@eightliives said: 💭 callie hours (send me a “💭“ and your Muse will experience one of my Muse’s Memories)
The most prominent thing Callie could feel was the pounding- the consistent throbbing behind her own eyes, even as she continued to sing, to dance as if her life depended on it. The world around her was spinning rapidly, and although everything in general was hazy and felt far away from where she stood, a small part of her did feel scared that she was going to just... fall off and hit the ground.
Fall off... fall off from what? She wasn’t entirely sure. She was standing on... something. Something moving, flashing with bright, colorful lights behind her. It was big- it had to be one of the DJ’s machines. Why did-- why did that feel wrong? Why did everything feel so foggy and distant? Why could she only barely remember what was going on in this very moment? She felt like she was watching a movie rather than living an actual event.
The music pumping out all around her- it felt suffocating, drowning her in mysterious, confusing feelings that she couldn’t make heads nor tails out of. There was another voice besides her own echoing out from the midst of the melody, one that seemed to be singing back to her, a sharp edge of desperation and pleading clear in the stranger’s tone even with how beautifully she was carrying the song.
It was a stranger, right? Why did the other girl’s voice sound so familiar?
The inkling gritted her teeth together and tried to raise her voice ever louder, trying to drown out the voice of the other one with the music her and the DJ had made together- but quickly found that the intense, awful pain in her head was very much only getting worse the harder she tried to be the only one heard.
Why? Why did this hurt so badly? The stranger, she had shot her with that strange-feeling ink, gotten rid of her fresh shades! And the DJ was right there on the same machine she was, wasn’t he? They had planned this performance for forever, and Callie had warned these two squids to leave- to stop intruding while they still had the chance. So why!?
Why did Callie feel so alone? Why did her hearts ache? Was it this squid’s fault? She had only started feeling so awfully dizzy after the ink had hit her...
The unrecognizable girl’s voice kept flowing out despite the fear that could easily be heard in her tone, and Callie couldn’t keep her own voice from faltering for a moment as she watched another inkling- another stranger- down below on the ground, shooting their own ink to keep covering the place- clearly fighting back against the very machine she was still standing on. The clothes they were wearing, they felt... familiar to her.
No. No, she couldn’t... she had to keep fighting them. She wasn’t supposed to be questioning any of this! But her brain just felt so scrambled, and Callie couldn’t understand why, no matter how desperately she tried to find the pieces of this puzzle to put it all back together. (Why was she crying? Something about a train..? Stop. Stop! No more questions allowed.)
She wasn’t given more time to think about it, though- the platform she was standing upon rocked violently, something having had crashed into it with quite a bit of force behind it, and Callie gasped, nearly tumbling off the edge right then and there. She managed to find her footing- but her headache was too intense to just ignore anymore.
For the first time, she heard the pale grey-haired inkling answer back with words Callie could actually understand. Even when she had been singing alongside her, Callie had felt a heavy layer of static in her own brain, keeping her from understanding what she had been saying with her lyrics.
“Callie! Please remember!” Remember? What was she supposed to remember?
“That heavenly melody!”
Callie felt herself open her mouth and answer back to her before she actually realized what she was even saying. “T-The one and only...”
And there it was- all at once, it felt as if the floodgates had been opened, as if the fog had cleared from her brain. It was... overwhelming, frankly, perhaps even more painful than the initial headache- a lifetime of memories rushing back to meet her in only a half second of time. But one thing stood out to her above all: a name.
“MARIE! I- I remember now..!”
Golden eyes flew open in the morning, Callie herself sitting upwards all too suddenly with a sharp gasp. Ah. She had been dreaming about what had happened to her once again. Of course.
It had been months, but it still bothered her more than she wanted to admit- that she had fallen prey to DJ Octavio’s plan. That he had used her in her lonely, vulnerable state.
With a small sigh, Callie forced a smile, standing up and off the bed. She had promised to make breakfast for the other agents today, and she didn’t want them worrying about her- so there was no way she could stay cooped up in her room and mope like she actually wanted to.
At least she’d get to enjoy some pancakes.
