The Cephalo Diaries 2017

Ho boy here she is with a latte in hand. This squiddo made sure to get her proper refreshments before the big showdown. There she is at a table awaiting her newfound friend for something that isn't ToD for once.

She's been on top of her work lately, so it was hands down that she'd get off an hour early! The Orange inkling made her way from the Melanin Cafe and towards Infinity Ink. Soon as she was there, she looked around for the Splatbucks Luanne had mentioned... geez she's still a little hyped from meeting someone that actually knows her!
After several moments of looking like a tourist, Victoria spotted the place and headed right in.

Sip
Upon seeing her friend, she waves her hand around excitedly.  A brigh grin shing on her face. "O-over here!"

She perked up hearing the voice, and Torch made her way over to the teal squid. "Hey! Nice ta see you again!" She smiled brightly and slid onto the other chair by the table... only to almost slide off of it, but she recomposed quickly with a slightly more awkward smile.

"S-so uuhh.." She scratches behind her head as she grins sheepishly. "Is there anything you wanna do first?"

"Ah.. well.." she rested her chin on her hand in thought, "I promised a friend I would eat better so.. would you mind if I grab  a snack here?" Torch looked back at the squid, she seems ready to up and go ask for a muffin, but she couldn't help but ask first.

"O-oh! It's no problem!" She said as she moved her phone out of her pocket. Might as well check squitter.

Victoria smiled a thanks before getting up from her seat to grab that muffin. Moments later she sat back down, already halfway through the thing!
"So,,, what do,, you main?" She said in between bites.
Gulping it down she sat back some wearing  a bit of an embarrassed smile, "Sorry, I know there's a lot more to life than this sport, I'm just um, curious eheh"

She sheathed her phone away and adjusted the beenie on her head. "N-nothing  major. Just a splat charger."

"Oh another charger main!" She took another bite, "you guys have some patience for that weapon!"

"W-well, it does allow me to try adn mix thigns up a bit. Gotta scope out the enemy, right?" She says letting out a shy little chuckle.

Torch gives an inviting giggle, finishes up her muffin, and goes for her pack. She pulls out a water bottle and takes a quick swig of it before shoving it back into its place, "now he can't say anything hm" she mumbled with a grin.

"He?" She looks over at her with a curious expression.

Realizing Luanne had heard, she blinked, "o-oh." Torch waved a hand dismissivley, wearing a little awkward smile along with her orange-tinted cheeks, "Just that friend I was talking about!"

"What uh....w-what was the promise you gave him?" Shesays keeping up that curious little look as she rubs her hand against her shoulder.

The orange squid kept up the smile, rubbing behind her neck sheepishly, "oh just to uh, take better care of myself really... I um, I wasn't the best at taking care of myself when I first moved here a couple months ago.. so he kinda gave me a push... a shove really, but I'm trying to keep my promise to actually eat every now and then eheh..

"O-oh! Well, it's good to see that you're getting better. I-if you need help with anything I'd be glad to lend a hand." Still a bit shy, but the smile still holds some brightness to it.

She returns the smile more genuinely, dropping her hand down, "aw thanks, Luanne. Don't want to put the burden of reminding me to eat though!" she chuckles

The trek goes through some secluded part. Some urchins walking around te area. It seems spooky, but everyone does seem harmlesss.
Finally, ol' Torchie is brought to a little underpass. Tunnels around the area like crazy, and it all looks perfect for war.
"S-so um...most splats wins the game?"

She looked at the arena in awe, aside from the dustier appearance, it really brought her back to the same Urchin Underpass back at home. Torch mentally shook her head out of it when the teal squid asked about the game rules. "a-ah, um. Yeah that works!" She slid her bag off and dug out her little Splattershot Jr., taking a look at it just to make sure it was still intact from the ride in her back pack. "oh uh, happen to have any spare inktanks?" Her eyes darted around, "do you even have your weapon?" she whispered, not seeing any charger in sight of her opponent.

SHe nodded as her bag slid down to the ground witha  clunk. "T-there's a little backroom with a few extras actually!." She says pointing over at the spot. WIth the bag opened up, she pulls out the 2 tems that were held inside.  1 inktanks held on the side, and the bits of the charger she owns.  Before setting up the weapon, she rolls the inktank over to Torch with a little smile beaming over. "I-I also had the charger broken apart so it would fit." She says a bit quietly as she sets up her weapon.

Torch blinked, "that's pretty impressive.. to know how to reassemble your weapon!" She caught the rolling tank and picked it up to look it over, seems everything's intact.. So she slid it on without a problem and flicked on the switch to activate it. Soon enough orange ink was filling the tank as she tossed her bag to the side. "I'll um, head on over to the other side. good luck!" She winked before hastily making her way to the opposite side of the arena, going into her squid form to register that as her respawn point..

Luanne held up her thumb as she turned over to the  Torch. Once the weapon was set up, she ran over to her  spawn point letting out a few huffs. Here you go Luanne, ya made a friend that you're about to duel with.

three... two... one.. Go!! Torch was out of her ink and on the ramp spraying ink instantly! She had to find out where Luanne was perched. Unlike the warehouse, this underpass had more places to hide a charger. So she hid in her ink as she got to the center, keeping an eye out for that laser, she knew so well..

Luanne took  the high side istantly. A bit of an obvious perch for her to be, and the opponent knew too quickly. Upon hearing the taunt, she cowered back instantly. Oh, she tried to be as quiet as she could.
She stepped towards the middle seeing Torch once more, and her shot missed. A fatal mistake she made leading to the first splat of the game.

"There you are!" Torch taunted, immediately tossing a bomb in Luanne's direction and dove off to the side to lay out more ink. On the walls! On the floors! She knew she had to get map control quickly before the charger showed herself again.
And there she was! right on the low ground, taking an aim at the orange inkling. Quickly, Torch made her way towards her. And as Luanne fired off the shot, she had missed Victoria by a foot. Better safe than sorry, the junior weilder activated her bubble and shot down at the grounded sniper. SPLAT!
First kill of the game. Torch speedily swam off to cover more ground as well as build up her special once more.

Welp, that got her. So hte clokc windled down more as she respawned. A shake of her head as she got back in, and she took off on the trail she had left. Though this time, she moves through the mid  much more. The target in sight, and special ready. With torch sighted, she launches out her bomb rush moving back to the wall.
Oh, look at that. She bubbled, and Luanne took another splat."

In the far distance, she saw Luanne respawn and make more ink trails.. seems like she was coming to the center, had she thought Torch retreated? oh no no no, the orange inkling hid in the ink right where the charger would pass -and she did- so Torch followed closely behind, special ready and popped out of the ink, shooting down at her once more.
but shit. she had her own special ready and began launching bombs left and right, and right in front of her too, good tactic! Torch would have ran if she hadn't had her bubbler. To which she activated and had Luanne cornered.
Splat number two.

The clock is really winding down. Majority  of turn now being covered by the oppoent, and poor Luanne is trying desperately to move through it all despite the large amount of enemy ink. There she is again. A torch coming in at full throttle. A splat bomb exploding near her causing some damage.  It's a close encounter. Shots firing out the wazoo, and each shot Luanne makes narrowly misses each time. Another fatal mistake leading to her inevitble splat .
Thus marking the final splat of the game.

Yep, she was waiting in that same spot for the charger to drop down. Without her bubble ready she was nearly vulnerable. Good thing Luanne decided to try and melee. Every shot nearly got Torch as she dove in and out of her ink. The scuffle leading to the final splat as well as the time finally running out. Torch heard the whistle and straightened herself out, patting off stray ink as she made her way over to Luanne's base. "hey!" she called out waving her weapon, "good game there!"

She grins brightly stepping of her little pod. A little woozy as she moves around, but she composes herself fine. "Y-yeah!  It was a lot more intense than I expected!"

Torch gives an apologetic smile, "ah.. sorry about that, just so used to playing rough aheh... are you okay though?"
She shut off the ink container and slipped off the device, moving over to where she saw Luanne retrieve the extra equipment, as well as retrieving her bag.

A thumb rises up before she begins taking apart her   weapon. "N-no harm done!  We all got our playstyles, and no one cheated," She says as she gathers up her belongings.

She give a sigh of relief and placed her weapon inside her backpack before putting it on, "I'm glad"

Luanne strapped up everything, and let her back slide onto her shoulders. "H-have you faced anyone else in your time here in Cephalo?"

"Ah..." her face contorted into a somber one, but shook her gear and tried to give a genuine smile. "Oh sure, aside from other regular matches, I faced off with another charger at the warehouse district! I uh.. things didn't end so well there." She turned to exit the arena, maybe someone else wanted to use it, but it was also an excuse to run away from the problem... again.

She following alongside her with a gaze held to her. "R-really? What happened there?" Curious like the animal she calls her pet.

She couldn't say no, she couldn't never say no.. with a deep breath, Torch had kept her gaze forward as she continued, "well um. We were just trying the new place out, my uh, friend kind of hooked us up to run around and have a splat match. And well... maybe he's a sore loser, maybe I was too hard on him.. maybe I was gloating without knowing it?" She shook her head, "well he kind of dashed out on us afterward saying some.. pretty mean things... we're not close friends really, but I'd hate to see myself making the same mistake again.."

"O-oh.." Her gaze moves down listening in on everything. A sore loser maybe? It still wasn't good to leave a match like that. "W-well...I'm sure you did your best. S-sometimes people react differently to things."

Torch huffed a chuckle, looking over at Luanne with a smile, "Yeah you could be right." She sighed and looked ahead again, "guess I'm just more used to the passive aggressive reactions back home rather than a full out salt fest hehe,"

"N-not everyone's like that. You'll  find some good apples in the bunch!" She gives off a warm smile as she slides her thumb under her backpack strap.

She returned the smile, "thanks Lou, guess you're one of them ehehe!" The orange inkling did a double take with wife eyes, "I- uh- if- if you don't mind me calling you Lou i uh.. sorry!!"

The teal squid giggles into her hand at the new nickname. "Oh, it's fine. A-at least you didn't call me anna."

"Not a favorite nickname, huh?"

"O-ohhh yeah..."

She chuckled, "well, I won't call you Anna so long as you don't call me Vicky," seems the brightness was back in this squid as she smiled to the other.

"Aha!.." That smile isn't fleeting at any point.  Definitely happy to be getting more social with these newfound friends. Even though this one kinda beat her silly in turf. All in good fun!

Torch kept the smile at the teal squid for another moment before looking ahead again, "oh! So I remember your user name um.. something with violins?"

"O-oh!" SHe seems to have perked up greatly! "Yeah uh..comes from me being able to play violin and all."

"Ah so you do play! I thought the name would have suggested that, but I just had to make sure eheh.." tugging on her bag straps, the orange inkling began parting ways, "well um, i should probably start walking back. My slug has a bottomless pit for a stomach."

"Y-yeah, same here. Fuego's probably scratching at my sheets." She says placing her thumbs throuhg the straps. "It was great splatting with you!"

"Likewise! I'm always up for a good game!" With that, Victoria began really walking off, turning to give a small wave to the squid, "See you around, Lou!"