Aftershock

Meeting(s)

After waiting impatiently for a week and a half, Etian was quick to leave early with Loretta once he got permission. When at the front door, he looked back at Coco, whose lips curled into a forced thin line. He stepped back inside to comfort her until Xiun walked into his line of sight and picked her up.

"I'll stay today," He said as he adjusted Coco to be on his back. The two looked at each other once Loretta's attention was also caught. "We still need to catch up on some of her stealth lessons."

"I'm fine with that," Etian agreed before glancing at Loretta, who stared for a bit longer. "Are you?" The orange Octoling hesitated, but eventually sighed.

"Yeah, that's okay," She replied with a nod towards Xiun. "Just text me if you need anything; I could do some shopping while we're up there."

"I'll just send you a list later," Xiun said with a wave and a little gentle smile. "Now, get out of here before Coco decides to go too."

"Hey, so you guys wouldn't happen to have a spare Brella anywhere, would you?" Etian asked Mouse and Psy while the three walked closer to the tallest tower in Splatsville. Thankfully, Loretta had already split from the group to go on a grocery run once she knew for sure he wasn't alone.

"I don't think so. At least, not that I know of. I think we got rid of all our spare weapons a while ago," Mouse replied, glancing at Psy as he talked. "I bet Sheldon would be willing to let you borrow one, though. Or you could just buy a completely new one if you wanted to."

"I think I'd rather just borrow one for now. Xiun could probably fix the one I have in a week or so," Etian replied, waving off the second offer.

"Alright, cool," Mouse grinned before doing a 180 on his heel. "You're lucky as hell we live so close to all the big shops."

It was a good thing Etian grew accustomed to Loretta's long, irrelevant rants years prior to coming to the surface, because Sheldon was no better. If anything, he was worse.

"So! If you decide that Tenta Brella isn't the one for you, I've also got a wide variety of weapons to choose from! Take this Splattershot, for example. It's cheap and easy to use, but you'd be surprised to know that one of the Anarchy Champions won with this little thing! With the Trizooka as its special and suction bomb as its sub-weapon, you could easily—"

"Thanks, Sheldon, really. But we're just here to rent the Brella for a week or so since Etian's broke the other day," Mouse cut the little crab off as politely as he could. "Here, the payment." The green Octoling was swift with whipping his debit card out from his wallet and scanning it.

"Oh, that's alright! I'll probably be getting more customers since that Alkress place fell into ruins anyway. Say, did you hear about their version of an E-Liter? Apparently it was supposed to shoot out fire like a flamethrower—you will find nothing of the sort at my shop, no sirree! In fact, I was the one who reported it to the Squidbeak officials since us weapon-makers keep in close contact with each other when we're on good terms. And let me tell you, I was on great terms with them until they stole one of my ideas to make an advanced version of a H—"