The Disease

\| ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 2 |/

As the Jenga game progressed, Kari had about 20 mini hearts attacks when the tower almost tumbled to its doom. Viola found her panicked state funny, and Tina occasionally looked outside when Kari panicked. The three girls had so much fun... until the tower tumbled and fell onto Tina's feet.

"Ouch, that must've hurt," Viola commented, a tint of 'I do not care' in her voice. "Like stepping on a lego brick."

Tina picked her feet off the ground as Kari and Viola chuckled to themselves. Kari rose to her own pair of feet and made her way to the kitchen section of her apartment. "Want me to get ice for your feetsies, Tina?"

"Don't call them feetsies. That's weird."

Kari laughed dramatically. "So is that a yes, or?"

With that, Tina nodded. Kari reached into her freezer to find an ice pack, but her being as short (and as dumb) as she is, she couldn't reach (the ice pack was in the back of the freezer).

Sighing in despair, Kari gave up on getting the ice pack and resorted to getting candy for herself instead. She could hear shuffling behind her, but she didn't think much of it. It was probably Tina or Viola getting something for themselves.

The shuffling stopped, and Kari got her snack. She turned around to her friends; Viola, unlike Viola ways, was securing the ice around Tina's feet for her as Tina thanked her.

"Well that's new," Kari smiled and sat on Tina's other side. "Viola caring for Tina. You two should kiss."

"Absolutely not," Viola hissed, black blush rising to her cheeks.

"Oh, we totally should." Tina leaned towards Viola, smirking.

Kari covered her face. "Okay, not here! Please," She peeked at her friends from in between her fingers. "If you want to kiss, do it somewhere without me later." Knowing how jealous I'll get if I see my two best friends kiss...

"Yeah, whatever," Tina rolled her eyes playfully. "Let's turn on the news or something. I'm bored."

Kari turned on the tv. A documentary about how octolings got to the surface, blah. Switch channels. Grizzco advertisement, although Kari was interested, the other girls didn't seem intrigued by it. Switch channels. Pearl documentary—

"I can make do with Pearl," Tina looked at Kari.

"Absolutely not," Viola snapped. "Her voice is so annoying."

Chuckling, Kari switched channels again.

A yellow triangle with an exclamation point in the center appeared on the screen, flashing every 1 second out and back in.

"Attention inklings, octolings, and other various citizens alike." Someone - likely from Inkopolis (they could tell from the city cephalopod accent) - spoke.

This intrigued Viola, but Tina was not very satisfied. "Kari, I think we should change channels..."

Kari was furiously clicking at all of the buttons on the remote. "I can't!" She yelled half at the remote and half at Tina.

"Please do not turn off your tv at this moment."

"Psshh. As if we can," Viola growled in response.

"I swear I'm trying, but this actually might be important." Kari muttered.

"This is a PSA to a new threat to our kind."

Those words alone sent shivers down Kari's spine. What in the world could that mean? Kari sat closer to her friends and listened on.

"This threat is a new virus known as the Inkblot Disease." White text over the pink background of the PSA read 'The inkblot disease'. "The Inkblot Disease is a disease unlike common illnesses,"