The troubles of knowing yourself

Trauma talk

Pearl sat at the kitchen table, scratching away at some paper with a pencil. She hummed thoughtfully.

The sound of a door opening and closing behind her made her smile in anticipation, and moments later Marina looped her arms over the small Inkling's shoulders.

"Hey Pearlie." The Octoling greeted, planting a kiss atop her head.

Pearl grinned up at her. "Hey Rina."

"What're you up to?"

She pointed back down at the paper with the pencil in her hand. "Still tryna figure out Blazing Love Meteor. It's driving me nuts, and all I've got is that one bit you heard initially."

Marina's eyes scanned over the paper, seeing it half full of words and half full of lines scratched out. She gave a light laugh. "Don't drive yourself too crazy, most people probably still think that was just dead-end news banter."

"I mean, I'm aware of that. But I still want this to be a real cheesy banger, you know? What do you think, you know any symbolic cheesy crap I could throw in?"

The Octoling opened her mouth to reply with an idea of some kind, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door.

Pearl turned to stare at the door. "Is that Three?"

Marina went to get it. "She must be early." She opened the door, and sure enough, there stood Three, wringing her hands together.

"Hey." She greeted.

Pearl snorted. "Geez, you look wound up. Chill, we don't bite."

Three gave a nervous laugh. "S-sorry, I just...I don't know. I'm nervous for some reason."

Marina gave the agent a soft smile, beckoning her inside as she shut the door. "I mean, PTSD isn't exactly a happy topic, so I can understand where the nerves are coming from."

Three took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Yeah...yeah. That's fair."

The Octoling raised a hand to her mouth and stifled a laugh. "And just to set the record straight, I'm not mad at you for any Octarian-related things you've done in the past. The fault lies with Octavio, and I don't consider him my King anymore. Plus, you make Eight happy. So that's good enough for me, alright?"

The agent let out a sigh of relief. "Oh thank Cod."

Pearl snickered, balled up the paper she'd been scribbling on, and tossed it in the trash as she got up. She could make real progress later. "Ya know, for a so-called serious secret agent, you seem oddly vulnerable about stuff like this." She remarked as she approached them, hopping on the couch.

Marina sat beside her, and motioned for Three to join them.

Three gave a laugh of embarrassment and complied, but not without putting some space between herself and the couple. "M-maybe I'm not in agent mode right now, ok? I'm just...worried about Eight." She took a deep breath to calm her nerves again, before composing herself and shooting the other two a smirk. "And since you guys are her moms, maybe your opinion of me matters? Ever think about that?"

Pearl blushed bright pink. "W-we're not-"

Marina blushed in turn, putting an arm around the Inkling and giving a small laugh. "We kind of are, though."

The Inkling scoffed, sweating but choosing not to comment on the matter further.

Marina turned to Three again. "So what do you know about the issue already? That's a good place to start."

Three rested her hands in her lap. "Well, the time she told me about her nightmare she said they were about bombs, blenders, and some specific shade of blue. And then the panic attack she had a few days ago seemed to be prompted by Four saying some word that reminded her of getting blown up repeatedly down in the metro, which is messed up by the way."

Marina hummed in thought. "The word was probably 'failed' then, if it reminded her of that. And if she went into a legitimate panic attack, then that word is definitely a trigger. As for the other stuff, she seems fine when she gets bombs thrown at her in turf wars, so those just make her uncomfortable, rather than panicked."

Three nodded attentively.

"We have a blender in the kitchen, and she's fine to look at it, but the one time it was in use when she was in the room she had a meltdown, so the sound of a blender is the triggering thing there."

The Inkling hummed.

Pearl continued. "She also freaked out hardcore when we tried to take the train once, so unsurprisingly trains in general are a no-go."

"Makes sense." Three replied.

"What else, what else...hmmm, oh! Hospital stuff! She went to the doctor's office once and freaked out real bad, she said everything was pale and sterile and it reminded her of Kamabo. She said the smell made her feel faint to? So like, take from that what you will."

Three nodded seriously.

Marina clapped her hands together. "Here's something useful though: whenever she has a panic attack, nothing calms her down faster than music. Squid Sisters works the best, but one of our songs seems to work really well too: Into the Light. So make sure to have that on your phone, it'll definitely help."

Three raised a bemused eyebrow. "Shameless plug much?" She inquired, pulling out her phone.

Pearl puffed out her cheeks. "There's no reason for it to be shameful! She likes that song and we did write it for her, so like, it makes sense it'd bring her down to earth."

"I know, just messing with you." She pulled up the music store on her phone and downloaded two versions of the song: the original and an instrumental, just to be extra safe. "Is there anything else you can think of right now?"

Marina hummed in thought. "I remember her saying she doesn't like the idea of tests in general, but that's less a trigger and more of a sour spot. And I'm sure if she ever saw C.Q. Cumber again she'd definitely go into a panic attack, but she's never going to see him again so that's less of a risk than the others. Other than those, I think that's it."

Three nodded. "Thanks, it's nice to know all that stuff. I...I really want her to be safe, you know?"

Pearl snickered. "Heheh, man, y'all are too cute."

Three blushed. "I-it's mostly her."

The shorter Inkling put a hand to her chest and sighed dramatically. "Gosh, if that doesn't just warm my poor lesbian heart."

Marina laughed. "You're such a sap."

Three stood up and glared at them in embarrassment. "W-Well if you're sure that's it then I guess I'll be going! Nice talking to you about trauma and shiz!" And she made her way to the door.

Marina extended a hand. "Wait, I just remembered one more thing!"

Three turned back to look at her.

"Phone ringing. But like, only if it sounds like an old-timey phone. None of our ringtones sound like that, and we found a way to delete the sound as one of the defaults on hers, but I just felt you should know. Because that one is definitely triggering."

Three turning back towards the door. A memory came to her, of the moment before the goop had possessed her. Only one sound had filled her head when it happened. That sound was the only part of the event that was clear in her mind.

She stopped herself from shuddering. "Yeah. I know."

'I know.'