The Suckling

Olly Olly Octo Free

Marina's eyes fluttered open as she stirred in her slumber. She tossed and turned, rolling over to the side as she steadily lifted her head off of the couch armrests, finally waking from her shock induced state of unconsciousness. Yawning, she blinked away the fuzzy white spots that danced in her field of vision. One by one she made out the faces of her friends clamoring around her, Pearl chief among them.

"Oh, Pearlie. I... seem to have fallen asleep during the Splatcast," Marina mumbled, groggy and bleary eyed. "How strange, I had the craziest dream. I dreamt that Big Man accidentally revealed Shiver's problem to the world and made her a social pariah. It's ridiculous, can you believe that?" She chuckled weakly, expecting the others to laugh as well. Only she received nothing but awkward silence which in turn made her feel awkward as well.

"Uh, yeah... About that," Pearl rubbed the back of her neck and moved out of the way, showing Marina the tv. It was currently broadcasting some kind of daytime talk show with a comically short sea roach for a host speaking with his Inkling co-star. The show was titled 'Jeffrey Roach Coast to Coast' and the main talking point of the episode was about Shiver's spectacular mental breakdown live on the Anarchy Splatcast.

They had the footage of her cackling madly playing in the background on repeat. Seeing Shiver's maniacal expression and howling laughter zoomed up close was both haunting and disturbing to see. In spite of that, the two couldn't help but slip in a witty comment or two to keep the show rolling.

"So, Big Man said she did something called the suckling," said the Inkling. "Got any idea what that means?"

"I dunno, but it sounds kinda kinky. Heyo!" quipped Jeffrey Roach as they both broke out into raucous laughter. The rest of the show was more or less the same, with the two making snide comments and crass jokes for a whole hour.

Suddenly it all came rushing back to Marina like a tidal wave. It wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare. Big Man's accidental reveal actually happened and the whole world had been exposed to Shiver's heinous crime. Word had spread fast as Quattro had shown, no doubt every Octarian in the city caught wind of the suckling by now and had already deemed her persona non grata. The ultimate punishment for embracing the taboo.

Shiver was a pariah now.

Her life as she knows it might as well have come to an abrupt end. The thought of her suffering through such a horrible punishment at the hands of her own people was enough to make Marina faint again.

"Ooooh... I don't feel so good," Marine moaned, wooziness seeping its way back into her head. She could feel her consciousness slipping again, only to be jolted awake at the last second by Pearl grinding both her knuckles against Marina's temple. "Ah! Pearlie, that hurt!" she cried, lips curling into an innocent pout. "What was that for?"

"You've fainted three times already, there will not be a fourth!" Pearl snapped.

"...Have I?" Marina tilted her head, bemused.

"Yes!" Everyone, barring 8, shouted in unison.

"O-oh, I see," Marina grinned sheepishly. "Silly me."

"Eugh. Marina, this is serious," Pearl grumbled, glaring at her friend. "You've been out like a light on and off for the past three hours. Every time you've woken up you take one look at the tv and faint again, rinse and repeat. Well, while you were off frolicking in dreamland, the team has been sitting around in the garage monitoring the situation trying to figure out what the shell it was that we just witnessed on the Splatcast."

"You know something, don't you?" Kuki accused, her expression stern. She pointed over to Agent 8 who fidgeted nervously in his seat, sweating bullets under the watchful eye of Tres and Little Buddy. "And so does 8. Both of you know what's going on, or at the very least, have some kind of general idea about Shiver's unusual predicament."