“Host, with all due respect, you could have probably gotten away with just punching it. Climbing the tree was somewhat unnecessary.”

“Getting ‘im in the face stunned him.” Which, in turn, left it open for a few more solid hits to the torso. Only a few, though – it recovered surprisingly quickly. The bear allowed itself to fall forward, attempting to crush her beneath its raw bulk. Ursula saw that coming, of course, and was already out of the way. She took a few more quick jabs to its side before it could follow up. It pivoted around with surprising agility, heavily swinging a massive paw at her in the process. Were it not for Delphi’s powers, Ursula would absolutely have been caught by that. And even as it was it just barely didn’t graze her. It immediately followed by leaping forward, and once again Ursula dodged to the side and gave a few quick jabs.

“Host, hitting it in the side isn’t going to do anything.”

“It’ll hurt it.”

“Yes, but that will only make it angrier.”

“Okay cool do you have a better idea.”

“Aim for the face.”

“Oh right you mean the part with the teeth. Great plan.”

“Enough blows to the head will knock it out.”

“Yeah, and one bite from that fucker and this is all over. Also that’s the part closest to the claws.”

“So long as you’re inked, being bit will be no problem.”

“That’s easy for you to say.”

“It’s easy for you to do!”

Of course, the bear wasn’t particularly inclined to just sit back and wait for them to finish bickering. All the while it continued to attack, and Ursula continued to dodge, getting in what counterattacks that she could. “Host, this isn’t a video game, you can’t just punch it willy-nilly until it dies. And you can’t keep this up forever.”

“I can keep goin’,” Ursula replied, even though she knew it was a lie. Endurance fighting had never really been her strong suit. She wasn’t one for waiting. Her preferred strategy was to bait her opponent into making a mistake and then end things with one big punch. In her experience, the longer a fight went, the more likely it was that she would get worn out and make a mistake. And she really, really didn’t like taking the risk that she would be the one who slipped up first.

But she was finding herself in situations where that just wasn’t an option increasingly often. Distressingly so. First the Marquess, then Makoto, and now the bear – all of them had forced her onto the defensive, and in all of those instances her defensive abilities were found lacking. Even now, she could feel herself running out of steam. Her muscles burned, dulled slightly by the presence of her inkling but not enough for her to ignore. “Shit. Okay. Fine. New plan. Bait out a charge and then punch it in the face.”

Of course, that was easier said than done. The bear seemed extremely intent on keeping Ursula directly in front of it. Probably because it couldn’t as easily attack her if she was to its side or behind it. Entirely understandable, but god fucking dammit was it obnoxious now that she needed to put some distance between it and her. She could, in theory, get a few blows to its head in without baiting out a charge. But that was risky, and didn’t leave as much room for heavy blows. What she needed was something to distract it just long enough for her to get away and then stop distracting it so its attention would be back on her.

Luckily, she was pretty sure that she already had a distraction lined up. She knew how Viola thought – she was going to get Miranda to safety, but then she’d be right back in the fray (even if, really, it would probably be better if she stayed away from the fighting). It was just a matter of holding out until she got back. Hopefully that wouldn’t take too long.

“Ursula!”

“There we go.” The bear lurched in the direction of the sound, earning itself a punch to the jaw. “Eyes on me, motherfucker!”

“Are you okay?”

“I need you to distract it for, like, five seconds tops.”

“Got it.” Ursula couldn’t actually see Viola, of course. Presumably she was invisible. Ursula wasn’t exactly in a position where she could confirm or deny that – her attention was understandably focused on the god damn bear. That said, she did absolutely notice when a fallen branch awkwardly lifted off of the ground. It was a bit big for Viola, but that was probably fine. She allowed the branch’s own weight to do most of the work as she heaved it up and over, letting it collide with the bear’s rear.

That was enough to get the thing’s attention. It roared, more out of annoyance than actual pain. It pivoted around to face where the blow had come from, only to be faced with nothing. Because, again, Viola was invisible. It sniffed and shuffled about in confusion, clearly trying to track down whatever had attacked it. Ursula didn’t exactly know how good the average bear’s sense of smell was, and she didn’t really wanna find out. Reaching down to grab a big rock she quickly backed away and then hucked it bear-wards.

If the branch hadn’t hurt the bear, Ursula was honestly surprised it even noticed the rock. Once again, it lurched around, and this time there was actually an obvious target for it to attack. It snorted angrily, and then roared, before blindly charging forward.

“Gotcha, asshole.”

Ursula had to react quickly, but at least she had the time to react at all. She pulled her left fist back and sent it flying directly into the charging bear’s snout as hard as she fucking could.

Which, unfortunately, wasn’t enough. The bear powered through the blow, ignoring the pain and the sickening crunch to slam its paw into Ursula before she had a chance to dodge out of the way. She was swept off her feet and sent careening into a nearby tree, bouncing off of it before landing on the dirt with a dull thud. It hurt. A lot. Much more than she’d expected. More than any other blow she’d taken while inked that she could think of. She didn’t want to think about how much stopping power it might have had were she not inked – likely that would have been it. Still, she had to power through or else this would be it. She grabbed at the tree in an attempt to pull herself upright. “Okay. So the bear can take more’n one blow to the head before going down. Duly fuckin’ noted.”

The bear wasn’t going to give her the time she needed to recover. Honestly, she could kind of see its point of view. She had punched it in the face (twice), punched its side several times, and thrown a rock at its butt. Like a mosquito that just didn’t know when to leave well enough alone, which she could empathize with. She’d be able to empathize a lot more if it hadn’t pretty clearly started this whole mess, of course. But right now she kind of had higher priorities than empathizing with the god damn bear. Like for instance how it was already making its way over to finish her off. There was absolutely no way she was going to be able to get up before it got to her. For such a huge motherfucker, he sure was quick. He lumbered his way towards her, bleeding fairly profusely from his nose. His movements were determined, but also unsteady – clearly all those blows to the head were getting to it. Maybe one or two more and it’d be out.

Which was a nice thought. Unfortunately, she didn’t stand any chance of landing one or two more. Hell, she was pretty pessimistic that she’d manage to get her ass out of the way before it squashed her. Her only chance was that he kinda seemed to be getting overconfident, taking his time to savour the kill. In practice, of course, that only resulted in a difference of seconds. And, unfortunately, she’d already squandered those seconds and wasn’t back upright. There was no way she’d be able to get out of the way before he squashed her right the fuck back down. Her reflexes were completely shot, and her whole body fucking ached with a dull, throbbing pain that was centred on the two points of impact.

“Ursula!” That Viola, screaming in a blind panic. God dammit, she wasn’t gonna let this happen. She’d fought and won against a giant monster and a heavyweight champion and a god damn cyborg supersoldier – she wasn’t going to lose to some fucking wild animal. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she desperately scrambled for a plan. Something, anything. A course of action she could take. The best she could come up with in the literal milliseconds of real time she actually had to plan in was to just try and roll out of the way at the last second and then get up and resume the offensive. Somehow. It wasn’t a great plan, but it was a plan at all. Steeling herself, she tensed her muscles in anticipation of a blow that never came.

“What?”

The bear’s arm was stuck in its raised position, struggling against... something. Like a rope tied around its wrist – or its bear equivalent thereof. Only it wasn’t a normal rope. It was a deep, dark purple, outlined by yellow. Like... well, like an Inkling.

“Don’t just fuckin’ sit there, I can’t hold it forever!”

Ursula didn’t need to be told twice. Hell, she didn’t need to be told once – as soon as she properly registered what was even happening, she pulled herself back. As soon as she was safely out of the bear’s range, the rope went slack and the bear slammed his paw onto the tree, leaving five thick gouges in the wood and no gouges in Ursula. He immediately attempted to chase after her, but before he could the rope stirred to life. Moving like a snake, it wrapped itself around both of the bear’s front paws and then darted upwards, tying its mouth shut. It scrambled with the back paws before the rope trussed those up as well.

“Okay. That should hold it for now.”

Ursula stared blankly, struggling to find any kind of reaction.  It was, ultimately, Viola who spoke up. “... Miranda?”

Miranda winced. She was inked, of course. The same yellow and purple as the rope, the end of which she held tightly. “Can we maybe save the drama for later?”

That was good enough for Ursula. “Yeah, we’ve got higher priorities right now. Like gettin’ the big guy back outside. Can you move ‘im?”

“Are you kidding?” Miranda replied with a grunt. He’s gotta weigh an actual literal ton.”

“Okay,” Ursula said with a shrug. “It can be a group project then.”

“You seem awfully blithe about this,” Miranda said, tilting her head quizzically.

“I am in way too much pain to look a gift horse in the mouth. Bear first.”

“Fair enough,” Miranda replied with a shrug. “So, uh... Sorry for, uh. You know.”

“I thought we were savin’ the drama for later?” It was Ursula’s turn to shrug. “It’s fine. You’ve clearly got somethin’ going on, we can talk about it later.”

“Okay.”

“I’m gonna try an’ roll him.” Of course, even as she said it, she got the impression it wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t move his legs or open his mouth, but he was more than capable of thrashing about angrily. “... Oof, on second thought, that ain’t gonna work. How sturdy is that, uh, whatever it is.”

“Literally unbreakable. That’s Rakni’s power. She can reinforce things.”

“Gotcha,” Ursula said. “I guess we’re just gonna hafta team up an’ drag ‘im out. Like I said, group project.”

“Right.” Being Inked made it difficult to read Miranda’s expression – not as much as Edifice, but Edifice literally didn’t have a face. Still, her body language made it clear that she wasn’t particularly comfortable.

“Tell ya’ what,” Ursula said. “After we deal with the bear we can sit down and fuckin’ actually talk this out. Like, yanno, adults.”

Miranda’s expression remained wary. “One thing first,” she said. Only she didn’t really say it – her voice was the same but different, like someone else was using it.

“Rakni, I assume?”

“Yes. And you would be Delphi. Osoth’s chief intelligence officer. I did not recognize you at first.” She turned to face Viola, who cringed slightly. “And you would be Fantoma, Osoth’s chief assassin.”

“Former chief assassin,” Aubrey clarified. “Osoth is dead.”

“Be that as it may, you are still some of the Tyrant’s foremost blunt instruments. You’ll forgive me for being a bit wary.”

“It’s... a very long story. Suffice to say, you don’t need to worry about us. We have no lingering loyalties to her. All we ever wished was for the war to end.”

“Good! That’s all I needed to hear.” Rakni smiled jovially before, with a gesture, sending some rope towards the other two girls. “You need not worry. I, myself, am quite enthused by this whole ‘not constantly being at risk of death’ thing. Now, let’s get this bear dealt with.”

“Right...” Viola wasn’t entirely convinced that she would be of much help in that regard. True, being Inked made her physically stronger than she was normally, but her baseline wasn’t exactly very high. Miranda and Ursula were definitely going to be doing most of the work.

“I, uh. Guess neither of us was dead weight, huh?” Miranda said with an awkward smile. She gave off that same vibe she had when Viola complimented her jacket. Like she’d let the facade drop, if only for a moment.

“... Let’s get this over with. Then we can talk.”

“Right. Sorry.”

Viola sighed. It was going to be a very, very long day. And somehow, she got the feeling that this was only the beginning.

~~~~~~

It turned out that bears were heavy. Kind of an obvious observation, but a salient one. It likely didn’t help that Viola had the upper body strength of a wet noodle, nor that Ursula was for obvious reasons not at the top of her game. And Miranda was, if she was honest, not exactly that much stronger than Viola. “We’re absolutely not getting back in time for next period...” she muttered. They had, by this point, almost made their way to the edge of the woods.

“You’ve got the same schedule as Viola, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Trust me, you’re not gonna be missing much. Mr. Murphy’s special talent is making anything and everything he talks about into the most soul-crushingly boring thing imaginable.”

“I’m more worried about getting in trouble for, you know, skipping out on the back half of the day.”

“Let’s just focus on the positives. At least we’ve gotten the bear out, right?”

“It’s still alive, though,” Viola interjected. “And probably not very happy either. That’s probably going to cause problems in the future.”

“We’re not in the future, it’s fine,” Ursula said, her tone of voice making it clear that the subject was dropped.

“What about-”

“Fine.”

“But-”

“I just fistfought a fucking bear okay? Gimme like a couple of hours to recover before we start worrying about all the loose ends.”

“Yeah, uh, speaking of which,” Miranda said awkwardly. “You’re not exactly in the best of shapes, how do we go explaining that?”

“We don’t,” Ursula said firmly. “As far as anyone needs to know, y’all ran off, we went and got you, and then we hashed out our stupid fucking drama in private.”

“Okay but we can’t just not tell anyone about the bear.”

“The bear’s outside of the dome, it’s fine.”

“What’s this about a bear?”

Ursula swore internally, cringing as she turned to face the interloper. “Hi, Mr. Stefanowitz.”

“Yer early,” the elderly cougar grumbled.

“Uh, yeah, it’s a long story.”

“I’ve got time.”

“We don’t!” Ursula replied. “Got History to get to, yanno? Don’t wanna miss today’s lecture.”

“What’s this about a bear,” the old man repeated, much more firmly. The subtext was clear; they were going to explain about the bear.

“Okay, there was a bear. Big-ass motherfucker. He got in the dome somehow. I chased ‘im off. There, can we go now?”

Mr. Stefanowitz frowned deeply. “How big are we talking.”

“Does it matter? He’s not in the dome anymore.”

“From the sounds of it, we’re dealing with a solo male Grizzly. You don’t usually see grizzlies this far southeast.”

“... Is that bad?”

“If he’s alone, that means he’s got a monopoly on food. A better diet means a bigger bear.”

“Oh.”

“Plus, it’s December. He should be hibernating. So not only is he way outta his normal range, he’s also not sleeping when he should be. That’s not normal which is probably a bad sign.”

“Oh.” Ursula cringed slightly as it sank in just how big of a deal this was. “I guess, uh, it was probably a bad idea to beat him up and make him mad, then?”

“A very bad idea, yes. You’re lucky to be alive.” Mr Stefanowitz sighed, his expression softening. “You should go get some rest. I’ll bring this up at the town meet later. If anyone asks, I was the one who encountered him. You saved me.”

“Thanks,” Ursula said sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“And stop going into the woods on your own. It always ends badly for you.”

“Yessir.”

“Come on,” he said, turning around and gesturing for them to follow. “You can use my bed to rest. It’s closer than your place.”

“What about school?” Miranda interjected. “I just started, I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“I’ll cover for you,” Mr. Stefanowitz replied simply before leading them to his home. He wasn’t wrong when he said it was close – which was a good thing, as he wasn’t exactly the fastest person. Not that anyone present particularly blamed him for being slow, of course. He was old, old enough to remember when the Ring was still under construction (if only vaguely), and more pointedly old enough that it had started to seriously catch up with him. His face looked like someone had taken a candle to a wax statue and melted it slightly, and almost all the colour had faded from his fur. His movements were slow and careful, lest he accidentally hurt himself. Most of the reason why the girls did most of their community service in the Woods rather than anywhere else was because Mr. Stefanowitz frankly just couldn’t handle the job at all anymore, let alone doing so completely solo.

His home was modest, but nice enough. It kind of smelled weird. Not bad, but sort of musty and dusty and old, accented by the subtle odours of medication and chemical cleaners that just weren’t strong enough to actually make a meaningful dent in the old person smell. “Oh my goodness! Are you okay?” That was Mr. Stefanowitz’s live-in nurse, a platypus named Steve. He rushed over to Ursula’s side and immediately began prodding at her.

“Oi! Hands off, buddy!”

“You’re hurt!”

“I’m fine,” Ursula retorted. “Nothin’s broken, just some bruises. Lemme lie down for an hour or two and I’ll be back to normal.”

Steve clearly wasn’t convinced. “I’m the medical professional here, young lady, I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Okay so like first off you’re a year older than me, two tops. You don’t get to call me ‘young lady’ yet. And second? You ain’t that kinda nurse.”

“Hmph!” Steve crossed his arms and pouted, clearly exaggerating his reaction for effect. “I’ll have you know that just because I’ve been specifically trained in Senior Care doesn’t mean I can’t also do all the other things a nurse is supposed to do!”

“Shouldn’t you be looking after Mr. Stefanowitz? He’s the one who just had a close encounter with a wild bear.”

“A what?!”

“Yes, and you’re the one who decided to fistfight it,” Mr. Stefanowitz said tersely. “I’m going to call up the school and keep you three out of trouble and then I’m going to have a nap until the Town Meet. Steve, don’t disturb me until then unless it’s an emergency.”

“Yes, sir!” He turned around to face Ursula, miming rolling up a sleeve his outfit didn’t actually have. It was, frankly, just a bit ridiculous – almost more like nurse-themed lingerie than an actual uniform. The top was unreasonably tight on his lithe upper body, while the skirt showed off far more of his fat ass than was really strictly necessary considering that he was a live-in nurse for an elderly man. Though, on the other hand, Mr. Stefanowitz probably appreciated the show. “Now, hold still and let me look you over.”

“I told you, I’m fine.”

“I’m not accepting that until I’ve checked you out for myself. Take off your shirt, please.”

“Is this just an excuse to touch my muscles?”

“No!”

Ursula rolled her eyes. “Okay, tell you what, compromise. If you leave me alone for now, we can OC later. Okay?”

“I am legitimately concerned for your wellbeing!” Still, he seemed to have been mostly placated by the offer. “Fine. I’ll let you try sleeping it off. For now. But, if you aren’t capable of moving on your own after an hour, then I reserve the right to look you over. Deal?”

“Fine, whatever. Can you leave us alone to talk now?”

“Hmph.” Still, in spite of his huffiness, Steve reluctantly left to do... something. Presumably cook or clean, whatever. Ursula found herself not caring.

As soon as he was out of the room, Ursula flopped down on the couch, taking up all the available space. “I call dibs,” she said succinctly, leaving Miranda and Viola to stand. Miranda wasn’t particularly pleased – she was wide enough to need the extra space a couch afforded, lest she get stuck – but she was willing to concede that Ursula needed to lie down more than she needed to sit at all. Viola was mostly just glad that Steve was gone and she could focus on literally anything other than his ass or bulge. “So, what’s your deal? Or would ya’ rather save that for somewhere more private?”

Miranda fidgeted nervously – which was an impressive sight given she had six hands to do the fidgeting. “How likely is it for someone to barge in unannounced?”

“Extremely.”

“Then it can wait,” Miranda concluded.

“Fair. Gotta be careful ‘bout who you tell what.”

“Besides,” Viola interjected. “Um. It’s probably best if everyone hears this. If, um, if Miranda’s okay with that, that is.”

“No, no, don’t worry. It’s fine.” Miranda leaned back against a nearby wall. “I, um. I should probably tell someone about this. And I kinda think I owe your friends an explanation. Or something.” She cringed slightly. “Even if I really, really don’t want to talk about it.”

“Maybe just tell us what you can afford to now?” Viola suggested. “That’ll make it easier next time when everyone’s here.”

“Well... Okay, the basics then. Back home, there was this... guy.”

“Boyfriend?” Ursula asked.

She didn’t need an answer, though, not with the way Miranda’s face immediately contorted into a disgusted grimace. “God, no. If we were literally the last human beings alive I would sooner jump off a cliff than spend any time with him.”

“Yeesh, that bad?”

“Cedric is a psychopath.”

“Hm. Cedric,” Ursula said, snapping her fingers a few times. “Name sounds familiar.”

“He’s been... involved in certain current events. You know. Inkling stuff.”

“Oh? Oh! Right, crazy lava asshole.”

“The lava part is new, but he’s always been a crazy asshole. Actually, uh, if anything he’s gotten a lot better since the invasion. He’s still a psycho, but he’s at least so focused on Inkling stuff that he mostly leaves everyone else alone.”

“But that’s a new development?”

“Yeah. Uh, yeah. He’s always given Greyswift and her friends, uh. Special attention. But, um. They pretty much always got the best of him. Every time he tried something, he usually ended up being made to look like a fool. And, um, that made him mad. And so he’d take out his anger on easier targets.” Miranda leaned against the wall more firmly, her body visibly tensing up. “I was one of his favourite targets. Um. I don’t really want to go into any more detail.”

“You don’t gotta,” Ursula said succinctly. “Lord knows I know what it’s like bein’ someone’s favourite target.”

“You do?”

“Remind me to tell ya’ ‘bout Maggie sometime.”

“Okay. Um. Anyway, after the invasion he mostly left me alone. Every now and then he’d make his presence known, to make sure I knew he’d not forgotten about me, but at least it stopped at that. After the, um, recent unpleasantness, my family decided to take TI up on the offer to move here for the new Fabricatory. And, um. I decided to take the opportunity to reinvent myself a bit? Be less of a victim, you know?”

“I think I getcha,” Ursula said, while Viola nodded in agreement. “Y’kinda overcompensated, though.”

“Um. Yeah. Sorry.”

“Well, tell you what. If Cedric ever shows his face around here, I’ll punch it for ya’. Fucker seems like he could use a good beating or three.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Hey, don’t worry, scaring off bullies is what I’m best at.”

“I don’t know. Cedric... Really isn’t the kind of person you want to make an enemy of.”

“If I may interject,” Delphi said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of not making an enemy of Emnas at this point.”

“Oi!” Ursula hissed. “Save it for later.”

“Non-Inked cannot hear me, host, it’s fine. Ah, speaking of which, I highly recommend keeping a close eye on the newcomer.”

“I’m right here.”

“And?”

Miranda frowned. “Is it okay if I say she’s kind of a dick?”

“Yep.”

“Hey!”

“She’s not a people person. Or, uh, people Inkling.”

“Fair. I just, uh, don’t want to step on any toes.”

“No, it’s okay, she’s just like that. It’s like, no one’s gonna object to you not liking Lars either.”

“Um.” Viola cringed as both Miranda and Ursula turned to look at her. It was, really, her own fault for speaking up, and she probably should have gotten used to being the centre of attention by now. Especially when she was being an Alpha. “She does have a point, though. Sort of. Even if she delivered it in the least charitable way possible.”

“Oh?”

“Like... I don’t really know about Miranda, but we’re not- not exactly openly Inked.”

“Yeah, uh. I kind of got that impression.” Miranda shuffled awkwardly. “I’m not open either.”

“Right. So, um, I think it’s in all our best interests to stick together. You can make sure we don’t spill your secret and vice versa.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Ursula said.

“Plus, um. I think Miranda could use a bit of a social network here in Esterwood. To help keep her from falling back into bad habits.”

“That’s fair,” Miranda said sheepishly. “So, uh, you’re asking me to join your pack?”

“Well, um, it’d be convenient, but only if everyone’s okay with it. And even then, only provisionally, just to feel out if you fit in with the dynamic. We’re kind of still settling into not being at each other’s throats all the time.”

“Oh?”

“It’s, uh. It’s a long story.”

“We can tell you later,” Ursula said succinctly. “Anyway, I’m down with givin’ you a chance to make a better second impression. Besides, given how she’s been staring at your ass for this entire fucking conversation I get the impression Viola’d kill me if I said no.”

“I have not been staring at her ass!” Viola retorted, violently wrenching her gaze away from Miranda’s lower body with a furious blush.

“Yeah, no offence, but y’ weren’t bein’ subtle about it, babe.”

“Y-yeah, well, uh, you were staring too!”

“I’ve looked at it, it’s a nice butt, of course I looked at it, you’d hafta be crazy not to. You, meanwhile, are staring at it like a starving man staring at a five course meal.”

“I was not!”

The two continued their good-natured bickering, which slowly devolved into background noise as Miranda leaned against the wall. Truth be told, being a part of a pack sounded... nice. Back in Locksmouth, she’d not really been very popular, to put it mildly. To put it honestly she wouldn’t be surprised if no one had noticed that she’d left – if anything, the only people who really noticed she was there in the first place were Cedric and his cronies. And, honestly, given that Cedric had moved on to bigger and better things, she’d be surprised if even he noticed that his former stress toy was gone.

Which was a fucking depressing train of thought and so she happily abandoned it. The point, to stop beating around the bush, was that she found herself not really strongly objecting to having stumbled ass-backwards into a pack, even if it was only a trial membership. And even if she’d... not really made the best impression to the other members. But, on the other hand, Ursula and Viola seemed more than happy to forgive her. Maybe the others would, too? She’d just have to wait and see. She couldn’t help but hope they would, which felt odd. Was she really that desperate for friendship? It’s not like she’d not managed to live her entire life up until now without any real friends.

God, that was another fucking depressing thought that she immediately shoved back down. For now, she was just going to take things as they came. If they ended up letting her join their pack, so be it. If not... well, fuck it, their loss.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel a smile spreading across her face as Viola flailed with increasing enthusiasm while Ursula teased her.

Maybe living in Esterwood wasn’t going to be so bad after all.

~~~~~~

Travers Innovations had set up a temporary headquarters in Esterwood’s town hall. The idea was that they would be moving into the Fabricatory once it was actually built, but until then they needed somewhere in town to coordinate the building effort. Town hall was in a nice, central location, and already had most of the town’s utilities based out of it, and it gave them easy access to the Arbitrators to discuss building permits and such. Plus, there was plenty of empty space. It was a nice, logical decision to just set up shop in an unoccupied office for now.

And, though he’d never say it out loud, Hyde couldn’t help but note the symbolic significance. Fuck, they’d even picked an office on a higher floor than any of the actual Arbitrators. There was no way that wasn’t intentional on Dr. Travers’s part. She hadn’t said as such, of course. But the unspoken implication was deafening.

Currently, everyone was working. Ellen was absorbed in her PET, scouting online for potential promising new employees to replace those lost in Locksmouth’s recent... troubles. Hyde was reviewing various proposals for where and how to build the damn thing. Maggie wasn’t physically present, but last he’d checked she was on the phone having an argument with local law enforcement. Again. Not that he particularly blamed the poor man. Maggie had, on arriving, immediately claimed the police station to be the headquarters of TI’s security division. In her words, it wasn’t like they were using the space for anything and so they might as well make use of the extant infrastructure. But, well, she hadn’t exactly left the town on good terms. And, while Dr. Travers had made it abundantly clear that Maggie’s presence wasn’t an option, that didn’t mean that any of the Esterwood locals particularly liked it. Especially not the people involved in kicking her out in the first place.

“Hey, yo, have either of you seen Lilly around?”

Hyde sighed internally. Speak of the devil and all that. “Looking after her is, technically speaking, your job.”

“I know, I know, but I can’t help it if the weaselly mother fucker called up to complain about me doing my god damn job again.” She certainly looked harried. Out of all of them, she probably had the most actual work to do in Esterwood until construction actually began in earnest. “And the poor kid’s got wanderlust. Bad.”

This time, Hyde’s sigh was external. “I suppose that makes sense.” Lilly had spent her entire life on the Ring, so actually getting to spend time planetside was almost certainly a novelty, and one she likely didn’t want to waste at the office while her bodyguard was working. Also, beyond even that factor, until very recently she had been extremely sheltered. It was only natural that she would want to explore. Her youthful curiosity was admirable, but also meant that she chafed under the close supervision that was understandably something of a constant presence in her life. “Do you have any pressing work to do?” he asked.

“Yes, which is why she had the room to run off in the first place,” Maggie replied, exasperated.

“You focus on that, then.” Hyde stood up. “I don’t have anything more pressing to take care of. I’ll look for her.”

Maggie let out a relieved sigh. “Thanks. Sorry about this.”

“It’s not your fault. Lilly needs a far more active social life than we’re capable of giving her at the moment. That’s something we’re going to have to figure out going forward, especially if she’s going to reside here on a more permanent basis.”

“Ugh.” Maggie’s face contorted like she’d just caught a whiff of some open sewage. “I wouldn’t wish Esterwood on my worst fucking enemy, let alone that poor kid. If she’s gonna live planetside can it at least be somewhere nice? Like, I dunno, fucking Anchorsway or something.”

“Perhaps in the future. But for now, we need to be here and thus so does Lilly. You go get back to work. And make sure not to let Dr. Travers know.”

“Let me know what, Sherman?”

Maggie cringed, and Ellen briefly glanced up from her work. “I assume you’ve already heard everything?”

“Yes,” Linda replied tersely.

“I have it handled.”

“Good. Margaret, please come with me. You and I are going to have a nice, long conversation about your priorities.”

Maggie winced. Linda had called her Margaret, rather than Maggie, which meant she was mad. “Yes’m. Sorry.”

“You aren’t in trouble, don’t worry.” A clear and obvious lie. She turned to leave, Maggie sheepishly following close behind. “Ah, Sherman? Make sure to contact me the instant you find her. And don’t let this happen again.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

~~~~~~

The rest of the day passed mostly without incident. Vienna found herself endlessly thankful for that. Frankly, she’d already had enough incidents to last a fucking lifetime. Thankfully, she ended the day with her free period. Normally she would spend that time getting a little extra homework in. Today, she instead elected to immediately call up Viola. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. We’re fine.”

“Good. What happened?” Shortly into Chemistry, she’d gotten a text from Miranda of all people saying that they were all fine but they wouldn’t be coming back to school today. So, naturally, she found herself more concerned than if she’d gotten no information at all.

“Um. It’s a bit of a long story.”

“I’ve got free period, we’ve got plenty of time.”

“Okay. Um. Well, uh, we might have gotten into a fight with a bear?”

“A bear? Like, as in, a wild animal?”

“Yes. Um. Ursula’s a bit bruised but that’s it.”

“I think you might be underselling this?”

“I feel like real life undersold it. It, um, it probably would have been much worse, but Miranda managed to tie it up before it could really hurt anyone.”

“... Tied it up?”

“Yes. Um. I’ll explain more when you get home.”

“Oh.” Vienna could pretty easily put two and two together. This was an Inkling issue, which meant they needed to keep it quiet outside of the privacy of their own home. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine.”

“You didn’t get hurt or anything?”

“I stayed out of the way,” Viola said. It was a lie – and a bad enough lie that Vienna was pretty sure she wanted Vienna to be aware she was leaving out information. Which probably meant she absolutely didn’t stay out of the way but had used Aubrey’s powers to stay out of any real danger. She was going to have Words with her once they were in a more private setting about avoiding risk. But, well. They’d had that argument a lot recently. She took some amount of solace in the fact that it was, at least, a reasonable thing to argue over. And even then, it felt miles less catastrophic than arguments they’d had over much less in the past. That was one big benefit to having a functional relationship. “Ursula and Miranda did most of the work.”

“Uh. Yeah, about that. What’s her deal?”

“Um. Well, it’s a bit of a long story, but...” Viola slowly and awkwardly relayed what Miranda had told them.

“Oof. Okay, uh. That doesn’t excuse anything, but it does at least explain it. If that makes sense.”

“Yeah. Um. Are you okay, with... You know.”

Vienna pursed her lips slightly. Really, the answer was a resounding ‘no’. She wasn’t averse to giving Miranda the opportunity to give a better showing of herself than the abysmal first impression she’d made. But that didn’t mean she was happy with her just sort of unceremoniously joining their pack out of fucking nowhere. And... Well, maybe it was a bit selfish of her, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit bitter that Viola was so willing to give Miranda a second chance but seemed to point-blank refuse to give Jake even a first chance. She couldn’t help but feel a lot of it had to do with the fact that Miranda was more her type, physically.

Not that she really blamed her, of course. She wasn’t blind, she’d seen Miranda’s ass. And at the end of the day she just couldn’t quite justify saying ‘no’. It would be selfish of her. And anyway, both Viola and Ursula were okay with it and she was pretty sure that Erin would go along with them once she heard Miranda’s story so she was already outvoted anyway. “Fine. For now. But she’s on thin ice.”

“I’ll make sure she knows to be on her best behaviour,” Viola said. “We can talk more after school. When everyone’s together.”

“Okay.” She was probably putting too much thought into this. Ultimately, Miranda had just put on a tough front and come on too strong because she didn’t want to seem like an easy target. Vienna couldn’t blame her for that. She’d just have to give her a chance to actually be herself. “Love ya’.”

“I love you too,” Viola replied, smiling slightly. They both hung up at the same time – otherwise they’d never actually end the fucking call. Vienna put away her PET and made her way over to study hall.

“Hey, Vienna!”

“Oh.” Or not. “Hi, Renee?” Honestly, Vienna barely knew the girl – they’d only really interacted via Ursula. “Don’t you have class right now? Chemistry, right?” That was Ursula’s scheduled class for this period, at least, as far as she recalled.

“Yeah, I’m taking a bathroom break. Have you seen Ursula? She kinda vanished after lunch.”

“Oh. Um. Yeah, she’s not coming back today. It’s kind of a long story.”

“Oh.” Renee drooped. “Well, that kinda sucks. We were supposed to have an exhibition match after school.”

“She’s not really in the position to have extracurricular activities right now?”

“Yeah, yeah, I figured.” Renee sighed. “Well, there’s always Monday, I guess?”

“You should probably get back to class.”

“Is she okay? It seems weird that she’d have to go do her community service before school’s over.”

“She’s fine.” Vienna didn’t really object to having an extended conversation with Renee, but she did in fact want to get some schoolwork in. “There was just some drama. You can ask her about it yourself. After school.”

“I guess.” She shrugged. “You’re right, though, I should probably get back to class. Don’t wanna get in trouble with Mrs. Rothschild. Seeya!” With that, she jogged off in the direction of Chemistry. Vienna tried her best not to watch her go, but... Well, it wasn’t quite on the level of Miranda’s but it was still a nice butt. And Viola wasn’t the only person with a libido.

“Right,” she muttered to herself as she headed towards the nearest bathroom to deal with that. “Guess I’m not getting any homework done after all.”

~~~~~~

Ami generally found herself heading straight home after school. She didn’t exactly have anything else she needed to do with her time. She wasn’t doing any extracurricular activities. She made a point of behaving herself so she didn’t have detention to worry about. She didn’t have any friends to hang out with – that particular one kinda stung to admit. It had been extremely naive of her to assume she could just be friends with Viola and the others like nothing had happened. She’d trapped them underground with every intent of keeping them there forever. To say nothing of very nearly killing two of them and doing a very good job of selling that she was going to kill the other two. Of course it wasn’t gonna be that easy. It was stupid of her to think otherwise. That bridge was burned and it was going to take a lot more work than she’d put in so far to rebuild it.

And maybe that work would have been easier if she’d made her avatar around the same age as Viola and the others. But... No, that was never an option. Viola’s pack were all basically adults, on the cusp of being expected to exclusively take care of themselves. And Ami decidedly wasn’t an adult. Chronologically speaking, yes, she was older than all of them combined. But that was only numbers. She knew exactly how her brain worked, she’d read the documentation more times than she was capable of counting (which was a lot because she was a computer). She literally needed social interaction in order to change. And, for five hundred years, the closest thing she got to social interaction was her games. And, frankly, that hardly counted. She barely actually talked to the soldiers – which, now that she’d spent some time with other people, she found herself deeply regretting.

The point was that the various scientists behind her creation had very specifically intended for her to spend a lot of time socializing with a variety of people. But, well, that wasn’t an option. And so she was stuck at the developmental equivalent of a ten year old child for five hundred years. She could have made her avatar an adult, or even just an older teen. But it would have been a lie and would have probably just made things worse.

And so she didn’t have the option to be friends with Viola and the others. Not really. They had their own lives to live and she was stuck in elementary school. So she had no friends.

Not for a lack of desire to have friends, mind. Hell, it wasn’t like there wasn’t anyone who wanted to be friends. No, if anything, everyone seemed almost too eager to be her friends. There was that Sophie kid and her friends, but she wasn’t the only one who was really pushing to get to know her better. And Ami turned all of them down. Every single one. Because the last time she’d tried to make friends she tried to lock them in an underground lab forever. And, honestly, she didn’t trust herself not to do it again. Intellectually, she knew it was wrong. She knew why it was wrong. She’d figured that much out at this point. But there was that deep, nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she would mess up again. Every friendship she’d ever had, she’d ruined. She’d burned any potential goodwill Viola and the others might have had for her. The soldiers almost certainly hated her for treating them like toys for five hundred years. And she hadn’t been able to protect Miss Jane.

You would think that after five hundred years, that last one would hurt less. It didn’t.

So instead she just went home. Which, she supposed, at least lined up with her character. She could pretend she was sad about the fact that her parents were dead, even if it was a lie – she was still sad about people who were dead. Eventually she was going to have to get over it. It wasn’t like she could just go back to her hole. She’d rather die, and anyway she’d been around long enough that people would notice if she left. But, well. She didn’t feel like getting over it yet.

“Welcome home!” Scarlet Eckstein shouted from the couch. Generally, when Ami got home, Dan and Azalea were still at school and Mindy was out being an Arbitrator (whatever that entailed. She still hadn’t wrapped her head around weird post-splice government systems.) That generally left Leanne, if she was still in town, and Scarlet. Scarlet was always around – she didn’t have a job and generally only socialized with the other members of the Eckstein pack. “How was school?”

“It was good!” Ami generally did really well in most subjects that didn’t require creativity. Not that she was completely incapable of creative effort, mind. But, well, she was a computer. Of course she was good at math, that’s literally what computers were made for and anyway math hadn’t changed much in the past five hundred years. Science had, but the thing about being a computer was that she could just read the textbook and all that information was there, forever. Same with history – even if she was behind on post-splice history, and even if she knew a lot more about pre-splice history than most other people, it wasn’t too hard to just regurgitate what she’d been told. Creativity was the only thing she couldn’t really use the fact that she was a computer to basically cheat at. That and language. Her system architecture was written in English, and learning a new language thus took a little bit more work.

She relayed the events of her day to Scarlet, point by point, in excruciating detail that made the redheaded skunk’s eyes cross slightly. “Well, um. Have you made any friends yet?”

“Um. No. Not yet.”

“Well, that’s fine,” Scarlet said awkwardly. “Just take things at your own pace.” It was obvious that she thought the problem was that she was still sad that her parents had died. Which, like, Ami appreciated the sentiment, but the fact that Scarlet didn’t know what the actual problem was meant her advice was kinda useless.

“I don’t know. Maybe I just need to get over myself.”

“Maybe. It’s okay to not be super social. I’m not super social. Just take your time and make friends at your own pace, and in the meantime remember that we’re here for you. We’re family, after all!” She smiled warmly, and Ami felt a brief pang of guilt at the fact that no they weren’t really family at all, were they? She was taking advantage of this woman’s kindness.

But, well, fuck it. It felt nice. She leaned against Scarlet’s soft body as the larger skunk pulled her into a gentle hug. “Yeah. Thanks.”

Any further conversation was quickly cut short by the doorbell. “Oh. Um. I’ll just go get that.” She obviously didn’t want to go get that. Scarlet was generally not the member of the Eckstein pack who interacted with other people.

“I can get it!” Ami said, hopping up off the couch and quickly darting to the door.

“Oh. Um. Okay?” Really, she probably should have pushed a bit harder for the small child to not be the one answering the door. But, well, Ami was fine with that. It was probably better than Scarlet doing it – if Ami weren’t here, she kind of doubted Scarlet would do it. And so she went over to the door and opened it.

And, standing on the other side, was Sophie. The rest of her pack stood behind her, each with an expression on their face that did a pretty good job of conveying that their presence here was Sophie’s idea and they’d all been against it.

“Hi.”

“Did- Did you seriously follow me home?”

“Um. Yes.” She shuffled awkwardly as she slowly realized that this had been a bad idea.

“That’s weird,” Ami said with an indignant frown. She didn’t dislike Sophie – on the contrary, the kid seemed nice enough. Or at least that was the case before she followed her home in order to force her to be friends. That crossed a line.

“Yeah. Uh. Yeah. Sorry.” Sophie cringed, presumably realizing just how badly her impulsive decision might have thrown a wrench into her objective of befriending Ami. “Can we come in?”

“No!”

“I told you so,” Viktor said smugly.

“Shut up, buttball.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“I’ll stop calling you buttball when you stop being a buttball, you big buttball!”

“Guys, you’re just making things worse,” Siti interjected softly. Still, somehow her voice managed to cut through the argument. Viktor and Sophie stopped, though they clearly weren’t happy about it. Once she was satisfied that the others were going to stop digging themselves deeper, she turned her attention to Ami. “Sorry about this.”

Ami grunted. She had already not been in the best of moods, and the sudden intrusion had only made things worse. It also didn’t help that she could feel Scarlet peeking curiously at the goings on from her vantage point on the couch. Which meant she was probably going to get bugged about what exactly had been going on once she managed to get rid of Sophie and her friends, which she didn’t relish at all.

“We’ll leave you alone if you want. You don’t have to talk about whatever’s going on now, but something’s clearly going on and Sophie’s not going to drop it until she gets an answer.”

“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it.”

“We’re not going to force you,” Siti said, although Sophie shot her a Look that made it clear that she vehemently disagreed with that decision. “But you clearly want to talk about it.”

“No I don’t!”

“That’s fine!” She was clearly trying to be diplomatic, but also she was a ten year old and so was very bad at it and kind of just came across as smug.

“Okay cool can you go away now? Please?”

“Hey, now-” Sophie started, but Siti took a shaky step forward and placed an arm between her and Ami.

“Sophie. Not now.”

“But- but!”

“I know, but you can’t just force these things.”

“But-”

“Sophie. You-” Siti paused, frowning slightly. “You need-” she started again, only to immediately falter again. Her arm shook slightly, and her gait was unsteady. “I. Um.”

Abruptly, she stumbled forward and then collapsed. Sophie immediately moved to catch her, but Ami moved faster (and was in a better position to do so). “Are you okay?”

“I...” Siti trailed off, settling limply into Ami’s arms like a corpse. “I’ll be fine. I just... need some rest.”

“Okay. You can sleep on our couch for now.”

“I just need to lie down for a bit.”

“Okay, you can lie down for a bit on our couch for now.”

“I’m coming in too.” Sophie interjected matter-of-factly.

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am!”

“No, you’re not.”

Scarlet swooped in and picked Siti out of Ami’s hands while the two girls continued to argue back and forth. She had never really been particularly good at diffusing conflict – even factoring in that this particular conflict was between two small children. But a sick child? That she could deal with. Ursula had always been very active and as a result had very often injured herself. And, when she did, Scarlet was always there to bandage her up and kiss it better. She carried the Siamese cat into the house and gently laid her on the couch. “I’ll go get a first aid kit.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“I’m just doing what anyone would do.” With that, Scarlet turned and left. Sophie and Ami were still at the doorway, caught in an endless loop of “yes I am” and “no you’re not”, while Greta and Viktor stayed several steps back. Which left Siti effectively alone, with only her thoughts to keep her company.

Well. Not quite alone.

“You’re getting worse, child.”

“Go away.”

“I will not.”

“Go away. Go away go away go away go away.” Thankfully, her voice was naturally quiet enough that no one seemed to notice. She closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears. Not that it really made much of a difference considering the voice was in her head.

“Child. You cannot keep this up for much longer.”

“Go away!”

“Unless something changes very soon, you are going to die. And if you die, it is extremely likely that I will also die.”

“I don’t want to hear this.”

“But you need to hear it,” the voice in her head said firmly. “Even in the best case scenario, someone your age would struggle to muster enough Prana to keep herself and an Elder Inkling going. You are decidedly not the best case scenario, child.” Siti continued to fervently ignore him as best as she could. She knew exactly where this conversation (such as it was) was going, and wanted no part of it. “So, then, you are uniquely blessed in that one of my powers is the ability to drain Prana from others and use it myself.”

“So I kill someone else to save myself? No.”

“You would not have to take enough to kill. Small amounts from your friends and family and other people you encounter on a regular basis would suffice.”

“I’m not hurting my friends to keep you alive.”

“You would not be hurting them. Extremely mildly inconveniencing them at best. And it would not be to keep me alive – rather, it would be to keep yourself alive. My survival would merely be a convenient side effect.”

“Shut up!”

“Are you okay?”

“Oh! Um, yes. Sorry.”

Scarlet’s facial expression made it clear that she wasn’t convinced, but also wasn’t particularly interested in pressing the issue. “I brought a pencil. Do you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m just tired.”

Scarlet sighed, twiddling the medical device in her hands. “Well then I guess this thing is pretty much useless. At least in this situation. Do you take any medication?”

“Yes. But, um. It’s at home.”

“You don’t have any on you? Well, that’s just a bit irresponsible.” She clicked her tongue disapprovingly. “Well, then, can you give me your parents’ phone number? I’ll call them and get them to bring your medication here.”

“Okay.” It took Siti a moment to realize that she hadn’t been the one to say that. Her hand reached for Scarlet’s on its own, and her eyes widened as it came into view, coated in a dark red fluid that looked unsettlingly close to blood. Scarlet didn’t seem to notice it – she certainly didn’t react. At least, not until her Inkling grabbed her wrist. Her eyes widened for just a moment in a look of shock that quickly faded into a complete blank, glassy and out of focus. An unnatural calm as, slowly but inexorably, Siti felt energy flowing down from the point of contact and into her no longer exhausted limbs.

It took just about every ounce of willpower she had, but she wrenched her hand away from Scarlet’s wrist. The skunk lurched slightly, as though she’d been woken from a trance – probably because that was exactly what happened. “Oh! Um. What was I doing? I think I was going to call your parents?”

“That’s not necessary,” the Inkling said using Siti’s voice. “I feel much better now. May I use the bathroom.”

“Uh. Yeah, sure. Up the stairs and to the right. I... I feel really tired all of a sudden, I think I’m going to lie down.”

“I’ll just get out of your way, then.”

It was Siti who made her way up to the bathroom, slamming the door behind her with a tad more force than was really necessary. She glared furiously at her reflection in the mirror, which quickly took on the appearance of the Inkling that was using her as its host. Her, but not her. Coated in red, like she was soaked in blood, with a black outline. “Don’t ever do that again.”

“With all due respect, child, you have left me very little in the way of a choice. You are dying.”

“I-”

“And I am not exaggerating. Your body is simply no longer able to keep up with its own needs and also support me. At this rate, without drastic measures, it isn’t a matter of if, but when.” His expression, such as it was, was dour. “I give you a matter of weeks before you run completely dry. Perhaps even days. And that’s factoring in what I just did.”

“I...” Siti trailed off. She had no idea what to say, or how to react. She had always been somewhat frail and sickly – her Inkling had made things worse, but even before the invasion she had always known, deep in the back of her head, that her life had a strict time limit on it. But... somehow it had never felt quite so immediate as it did now. She’d never really been directly confronted by her mortality. It was hard to wrap her head around. No one she’d ever known had died before. “D-days?” she eventually settled on, her voice reduced to a bare squeak.

“Which would not be the case had you listened to my advice sooner.”

“I-” Siti cringed into herself. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“It is too late for that. Our best option would be to find wild animals and drain them completely dry to keep you going long enough to build up a surplus of prana.”

“I don’t wanna hurt animals, either!”

“You have no choice, child. I do not wish to be so blunt about this, but I can no longer afford to be gentle. You are my Host, and it is my duty to keep you alive and safe. By any means necessary.”

“I won’t let you hurt anyone either!”

“I have no interest in doing so, believe me. Had I any choice in the matter, we would not be draining anyone.”

Siti frowned deeply. “If that’s true, why are you so- so pushy about it?”

“Because I don’t have any choice in the matter.”

“Shut up!” It was about all that Siti could even do anymore. She couldn’t argue with him, because ultimately he was right, sort of. As much as she hated to admit it, she didn’t want to die. But, at the same time, her inkling was obviously evil. She could tell that much just by looking at him. No matter how much he claimed otherwise, he literally looked like he was made out of blood. Of course she wasn’t going to do what he said. “M-maybe it’s for the best that I die! I could at least take you with me!”

“I- that’s not-” The inkling pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. “There is enough colossally wrong with what you just said that I genuinely find myself at a loss for where to start. But, to begin with, there is no compelling reason for us to have an adversarial relationship. There are innumerable benefits to being inked as a baseline, and you’re lucky enough that your inkling is one of the most powerful there is.”

“Besides the fact that you’re obviously evil.”

“I am not evil! And besides, morality is far more complicated than you’re making it out to be!”

“If you’re not evil then why are you so keen on eating my friends!”

“I’m not keen on eating your friends! And anyway that’s not how it works!”

“You’re doing a really bad job of convincing me otherwise!”

“You know, if you’re going to yell at nothing, you should probably do it quieter. Also lock the door.”

“Eep!” Siti jumped in surprise. “O-oh, um...”

Amy glared, eyes narrow and suspicious, with her hands firmly on her hips. “You’re being weird. And Scarlet’s asleep in the middle of the day which... isn’t actually all that weird, but the way she’s asleep in the middle of the day is weird and it happened just after she talked to you.”

“U-um. S-shouldn’t you still be with Sophie and-”

“Don’t change the subject. Something’s obviously up and I wanna know what.”

“Um, I-”

Unfortunately, Siti didn’t have the chance to fully respond to Ami. Her plan was to try and assuage her concerns, but before she could do that, her inkling took control. Siti could feel it happening. A strange, cold, slimy sensation as the blood-red ink flowed out to coat her entire body, and from there she found herself no longer in control of her own body. The inkling moved quickly, closing the distance between himself and Ami in an instant before grabbing her by the arm the same way he had done to Scarlet.

“Hey! Get offa me!” Ami quickly wrenched her hand free of the inkling’s grasp with surprising strength. Which was the first sign that something was... off. Siti knew, roughly, how his powers worked. She should, like Scarlet, have been put into a trance almost the instant he came into contact with her. She opened her mouth to say something, but once again the inkling was faster than either girl.

“What are you.”

“I’m the one who should be asking that question.”

“You know very well what I am. You, however, are an enigma.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You appear human, and yet you don’t have any prana at all.”

“What?”

“Every living thing has some amount of prana. That’s what makes them living things.”

“I’m obviously a living thing so clearly you’re wrong.” Something about Ami’s tone of voice made Siti suddenly doubt that. She was a lot more... panicked about it than someone who didn’t have anything to hide had any right to be.

“You move and talk, that much is true. But I can say with absolute certainty that you are not a living thing, or at least not in the same way that a normal human would be.”

“I-”

“Perhaps you are one of those... Automa, from the recent troubles in Locksmouth?”

“I am not one of those things!”

Even Siti’s inkling was taken aback by the sudden ferocity. Ami hadn’t exactly been pleased since Sophie had barged into her home, but the sheer volume of visceral hatred and fury in her voice was upsetting. “Very well,” the inkling said, reeling slightly. “You are not an Automa, then. I won’t press any further. However, I do have one word of advice. You are, without a doubt, not human. However, it would be extremely difficult to prove without using my Inkling abilities.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Merely that, for as long as my secret is safe, yours is also safe. And that it is in your best interests to keep things that way. That’s all.”

“... Fine.”

“It would also likely be in both of our best interests for you to join the child’s pack. So that we may both keep a closer eye on each other.”

“Fine,” Ami continued, clenching her teeth in frustration.

“I’m glad we’re on the same page. Ah, by the way, I’ve not introduced myself. My name is Ruthven. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Whatever,” Ami grumbled as Ruthven retreated to... wherever it was that he went when he wasn’t demanding Siti murder people. “Your friend’s a jerk.”

“He’s not my friend.”

“Good. Could you, like, get rid of him somehow?”

Siti shook her head. “I don’t want to force him on anyone else.” And besides, she was confident that she could keep him under control – she couldn’t say the same for anyone else. And honestly, even then, she wasn’t doing the best job of that.

“Right.” The two stood in awkward silence, words left unspoken hanging heavily over the two girls. Siti didn’t know exactly how much of her conversation with Ruthven the other girl had overheard, nor did she really want to know. And neither seemed particularly interested in elaborating on whatever Ami’s nature might be, or asking why she was so mad about being called an Automa. “Um. Let’s go tell the others the good news. Or whatever.”

“Okay.”

“Do you need a hand getting downstairs?”

Siti shook her head. “I’ll be fine for now. Um... sorry about your mom. He did that. Not me.”

“It’s not your fault. She’s usually napping at this time of day anyway.”

“I think I managed to stop him before he did any real damage.”

“Yeah. Thanks for that,” Ami said as she left the bathroom and headed downstairs.

“Is Siti okay?” Sophie and the others were still clustered around the door, though Sophie herself was hovering as close to inside the building as Ami was willing to allow. That was probably why the other girl had shown up at such an inconvenient time – the sheep had noticed Siti was missing, and sent Ami to check on her.

“I’m fine. Just... just a bit tired.”

“We can go home, if you’d like?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Well... okay. If you’re sure.”

“Come on,” Ami interjected, pushing her way past the others. “We’re going to the stupid arcade.”

“Um?”

“A-ah! Wait up! I can’t walk that fast!” Siti stumbled after Ami, leaving Sophie and the others behind.

“Well, uh... I guess you got what you wanted?” Viktor said, uncertainly.

“I guess,” Sophie replied, her tone of voice betraying that no actually she kind of hadn’t. Yes, apparently Ami had agreed to hang out. But... something about it felt wrong. Weird and unsatisfying.

“Fine. If she wants to be that way, then whatever. But I’m not giving up.”

“Giving up on what?”

“Shut up, buttball, we’re going to the arcade.”

~~~~~~

Vicky elected not to go home, at least not right away. She didn’t really see any pressing need. Sophie had other plans and had made it clear Vicky was not a part of them. Which was annoying, but she’d take it. Kid could stand to be a bit more independent. And anyway there wasn’t exactly much real trouble she could get herself into in Esterwood, especially factoring in her sickly friend. There was only so far they could physically go with her in tow. So fuck it, it might not have been particularly responsible older sibling of her but she figured she could stand to let Sophie take care of herself, at least a little, for once. And so she didn’t need to escort the kid home.

And, well, there was the matter of the new pets. Their parents had, on returning from being trapped in Locksmouth, brought some new friends with them. Creepy fucking alien things. Sort of like a flat disc with six spindly legs and a triangular looking mouth in the middle. And a penchant for... hugging, to speak euphemistically. Apparently during the invasion they had been used to store inkling grunts, the grey ones without any unique powers, and then when they hugged your face they’d spew an inkling into you. So, you know, let’s just keep like three of the fucking things as pets. That’s fucking smart. At least they’d not picked up a cat or a dog or something weird like that. But she still hated the fucking things – and the fact that they seemed to like her only made it worse.

So, no, if she could avoid it she’d not go home. One night, not long after her parents returned, she’d woken up to find one of the things wrapped around her face and from then on she’d spent as much time not at home as she could get away with. Fuck it. The only reason she didn’t spend most of her time at the pack house with the others was Sophie. And if Sophie didn’t need her around, well... She’d not be around.

Technically she was supposed to head directly to community service after school. In practice, Mr. Stefanowitz was extremely understanding of her priorities. Sophie was more important. So was her own health. As far as he was concerned, she’d not really done anything to warrant any kind of serious punishment, and so he was generally happy to cover for her if she decided to nap instead – so long as she at least made the effort.

And she had every intent to make the effort today. Just... not right away. More important was the fact that she’d slept through lunch. Again. And so she stopped by Burger Dictator in order to grab something to eat. Not, like, anything substantial. Just some fries and a carbolate. Just something to tide her over until whatever she had for dinner. She was probably going to be eating at the pack house, so what she ate depended on the whims of the Coniglios. And, while they weren’t exactly on par with their mother yet, both were still practically raised in the kitchen. So she didn’t want to spoil her appetite.

After some internal debate, though, she ordered an extra large fries. She was just too fucking ravenous to go with the bare minimum. This was a good compromise, she figured. And anyway she’d not really eaten anything today so she was confident she’d have room for dinner. Fuck it.

She practically sleepwalked through actually ordering the food, and she outright did almost sleep through her order arriving. The server coughed a few times, and then reached over the counter to gently shake her shoulder. “Ah! Um. Thanks.” She blushed furiously as she took her tray and meandered over to the nearest booth. Honestly she probably should have ordered her food to go. Or at least eaten standing up. But, well. Habit and all that. Generally, if she ate at Burger Dictator, she didn’t have anywhere pressing to be, and so there was no reason not to just grab a booth. But that was when she hadn’t been constantly barely able to stay awake. Eating standing up would have probably helped her stay awake, or at least that’s what she told herself.

It would also have prevented her from choosing a booth that was already fucking occupied and then not noticing until she’d almost finished eating. God, that was fucking mortifying. The other occupant stared at her with a mixture of fear and confusion, like she’d just grown a second head. Mostly fear – the poor girl was stock still, quivering slightly with fear. Her eyes were wide, her rabbit ears were folded back, and she was hunched over in a clear attempt to make herself look smaller. Poor thing was fucking terrified. “Uh. Sorry? I can leave.”

“U-um. N, no. It’s. Um. It’s fine. J-just, um. You just- just s’prised me. Um. That’s all.” God, she was a wreck. By the looks of her she was the kind of person that Vicky would normally have gotten a kick out of bullying. Her hair was extremely long and significantly unkempt, like she didn’t do more than the bare minimum required to take care of hair that long. And yet, in spite of that, her bangs were dyed hot-pink, held out of her eyes with a small golden hairpin. Why dye your hair if you weren’t going to comb it properly – that was a pretty solid angle of attack.

There was also her clothing. Pastel yellow-green pants that were clearly several sizes too small for her. Hell, everything was several sizes too small for her, like she’d hit a growth spurt and not bothered to replace her clothes. They certainly looked like the kind of clothing a little kid would pick, with lots of bright colours and pastels, a see-through jacket with bright pink pockets, and a t-shirt with Combustion Girl Laniel on it, stretched slightly by her surprisingly ample breasts. In spite of the fashion choices and the fact that she was apparently a fan of a show that was aimed at a younger audience than even Sophie, the girl was pretty obviously around the same age as her. Another viable angle to take. But, well, the kid was clearly upset enough as it was. She didn’t have the heart to be mean to her. And honestly even if she did, she didn’t have the energy to be mean to her. “What’s wrong?”

“I, um. N-nothing’s wrong.”

“Well that’s an obvious fucking lie.”

The girl gasped audibly, reeling back and covering her mouth. “Mom says that’s a bad word!”

“Oh. Um. Sorry?” Vicky found herself caught slightly off guard. That was the kind of thing she’d expect from someone in Sophie’s age group, not her own. “Anyway, there’s clearly something wrong. And if it’s not that ‘oh some random stranger just sat down across from me’ then what the f- what is it?” The girl just winced and sank further back into her seat. Obviously this wasn’t working. She’d have to try a different angle. “I, uh, like your shirt?”

That was enough to perk her up. “O-oh! You, um. You like Laney?”

“My sister used to watch it all the time when she was younger. It’s pretty cute, but I haven’t been able to keep up because of school.” It was a little bit of a white lie – she hadn’t kept up with it because it was kind of a show for babies. She’d only watched it in the first place because she had a baby sister. Not that it was bad; it was inoffensive enough, and she could probably even see herself being a fan of it were it not for the social stigma of being a fan of a show for babies.

“Oh! It’s really good!” She leaned forward in her chair, violet eyes practically sparkling with enthusiasm. “You should watch it!”

“Tell you what, lemme finish eating and then at some point we can watch a couple of episodes together.”

“Okay!”

“But, first you’ve gotta tell me what’s wrong.”

“O-oh.” The girl leaned back in her seat sheepishly, but it was clear she wasn’t nearly as terrified anymore. Just shy. “O-okay.”

Vicky smiled. That had been almost trivial. Not really all that different from bullying, just pointed in a more positive direction. Poke around, find some leverage, and then use it correctly to get the desired result. She had always been very good at all of those things. It was how she was so adept at getting under people’s skin, and it was also how she was so adept at dealing with children. Which is why she suddenly found herself very concerned, because what she’d just done to get this clearly-not-a-child’s cooperation was exactly the same process she’d have used to get an actual child’s cooperation. That wasn’t normal, and that made it all the more urgent she figure out what the fuck this kid’s deal was.

Unfortunately, that was going to have to wait. Life, it seemed, had other priorities.

Vicky had always been generally fairly popular. That was no real big surprise – in addition to being fairly good at reading people, Vicky was smart and fit and attractive. Puberty had hit her fairly late, but when it did hit she’d filled out fairly nicely if she said so herself. And, of course, being captain of the Esterwood cheerleading squad had given her a fairly large amount of social leverage. And, with it, a cadre of hangers on. Not friends, and certainly not a pack. But that had always been fine with her. She didn’t really need to put in any effort into maintaining “friendships” that really only existed because they thought they could benefit from being close to her. Shit, she didn’t even remember any of their names. She’d always just sort of mentally referred to them as the Heathers.

Of course, all of that was in the past tense for a reason. Like with everything else, it all traced back to the Locksmouth Incident. Vicky had allowed herself to be talked into helping look after all the children whose parents were missing at the time, which had left her with very little time to dedicate to maintaining her position at the top of the social pyramid. And, well, then she’d gotten saddled with six months of community service and as a result she’d had to leave the cheer squad. Not that she was particularly invested in cheer squad – it had always been more of a piece of social leverage to her, rather than something she was genuinely passionate about. And besides, she doubted she had the energy to keep up with cheerleading anymore.

The problem was that she wasn’t just no longer in charge of the cheerleading squad. She was no longer in charge of the Heathers.

And so, someone else had risen up to take her place.

Vicky didn’t know her name. She didn’t know any of their names – hence Heather. None of them had really ever stood out to her enough for her to remember any individuals. The only thing that distinguished any of them was species. They were all just... interchangeable faces who spent all their time shit-talking each other behind their backs. She’d always been fairly confident they did the same to her, but she’d obviously never been certain until now because they’d been smart enough not to shit-talk the leader to her face. But, well, she wasn’t the leader anymore. She wasn’t even in their circle at all anymore. Which meant, apparently, as far as Vicky could tell, that she was a prime target.

The lead heather was a white peahen, although she had the male tailfeathers. Gene therapy or prosthetics or something, Vicky didn’t really care. It was hardly the only part of her anatomy that was probably fake. She loomed over the table, sneering. “Well. What do we have here.”

“Oh my god, fuck off.”

“Well, now, that’s no way to speak to an old friend. Ah, and speaking of which. Who might your new friend be?”

“Literally just some random stranger. Go away.”

“Oooh, so cold.” She smirked, and somehow also managed to sneer at the same time. “Come on, just because I happen to have capitalized on your failures doesn’t mean we’re not still friends.”

“We were never friends.”

“Hmph. Well, maybe your new acquaintance will be more sociable.”

“Oh my god.”

“It’s very nice to meet you! Did you dress yourself today?”

“U-um. Y-yes?”

“So impressive! Though perhaps you’re not quite up to it yet, considering your, ah, interesting fashion choices.”

“Um. W-what?”

“Don’t dignify her with a response,” Vicky interjected. “If you ignore her, she’ll go away.”

“Your clothing doesn’t exactly fit you. Although that makes sense considering it’s very clearly made for someone a decade younger than you, given the cartoon character.”

“Um. I-it’s Combustion Girl Laniel.”

The Heather smiled an insincere smile. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t watch shows for babies.”

“It. Um. I-it’s not f-for. Um. N-not for b-babies.”

“Oh, of course it’s not,” the Heather said, making it abundantly clear she didn’t mean it. “Ah. And your jacket is tacky.”

“It’s not tacky!” Oh dear. That had clearly managed to get under her skin, given the lack of stuttering and the way she slammed the table, baring her teeth like some sort of wild animal. “It’s a limited edition! My mom bought it for me!”

“That doesn’t make it any less tacky.”

“It’s not tacky!” The kid was clearly on the verge of tears, and also clearly on the verge of lunging at the Heather’s throat. Completely and utterly enraged, which was bad. Vicky needed to put a stop to this. Now. Honestly, she should really have stepped in sooner. But, well, she’d been hoping the rabbit would take her advice and just ignore the Heather. That had been naive.

The Heather opened her mouth, clearly about to continue to push at the soft spot she’d found. Vicky knew exactly what she was doing, because she herself had done it a hundred times before. God, that really put things in stark relief. Was this what she was like? Because if so, well, she was kind of glad she didn’t have the energy to be like that anymore. Regardless, she wasn’t going to let the Heather cause any more damage. She stood up and slid out of the booth, quickly closing the distance between herself and the other girl. “You need to leave.”

“Ooh, so defensive. Are you sure this girl is just some random stranger?”

“Literally don’t know her name. Now fuck off.”

“Is that all you have, Vicky? The best you can do? Just tell me to go away? Pathetic. You don’t intimidate me in the slightest, and you’re going to have to try harder if you want to protect your little freak of a girlfriend.”

“I-I’m not a freak...”

Vicky’s frown deepened as her big sister instincts kicked into full fucking gear. Alright. Fine. If she wanted Vicky to try harder, then Vicky would try harder. “Fuck off, Heather.”

And, just like that, all the wind was taken from the Heather’s sails. Her smug expression collapsed into a mixture of confusion and deep, emotional pain. “W-what did you just call me?” All she got in response was a stern glare. “D-do you... do you seriously not know my name?”

“Nope. You’re all Heather to me.”

“Wh- you-” the Heather sputtered indignantly. Vicky didn’t give her a chance to do more than that.

“It’s not like you have a distinct personality anyway. All of you are basically the same person. Completely and utterly interchangeable and forgettable. I don’t know any of your names.”

“Bullshit! We’ve known each other our entire lives, how the fuck could you still not know my name?”

“Maybe you’re just less important to me than you thought you were. And maybe I’m more important to you than you’re willing to admit. Shame you’ve fucked that up.” Vicky closed the distance between the two of them, leaving mere inches between her and the Heather’s face. “Let this be a reminder to you. I’m better at this than you will ever be. Now fuck off.”

“... Fine. Fuck you.” With that, she turned and stormed off, clearly almost in tears.

“Well. Shit. Guess that’s that bridge well and truly burned,” Vicky muttered to herself. Ideally, she’d not have done that. But, well, she had higher priorities than being able to potentially rekindle a ‘friendship’ with people she fucking hated. The kid was more important. “You okay?” she said, turning to face the other girl.

Only to get knocked to the floor by the resulting tacklehug. That answered that question, then. “Ack!”

“Thank you!”

“Hey, it’s fine. I just, uh.” Just used skills developed from years and years of being a bully to hurt someone. Exactly the kind of bad habit that she was trying to kick, god dammit. She wasn’t proud of it. “Anyway, you seem fine?”

“U-um. Yeah.” The girl awkwardly let go of Vicky and pulled away, sitting nervously on the floor. “You shouldn’t swear, though.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Vicky said, rolling her eyes as she stood up. After a moment of thought, she reached out a hand for the rabbit to grab. “Anyway, you were about to tell me what your problem is.”

“R-right. Um.” The girl grabbed Vicky’s outstretched hand, and the sheep pulled her up. “I. Um. I was. Um.”

“It’s okay. Take your time.”

“I just wanted to ‘splore,” the girl said, shrinking into herself. “But I got lost. A-and so I found somewhere safe and stayed put because that’s what you’re s’posed to do when you’re lost but no one ever told me what to do next and I wanna go home.”

“Okay. Well, in that case, you can stick with me. We can get you somewhere less public and then figure out how to get in contact with your family. That sound good?”

The girl cringed. “M-mom says ‘m not s’posed to go anywhere with strangers.”

Vicky sighed. “Given that hug, I don’t think we count as strangers anymore.” She held a hand out, and after an uncertain moment the other girl tentatively took it. “Victoria Marie Aries. My friends call me Vicky.”

“O-okay. It’s. Um. I-it’s n-nice to meet you, V-victoria.”

“I said my friends call me Vicky,” the sheep replied with a small laugh, reaching over and gently ruffling the other girl’s hair. “That means you, you doofus.”

“O-oh.”

“Anyway, you know my name. What’s yours?”

“I. Um.” The girl still seemed uncertain, but she also had a vice-grip on Vicky’s hand. After a moment, she nodded to herself, before taking another moment to gather up her courage.

“Um. M-my name’s Lilly. Lilly Travers. It’s nice to meet you.”