The Cephalo Diaries 2018

"Hey Torch, later today, stop by the warehouse after work! ;)" And sent. Sleak stared at his phone. It's a bit different than last time, but.. He eyed the nuisance in the room.. Well, this time he had a sister to.. Hmm.. "Hey, Elle, you got nothing to do, right? Let's head to the warehouse." 

A sigh from the girl. "...Fiiiine, but only cause I got nothing to do." And thus, the two headed out.

Torch was just removing her apron when her phone buzzed noisily in her little locker.. causing her to jump, look around in hopes no one saw that, and then proceeded to get to her phone.
...well why ya look at that. An invitation! How could she say no?c
aught me clocking out! Send.
That should be enough of an affirmation, right? All she has to do now is head on home to change and check on her snail... Toooo the bus stop!

Sleak's phone buzzed with the reply. Excellent. Though that left a tighter timeframe that he thought he had. He and his sister made their way to the warehouse, where Elle pretty much immediately got into her training gear. 

"What's the plan for today, bro?" 

"Relax, you'll have your fun.." Sleak prepped the coffee maker. "You want a cup a joe in a bit?" 

"Eh, sure... Hey, the arena is set to yellow and green?" 

"Yeah, you go dip yourself in yellow in advance, maybe?" He checked his phone.. If Torch headed here straight from work, she should be here within minutes.. though.. she could just as easily have gone home first.. 

His sister sighed. Yellow. Ugh. She was more considering something like pink nowadays, maybe a mix with green.. but yellow? Couldn't he just switch to something else..?

One bus ride later... Torch made her way home to a jumping sea snail. “Hehe- okay, down, dooown Goob.. good boy~” finally the blue slug settled down.. only to be lifted back up for a snuggle; couldn’t argue with that. “Mmmkay you’ve got food.. water.. news paper...” she glanced over at her pet, “do you have to pee?” As his answer, Goober wriggled out of her grasp styled himself into the couch, proceeding to watch his owner go this way and that as she got herself ready to head out again. ...which was literally a change of clothes into her turfing gear. Soon enough Torch was out the door again.

"So Sleaaaak, are we gonna train or not, I mean.." Elle leaned on the chair Sleak was sitting on.. "I'm not yellow right now because I want to be, y'know." 

Sleak just rolled his eyes. "In a bit, probably.." He sighed. "Say Elle, you figured out what you wanted yet? I mean, you have grown out your tentahair enough since you got here.. Nearly three months, so I guess you got something planned?" 

"Hrm, I got an idea, I guess, but if anything I'm just letting it grow until I figure out what I want. Getting it shorter is easier than getting it longer." Elle responded, finally walking away from Sleak's chair, opting to sit in one of the empty ones. "I'm thinking pink and green. You know, green tips, but pink for the rest." 

"...What, and ruin your tomboyish reputation?" Sleak stuck his tongue out at his sister, who now had her own turn at rolling her eyes.

She got there! eventually. Not that she took her sweet time, but, it was a brisk walk. They should know that she got there. Why? Because Torch decided to kick the door open. Not that it would slam into the wall upon opening but the kick itself was loud. “Sorry I’m late!” She called out.

"..You're making me regret I didn't lock the door. Would've been hilarious." Sleak said, from the backroom. "Coffee, after a long day of work?" 

Elle just stared. What was this reaction. Like she just. Kicked the door open. And he's just sitting there like 'meh'.

“Fucker, I would’ve kicked you if you did that!” Torch replies, making her way to said backroom. She poked her head through the doorway, “Intentionally, anyways. And yes please~- oh, hey Elle.” She gave a smile to the now yellow inkling as she passed into the room and tossed her bag somewhere, “were you guys uh.. training or something? I didn’t see any ink out there..”

"That's what I'd like to know!" Elle threw her arms up in frustration. Sleak stood up and turned on the coffee maker, prepped as if he foresaw that everyone wanted coffee. "Eh, I figured you guys could have a run, you probably have some frustration to work out.." Sleak noted, eyeing Torch.. "And as for you.. today I have in store for you some practice with a weapon that is NOT A ROLLER." Sleak stared Elle straight in the eyes. 

Ellecant just looked back in surprise. "B-but! That's all I can work with! The other weapons are annoying an-" 

"You were in a camp to learn other weapons. You would've been forced back then as well.. and last I checked you haven't.. ACTUALLY...tried any of the other weapons yet. So you get to use a charger today." Sleak ended by laying a Splat Charger on the table.

“When do I not?” Torch quipped to the frustration assumption. Though she did blink at Sleak not allowing his sister to use a roller. Not that it was bad but.. different. She could only look between them, and ended up shrugging- kind of feeling bad that she unable to help, “he’s kinda got a point. ..Though with that being decided,” Torch pulled out her Jr. with a small smirk, “I apologize in advanced, Elle~ Chargers are kinda my favorite targets.”

"SLEAK." Elle looked at him with a look of betrayal. "WHY." 

"Because fighting against someone who knows how to hunt chargers effectively is a good learning moment. And you definitely need to spread out.. you still haven't figured out how easy a target you are for experienced rollers.. I mean, last week you were surprised when I splat you by JUMPING over your roller!" Sleak sighed. And poured coffee in mugs, preparing a tray with milk, sugar.. "You need to branch out and learn how turf war works from other perspectives. You've gone stale." 

"SLEAK." She leaned on the table. "WHY." 

"...you're also going to focus on the charger only. I've disabled your subs and special." Sleak put the tray with the mugs and milk and sugar and all that jazz down on the table. 

"SLEAK." Elle just squid-formed onto the table. "WHYYYYY."

“Aw, man.. does that mean mine are disabled too?” Torch didn’t seem as devastated as Ellecant, but it was a question nonetheless. Really she simply started preparing her mug, for sure her coffee was going to be light-n-sweet. “You’ll be fine Elle... just watch your back! ..and your front. And, the sides- see this is why chargers are so easy to splat, they’re stationary!”

"...why would they be? You're not the one being trained. Go all out!" Sleak thumbsupped at Torch. 

"UUUUGH.." Elle just flopped on the table, before finally changing back to her normal form, still faceplanting the table securely despite her body forming back towards her sitting down. She only got up as she smelled the coffee, and put some milk and sugar in her cup. Sleak, on the other hand, just seemed to down a cup of black coffee in one go. "...you're still doing that ol' trick, Sleak?" Elle just asked..

Torch only gave a sinister chuckle to his answer, taking a drink from her cup. “Wph- Wait. That’s a trick? Not some, crazy bitter heat tolerance??”

"..What was rule number one about the trick, Elle?" Sleak asked his sister. 

"..er.. don't tell others it's a trick...?" Elle answered, reluctantly. 

"...I have half a mind to let you run in the arena without any weapon.." Sleak eyed his sister.. "Yes, it's a trick, you pour in the milk and sugar early, out of sight.. the rest is basically 'do it before the milk naturally mixes'.. there's a reason why I have my milk in the fridge, y'know. Cools off coffee fast enough, only the first sip is hot." He looked at Torch, and stuck out his tongue for a sec. "I honestly can't believe it took you this long to even realize there's something wrong, and Elle had to spell it out.. It's been a year since I showed you this first."

“What? People can be weird, I just never questioned it..” she casually retuned to her drink.. and set it down with a slight realization, “huh. It has been a year, hasn’t it.”

"Hmmhm. Exactly one year. Think we could get a free slice of pie if we went to the diner today?" Sleak laughed.  

"Hooray, you realize you've been dating for a year, but Elle is here too and you're making me uncomfortable." 

"And that's why she's yellow. Different sort of annoying, but still annoying. Closest I could get." He smirked at his sister. "So, I bet you're itching for that round of splat match, Torch."

“Pff- maybe.” Torch took another sip of her coffee.. only to nearly start choking on it with the ‘dating’ comment. Torch put the cup back down and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, “aherrrm yeah ahem big time. Way to recreate the day, Slick.” Abandoning her coffee, she grabbed her weapon and nudged the yellow squid with it, wearing a murderous smirk, “let’s get to training Elle~”

"...wait, recreate.." Elle narrowed her eyes.. "...am I being used for some sort of elaborate scheme or something.." 

"Something like that. The scheme here is to get your ass kicked by Torch under the banner of training." Sleak replied, setting the color of the other spawn to Torch's orange. 

"...Then I guess I'll just not go into the arena, hm." Elle said, looking sideways with a nervous smile. "Don't feel like training if it's just stress relief for someone else." 

"...Except according to my phone, you registered for a match when you dipped into yellow.." Sleak grew a smirk, one quite devious and almost evil looking. "Soon as I hit Match start, you're going to be out of bounds and respawn over there anyway.. Should pick up your weapon before the match starts, hm?" 

"...eep!" Elle said, grabbing the charger and running for the arena.

Torch moved out of the way as Elle made her escape, not wanting to get thwacked by the weapon. “Heheh.. I’ll go easy on you!” She called after her opponent, and immediately lowered her voice, looking over at Sleak, “not really.” Flashing a smile, she heading out into the arena.. 

And one splatmatch later- though it was more one-sided than anything- Torch headed back to the backroom with a satisfied look on her face..

"Well, I'm getting homesick." Elle stated as she walked back to the backroom, still slightly covered in orange. "Cause this, what just happened? Bringing up SO MANY GOOD MEMORIES FROM HOME." She sat down, definitely all grumpy... and changing her color back to green. 

"And what have you learned from this, Elle? To try to dodge next time? Or.." Sleak looked at her, questioningly. 

"I learned you two are sadistic. Does that count?" Yeah, Elle was not amused.

“That’s just karma” Torch shrugged, “next time wont be as bad I’m sure~” Torch set her weapon down, going and helping herself to a soda from the fridge, “besides you didn’t do that bad evasively. Right tactics, I’m just faster.” sip.

"Karma, she says. I bet you had this planned that day when we first met." Elle replied, looking the other way. 

"Haa.. anyway.. If we're going to follow up like last time.. Well, we're pretty well on track, the only difference is that Elle hasn't stormed out." Sleak noted. 

Elle just raised an eyebrow. "..That.. wouldn't help at all? Seems childish to just run out." She shrugged. "'Sides, where'd I go? Home? Where you're going to be later today anyway?" 

"I guess it was.. Y'know what, though.. I'll buy you a large pizza if you storm out." Sleak joked, holding up plenty of money for her to order one. 

"....Now THAT'S definitely childish.. But.. I'll take that!" She took the money and .. well, stormed off. "...Ah, I forgot her to come back once and rant at us, darnit." Sleak shrugged. "Guess part of the recreation will be off."

Torch only kept drinking the soft drink, watching the conversation like it were a tennis match. And then Elle.. stormed out. sip. “I think that whole uh, ‘part’ can be skipped off altogether really eheh... don’t feel like bawling my eyes out again..” she continued on her drink, probably just finishing it off.

"Hmmhm, probably a good call, indeed. Though, unlike getting confused why they stormed out, you now know it's cause I paid them for pizza." Sleak stuck his tongue out.. But he looked downcast and sighed shortly after. ".. Honestly, thinking about it.. I had the intention to go eat something either way. If HE hadn't responded like he did.. " Another sigh. "Maybe we'd have ordered a pizza then. Or gone to the diner with three people."

“Probably.. who knows, really.” She tossed the can into the wastebasket, making a pshooo sound as it flew, Keeping her gaze on the bin as she continued, “Maybe he was just as confused to react like that.. iunno..” Torch took a breath in and sharply let it out, smirking at the other, “so, what now. You gonna find out I haven’t eaten all day and drag me to the diner again?”

"... Torch." Sleak looked at Torch. "Did you not eat again all day."

Torch looked away, placing her fists on her hips, almost as if she were gloating, “I actually did~ a very hardy breakfast if I do say so myself.”

"...How hardy." Sleak was in disbelief mode again.

“Hardy enough to last me for a- um.” That boastfulness was faltering, enough to ask in a smaller voice, “uh.. what time is it now?”

"A bit early for dinner, but far too late for lunch o clock." Sleak replied. "Did you not eat anything at work..?"

Definitely gone now. “I uh.. may or may not have forgotten to eat the muffins I snagged..” Torch rubbed her neck, turning to Sleak with a sheepish smile.

"....Torch..." He simply shook his head. "Well, I guess that the obvious plan is obvious, huh..?"

“Yes. Eating my muffins and not going to the diner.” She began glancing around to locate her bag.

"Naw Torchy, you're gonna eat right." Sleak noted, gently shoving her bag behind a crate with his foot. "Let's head out!"

Torch inhaled through her nose, #triggered “....fine. On the condition you don’t ever use ‘Torchy’ again.” She said it with a smile, but the tone was forewarned. The orange inkling collected her weapon and headed for the door, then paused, and spun back around, “Wait. Bag. I need that.”

Sleak paused, looking at Torch. "...." He looked sideways... "...." He then looked back at Torch. "...What's wrong with that nickname?"

Torch continued to search for her bag.. which wasn't very long. Nonetheless she spoke as she got herself ready, "Good question. I'll think about the answer later- tiIME to go...." She speed walked out of the room.

Sleak just shrugged and shook his head. "Well, at least you know where the diner is, so I won't have to worry you getting lost.." He almost wanted to add the phrase 'I hope', but decided not to. "You go on, I'll catch up, gotta lock things up here."

"Yep!" Torch called back, continuing to make her way through and out the warehouse, deciding to park herself against the wall to wait for her friend. She hoped it didn't take too long.. she didn't actually want to think about the answer.. Busy, keep your mind busy. So idly humming it was.

Considering all he had to do was put away the Charger and ink tanks that were borrowed and lock up both the storage as well as the warehouse itself, it did not take long for Sleak to come outside. Thus, lo and behold, Sleak was surprised to see Torch standing there, humming. "...Hummingbird? Naw, that's an even worse nickname."

Torch halted her humming when she heard his suggestion, narrowed her eyes, and turned to begin the trek to the diner, “glad you caught that! Besides it sounds too long of a nickname I think.”

"...Well, I guess that leaves either suggestions based on your actual first name.. but then you'd have ideas like.. Victor. Toria..." Sleak paused. "..Suddenly, Victory Torch makes more sense."

Torch seemed to duck her head on the familiar nickname. He can’t possibly know, could he? “psh.. why are you so intent on a nickname for me anyways?” brush it off, brush it off..

"Well, y'know.." Sleak shrugged. "You keep calling me Slick. So I'm trying to find something simple for you.. Though I guess Torch already IS a nickname.. At this point, though.. Every time I've called you Victoria, I've felt kinda off?" He looked away.. And just proceeded to keep walking towards their diner destination.. "..Does make me wonder. The nickname Victory Torch comes up a lot when it comes to you. I've kinda brushed it off for the most, considering what dad mentioned when you met him kinda fit.. you know, the whole.. being orange and running around and what not. I've seen you in the arena enough now to know that you do look like an orange blur moving around, heh.." He looked up for a moment.. "..but where'd it really come from?"

“Oh that’s right..” Torch relaxed a little, connecting the dots with her nickname for him.. though the easy feeling didn’t last long. She bit her lip in thought, it’s not like she’s explaining everything right? Just. The name. “Well.. like I said before I uh.. was a free agent. ..I give em win streaks, word gets around.. and they started calling me the Victory Torch.” She shrugged, “and it just stuck. Sounded cooler than just my name or ‘Vicky’ or ‘Tori’ anyways heh...”

"Mm.. Makes me wonder if I ever met you in a match. A lot of my wars back in Inkopolis are kind of a blur. You win a few here, you win a few there, you.. lose the occasional, rare few.. then suddenly a trio of other inklings is like 'hey, so, we're all decent in our own weapon type, and we don't have a roller'..." He shrugged once again. Seemed like he was kind of oblivious to whatever Torch was worried about. "...Vicky sounds.. awful, honestly.. and.. Tori..." He stopped in his tracks altogether. "...I'm not that good at Japanese, but doesn't that mean chicken..?"

She let him go on the tangent, glad to lead away from the subject some. “Hah, yeah, and that’s why my brothers haven’t let go of the name. ...wait you know some Japanese?” She looked at him with surprised eyes, though she quickly averted them, “well uh, you just sorta proved that I guess uh”

As if it were the most common gesture, Sleak initiated yet another shrug. "Eh, it's a surprisingly popular language, and.. well, there are foods still using the languages too.. Like.. there is also Chinese, which has Kai for chicken. I think." He shook his head. "..Why do you ask? I know pretty much the only language I'm actually good at is our own, but you learn things over time, don't you.."

Torch continued to avert her gaze, almost as if she were actively avoiding on looking. “Oh, yeah yeah of course! Not like you learn a whole language ‘cause of some showorsomethun..” last part she mumbled.

"Shows?" Mumble or not, he caught that word. "I guess..? I don't watch many shows in other languages, though.. Maybe Elle does, she's watching more television every day.." He glanced sideways.. "...Probably watching one right now, sitting there with her pizza.. Er, well, sitting there. Pizza might still take awhile, considering she left only shortly before we did." "...but either way." Sleak looked at Torch again. "Maybe I should look up some past information, from when I still ran solo. I remember most of my team battles, but a lot of my solo is like.. 'far in the past', y'know?" Sleak, you're only 19. You're talking about what happened approximately 5 or 5 and a half years ago. That's not far in the past at all. "..even though Inkopolis is running this new setting, I'm fairly confident they still have old data.. Maybe I should see if there's some info about you, eh?"

Geez, a bunch of topics she wanted to move away from today. The girl was glad they moved away from that subject- but right into another one she didn’t want to touch? Yikes.. “Oh, psh nawh you- you don’t have to heh.. what’s passed is past, right?” Torch tried waving a hand in dismissal.

"So you say, but I'm curious.. Wouldn't it be hilarious if we had once already met?" Sleak eyed Torch. "How would you even respond to a roller that kept getting back in your face repeatedly like within a moment of splatting them? There is a reason why my playstyle was originally referred to as a cockroach style, hehe.."

Torch gave a weak laugh to the thought of already having met before. But hey, if they have, he.. obviously doesn’t seem to remember the unsportsmanlike character. “Fricken, qrsj..” she mumbled, giving him the side look with a smirk, “if anything, old me would’ve made you her primary target and start spawn camping.” and then probably bitch about it after the match.
She gave a small sigh, lowering her gaze to the floor, “well.. at any rate, I’m.. still glad we didn’t meet then. If we uh did face each other then that is.. heh, I’m pretty sure I’ve said that before.”

"Hmm, hope you didn't forget the Krak'on roller can place THREE Squid Beakons. I may refresh my beakon on landing, but I never have all three at the same place, haha.. If you spawn camped me, I would just super jump to another beakon." Sleak smirked a bit. "...And eh, I dunno. Feels like I'm missing a crucial part of history not knowing you. My playstyle was kind of.. dickish. Imagine if we knew each other back then, we'd probably.." ..He paused.. "...Man, we'd probably hate each other, wouldn't we."

If it weren't the negative thoughts clouding her head, Torch might've countered that information. But all she could do was shift her hand over to hold her arm, "m..maybe.. I dunno.. ...People hated me more so than I hated them. I mean.. I just never gave them the thought. I didn't care.." she stole a glance at the other, quickly returning it to the ground, "you might've ended up just like them. -not that it'd be a bad thing. I just.. I really wasn't a great person to be around." She said it so factly, almost as if a shrug would accompany that.

"...You know, I was.. actually just kidding, mostly." Sleak bit his lip. "..I mean, sure I had an annoying, dickish playstyle, but whether I lost or won, I pretty much quickly forgot about the match. Back then I was kinda obsessed with playing. Getting levels and a higher rank was what was important..." He looked away.. "It wasn't until I got the team that I started planning, doing tactics.. It actually took a while before we had a proper synergy. At first, all four of us were all over the place.." "...but uh.. yeah. I don't think 'some inkling trying to hunt me down and spawn camp' would've bothered me much.. People change over time.. By all means, if we had met back then?... I don't think either of us would've remembered it, likely forgetting about it within the day. Probably for the best, if you ask me.." Sleak sighed.. "...And yet, I still can't help but be curious."

Torch kept silent afterward, still holding onto her arm and watching the ground as they walked. It was only a few moments after that she spoke, a little more light heartedly, “Well, heh, I can’t stop you, can I?” Torch brought her gaze up from the floor, though she seemed to keep her focus on what’s in front of her, “If you miraculously remember us squaring up back then.. then I’m glad you’ll only know my impression now. ...I’m just.. trying to be better, yknow?” She gave a small sigh and only then seemed to pay attention to her surroundings, “how far away are we anyways?”

"Well, y'know, we got into this conversation, so.. I didn't exactly want to point out we passed it like a few minutes ago." Sleak signals to the diner behind them. "And yeah. I fully understand wanting to better yourself, trying to be better.." He turned towards the diner. ".. But that doesn't mean you have to punish the person you are now."

“...cod, dammit..” she grumbled, and made an immediate u-turn to walk to the diner, probably trying to hide an orange face of embarrassment. But she paused when Sleak spoke again, taking the words in.. and exhaled a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Heh..” Torch have a smile then, if a sheepish one, “guess I’m still trying to figure out who this person is without letting out Mr Hyde.”

"Yeah, well.. If you're putting it like that.. Don't cage Dr Jeckyll just to keep the world safe from Hyde." Sleak opened the door, holding it open for Torch. "I'll deal with Hyde if it comes to that.  I like Jeckyll too much to avoid 'em."

“Heh.. alright. ...thanks.” Thanks for holding the door open as she passed through, though it meant for his words too. That did no help to calm her current orange face, however. Torch just tried to ignore it. Please ignore it.