“I, uh…” Aria doesn’t even have the time to compose a coherent thought before the Inkling interrupts. She just stares at them blankly, tempted to glare, before turning her attention back to Gloria. “Right? I really worry about Inklings sometimes. It’s like the whole species has one collective brain cell.”
She just goes silent for a moment as she tries to organize her thoughts and her explanations. Gloria is right, she can’t just casually throw that in…well, she obviously can and did, but she shouldn’t.
“Uh, well…saying I’ve been busy is really an understatement, huh? Yeah, I, uh…well, it’s a long story. Basically, uh…last August on Great Turf War Remembrance Day, someone tried sabotaging the Octarian government over their treatment of Sanitized Octarians, and I was sent to hunt him down, but I ended up sympathizing with him, especially after he got exiled. So, I, uh…I got an army together and overthrew Octavio. Kind of funny that that was the straw that broke the seahorse’s back, but…it was just the right time, I suppose. We’ve, uh…we’ve got new monarchs now. Two of them, about our age, so…they’re much easier to talk to and they’re way less…well, uh…boomerish?” That’s not a word.
“Oh, uh…Octavio didn’t get arrested immediately, either. So, uh, a few weeks ago…he…he kidnapped Agent 3 and tried making them perform as a DJ at a concert, so I broke in, rescued Three, and beat up Octavio and crashed the Octobot King accidentally. He got arrested.”
She pauses with a neutral expression on her face, as if everything she just said isn’t completely fucking bizarre without months of context.
Gloria snickers a little at that. One collective brain cell was right. All the Inklings she’d met had been nice enough to her, though, so they could go on being dumb as far as she was concerned.
As Aria recounts her exploits, Gloria watches as the Inkling searches for the price tag, taking at least 30 seconds to notice it’s posted in bold letters at the top of the display, just like she’d said. She searches the other Octoling’s face for any sign that this was some sort of joke, that Aria was just fooling with her, but she seems completely serious. Gloria smiles wryly, sighing. “That’s... wild. All that after the whole thing with the metro, huh? Man... I think you’ve done enough for one lifetime. They should let you just chill now. That’s what people say up here, right? Chill?”
Her expression shifts, tentacles drooping a little. “Y’know. I’ve been afraid to go back, but if the place is under new management, maybe they’d be a little more forgiving of... whatever I did. Whatever reason I ran away the first time.”
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