Parker

Parker was born in a relatively suburban portion of the Octarian domes, albeit slightly run down, and was the youngest of three. Her parents had always wanted a daughter, so after two boys, they were overjoyed to finally have the girl they'd wanted for so long. Parker would grow up knowing this, that her parents had dreamed so long of their perfect little daughter, and would be paraded around as a small child to all of the family friends and neighbors.

However, things were never as good as they would claim to them to be, with Parker routinely failing to live up to their expectations, any deviation from their standards resulting in harsh reprimand. To make things worse, her two older brothers, Mason and Connor, made their hatred of her very clear, as they had grown up aware of their unwanted status from their parents.

With the intensely controlling nature of her parents, Parker would seek to strike out of her own more, becoming, in their eyes, a troublemaker, refusing to listen to their unreasonable rules and curfews, all the while her brothers would become increasingly cruel, blaming the abuse they faced from their parents on her. To them, Parker was the favorite child, and her acting out and rulebreaking was her being ungrateful for the better treatment she'd get, entirely failing to realize that Parker's treatment from their parents was also abuse. Instead, they'd frequently get into physical altercations, typically initied by either Mason or Connor, but Parker wasn't afraid to start them either.

With age, she would only grow even more resentful towards her parents and her brothers, going from only breaking their rules out of a desire to have fun, to breaking them on purpose to refuse their authority. Every day another screaming match with her parents, Parker's reputation as a troublemaker would only grow, beyond just the boundaries of her family and into the general knowledge of the people around her, though they'd only think of her as the problem child to a normal family, a title she'd take in stride.

Eventually, having finally had enough, Parker would sign herself up for the Octarian military at fifteen after a particularily nasty fight with her parents, striking out on her that night in the hopes that joining the military would free her from her homelife. She knew that joining the military would still end up with her in a position of subordinance to an intensely controlling authority, but at least there she'd get the chance to reinvent herself, rather than just being viewed as the troublemaking daughter of her poor, thankless parents.

While she'd hoped to reinvent herself in the military, Parker near instantly got labeled a troublemaker once again, but she didn't mind much. To an extent, she was expected to, being one of the younger recruits, being almost refreshing to have her own status as the problem child be something she shared with others. However, it wasn't with any of the other issue trainees she'd end up actually bonding with, rather, the elite-in-training she'd frequently butt heads with, Tess, would end up as her first real friend.

Initially dismissive of her due to her status of authority over her, Parker would eventually end up bonding with Tess, with their first real conversation happening after Tess had decided to cover up for Parker after having found her sneaking off to be with one of the other girls in the outpost. Tess had done so out of a desire to help her classmate, even in spite of her dislike for Parker, though this would lead into their friendship, with Parker approaching her afterwards to thank her and ask why she'd helped her out. With Parker putting aside her distaste of Tess's status as an elite-in-training, and Tess finding Parker's antics, while frustrating, entertaining and somewhat charming, the two would start actively seeking each other out during training modules, both being able to match the others high levels of physical activity and desire to roughhouse with each other.

However, even with their dynamic shifting from classmates who knew of each other to good friends, there was always an undercurrent of frustration between them, as while Tess put up with a lot of troublemaking from Parker, she was still always trying to be a good soldier and a good trainee, and didn't like always having to cover for her. As such, during a sparring session between them both, the training would rapidly get out of hand, with what started as initially playful ribbing as they fought turning into an outright argument, culminating in them both taking it too far and having to get physically separated by their supervisor, scolded, and sent off to see medics. Both would end up with lifelong scars from their scuffle, though, in spite of how violent the training session had become, they'd soon make up and view it as just another spat between them, something they were both already used to.

With their eventual graduation from their training, Parker and Tess would be lucky enough to get asssigned to the same outpost together, and while most would find the exact location they were sent out to, being some of the deepest depths of the domes, one of the worst places to be positioned, neither would mind it much, with Parker being actively happy to be so far away from where she'd grown up. While still just a regular soldier, Parker's training as a sniper made it so she ranked just below the lowest elites, and above regular soldiers, a placement she was happy to take, albeit, always giving Tess a hard time over ranking above her. She'd settle in well in the outpost, getting into her routine, including her typical mischief, just as she had before.

Given the incredibly rural location of the outpost she was stationed at, being located in a long since abandoned sewer system that ran beneath the domes, things were always relatively quiet, with only the soldiers routines to keep busy. As such, most of the exciting news would come from interpersonal sources, with various spats between soldiers over whatever was going on at the time, or through the radios connecting all of the outposts, which would give updates on battles that were happening throughout the more combat heavy portions of the domes, and typically whatever police reports would come in from areas nearby so that the soldiers could keep an eye out, though it'd rarely amount to anything.

Parker would act just the same as she had in training, frequently going out of her way to cause problems, mainly for Tess, but she wouldn't mind if others would end up in the crossfire of whatever she'd get herself into, though mostly it was just deciding to not show up to mandatory briefings and training sessions. Instead she'd frequently to go do target practice on her own, or just be anywhere where she wasn't supposed to be. Tess would, as always, cover for her, making excuses as to why she was running late, and promising to get her in line, to no avail.

With nothing going on, the worries of the people at the outpost would turn to their own issues. Tess was known for her levelheadedness, and for her willingness to listen to her fellow soldiers to try and help them, especially the ones she was close with. It was through this reputation of hers that the outposts medic, as well as one of Tess's close personal friends, Ryan, would end up asking her for advice, in particular, regarding his crush on Parker. Parker was entirely unaware of this, and as Tess would tell him, was well known throughout the outpost as a lesbian, giving him no real chance. This wouldn't stop him from at least trying to befriend her, figuring he'd at least enjoy being friends with her even if she wouldn't be interested in a relationship.

Ryan and Parker would hit it off fairly well, though they'd known of each other prior. In specific, Ryan enjoyed her confident and stubborn attitude, and while he personally wasn't drawn to being rebellious like she was, he couldn't deny it was fun watching her purposefully piss off the people in power, even knowing she'd get punished for it. Parker, meanwhile, enjoyed pushing Ryan around a little, though she never took it as far as she did with Tess. Ryan would also offer to cut and style Parker's tentacles for her, allowing her a bit of individuality that she'd really never had in her life prior, an offer she gladly took up. With their friendship working out well, Parker, Ryan, and Tess would form their own little friend group in the outpost, frequently spending any and all free time they had with each other.

It's through their hanging out out, however, that Ryan would finally realize some of the cause behind his ever present crush on Parker, being not just out of an attraction for her, but also envy. Parker's the first person he really addresses this with, with it finally culminating in him telling her that he thinks he might be a trans woman, something of which she embraces fully. Having already stolen a tube of eyeliner from Tess purely by coincidence, Parker helps by painting on the hooked markings of a female Octoling for him to see how he likes it. With it being a complete success, and Ryan more sure than ever, he'd have Parker announce it to the rest of the outpost, that he's a woman, and she'll be going by Molly from now on out. Other than a firm punch in the arm from Tess to Parker for the theft of her eyeliner, she'd be met with resounding acceptance, and an even stronger bond with Parker than before.

With Molly now more comfortable in her own skin and a lot more confident and sure of herself, the friend group between her, Parker, and Tess only gets more tightly knit with time, with both Tess and Molly now gaining a reputation as the only two people really capable of reigning in the worst of Parker's bad habits. However, this reputation doesn't last forever, as while Molly's personal self discovery and finally resolving her issues with her gender had shown her that a lot of her feelings for Parker had been based in an envy for the way in which she was nontraditional in femininity, there still was an attraction there, now back with a vengeance, given that there was no longer the barrier of noncompatiable genders between sexualities, with Molly now both a woman and a lesbian.

Molly's feelings wouldn't go unreciprocated for long, however, as her increased confidence and feelings of self-worth had an already quite close with her Parker drawn even further in, resulting in the two of them increasingly seeking out time together outside of the others in camp, frequently via Molly inviting Parker into the med room for "routine check-ups" and "following up prior meetings". Parker would catch onto this behavior fairly quickly, taking note of how often she'd be called away, yet how these one-on-one meetings were typically only moments long, followed by an hour of just getting to be around each other without scrutiny of ditching work. Following another seemingly redundant appointment Molly claimed to need with her, Parker would outrightly point out the frequency of these meetings, and the lack of such for other soldiers. Molly, flustered, would try to quickly make up an excuse as to why everything was entirely necessary and she simply thought Parker would benefit from these check-ups, only to be stopped before she could find the words to properly explain herself, instead with Parker cutting her off and leading her into a kiss.

While Molly would feel a bit insecure in their relationship at first, given she'd only just recently truly come to understand her own identity, meanwhile Parker had been comfortable in hers for years, Parker would put to rest a lot of these worries, as Parker would go out of her way to make sure Molly knew exactly how she felt, shutting down Molly's own projections of her more self-deprecating feelings and thoughts. While technically meant to be kept under wraps, their relationship would be common knowledge throughout the camp in time, as with Parker now in an actual relationship, she would stop being reciprocal towards her previously quite frequent flings with her fellow soldiers, and Molly's incredibly unsubtle nature around her. Though against military standards, their relationship would also never really be challenged by superiors, both in part thanks to Tess's typical vouching for Parker, but also because, as much as Parker would remain in a lot of her typical troublemaking ways, now with her attention being pulled towards Molly rather than pissing off her peers, Parker's poor behavior would drastically drop. The elites above Tess were more than willing to overlook the bending of rules to ignore Molly and Parker's relationship if it meant that Parker's level of aggression and violence towards the others became significantly less.

With her relationship with Molly on solid ground and getting better by the day, and her friendship with Tess as strong as it always had been, life in the military outpost for Parker would remain the same for a long period of time. She'd still skip training modules to go practice on her own, sneak off from things she was supposed to be doing to go be with Molly, and cause problems for the other soldiers, but would remain in her routine as she'd always done.

With the routine the same as it had been for years, Parker's relationships with the people around her in the outpost had stayed largely the same, with the exception being the exponential deepening of her relationship with Molly, having gone from silly, lighthearted dating for the sake of fun, to a much more serious partnership between the two. While Parker would never lose her desire to cause trouble or purposefully pick on people, she'd mellowed out a bit over the years, with a lot of her more unabashed cruelty, especially that of which she directed toward Tess, dying out. Things would be relatively the same for the outpost as a whole, with things going as they always had, mundane tedium with the promise that they were protecting their people, even if they never actually saw the combat they were promised.

It was through this seemingly harmless tedium that Molly would first point out the rapidly decreasing amount of time both she and Parker had left in their mandatory service, and that sooner rather than later, they'd be free to go, and live their lives as they pleased. Molly aspired for med school, being guarenteed a scholarship to some of the best Octarian med schools available thanks to her service, so she could continue her path to being a proper doctor, rather than just a field medic in an outpost that barely needed one. On the nights where either she would join Parker up in the snipers perch, or the two of them would sleep in the med room together, Molly would detail the life she was going to build for herself, for them both. Their service would end, they'd get an apartment in one of the more populated domes, Molly would go to school, and she'd leave the hypothetical open for whatever Parker saw herself doing.

For Molly, this was a fun little fantasy, and while it was going to be real in due time, she knew it'd be soon that they'd have to start doing more serious life planning for themselves, to figure out what they were actually going to do once their service let out. For Parker, it was a sickening reminder of everything she'd wanted to avoid. She hated the military, she acted out to piss off those in power to prove that she owed them nothing, she could choose what she wanted to do and how she wanted to act, and yet, she could barely even stomach the thought of leaving. Instead, when Molly would try and rope her into her lighthearted daydreaming, Parker, unwilling to tell her of this, would be trapped in a vicious cycle of hating the military, resenting the control it had over her, yet not understanding why she couldn't fathom her life free of it, worsening her spiraling thoughts.

Agitated by Molly's attempts of lighthearted life planning for the both of them, Parker would begin to lash out once again, relapsing into her worse behaviors she'd previously fallen out of doing as often, desperate to prove that she could not be controlled by a system she hated as deeply as she did. Molly would take some notice of this behavior, but assumed it was just restlessness, as the growing tiredness had been felt by all the soldiers, waiting out their time until they could leave the outpost and live their actual lives.

Things would only get worse, however, as a scandal would break out, as an elite from a dome connected to the sewer system the outpost was in had become a deserter with no warning, trying to make a break for the surface. While it was unlikely she'd ever be seen by the outpost, news had been sent to all military outposts, both to keep an eye out for her or any other fugitives, including the older teenage girl and child she'd kidnapped who'd reportedly been with the soldier when she deserted, as well as for the sake of increasing vigilance, looking for any other potential deserters. With the previously fairly laid back, or at least, as laid back as military routine could be, procedure of the outpost being suddenly commandeered by a much tighter grip on the soldiers, and higher scrutiny all for the sake of trying to prevent deserters, Parker would only backslide further and further into poor behavior.

While Molly wouldn't see any of her poor behavior, with Parker acting near identically around Molly as she had before, Tess would instead take the brunt of it, both with Parker expecting to cover for her as she always had, but also with Parker regressing into directing her cruelty directly at Tess as well. Tess had never been a fan of this, both in the sense that she didn't like Parker going back to her signature aggression towards her, but also in that she felt like she constantly had to cover for her, even when she herself hadn't done anything wrong, but would routinely have to put her own reputation on the line all for the sake of her friend. With the tightening regulations and increased scrutiny in the aftermath of the desertion, Parker's poor behavior would be even more significantly harmful, now not only just being unfair to Tess in general, but also making it so that Tess would have to vouch for her, if she valued her friendship at all.

With the increased scrutiny and continuing unease over the prospect of being free from the military, Parker would continue to feel trapped and panicked, and, convinced that Molly wouldn't be able to do or say anything that could possibly help her, she'd pretend as though nothing was wrong, instead trying desperately to find a way to feel normal again, or at least as close to normal as she could get. It'd be in the midst of another session of her panic eating her alive while stationed out for a night shift in the snipers perch, after Molly had already gone back to her lodging, that for the first time, she'd actually be drawn to doing her appointed job. Having heard the sound of something scuttling around near the border of the outpost, she'd raise her weapon and begin scouring the landscape, looking for who or whatever was approaching the outpost.

She'd soon set her sight firmly on the culprit, an Octoling of indeterminate age, rummaging through garbage that had been left right at the border of the outpost. Her duty was be to wake the camp, alerting them to what was clearly a fugitive, and taking him in to be arrested, but seeing what was clearly someone who posed no harm to anyone, who was just struggling to survive and blatantly desperate, she was unable to bring herself to do what she knew she was supposed to. More than just that, she could see at least some sort of reflection of herself in him, the desperation, the panicked look in his eyes upon seeing her sight pointed at him. Instead, she lowered her weapon, and watched him run off.

Her encounter with the fugitive would only worsen things for her, as while no one knew of her technical treachery to her post and to her people, seeing someone living outside the law, even as much as they were clearly struggling with it, made her long for a life outside of the extreme control of the military, yet not the life Molly still was making clear she wanted. With things reaching a breaking point for Parker, the final straw would come not from her superiors, who'd hated her from the start, but rather, from Tess, her closest, only friend for the longest time.

With the increase in Parker's cruelty towards her, Tess had finally had enough, snapping at Parker, pointing out the miserable way she was treating her. Furthermore, not only was Parker being awful to Tess directly, but her acting out, especially now, especially with the increased focus on problem soldiers, the increase in scrutiny, Tess was backed into a corner, where her options would be to let Parker take the fall, and almost certainly get her service extended, and given the knowledge of her relationship with Molly being well known, also running the risk of her getting moved to a different outpost, far away from Molly or Tess. If Tess valued their friendship at all, she'd have to routinely put herself and her reputation on the line, all the while taking Parker's abuse. When the elites are on the look out for soldiers who are most likely to run off, why would they assume the outwardly insubordinate troublemaker would be loyal? Why would they keep her around the people she loves when she does nothing but make life worse for the people in charge? Why is it Tess's responsibility to cover up for Parker's actions?

Tess wasn't really sure how she was expecting Parker to react, though being met with a cold glare and dead silence was anything but, with Parker entirely shutting down and refusing to acknowledge Tess fully. While it had been an outburst, Tess had hoped that maybe Parker would take what she said to heart, that she would value their friendship enough to want Tess to feel happy and not constantly under insane amounts of stress from every possible angle, but instead, Parker had taken that as her final straw. With her mind finally made up, Parker would sever her friendship with Tess entirely.

Molly would notice the shift in Parker's friendship with Tess, noting how their previously tightly knit friend group had suddenly become one person less, Parker getting up to leave whenever Tess would come by to sit with them as she always had, and now refusing to speak with or acknowledge her in the slightest. All Parker would tell Molly upon being asked was simply that nothing was wrong, the rift Molly seemed to see was nothing, and everything would remain just the way it always had been. Molly didn't really believe her, especially with Tess not willing to speak about whatever incident had happened between them, but with Parker's insistance that she still loved her, and that things were alright, Molly would give in to the reassurance Parker promised her.

Molly wouldn't notice, however, the increasing frequency of which Parker wouldn't be seen at her post. Unbeknownst to anyone, Parker was leaving camp, scouting out the area around camp, and, having stolen one of the camps maps of the surrounding landscape, piecing together what wasn't covered by the map. It was through this scouting that she'd find what she was looking for, the jackpot, an old, forgotten