Talk: Conspirators
"What are you talking... about? Octo Valley?"
"Y-yes!" He seemed a little excited, or a little crazed. "The quakes! Octolings... they're drilling down under us! They're trying to kill us all!"
Wade motioned for him to slow down. Chill. Sure, he was more awake now, but it was still morning. “Whoa, whoa. First of all, how could you know that?”
“I…” The crazed one grabbed his head seemingly in pain. “I… know. I just know. Okay? I’ve gotta keep saying it. I forgot. I need to remember!”
A second inkling, who had, surprisingly, stayed to listen to him kindly pulled Wade’s attention to her by making a pretty obvious gesture to ignore him. She followed it up saying, “I’m sorry about my roommate. It’s just nonsense, don’t worry about him. That’s my job.”
Wade gave the girl a small smile. “I’m not too worried, but Octo Valley… sounds like a cool place, y’know?” He glanced back to the other dude. “Thought it’d make a cool vacation spot, so it’s a shame that you forgot where you heard that.”
….Forgot where he heard it. Wade noted that to himself.
“Don’t. No. Don’t go there. It’s… it’s…” he started crying.
“Oh come on, don’t be a big baby,” the girl began. “You haven’t even been th--”
“I’ve been there! I know that much! I have to remember that! I was there... but why?” He was drawing a bit of a crowd, while simultaneously pushing a lot of people away, which was pretty impressive all considered.
‘Hey,” Wade lightly touched the boys arm and looked at him directly, “I believe you.” It wasn’t just to stop the scene, Wade was starting to think person knew something, or at least had known something. “Do you... remember anything else?”
He looked at Wade, nose draining down his face. “I… more?” he seemed to physically rack his mind for things. It was like Wade could see him making the mental effort to grasp a memory that was there and wasn’t. “The Squid Sisters. How are they doing?”
“They’re still lost dingbat,” his roommate responded. Unlike Wade, she seemed pretty done with this.
“...lost?” He seemed to accept this idea while simultaneously rejecting it. Like he was sure he knew they were lost, but not sure if they were or not. It was a queer kind of face.
“Yeah, they’re still gone,” Wade replied. “‘Sick leave.’ Were you a fan?”
“Yes?” he said, more a question than an answer.
“Pff, a fan?” his roommate retorted, clearly amused. As the grin grew on her face, she went on. “You were dead-set on marrying Marie. Remember? ‘Best girl’?”
Wade smirked back at that, but also noted that his suspicion was confirmed. Squid Sister fan + Memory loss + Octo Valley = exactly what he thought. Thank you, Roomie with intact memory.
“Unfortunately,” Wade said, “I’ve always been more of a ‘Team Callie’ person.” He grinned. Hadn’t said this in a while, not with the disappearance. “Anyways,” he continued, “you guys seem pretty cool. You also live in the building?”
“Yeah,” the girl answered, “I’ve seen you around--you’re pretty good with a charger. Now, before you say that’s weird I try to keep tabs on all the battlers around here and you’re pretty high up in the rankings. Amorine’s my name and betting’s my game.” She grinned a pretty smile and held her hand out to Wade for a curt handshake.
After they’d exchanged the courtesy, she continued “this special starchild is Simone. He’s been my friend for a long time, but he’s been pretty odd lately. But only sometimes! I swear,” She grabbed Simone’s mouth before he could say anything more, because it seemed like he wanted to. “We live two floors down from you. I wouldn’t mind placing a bet or two on you, so visit if you want.”
Wade rubbed the back of head sheepishly, but he was grinning. “Wow, I’m flattered you noticed me out of all the battlers here.” He was actually pretty ecstatic about the recognition. He worked his tail off, getting good with chargers. “I might definitely do that,” he told her.
He gave a glance back to Simone. Be a listener, he told himself. “Simone, right? ...Did you have anything else you wanted to say?”
“Oh I’m sure he does,” Amorine chirped, still clutching her hand over his mouth. You could hear him mumbling over her grasp and see him flailing to get out of her grip. “But me and crazy here have really gotta go for the sake of my sanity. Toodles!”
Wade snorted a grin, but he still had one last question. And no, this wasn’t a shameless ID swap. He was genuinely curious, for his own sake.
He shouted out to the two as they left, “Hey, do either of you ink battle? Are either of you any good?” Specifically, he thought, was Simone any good?
“I battle for fun sometimes, but I’m no good. The odds are not in my favor,” Amorine noted as she dragged her partner behind her. “Simone, when you can get him to sit down and focus or really do anything these days is a pretty dangerous player with a Slosher. Best odds on Tower Control.”
She managed to shove Simone into the elevator--aka deathtrap--and hit the button to close the door before dancing out, effectively trapping her partner in there. “He needs a time out. And I need some time off. So I repeat,” she said skipping down the stairs, two by two, “toodles!”
“Ha ha, yeah ...bye” Wade weakly replied, waving, but also aware that the conversation with who Amorine considered a lunatic had been prolonged. Y’know, with specifically asking Simone for details. About this place he may or maynot have gone to, then forgot about. Wade gave a strained smiled, and kept waving, realizing that he probably looked slightly batty now, too. “Yeah, I’ll just… I’m... I’m going to leave, too.”
