{Hello…!
Hello…!
Hellooooo!
Oof, that was a terrible idea, m-maybe let’s not go with the barbershop trio, Duplex.}
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{Dearest Natalie… no, no, that’s too formal.}
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{Hi! Natalie!
Uuugh, that’s so forced.}
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The video began anew for the fourth time, and on the screen, Quincey sat in her new, clean room, on her chair, at her desk. Sunlight poured in through the open window in the background. Her bed, barely in-frame, was made up neat. Her drapes swayed in the breeze. She looked well – full of colour, vibrant, happy. She had gone back to her preferred style of clothing – a proper shirt, necktie, vest, and skirt. Her glasses had made their triumphant return, making her look as classic as ever. A duplicate of her strode in from out of frame and leaned against the back of her chair, wrapping her arms loosely around Quincey’s shoulders and waving at the camera. Quincey waved too.
“Hiiii.” She smiled, “S-Sorry, I really don’t know how to start these things… Hello, Natalie! How are you? I hope you’re doing alright. I know it’s only been a little over a week, but I thought I might let you know how we’ve been doing since we left. The question is where to start…”
“Why not with us?” The duplicate Quincey asked.
“Oh! That makes sense.” Quincey lamented her oversight briefly by letting her head drop, but she returned her attention to the camera once more. “Well, let’s see…”
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{First, I’m doing just fine, and Duplex couldn’t be better. We’ve been getting along great while Harbington is being rebuilt. It hasn’t been very long, but people are pouring in from all over, and all Low-Tec’s construction resources were seized by the Harbington Arbitrators. They’ve been very busy overseeing construction… pretty much everywhere! I’ve never seen so much work being done!
I don’t know if you saw how it looked after. I guess if you watched the news at all, it was hard to miss. Epheral ate up most of the dome. Huge parts of it were just gone, and what was left ended up being half-ruined. My entire house had disappeared, for instance, so I don’t live there anymore. Now I live in an apartment building further inside the city, which is a bit of a shame. I liked living next to Daxton and the sugar bush, even if it was out of the way…
Oh! Speaking of the sugar bush, we’ve had more maple trees brought in to replace the ones we lost. It should be back up and running soon! So, you can tell Sam that she can still come down sometime. I’d love to go with her, whenever she wants. It’s best in the winter though, because you can make those maple jellies on a stick. It’s sooooo good.
Um, what else… Oh! Well, I’ve been helping with the construction where I can! Me and Duplex have been going places that need more hands to work on things, so I’ve been filling a lot of roles! Mostly it’s just carrying things, which… Oh! It’s exciting. That museum I found on the way to Locksmouth? They’re letting me help excavate all the things from in there! I’m basically a one-girl archeological team! Me and Duplex have been helping get things out, and I looooove it. It’s good, too, because Harbington’s Natural History Museum lost a lot of its physical exhibits, so I’m filling it all back up. They’re even crediting me for it!
Hmm, other than that, I guess it’s just been me… dealing with being famous. I don’t know what it’s like for you in Locksmouth, but the people here treat me like a real celebrity. Everyone gets so excited to see me wherever I go, it’s very overwhelming. I-I’m not used to being the center of attention still. I kind of hope I never will be. It’s a good thing I have Daxton with me a lot of the time, because he can do that sort of thing much better than I can.}
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{I suppose speaking of Daxton, I’m sure you heard that he’s been bugging Jacent for training tips. Honestly, that’s all he’s been doing since he got back. He’s either working out at home or practicing fighting. The dome council expressed an interest in keeping us trained, so they’ve put a new fitness center in the hospital where Daxton can go and practice fighting with a fancy new punching bag and simulations and things like that. He’s been working very, very hard. I almost don’t see him as much as I used to, unless I go out of my way to visit.
Jimmy Ret has been going with him. I’ve been seeing a lot of him and Abigail and Lincoln lately… those bullies that Laila used to be in a pack with. I think Daxton’s thankful for the company, honestly. Him and Jimmy fight all the time. For practice, they say, but it seems like anywhere Daxton goes, Jimmy follows him and tries to beat him up. Honestly, the level of tenacity is impressive. I’ve never seen anyone since Daxton able to go at it so… passionately? I think they’re both improving through it though and getting friendlier with each other. Abigail and Lincoln have been talking with us more, and I think after all this time… we can be on better terms together. It’s a relief, honestly. I was so tired of fighting with them all the time…
Anyway, Daxton’s already getting bigger and stronger than ever! I-It’s… kind of scary sometimes when I think about it. He tried to teach me some things, but the divide is just way too wide. I’m not sure what I can say to really express how much better he’s gotten… but I saw him use a kick once! He never did that before. Did Jacent tell him how to do that?
The fitness training at the hospital is part of a new initiative my uncle is starting. He calls it the Inkling Analysis Initiative, and he’s had me and Daxton and Laila and Kenny in multiple times to study us. He’s had us perform obstacle courses inked and not inked, and have taken EEG scans of our brains, and all sorts of things. He says it’s to determine the effect an Inkling’s bonding has on a human host, and he theorizes that even when we’re not inked, we’re still stronger, faster, and better suited for fight or flight situations than most regular humans. Honestly, I think he’s using the data collected as an argument for getting more self-defence tools available to the public… which there are a lot now! And that’s… one of the stranger parts about the whole thing.
Do you remember Garrison Clarke? He’s still alive!
I know! After all the things he went through, it’s hard to believe that he lived. His body didn’t quite make it out though – Epheral really tore him apart. Now everything about him is weakened. His bones, his muscles, many organ functions… he couldn’t walk for a while, but now I see him sometimes walking around with a cane. It’s so strange, because he was so big and intimidating, but now whenever I see him, he looks so… old. I worry about him a little. He doesn’t like us very much. Not very much at all. He keeps to himself a lot of the time and never talks to anyone. The only thing he does is self-defence training.
That’s the strange part. Once he recovered, he was taken into a probation program where he’s being forced to train citizen volunteers in the use of basic self-defence weaponry. People are learning how to use lighter versions of those strong-force rifles that EOS used to carry, and things like police neurods. I think the rest of it is just fitness and situational training. From what I saw once when I watched, Garrison seems to take it very seriously. The people who train under him… he works them really hard. They say that he doesn’t like modern post-splicers. They say that he looks down on all of them. But then they also say that he drills it into their heads every day that with that training, you could end up saving someone’s life. That seems very important to him. Maybe when Epheral killed so many of his people, it really affected him…
We just very recently were able to hold burial services for those people, and the people that died when Epheral attacked… I tried going to as many of them as I could, me and the others. Out of respect. I cried like a big baby every time. It was hard. Garrison was at every one of them too, that’s why I think the training matters so much to him. He could barely walk, but he always stood at attention during every service. It was really something.}
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{Laila is working as hard as ever. Better than ever, even! Her farm is bigger than it’s ever been – their fields are massive! Some of the other farms in the dome decided to enter partnerships with them, and they’ve basically become one big, giant farm together. They take up soooo much of the dome by themselves now, and there are so many Hanging Gardens! There’s so much that Laila’s Dad had to give some of the old farm owners parts to look after on their own, and he’s been teaching Laila and Valyrie a lot about how to run things. I think he’s going to get Laila to run a part by herself sometime soon.
Right now though, Laila’s been using her Sylph powers to fly deliveries of food to people who need it, which works out well because she’s way faster than any vehicles we have. Everyone who works there loves her, and she’s practically a celebrity all on her own! The family farm has started putting her on packaging! I see her face in stores now! She’s the new Lavinia Farms mascot! So naturally, everybody loves her. She has fans all over the dome. I heard that she sent gift baskets to you and everyone else… I hope you got them! And we forgot to ask what kind of food you liked when we were putting them together, but… I hope that’s okay! I also heard that she sent Cedric one.
… And that all the food she sent him had been spliced with habanero peppers. So… He got like spicy apples and things like that.
… I can’t say I feel too bad for him. But if he takes it out on you, um… We’re very sorry.
But! I think Laila’s sister has started making friends with some of the other kids at school. She joined an Inkling Fan Club. Do you have one of those in Locksmouth? I met them once, and they seem… well, they’re definitely a colourful cast of characters. Harley’s in it; I don’t think you ever met her, but I did before we came over, and she’s just adorable. I see her a lot these days. The others seem nice… the club president though is very intense! I’ve never seen a girl jump around so much! I got exhausted just being around her, and she kept saying… very inappropriate things about me. I… I think she was just excited to meet me in person. I hope. I gave them all my autograph.}
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{Kenny’s been… interesting.
He’s trying to start over a new life, and he’s basically told everybody that. I’ve been trying to support him as best as I can! It seems like it’s really hard on him. A little while ago, he went and talked to one of his ex-girlfriends, to apologize for how their relationship ended. She… did not take it well, to say the least. Kenny was so upset! But I did my best to be there for him, and I think in the end he’s doing better now that he’s addressing things that were on his mind before. He’s more relaxed these days. He doesn’t nag me about things half as much as he used to… I mean, he still does, but not as much.
I hear he’s been spending a lot of time talking to Shelly. Are they… are they, um… y-you know? If they are, I’m really happy for him! A-And if they’re not, then… well I’m still really happy for him! He’s actually gone just today to Anchorsway. I’d be there right now, but he told me that he wanted to go by himself. He’s visiting his mother’s grave. Apparently, he’s never done that before. I could tell that he was nervous about going, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I hope he’s doing alright. If you see him spending time with Shelly sometime, could you just… I don’t know, check on him? N-Not like all the time or anything; he honestly seems to be doing really well, but… I can’t help it! I’m the Alpha! I have to look out for him, and he makes it hard sometimes.
I really do like the clothes he’s wearing these days though! Maybe that’s why he seems so different…?}
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{Epheral wasn’t kidding about the Dead Zones. T-That’s what we call them now, by the way, those… aprana bubbles. They’re little parts of Harbington that are all swallowed up by that… strange negative space and darkness. The grass is all black and the sky looks strange. We’ve closed them off from the public and nobody’s allowed to go in. They’re monitored all the time. Sometimes things have tried to get out. They call us every time, and we go and we beat them up. So far, there hasn’t been any trend or pattern to it, and the things that have cropped up kind of look like people, except not? They’re constructs, obviously, or something like them…
Since they’re their own little spaces, I guess they’re not constructs, but actual… un-life instead. Zombies! Kind of? I-I don’t know how to explain it. It makes me nervous that they’re out there, but we’ve actually been really good at watching over them. There’s so much security around those things, there’s nothing they do that we can’t track. All I know is that they’re definitely trying to grow. They expand little, tiny intervals at a time, they say. We can contain them though and keep them from getting too bad. Every time we go in and defeat one of the monsters, things go right back to being manageable. But as for taking them out completely…?
I don’t know if it’s either just going to take a long, long time, or if there just isn’t enough prana we can put into it without causing a lot of damage to make it happen. In the end, I think all we can do is just try to stay on top of things. It’s definitely given us something to do, and it’s made us even more famous whenever we come by and beat whatever might have gotten loose.
Daxton said someone came to him once and said they wanted to make a movie about us. I don’t even know how I feel about that…}
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Quincey tapped her chin as she thought. “I think that’s everything,” She said, “Oh! Except, did you hear? Daxton’s father is moving forward with an idea to build a whole Inkling-based educational center here in Harbington!” The girl clapped her hands together. “He wants to be able to get as much information about Inklings as possible and make sure everyone gets to know about them. Knowledge is power, they say. I think it might help people be less afraid of Inklings in general… and it’s one of the first things Eddie and my uncle have ever worked on together.”
“… Which is a little worrying, in hindsight.”
“Quinceyyyy!” Quincey’s mother called to her, and the girl’s ears pricked up as she looked toward her door off-screen. “Dinnerrrrr!”
Quincey perked up. “Oh” She hastily returned to the video and shrugged. “Sorry, I think it’s time to go. Mom made meatloaf tonight, and I’m starving.”
She paused thoughtfully and stopped from running off right away to sit down in her chair. The duplicate of herself had already gone back into her body, leaving her alone in center frame. “Oh, Natalie, um…” The girl fidgeted somewhat, “I know it sounds like we’re very busy here, but I want to let you know that if you need anything from us, or ever get into trouble… just call! I owe you so much, and honestly… I’m just willing to help you if you need it. Even if you just need to talk or… or whatever. I’m available any time, I promise.”
“And that goes for your friends, too.” She added, “Let them know, okay?”
She stood then and smoothed out her skirt. “Okay, I’m going to go eat. Bye Natalie! I’ll see you soon, um… I guess maybe! Bye!”
She hurried off then, and the camera turned to the face of one of her duplicates who had been holding her PET to record. She smiled. “And thank Echelon for me too, okay?” She said, before ending the recording.
