Chapter Text
The gentle voice of a particular blue octoling rang in the ears of a sleeping yellow inkling. "-rye..? Fryeee? its time to wake up."
"Ughhhhhhhhh... wha.. what... century is it..?"
Shiver giggled at her significant other's drowsiness.
"Manta’s making breakfast, I would say ill eat it all if you don't get up and ready soon, but we both know that Callie will get to it first" Shiver stopped leaning over Feye and started heading towards the door.
By the time shiver had reached the door, Frye had gotten up and was completely (incorrectly) dressed.
Turning to face the inkling, Shiver let out a sigh "Frye.. your shirt is on backwards, your pants are inside out, and your socks are, somehow upside down."
"I 'on't care! Manny’s making breakfast!!" Frye shouts as she bolts past shiver, sending her litterally spinning.
"Sometimes I wonder how I fell in love with you.." Shiver steadies herself and leaves her, Frye, and Big man's bedroom. Walking down the long, empty hallways of the mansion, heading towards the stairs.
When Shiver reaches the stairs she runs into a teal octoling, who was heading in the same direction as her.
“Hello Marina, did you sleep well?” Shiver asks Marina, startling her
"Oh! good morning shiver!" The startled octoling turns around to face the blue perfectionist “Yes I slept... well, as well as I could with Pearl” Marina giggles, and Shiver lightly snorts. “Did you sleep well?”
Putting up her aloof and cold-blooded act Shiver replies, "of course I slept well, how could i not"
"I'm glad to hear that! Are frye and big man awake?" she asks, unfazed by shivers act.
Noticing how unfazed Marina was Shiver drops her act and sighs "Manta got up early to cook and when I woke Frye up and told her, she bolted downstairs to get first serve"
Marina smiled "she acted almost exactly like Pearlie.."
"She woke up cause she wanted bragging rights for being first to the table, then came flying down the stairs?" Shiver queried, starting her decent down the mansion stairs.
"To-a-tee" Marina replied while following Shivers lead, too treading down the large staircase.
As the two octolings reach the bottom of the staircase they talk to each other about many things, and continue their conversation while they walk to the kitchen, and by association the dining and living rooms.
When the Octolings reach their destination they were greeted to the sight of 3 inklings and a cooking manta ray.
The first two inklings, Pearl and Frye were loudly arguing over who should get the first bite of food at the dining table.
The last inkling, Marie was sitting on one of the many lavish Livingroom couches, a blanket draped over her. She was holding a cup of coffee in her singular hand and she had a distant look in her eyes, which were paired with eyebags.
The manta ray, Big man, was in the kitchen with headphones on, cooking breakfast for everyone in the mansion.
Noticing Marie's distant gleam Marina excused her self from her conversation with Shiver’s conversation and walked over to the gray squid, taking a seat next to her on the couch. Marie too distant to notice.
"Are you okay Marie?" Marina asks the gray squid
Marina’s voice jolts Marie out of her thoughts and come back to reality.
"Oh-! Im fine.. I... I just miss Rya.. she’s been spending all her time at the agency, and i haven't seen her in a while." Marie takes a sip of her coffee.
"And you couldn't sleep cause of that?" Marina asks as she lays a hand on Marie's back
"Yeah"
"I'm sure Rya misses you as much as you miss her, im sure you'll be able to see her soon" Marina says to comfort the inkling.
Marie sipps her coffee and lets out a blank "Thank you" Having heard that hundreds of times before.
"You're welcome" Marina smiled, getting off of the couch and walking to pearl. Not noticing that her attempt to lift Marie’s spirits had fallen short.
Then, the last two cephalopods living in the mansion walk in, Acht and Callie. The ladder of which was cheerfully carrying the other while loudly talking.
"I see that the most mushy couple is awake.." Shiver said, feigning annoyance at the couple.
"Gooooood morning!" Callie loudly exclaimed, writing off Shivers words.
"Cal we see each other every morning. You dont need to be that loud" Marie said to her cousin with an eyebrow raised, deciding to put off her emotions for later.
"Yeah but I want to!"
After taking too much time to process Shivers statement, Pearl angrily retorted "Hey! That's me and 'rina's title! We're the mushiest!"
“You sure took your time responding” Shiver mutters under her breath "Lets be honest. You and Marina dont compare to those two" Shiver replies to pearl.
"We are WAY more!-"
Marina, wanting to stop the ever growing argument, decides to lightly flirt with Pearl "Pearlie its fine.. I dont mind second place, If im with you, second place feels like first"
Pearl, being as easily flustered as ever, looks down to hide her ever growing blush. Which in turn makes Shiver cringe.
"Ugh.. I retract my statement. You and Pearl take first place by a landslide"
"Ay ay, ay ay! (Okay everyone, breakfast is ready!)" Big Man says, stopping all conversation while he walks out of the kitchen and into the dining room. Balancing 8 plates of food on his fins and, somehow, his head.
Reaching the dining room table, he sets down the plates and everyone who hadn't already sat down begins to file into their seats.
Frye wastes no time dashing into her seat, abusing Pearl’s flustered state to take victory. guess who's firs'! You snooze ya loose shorti'!"
Hearing Frye's victory cry, Pearl snaps out her flustered trance that Marina put her in. "What?! Squit!" Pearl runs over to the table and takes her seat, grumbling.
"Pearlie, language!" Marina sits in the seat next to Pearl, softly slapping Pearl on the way down, making Pearl to rub her head. "Thank you for making breakfast Big Man, you really didn't have to"
"Ay ay! ay! (No need for the thanks! really! I just love cooking!)" Big man taks a seat next to Frye.
“You ‘just love’ everything” Shiver says, picking up her chopsticks.
“Ay ay ay! (What can I say? I love what I do!”) Was the manta ray’s response.
Frye shakes her head while patting her signifigant other on the back “Y'u're too kind for y'u're own good Manny”
Everybody else sits at the table, Marie being the last. Once they all sat down they began to eat. in-between bites, everybody was talking about as many topics as they possibly could to pass the time. Hobbies, games, shows, podcasts, and, ironically, songs.
Then the topic changed.
"-speaking of, you know what I miss?" Marie asked after swallowing a bite of the clam ommlette Big Man made
"Rya" Callie quickly said, stuffing her face with her third omelette.
"Other than her cal.." Marie said, hiding the sadness that Callie pulled out of the depths of her mind.
Callie swallowed a massive bite of her omelette "Ohhh, What?"
"Shopping. I miss being going shopping."
"Ohhh..” The pink outfitted squid gulps down more of her omelette “I miss being able to chat to the workers while checking out” Callie responds matching Marie.
“Little niche don't ya think?” Maire says, faking a smug look
Callie groans and chooses to ignore her cousin's prodding “I miss a lot more stuff, that just aligned with what you said"
"Like broadcasting." Marina spoke, cutting into the conversation the cousins were having. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to-"
“Or singing.” Shiver cut Marina off, too joining the conversation and resting her chopsticks on her plate.
The chews and side chatter of the table begin to fade.
"It was fun meeting fans" Pearl said, poking at the food on her plate.
"Its the dancin’ for me. I still can, but it was way funner it in front o’ fans" Frye added, joining in. Her appetite faded with pearls. Shiver decided not to correct Frye’s grammar.
At this point all of the lively chatter and clanking of silverware, and Shivers chopsticks, had ended.
"Ay... ay. ay ay. (guess its my turn.. I miss was making music that others would listen too. I like making things people find enjoyable..)"
The silence was deafening. Everyone's thoughts and feelings shown on their faces. A fearful gleam in Maries eyes, a solemn look in her cousin's. Marina’s anguish, Pearls resentment, Shiver and big mans longing...
and Frye’s rage filled remission.
"How long can we keep on doin’ this..?" Frye asks, glaring down at the food on her plate.
“Doing what?” Shiver asks her saddened third.
Frye angrily stands and opens her arms, pointing at everyone sitting at the table, shocking most. “This! This game where we pr’tend that we’re all fine and dandy living in this mansion, when were not!” Frye sits back down “We’re all constantly thinkin’ about it! How much we miss bein’ able to go outside! How much we miss idoling! How much we miss seein’ and interactin’ with other people!”
No one responds for a long time, contemplating what Frye said and how correct she was.
“The problem is the mansion.” Shiver says quietly out of anger after the long silence.
"The problem isn't my mansion. The problem is your fans." Pearl speaks, offended at the shot to her mansion.
Shiver looks up at Pearl, not expecting her to retaliate. "Our fans?" She scoffs "Must I remind you whose fans attacked whom?." She says squinting at Pearl
The two glare daggers into each other before they break out into a loud argument, Frye joining Shivers side in the argument. All while Bigman and Marina try to calm their respective significant others.
As the argument raged the single handed inkling, Marie, slowly grew annoyed. "Calm down!" She yelled The problem wasn't your crazy fans!” She points at Deep Cut “Your overprotective fans!” She points at Pearl and Marina ”Or our anxious fans!” She uses her arm to gesture at herself and her cousin. “The problem was us! All of us! The Grand Festival was a horrible idea and we just shouldn't have let them meet!"
Marie goes quiet and sits down, staring at her missing hand. "We trapped ourselves here. Just be glad that.. Rya... a-and the others were able to save us before things got worse."
Everyone at the table goes quiet once more. Everyone except the usually quiet octoling Acht, whom had an idea.
Looking up at the inkfish, and bigman, sitting at the table she speaks her mind. “If... If you all miss it so much.. why don't you go back..?”
Frye squints at Acht “Are you stupid or someth-!?”
Acht cuts off frye and continues “Go back as a new idol group… Take on new appearances, fake names… If the problem was your fans.. Then… You could make new ones..? I-I’d be willing to join too if it makes it more believable..”
Everyone at the table starts to think. contemplating. Imagining.
Frye opens her mouth to speak, to retort Acht's idea, but she failed to think of a retort. “I.. I!.. I!.. Don't see anything wrong with that..”
Shiver, annoyed with the idea, crosses her arms and speaks “Well I do. How are we gonna change how our faces look. Its not like we can just get brand new ones.”
Marina's eyes light up after hearing Shivers' words. “Maybe we can!”
Marina stands up and runs out of the kitchen, leaving everyone surprised as this was the fastest they had ever seen her move.
A few minutes later she comes running back in with her laptop and an oddly shaped, definitely not splatfest related, helmet balanced in her hands. “So I had an idea after Eight freed the people of Inkopolis from Order-!”
“I was being rhetorical.” Shiver says, cutting Marina off and rolling her eyes.
Marina runs to the table and plops the two items shes down, ignoring how shiver cut her off. “-I know you were, but what if we actually could!” Marina begins typing on her laptop with haste “In the Memverse you can change your appearance at will!” She stops typing and rotates her laptop so the entire table could see “That got me thinking! What if you could model yourself in the Memverse, and change your appearance to match it in real life!”
On the laptops screen there was a window that had a spinning inkfish head who's facial features were constantly morphing. In other windows lines of code were scrolling.
“So thats what you’ve been working on for the past…” Pearl holds up her fingers and starts counting on them before making a confused face and dropping them “ever?"
“If this ends up working we could actually leave the mansion! We could go back to our idoling careers!” Callie cheers
“I hate to be the voice of reason here, but its not like we would be allowed to leave. Inuo, Eight, and.. Rya.. have the mansion more guarded than then all of Alterna. Not to mention Velvette's oddly accurate gut-feelings. Even if we managed to sneak out, we'd still need a quick way back in for whenever they’d want to check up with us.” Marie says, her previously hidden solemn look shown once more.
Callie notices Marie’s hesitation at Rya's name, and glances worriedly at Her cousin.
“Ay.. ay. (I think... I can help with that)” the large ray says, scooting back his chair and pulling a piece of paper out from a previously unknown compartment in the table. “Ay.. ay... (I'm ashamed to admit it.. but I have multiple escape plans scattered around rooms in the mansion..)”
Everyone sort of half gasps, although shiver and Frye full on inhale and scoot closer to Big man.
“You've been holdin’ out on us Manta!?” Frye growls.
“Ay! ay! ay! (No, no! I haven't ever used them! I've always backed out from being to scared!)”
“In that case Manta... Do tell why we weren't made aware of these plans?” Shiver coldy responds.
“A-Ay ay! (I-I didn't want you guys getting in trouble if I got caught!)” Big Man says while putting his fins up in fear and defence.
Frye and Shiver look at each other, nod, then look back at bigman.
“Lucky for you, we know when you lie. You're off the hook, for now.” Shiver says as Pearl snorts
“But expect a stern talkin’ to!” Frye shouts, which is met with a nervous nod from bigman.
Big man shakes his head and sets his mind back on topic. “A-Ay ay, ay (B-Back to the matter at hand, we can use the escape plans I made to leave)”
Marie looks over to bigman with her face starting to perk, if only by a minuscule amount “And you’re sure your plans will work?”
“Ay ay, ay, ay ay ay! (Im not really the numbers person, that’s Marina’s forte, but if I were to put it into a percentage id think it would be over 90!)” Bigman replies with a nod.
Pearl speaks up “We have the disguises,” She points at Marina “We have the escape route,” She points at Big Man “And we OBVIOUSLY have the music” Pearl points at herself, before quickly pointing at everyone else before they got mad “I think we can do this”
Callie exaggeratedly stands up “Then it's decided! The Now or Never Seven is making their grand debut!”
Marie looks at her cousin, deadpanned.“We can't be the Now or Never Seven anymore Cal.”
Callie facepalms and groans “Ugh, right.. we need a new name”
Frye's eyes light up at the opertinity to name something “What about the Shinin’ Seven!” She excitedly says
“I hate to burst your big bubbler Frye, but Acht is joining us, meaning there’ll be Eight of us.” Shiver says to her significant other, causing her to deflate into her seat.
Marina speaks up, voicing a name idea she has “What about the Energetic Eight?”
Pearl softly pats Marina's upper arm, being too short to pat her shoulder “Sorry rina’, but for two words it's got too many syl- sly- slly- sllab- sylabl- syl-a-bl-s..?”
Marina nods, understanding that Pearl meant 'syllables.'
“maybe… Octagram?” Marie puts her name idea out.
Big man speaks”Ay… ay, ay. (That feels a bit.. Octarian biased, no offense to you three.)” Bigman angles his fins towards Shiver, Marina, and Acht.
The three Octarians say “none taken” in sync, and those were the last words spoken for a long while.
“You seven are technically icons.. Right?” Acht speaks up, breaking the silence.
The woman who Acht was currently being held by, Callie, answers “I would say so, why?”
“Well you seven were icons across all of greater Inkadia, and I was sort-of an Icon in the deepsea metro.. so what about... 'The Iconic Eight?'"
Acht looks around at the people of the table for confirmation, Callie gives her a glowing smile and a thumbs up, Marie contemplates but gives a nod, Marina smiles at Acht and and her tentacles curl signifying a yes, Pearl cheers at the name, and Frye does the same, Big man says 'Ay' in manta ray, and Shiver very reluctantly agrees-still thinking the entire idea of returning to stardom a bad idea.
Callie stands in her chair "Okay lets do this one more time!- Ahem- Then it's decided! The Iconic Eight is making their grand debut!"