Chapter Text
Callie flopped down on the couch, letting her leg dangle over the side. Coming back from the train station by herself had been palpably lonely, but she knew Marie would have it worse on the train.
Her eyes popped open again as she thought about Marie. She needed this break. She’d been working her butt off ever since she’d won their popularity Splatfest. Callie had, too, but she’d been out and about more.
She thought back to that Splatfest. It had been pretty miserable. She just didn’t get why their producer insisted that they had that thing in the first place. She was supposed to take care of Marie. She’d been doing it her whole life. She wasn’t supposed to oppose her.
She sighed. She had surprised herself that night by how selfish she’d felt. In truth, she’d always imagined herself as the more popular Squid Sister because Marie had liked it that way. Marie wasn’t okay with all that attention. It made her feel like everyone was judging her… looking for flaws…
But that Splatfest had changed everything. Callie was terrible at social cues, but she’d never actually cared about that. Were people just judging me all that time, and I never noticed?
Her agent had had this giant plan to get her back on top, and Callie severely doubted that it was for Marie’s emotional benefit. Shoulda fired that greedy scumbag right there. But I was too stressed.
All that time, acting, talk shows, and every last bit of her solo schedule had pulled her away from Marie even more. She’d been so worried about her cousin. Marie couldn’t talk to anyone else about her feelings. She was scared of almost everyone besides Callie. And Callie just straight up hadn’t been around much—something she regretted every day.
She got up and started pacing. She needed the movement. That made her thoughts drift to one specific meeting with their agents. It was right after she’d gotten diagnosed with ADHD, and Marie with autism. Three years ago.
Their agents had said that the public might react negatively to their diagnoses, so they’d best keep it hidden. Callie had pushed it. She’d asked why. Their agents had answered in probably the most callous ways imaginable.
“You are stars—rising figures in society. You must hide anything that can draw criticism. The slightest flaw can break your careers before you take off.”
Flaw. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth as she thought of it. They’d told them that they had a problem. They told Marie something was wrong with her. That she was a problem.
That conversation hadn’t ended well.
Marie had been frozen. Callie had practically been able to feel the agents’ insinuation echoing in her cousin’s mind. Eating away at her. Making her doubt herself.
“Get out,” she’d growled.
“Whoa, calm down,” one of them had said. He’d continued, “We just don’t want—”
“Get out of here,” Callie had snarled. “You’re both fired. Now.”
“Why?” the other agent had asked. “We know that being an idol is—”
“GO!” Callie had yelled, pointing toward the door. “And don’t ever talk to her like that again! YOU GOT IT!?”
In hindsight, that had probably been the start of her drop in popularity. One of those agents had probably tweeted that. But she hadn’t cared. She’d publicly revealed their diagnoses that very day. And Marie had been really grateful for her standing up for her like that.
So what do people think of me? Smiling and cheerful on the outside, overbearing and temperamental behind the backdrop? Probably. That agent would’ve twisted it that way.
She started scrolling through tweets to find out. She needed to know. She didn’t know why, but she needed to. Then she stopped.
Why is this important? It won’t change anything.
She swiped away the tab and slowly sat back down on the couch. Just focus on Marie. Take care of Marie. The others’ opinions don’t matter.
Her eyes shot open. Was she really that dependent on her cousin? She always thought that Marie had depended on her… but maybe it was both. A smile broke onto her face. We prop each other up!
She remembered when she’d gone shopping with Marie last week. That had been so much fun! And Marie hadn’t said anything about her feelings. She’d been lighthearted as ever.
Her cheery mood dropped again. Was she hiding them from me? Callie had tweeted how lonely she’d been on her own. Her hope was to get the public on her side so that the fan pressure would force her agent to let her and Marie do their duo act again, but Marie had probably seen that. Would she hide her stress because she thought it would ruin our good day?
That wasn’t right. They needed to talk about that sort of—
Kurnk kurnk.
Who the heck would be knocking on our door?
She hopped up and started toward the door. She opened the peephole, but no one was on the other side. The heck—
BAM!
Someone grabbed her head from behind and slammed it forward into the door. She cried out in pain, then spun around with her arm outstretched, clotheslining her attacker. A feminine grunt came from behind her, and her attacker fell to the floor.
Callie’s eyes widened as she saw who’d attacked her. An OCTOLING!? How had she even gotten in there?
It didn’t matter. She vaulted over the prone soldier and sprinted for the bathroom.
Another Octoling appeared out of thin air right in her view. Did he just teleport!? He threw a punch at her head, but she caught it and twisted his arm over, making the boy cry out in pain. She spun him around her and kicked him in the back, then ran into the bathroom and slammed the door.
She yanked the note Marie had given her out of her pocket. It was titled, Callie List (While I’m in Calimari County). She absolutely could NOT allow these guys to know where Marie was. Marie was unarmed and wouldn’t stand a chance. I have to protect her.
She quickly tore the note into many pieces and dropped them into the toilet, flushing them down. She sighed in relief, then dropped down on the toilet seat. What in here can I use as a weap—
CRUNCH!
The door flew off its hinges and into the bathtub, right past Callie’s face. She yelped, then cried out again as an angry Octoling girl with a mech arm grabbed her by her shirt collar and threw her out into the middle of the room.
She started to get to her feet, but another Octoling teleported on top of her, and she was pinned down by her back. She planted her feet on the floor and started pushing up, but the girl with the mech arm stepped on her head.
“Get the shades. And tell Octavio to get a cleanup crew in here,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma’am.” The boy pulled out a pair of sunglasses with flashing LED lights. Pretty.
“Tell us where your cousin is,” Mech Arm ordered.
“Over my dead body,” Callie snapped defiantly.
“Don’t tempt me,” Mech Arm growled. “Shades.”
The Octoling boy took the flashing shades and placed them on Callie’s face. Everything went dark.