ramps and keep the heat off of anybody back there by having the other two turfers wreak havoc at the opposing base."
"And if they storm us the same way?" she leaned forward with her nose wrinkled with skeptical anticipation.
"W-well...there is always making sure they can't use it…"
"And do you have any plans for that?"
"It can't be that hard, right? One of the infiltrators could stand guard around the ramp to keep them from going over to our base."
"That could work!" Brodie interjecting and breaking the tense mood between the two. "Guarding the ramp might be the way to go for mitigating their ink spread overall. Even if you were just on the other side, if you can position yourself correctly, it'd be a simple matter to ambush them!"
Luke had notice the ferocity in Deborah's stance fade considerably, and most of the heat had been taken off of him.
"That's an...adequate answer. We can tweak it later. For now, we need to scout out Bluefin Depot and come up with a battle plan for that."
As the group got up and left for Bluefin Depot. Luke planned to give Brodie a treat for keeping Deborah's scrutiny off him.
It seemed fair enough.
The scouting of Bluefin Depot was surprisingly straightforward. The shape of the Depot was plenty more exposed, save for the overhead girders and platforms on either side of the turf stage.
Luke was staring down the dilapidation around them as the rest of Moonlight Sonata chatted. The neighboring buildings stood sullen sentinel over the waterfront and the rust of the train tracks sprinkled off into the ocean. He couldn't really explain why, but he was feeling at peace doing this. Not the planning, though he was feeling a bit more confident helping out with his team. As he rattled of the potential strategy of Deborah flanking from their opponent's side alley, his mind wandered back to the serenity of the backwoods grove at home and compared it to the desolation of the mining town.
The most obvious reason was the lack of people around, but that didn't feel like it was quite it. The broken windows and dusty architecture filled him with lonesome sadness and while currently comfortable, he felt like the structure of the place could send him hurtling into the waters below.
As he wracked his mind for an answer, a gust blew dust towards the group. Leaving them a coughing, wheezing mess.
"Can we move somewhere less dusty?" he heard Tytus complain. "I don't want to get black lung from breathing in old coal dust."
"You'll be fine, mines don't give you black lung anyways-"
As the dust cleared and Luke opened his eyes, he caught a glint of violet in them. He whipped his head towards the distant figure of Aeolia, perched on a nearby building with her back turned to them, and yet the prickling and bubbling of ink on his skin told him she was definitely watching them.
Was she stalking them?
Was she trying to see how to counter them some kind of way?
"Hey, Luke. Snap out of it."
He was brought back to the other inklings near him. He almost forgot he was still with the others.
"Oh, s-sorry. It's my first time really being in a place this deserted, what happened here?"
Deborah barely stopped a forming sneer, settling with a unsatisfied scowl as she picked herself off the magenta spawn, "Beats me. Think we're done here if everyone's so ready to get the heck out of here,"
Luke was the only one that didn't nod with the sentiment and he could practically feel the surprise and suspicion. He was careful not to raise his eyes towards Aeolia's location; if she was still there, she'd be waiting for him and he doubt the others would be particularly understanding to meeting some from the rival team, much less their captain to boot.
"I can catch up with you guys in a bit, yeah?"
After a moment of staring at him like he had two heads, Deborah relented. "Ok, don't be long." Everyone except Brodie and Nova took off.
"Hey," Nova started, her fangs nibbling into her bottom lip. "You're not...are you ok here?"
He was confused at her statement.
"I mean, you kind of requested to be in an abandoned coal mine by yourself. I'm honestly shocked you want to stay here by yourself."
He scoffed before softening his disdainful snarl into a sympathetic, more timid glance, "I'm not afraid of being alone, y'know? Just wait for me at the plaza. Try to bring up your level up while I'm gone."
Just like Deborah, Nova and Brodie stared at him with apprehension before, she too leapt away.
Brodie was the last one to leave. But not before having his own two cents. "Call us if you need someone and really: be quick. Nova's probably not gonna stop worrying 'till you get back in one piece."
And with that, Brodie leapt towards the city, leaving Luke all alone. His eyes gazed back to where he'd seen Aeolia. She hadn't moved yet and he could feel his heart palpitating eagerly in anticipation.
Was she here for him? Was she trying to observe their strategies? Or maybe she had other reasons for being here?
He jogged towards the building she was atop of. The crumbling brick and mortar sprinkled in the Inkling's face, forcing him to swipe at the cascading debris. He clamored into the darkness, the climb up seemed to stretch on for eons until his foot clapped onto the final dusty step.
As he shielded his eyes from the sun's rays, he peaked between his fingers to see nothing there. He slowly parted his hands away from his face; had she left while he was moving from the turf war stage?
As he turned to leave, he felt his soul nearly rip itself out of his body as Aeolia now towered in front if him. He looked frantically at the ledge and back to her twice, his startled mind trying to figure out where and when she had a chance to sneak up from behind him.
In a rare display, she knitted her two brows together, in what Luke interpret as either annoyance or disbelief, "It's not that surprising to see me here, is it? You did bring yourself over here to, presumably, see me."
"I-i mean I did…"
"You seem nervous. Are you worried about tomorrow's match?"
Luke felt an honest lost of words. If he was honest, he tried to keep thoughts of the upcoming match out of mind. Even if it was approaching rapidly and everyone else on the team treated this as such an important event for their team, he couldn't feel the need to treat this nearly as direly.
He could conclude Aeolia was a nice person.
"I mean, I-I...not really...to be honest, I don't know how to feel."
"Care to elaborate?"
He wrung his clammy palms together as a pang of apprehension, "I'm not sure if I really can…"
"Well, you can try. Ultimately, it might make you decisive."
"Decisive?" he parroted.
Aeolia gripped at her chin as she seemed to be trying to piece her words together.
"You might be able to determine your future by deciding the present."
Luke gave her the most dumbfounded look he could muster. As he tried to arrange his face normally he thought on what she said.
"Could you be a bit clearer?"
"Decide what you want to do. When you do, you'll be able to ford any river in your way."
"You talk weird, you know that? But thank you."
Aeolia did a polite bow, here eyes softening into a warm, friendly gaze.
"You seem to have had the potential. I just wanted to help you draw it out."
That was an interesting response. Not wanting to risk making her suspicious of his inquiries he took a deep, quivering breath, "So, um...what are you actually doing here?"
To Luke's surprise, Aeolia's response seemed alarmed; her eyes had widened somewhat subtly and though she kept cool, the unnatural jolt in movement didn't escape notice. Her nose had creased slightly and her posture had raised a bit.
"I am just scouting."
He had a hard time believing that.
"Scouting the competition?" He honestly didn't want to poke her and risk aggression but he was in too deep at this point.
She frowned, but she was noticeably less tense. Interesting.
"Not quite." She corrected. "This map is new so I wanted to get a deeper understanding of it. I wasn't expecting to see you here."
"Oh, alright." He wasn't entirely convinced. What was that reaction to his question earlier really for? Before he could give it more thought, a gaunt hand grasped his shoulder firmly and spun him around.
He was face-to-face with a hateful red-eyed glare and the snarl of a feral animal feeling himself shrink away even as his aggressor's hand bore into his right arm.
"And who're you supposed to be?" Luke recognized him as Aeolia's aggressive frontliner. Azriel, if he recalled the name correctly. Luke swallowed the lump in his throat as the other boy's eyes switched impatiently between him and Aeolia, eager for an answer.
"Azriel, he is a guest. Let him go."
To Luke's surprise, the other inkling let go and promptly went over to her side. He was glaring still, but kept his thoughts to himself. Not like he'd have something productive to share while he was there anyway.
He looked at Aeolia again. She was hiding it well with her indifferent expression, but he could feel something in his gut: She was hiding something, and if he had to guess it had something to do with him. Why else would she be so secretive about being here?
Feeling like there was nothing else productive to say he bid them both farewell, ignoring Azriel's scowling as he climbed down the building. He was musing to himself about Aeolia's reaction to his query.
Come to think of it, this was the first time she seemed withdrawn to any inquiries. Curious and suspicious if he was honest with himself.
She seemed to not want to unveil any of her secrets, which he could respect if it didn't seem to be related to him. But, she was unwilling to divulge what she was keeping to herself and Luke honestly felt himself too frail to warrant a fight with her or the ghastly, red-eyed ward that locked onto him by the end of the conversation.
Shuttering as he recalled the scornful gaze boring into the back of his head. He climbed further down the derelict building pondering the interaction before her friend showed up. The intimidation.
Azriel, the pale eyed inkling gave him the willies. He looked like every bit of a nasty person as his turf war clips had shown.
And then some.
He was wondering what the circumstances were between those two being friends before he shook the thoughts away. It was none of his business. For now he'd meet with the others.
Still, the idea that Aeolia was being as secretive out of the blue had him wondering what else she was hiding.
Luke superjumped to the plaza were he noticed that the epicenter of the city was now packed full of people.
There were inklings crowded around the tower, the Squid Sisters studio and Booyah Base like a conveyor belt of sardines freshly sealed in their cans.
He looked for his team, seeing as there was no way they could have gone that far ahead with the plaza so full. When couldn't find his teammates, he attempted to slide past; turning into squid form with the disgusting feeling of sweat and grime exchanged as he slid by. He would be taking a shower as soon as he possibly could the next chance he got.
With excruciating effort he manage to finally squeeze his way into Inkopolis Tower and was met with both an astonishing and exasperating sight: Inklings EVERYWHERE.
There were so many people, he could see a haze of everyone's breath and sweat hanging in the air as he entered, and a swath of inklings massed into a waves and waves of bodies. Luke could almost taste the fishy musk of a thousand sea creatures massing into his nostrils and felt himself heaving and gagging when the pungent scent lingered inside his nose.
As Luke instinctively pinched his nose in a desperate attempt to save himself from the smell, he looked frantically around the lobby for anyone familiar, diving into the astonishingly less stinky locker rooms when he could find no one.
What was going on today? There were way too many people here then the last few days he'd came to Inkopolis. It almost seemed like some kind of event was happening, but as to what it could be, Luke had no clue.
He was able to relax on a bench for a moment before he noticed that Tytus had came in. As Luke could only guess was his usual self, he wore a scowl on his face and hurriedly grabbed at his wrist.
"What are you doing?" He asked, though Luke was never allowed the time to even speak, "We gotta bring our ranks up so we can prep for tomorrow's game and we've already been waiting for you for ages!"
Promptly, Tytus plucked a miserable and disgruntled Luke from the bench, and dragged him back into the crowd of stinky teenagers. Ocean's Sonata had congregated in a corner to discuss a few battle tactics for today's maps: Blackbelly Skatepark and Walleye Warehouse. They were discussing in on how they would approach different enemies setups and plays, but halted their progress when Luke appeared. He waved gently to them in which Nova, Brodie, and Cass were the only ones to wave back, while Deborah momentarily acknowledged him before turning her back towards him.
"You took your time getting here." she chided. "Did you have a good time?"
Luke was suddenly on edge. Had she figured out he was conversing with their future opponent?
"Yeah, uh… I just kind of like how the scenery of Bluefin looked. The plants growing in some of the buildings almost remind me of home…" This was somewhat true, there was a fair amount of greenery emerging from the mining town that he was able to admire for no more than a moment while reaching Aeolia, but she-they rather, didn't need to know the details.
Deborah's sigh was a cynical response to his words but ultimately, she shrugged them off, "Alright, fine whatever. Planned strat for Blackbelly Skatepark is simple-" Luke then sat next to Nova as he was detailed on what strategies would be used for both stages during rotation.
Author's Notes
Hello~! Long time no see everyone! I will keep this brief: we're almost at the Splatfest and I cannot wait. I love my ocs but I do think i need to finish what's here in order to figure out what's up with the story. it was easy to start but as life went on i got hit with a ton of block and then the self critique had stopped me completely
Once Luke has enjoyed his time at Splatfest, I think it'd be worth revisiting the older chapters and bringing them up to a much better consistency than that i had started with, which makes sense given i was an excitable teen just graduating High School when i started.
Either way, I plan on seeing this through to the end. And I do hope you all like it.