Impurity

The beginning- #Finale

After recovering, sure enough the boys in blue came with shiny silver handcuffs to take her away. She had obliged without much argument. Just eating it happen. She only spent 2 weeks in jail, in that time she met her attorney. A prawn fish named Rasputin. He had a thick accent and his "whiskers" were jet-black and looked kinda like a moustache. He made bad puns which she she never reacted to and just mentally commented on how bad they were. Emotionally drained would be a good way to describe her during everything. About a week later she met a physiatrist. The riveting diagnosis after a good hour of talking was, "problems" Her feelings could be summarized as: "Mhm."
Another week went by and the day of the trial arrived. Callie and Marie and Rasputin pulled the strings and worked a few sympathy cards to pull the crowd and judge into a much lighter sentence. The media especially ate it up, they loved that shit more than cute pictures of puppies. Overnight her reputation improved and instead of being inkopolis #1 clownfish she was the sad and misunderstood, and was in grief. The result: a 300,000 dollar fine (chump change) and court-mandated therapy. Fine whatever. As long as she didn't have to spend a few years in jail.
Agent 4, 3, and 8 visited her the next week at her apartment. 4 and 8 apologized for not being there for her.
"I didn't even think about how it was hurting you Marina... all I thought about was Pearl... how y-you guys helped me out a-and when I first came to the surface- and I wasn't some to help you out!" 8 was already crying. Marina patted the top of his head, it didn't seem to have helped but it's what felt natural, and he seemed to at least appreciate the gesture.
"I listened to all of your songs on repeat for days! I just couldn't believe it... I should've said something to you.. anything. I'm sort..."
"...I'm the one who lost it. It's not your fault." She looked over to 3's freshly scarred face, "I'm really sorry about that 3.... I wish I hadn't done that..."
3 shrugged in response, Marina took it as a "don't worry about it", which was relieving.

The next day she met her therapist. A sea-urchin with the name Kimino. It made her think about Kimiko... how was she doing....?
In her spacing out she only noticed a few things about her, she wasn't as grouchy as you'd usually expect of a sea urchin, she seemed fresh and sweet enough. She tended to babble on and on and on... eventually Marina interrupted.
"What do you do in therapy?"
"Don't think of this as therapy, think of this like... we're friends! We hang out, talk about our feelings, we ask each other questions, I get to know you and you get to know me!"
"Uh Huh. " she smelt bullshit.
"So what are you thinking about? What's on your mind?"
"A lot. " true enough she guessed.
"Start at the beginning then. You don't have to talk about anything you don't want to talk about. "
Marina let a lot loose that first day. The guilt she felt for all the things she had done, the sadness of being away for so long, how everything was different, she's been left behind. And... how much she missed Kimiko. Vector too she guessed.
It was understood that she was also talking about Pearl.
Kimino listened, nodded, jotted some things down, and told her to come back next week.

...

The next weeks and months were a blur. Going by before she knew it, in a good way. Rather than being stuck in a dirty apartment that has long since been cleaned out, drinking her sorrows away, she's been doing a little bit of everything, mostly with the other agents. Callie especially being clingy, a couple times she's had to put her foot down, but she knows Callie has good intentions.
Speaking of Agents, it went just about as great as you could have expected. Octavio got stuffed into a fish tank (they couldn't find another giant snow globe.) , and agent 4 and 8 got lectured on Callie on how they got brainwash so easily- that Marie slapped her in the back of the head fir. The only good to come out of it is the song she and Octavio
Particularly she's begun to feel like herself again. Quitting smoking and drinking probably had something to do with it. She had also recently released a solo song, it being in memory of Pearl. It had that gotten #1 on the charts for several weeks in a row (even higher than stupid strawberry-chan) it caught a lot of attention. Not just for the fact after about 3 years Marina finally released a song- no it was its subject matter. It was surprising to a lot of people they were a couple. Even the squid sisters were shocked.
"Seriously?!" Callie exclaimed, Marie's eyebrows were raised and her eyes wide.
"Yeah. "
"Why didn't you tell anybody?!" Marie shot Callie a look that says that was a stupid question- Marina still was willing to answer it.
"A mix of things. The media would be all over that, and our manager said that since so many of fans-"
"Yes we all know what the fans of yours like. " Marie cut her off, "smart choice. It would've made your fanbase even more toxic than before. "

She had considered a solo career, but her therapist said to take a break for a few months before jumping into it. Things were not perfect, mental-health wise. When things got tough, and the crowds of people around her came to chaotic, her fingers twitched and the urge rose, to slash across the face and to see the wonderful red color drip down their face and down her fingers...
However, she had been coping. Her therapist told her when things became too overwhelming to step back, take a deep breath, and ask herself- what is she seeing? Smelling? Tasting? Hearing? It helps her refocus. There's also pills she takes that she calls "these." No clue what they were for but after she started taking them the urge to "kill" has died down quite a bit, so, she guessed they were working.
She once overheard her therapist talking how she may have a "phobia" of large crowds and was advising Callie and Marie to help her stay away from them.
Phobia didn't seem right to her, she wasn't really scared of them... she just hated them.
She told her about the dreams.
The dreams of Pearl.... That have long since been gone.

One particular day she felt like a coffee. Rarely she ever drank coffee so this was a rare event for her indeed. Regardless, she headed inside of "starfish seatea & coffee" to watch the cloudy dark sky while she sipped onto the bitter drink. Feel like some sort of hipster writer and make up deep meanings and second class poetry.
Soon as she stepped in she saw people schmoozing and and sucking up the free WiFi and typing rapidly on their computers with their eyebrows glued together.
Marina stood in line and glanced at the menu, quickly disregarding the choice of a coffee and eyeing dome of the more sugar-fueled drinks. She remembered on inkstagram the "narwhal" drink was popular with all the bloggers and shell snappers.
"One caramel macchiato coming up!"
No fucking- no fucking way.
She leaned her body to the left glanced at the barista in the front of the line. She recognized those orange eyes.
It was fucking kimiko.
Kimiko caught her gaze and seemed just as surprise to see her. She stammered and accidentally dropped the change she was just about to hand back. Her face turned bright red as she crawled around on the floor, Marina had to admit, it was kinda funny. She apologized profusely to the person she'd supposed to give the change to and bid him goodbye.
Marina approached, being next in line.
"I-i can't- what are you doing here Marina?!"
"Getting a coffee. What are you doing here?"
Her eyes darted around the café, and voice quite a considerable amount. Others were already muttering about how some random barista knew a pop star.
"After... you know. Vector and I headed up for the surface. It's hard getting used to this... but I'm starting to like life up here. "
"Vector still a model?"
Kimiko nodded. "Mm hmm. I'm starting to get a bit worried about him though... he's been looking quite skinny and says how he isn't hungry..."
"Uh Oh. Hope he doesn't have anorexia..."
"Ano- what?"
"..." Marina paused. "...I'll explain later. Speaking of later, can I have your number? So we can hangout later?" She didn't even give it a thought. It slipped out, without meaning to. Yet there weren't any regrets.
"U-um, y-yeah I just got a shellphone-" suddenly she jumped, eyes wide. "W-Wait I'm still at work! I-I'll give it to you after, u-um what do you-"
Marina cut her off, laughing, kimiko's adorable expression too much for her, which speaking of, she was frozen, mouth hanging open with a cup she was just about to write her name on.
"What?" Marina asked, confused.
"That's the first time... your laugh sounded genuine. "

...

She dreamt that night. Of Pearl.
"I'm proud of you Marina. I love you. "
"I love you too. "
She never dreamt of Pearl again.