[A few days post James' transformation.]
I head back from a morning of caving. The walk back to my base isn't too bad, hell, I find it quite easy. However, it feels like a straight 5 minutes by the time I get there, because my mind is buzzing with thoughts and Kindness is also buzzing with things she wants to say to me. I ignore them.
I sit down, slipping Kindness into a sheath and sighing. James was pretty screwed over at the moment, and I'm truly quite concerned for him. Maybe Kindness will have an explanation.
I hear some sizzling sounds and I look around, confused. It seems to be coming from Kindness' chest, so I pull her out. My eye is immediately drawn to the fact she's glowing again. Cyan, blue, cyan, blue..what could this mean? Maybe I should ask Kindness herself.
"Kindness, do you know why you're glowing again?"
"SQUIDDY BOY...I'VE TOLD YOU THIS ALREADY, I DO NOT HAVE ANY INVOLVEMENT IN THNXCYA'S TRANSFORMATION." She says.
"I know, but why are you glowing different colours now?."
"I DO NOT KNOW, SQUIDDY BOY..."
"Uh, alright."
Well that didn't give me any answers, did it?
Either way, it's not much for me to worry about. I continue with all my work, hell, since we're getting a new member today I need to be at my best. I tie up my hair and head over to the main Shady Oaks base, allowing the sun to beat down on my skin. It feels oddly sensitive, but I don't think much about it.
I head over to see Justin resting under a tree and James trying his best to stay afloat for longer than a few seconds.
"Ow...." I can hear James mutter as he faceplants again.
"You're doing terribly, mate." Justin responds.
"Hey boys!" I yell out, waving.
"Hey!" James says, looking up. "Justin's trying to teach me to fly. It's not going well."
Justin chuckles, and so do I. I sit next to Justin as James continually tries to fly up and down. Justin explains that while James is fast to pick things up, it's still a tricky thing to adapt to. He also mentions that the transformation is far from over - James is still losing weight at a rapid rate and so isn't really at the weight to fly yet. But still they're trying so it's easier to pick up.
He's lost over half of his normal weight in a week. Justin's apparently surprised he's still functioning.
We continue watching James get better on his flying, soon enough being able to stay afloat for one minute before getting tired. Which is a great start, Justin says. James downs a bottle of honey and ends up chewing on a flower as we wait for Dan to get back from whatever he is doing so we can welcome the newbie.
"Dan should be here soon.." Justin mutters, checking the time on his comm.
I hear a quiet voice from behind me, and I whip around, before realising it's source. Oh right, Kindness.
"You aight, Squiddy?" James asks.
"Yeah uh...I actually have Kindness on me right now. She's glowing weird colours again." I say, pulling her out, showing the blue and cyan glow. James squints.
"Huh...if someone else transforms, we know this is related to James'...new bee attire. If not, it's just a coincidence." Justin comments.
"I'm sure it's just a coincidence." I say, before putting her away.
I lay back on the tree when one of the tentacles on my back smack me.
"Ow."
The other two laugh as I wrangle with the rogue thing. I'm something of a hybrid, see. I..can't exactly remember how it happened, but that's why my name is Squid after all. The only really squid like thing on me is the tentacles though, compared to other hybrids like Jerome and Ecko I'm really quite unremarkable. I normally just keep the tentacles down and by my side so they don't disturb me.
So why are they acting up now?
After wrangling with it for a bit and getting it back into it's dormant position, I lie back and wipe my forehead, only for my hand to come back soaked.
Well that's not normal.
I look over to Justin and James, who are still focusing on James' flight, so I don't mention it. But that's probably why I feel so dehydrated - wait, when did I get dehydrated? This is getting weird and I'm suspicious of it, but it's no matter. Not yet, anyways. If it does get bad, the others will know what to do, right?
Finally, a familiar goggle-eyed-goon runs up to us.
"Hey lads, sorry I'm late! Got trapped in a mineshaft. How are you guys doing?"
James and Justin tell Dan about the progress with flying, and I give Dan a basic thumbs up in response. Kindness immediately tells me to kill him. I'm not doing that.
Dan comments on how much I'm sweating. "Dude, you literally look like you're dripping!"
Justin appears concerned. I think he's already aware that something might be up.
"Look, the new member will be here in...5 minutes. Let's head inside Shady Oaks to welcome them." I say, changing the topic. With a bit of bustling, we head inside the retirement home to welcome our guest, PrestonPlayz.
~~~
The tour goes absolutely amazingly! While Preston did question James'...new attire, James quickly explained that he inexplicably became a bee, and Preston ended up showing off some of his lava abilities. Preston was quite hyper to say the least, but was great overall. Despite the amount of times James fell. It was funny at first but eventually we just ended up ignoring it.
Things only start getting weird when we all leave the retirement home.
Dan offers Preston to try out some gambling, and Preston happily obliged. As we sit outside (and James trying to stay still while flying), Dan does a magical girl transformation into his businessman suit and they gamble a bit. Preston loses, obviously.
A lump appears in my throat. I try to swallow it down, but it doesn't go. I gasp for air, but that only seems to make the lump bigger. I try pushing it up and out but it doesn't go, no matter how much air I take in. I'm choking on something, and I don't know what.
I try to ignore it at first but soon enough I realise that I can't breathe, I can't breathe, I CAN'T BREATHE-
I can just about hear the panic around me. Preston and James are stunned into silence and Justin and Dan are panicking as to what to do. I don't exactly want to suffocate on air, so I attempt to speak for something, but I don't know what exactly will stop me choking. Especially since the tentacles on my back feel like they're going haywire. I'm almost greying out while trying to get some air in.
Then I feel a cold feeling splash around my body, and it takes me a second but suddenly I can breathe fine again. I take in as much oxygen as possible before I open my eyes and sit up, before realising I'm in the damn fountain in the middle of the patio.
Everyone appears to be looking at Justin, who looks just as concerned as everyone else.
We're all stunned into silence before Preston finally speaks up.
"Please tell me that's not a normal thing."
"That is very much not a normal thing." I say. "I'm fine, I think, but that was hella weird."
"Yeah, that's not normal, which concerns me how someone knew to yeet the poor guy in the fountain." Dan looks over to Justin.
Ignoring Dan, Think paces around, seemingly calculating something. We all wait for a response and it takes him a second for him to realise we're referring to him.
"Oh right, me! Uh..I dunno. But I noticed that Squid's...well..squid instincts were acting up earlier due to the sweating and the tentacles gaining a life of their own, so I had a feeling that Squid was choking on air. You know, cause squids can't survive outside of water." Justin rambles out.
"That's an awful lot to deduce from two incidents, my dude." James says. "Sus."
"Hey, I had nothing to do with this!" Justin defends himself, while everyone else laughs. "Hell, I actually think I do know- uh, guys?"
Justin sits there for about 5 seconds for us to finish chuckling and calling him sus before eventually giving up on what he was trying to say. When we do quiet down, he continues.
"Well, Squid, I think you might need to keep a water bucket on you at all times. Just in case it happens again."
I nod, before pulling out a crafting table, quickly crafting a bucket and then getting rid of any marks of me building there.
"Alright. Now, can I get out of the scenery now."
"If you're comfortable, yep."
And we all laugh as I, soaking wet, get out of the fountain.
~~~
A/N We back baby! Squid is not gonna have fun.