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Acht shot up from bed, breathing heavily. Their eyes darted around before they realized where they were, flopping back onto the bed with a big sigh. Not that dream again….
Ever since they’d been revived in the memverse, the Octoling had been having nightmares about their time in the Deepsea Metro. Emotions were supposedly a perk about being alive again, but Acht felt like they just kept getting in the way.
Before they got sanitized in the Deepsea Metro, they’d make some music to chill out, back when they lived in the domes. Even when they escaped into the metro, they still made music, even if they got practically zombified in the process. These days, they couldn’t even force themself to go over to the new setup Pearl and Marina got them. In fact, all they’ve really been able to do lately is to get dragged around Inkopolis so that Marina could show them all of her favorite areas of the city. Acht had to admit some of them were cool, but they could barely enjoy it when this flood of complicated emotions fought against their overwhelming tiredness of it all.
But today the girls had planned some sort of concert thing to try and cheer Acht up, so they had to go watch a “Chirpy Chips” performance. Acht barely knew what a chip was and didn’t understand how it could be chirpy, but they were at least mildly excited to see it. Maybe listening to some music would give them some inspiration…
~~~~~~~~
Green and blue lights from inside the venue were blasting out already. Acht could feel the vibrations from the crowd dancing to some pre-show music. It was SashiMori music, if they guessed it right. But first they had to find Marina and her pink gremlin of a girlfri—
“YOOOO, ACHT!!!!” There they are.
Acht turned around to see Pearl and Marina waving at them, wearing some matching hoodies in their usual pink-and-green color scheme. Bleh. The Inkling and Octoling were a cute couple, but maybe just a bit too lovey-dovey for Acht to relate to. But Marina was their friend and Pearl was starting to become one, too, so Acht just had to put up with it.
“Hey, guys!” They had to shout a bit over the noise from inside.
“Nice fit!” Pearl said. Acht was wearing a basic outfit of some ripped-jeans and a band shirt they’d gotten from Pearl and Marina’s pop duo, Off the Hook. They were also wearing their classic shades, of course.”Great to know you’re such a big fan of us!!”
Marina gave them a small hug. “Hi, Acht!!! Glad you could make it!”
“It’s not like I’d be doing anything else…”
“Still!” Pearl interjected. “Plus, ‘Reena told me about how you used to be so busy making music that she’d have to force you to actually go outside sometimes!” She laughed.
Acht didn’t know how to respond to that. Honestly, if they could make music right now, they would definitely be doing that instead. It wasn’t that they didn’t like their friends, it’s just that they weren’t super good in social situations, so most of the time they just hung out in the corner until it was over. It was a lot harder to do that when the focus was directly on you, obviously, but that came with a whole other slew of problems Acht didn’t like to deal with. So they had just stayed inside making music for most of their time in the domes. But now they’d lost that big part of them and it was all their fault and…
“Acht, are you okay?” Marina asked. Pearl and Marina were both staring at them.
Shoot.
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine, sorry.” Acht didn’t hadn’t realize they spaced out. It kept happening lately—not that it didn’t happen before they got brainwashed, but at least back then they were mostly alone.
“Well then let’s get on in there!!” Pearl had already ran up the steps and over to the entrance. “Come on, guys!!”
Marina gave Acht one last worried look before running after Pearl. “Wait up, Pearlie!!”
~~~~~~~~
Acht stepped into the venue just as their first song started playing. The band was made up of a Crab on drums, an Octoling on bass, an Inkling on guitar, and the Sea Anemone on vocals was also using some sort of old human technology they must have found. It almost reminded Acht of some of the stuff they used in the Deepsea Metro. Great, not another thing to remind me of that today.
Pearl and Marina looked like they’re having fun, though. I might as well at least try to enjoy it. As they were looking over at the two girls, Acht saw Marina waving them over.
“How are you liking them so far?” Marina yelled over the crowd when Acht finally made their way over to them.
“They’re good. It… reminds me of some of the stuff I did back in the Metro.”
“Oh, yeah! Agent 8 had told me all about your background tracks when we finally met her in person.”
Pearl noticed them talking and joined in. “Yeah, your tracks were fire!! We gotta do a collab at some point!!”
Acht felt like a pit was growing in their stomach. “Glad you guys liked them…” The music was blaring loud against their ears, and what might’ve once felt familiar was starting to make them feel sick. “I- I gotta go…”
“Wait, Acht, are you okay?” Marina and Pearl both looked worried.
Acht couldn't take it anymore. “I- I’m fine. Don’t worry about me…” They turned around and started making their way through the crowd as fast as possible.
~~~~~~~~
The cold air outside of the venue cut at Acht’s skin, but it felt a lot better than the stuffiness inside. They took a deep breath, then sat down on the steps.
Why can’t I just get over it? I’m back now, shouldn’t that be enough? It’s my fault I can’t make music in the first place; I can't even bring myself to even try. Why was I so rude to them? They just wanted to help and I messed it up like I messed up the rest of my stupid life, I swear to Cod. I just want to go back to normal…
Acht didn’t know how long they’d been sitting there staring off into the distance when Marina sat down next to them.
“Acht, I know you arent okay,” she said, looking at them. “You know you can talk to me or Pearl whenever you want to, right?”
“I just-” Acht sighed. They didn’t know how to finish that sentence. “I- I’m just going to go home.” They stood up, ready to leave.
Marina stood up as they walked away. “Acht, it wasn’t your fault you got sanitized!!”
“But it was!” Acht turned around sharply. “I’m the one who ran away from the domes, I’m the one who went to the Deepsea Metro, I’m the one who got myself brainwashed!!!”
“But you didn’t mean for that happen—”
“Marina, you don’t understand!”
“I would if you would just tell me! I know it was bad, I just want to help you!” Marina said, looking at Acht through their shades.
“I specifically asked to be brainwashed!!” They were breathing heavily. “There, it’s out, can I go home now?”
Marina was at a loss for words. “Acht…”
“I’m the one who asked. It’s my fault,” Acht took off their shades, tears dropping down their face. “I did it all for my music. That’s all I wanted to focus on, so I let myself get brainwashed into doing it for eternity.” They took a shaky breath, looking back into Marina’s eyes. “But now I’m back and I’m thankful to both of you for helping me so much. But I lost the one thing I cared about; it’s gone. I can’t make music anymore, I’ve tried. And it’s all because of me.”
Marina was tearing up, too. But Acht didn’t want to worry about these emotions anymore.
“I’m going home now.” Acht turned around, their voice lingering out in the cold night air as they went around the corner. They couldn’t even hum along to the fading music as they walked away.