[OPEN] Just Another Day

    Sol was happy. It was the last battle of the day and the win had her smiling at herself. Near her spawn point, she was waiting for Judd to come and give the prizes. She unclasped the inktank from her back, instantly feeling foreign ink sliding on her hair. Removing the green hat she wore, she shook her head to get rid of the blue ink that had been her team during the last match, the natural pink returning to her. It had been a good one. She had fun dodging that sniper's shots by swimming and jumping around. I hope they didn't think I was squidbagging though... The cat was taking quite some time, and her teammates had sat down on the spawn point, chit-chatting while waiting for their rewards.

"Sol! Come here!" one of the inkling said.

"Yeah yeah, just a moment!"

    Holding her inkbrush on her shoulder, she took a look at the battlefield, blue being the predominant color on the ground. She smiled. Turning her head, she noticed something... Someone? Moving. They were cleaning the ink on one of the walls, and a weird feeling got in her stomach knowing she was the one that had painted this part of the building.
    Suddenly, a jet of ink got the man and he fell to the ground. Sol immediately jerked her head towards the source of the shot, and saw the sniper from earlier, giggling with one of their friend. Anger building into her guts, she walked towards them.
    The two inklings were already heading off so she sped up and ran silently to catch up, having a bit of difficulty now that her ink didn't match the one staining the ground, her feet sticking on each step. Once she was close enough, she put her hand on the sniper's shoulder, making them jump in surprise.

"Listen bud, I know you can't aim for shit, but it's not by shooting still targets that you're gonna get any better you know." She started, her smile still on her face and in her voice, though the grip on the inkling told another story.

    The inkling visibly swallowed. They knew well enough what Sol was capable of on the battlefield despite her small stature, having splatted them more times than they could keep track of.

"Come on now! Go practice! I'll be waiting for you!" Sol finally said, releasing the inkling and waving the both of them goodbye. They walked faster now, giving a little look behind them once in a while.

    Once they were out of sight, she imitated a puking sound, a shiver going through her body. God I hate dealing with people like that... She usually ignored the disrespectful squids, as she could deal with them directly on the battlefield. But attacking someone unarmed? Man they killed my mood...

    She sighed. Turning her head, she noticed the janitor laying on the floor. His body staying still, worry started creeping through Sol. Oh my god?? She ran to his side, fighting the ink sticking to the soles of her hi-tops. 

"You okay??"

    A toothy grin made its way on Sol's face.

"Well, we sweat a lot and then we smell bad!" She exclaimed triumphantly, hands on her hips and looking proud.

"But you sound like you could use some wate..." Her voice faded away when her gaze landed on the man's leg. Or lack thereof. Instantly panicking, she took a look around and nearly fainted when noticing the piece of missing limb lying on the ground.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, did this guy actually cut your leg off?? We gotta get you to the hospital like, right now dude get up!!" She ran to the calf laying in a puddle of ink, crouching before it. Now up close, she could take note of the absence of black ink or blood, or any open tissue for that matter. Cogs turning in her head, her eyes were looking alternatively at the limb next to her and the man, who visibly wasn't in any -physical- pain. The realization suddenly dawned on her.

"Oooooh!!"

    Fingers reaching for the prosthetic, Sol touched it lightly, afraid of making any kind of damage with her sweaty little hands. She carried it carefully to the man's side and put it on the ground next to him.

  Picking at her jawline in nervousness, she laughed at herself. "Hehe, sorry I kind of panicked there for a second..." She smiled to the man.

"Oh! That's right, wait a second, I'll be right back!" Instantly jumping to her feet, she ran back to the spawn point in order to retrieve her stuff.

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khyran ur color vomit description made me smile like a fool dam

    When Sol arrived at the spawn point location, everyone had already left. The only things remaining were her backpack, inktank and inkbrush. She retrieved her bag and weapon, figuring she'd come back later for the inktank, useless for now. When she extended her hand to reach for her backpack, she froze. The two zippers closing the main pocket were not in their usual place. 'See, because, that way, when you have your bag on only one shoulder, you can easily reach in to get something! You can't do that if they're not all the way to the right!!' No matter how many times she'd explain it to people, they just didn't get it. 'It's just practical thinking??'

    Frowning, she opened it, worried someone might have gone through her stuff. If someone took my squix bars I'm gonna cry. Instead of missing food, or anything missing, she noticed a few bills crammed in the bottom of the backpack. Stuffing her hand in to take them, she smiled. Attached to the bills was a scrambled piece of paper, on which was a rough sketch of Judd's face, a thumbs up completing the drawing. She took a deep breath.

"Thank you Judd!!!!" She shouted at the sky. She knew the cat was never really far.

    Her mood suddenly lifted, she jumped on her feet, placing the backpack on her shoulder -with the zippers all the way to the right- and taking the inkbrush in her arms. She ran back to where the man was laying down earlier, and noticed him standing -and on two legs. She slowed slightly in her tracks but quickly kept on going. Why are all people so tall, dang...

    Once she caught up to him, she reached into her bag and fumbled blindly, her hand touching all kinds of useful and useless items. When she felt a square box, she pulled it out and after reviewing what it was, handed it to the tall inkling. Her head was raised slightly to meet the man's gaze, and she gave him a smile.

"You should drink a little! I hope you like iced tea. I mean, that's probably warm tea now but..."

    When the inkling refused the box, Sol persisted. "Ah, no it's cool! I have more in my backpack don't worry." But the man was already heading down the street to the vending machine. She decided to take the refreshment for herself, tearing the straw wrapper and pressing the pointy end in the foil circle. She took a sip and started following him, adjusting her pace to his, careful not to go too fast. Not so iced tea huh.

    Her head perked up when he started asking questions. She gleamed. She wasn't sure she was not being a bother to the older man, and hearing that reassured her. Sol knew full well her behavior was not something that every people could, or wanted to, put up with.

"I'm Sol! And yeah, I've been doing turf wars for as long as I can remember? I mean, as soon as I could carry a weapon, I tried it, and I haven't stopped since. When I got good enough to climb the ranks, it earned me quite the pocket money, so I just dropped out of school and I'm doing this for a living now." She paused.

"Aaaah, I must sound like a doofus... Like, I love learning new things, you know? Just... Not like that? And especially not some things they were teaching us..." A shiver ran through her when she remembered maths class. "I wasn't that good anyway, so I think it's better like that. Plus, I meet lots of cool people this way!" She turned her head to smile at him.

    They kept on walking, and Sol couldn't help but look at Khy out of the corner of her eye while sipping her warm tea, awaiting his reaction. Some people would laugh at her when she told them that, they would think she was somehow less than them just because she didn't know algebra. She'd stop talking to them after that, but it still hurt. I may not know their square roots but that doesn't mean I'm more stupid than them! I think... Her grip on the box got stiffer. She hoped the inkling would understand.

   Sol was being silent while waiting for Khyran's response, and when he finally answered, her face lit up with surprise. "Really??" She had heard of a few kids like her who dropped out to dedicate more time to Turf Wars, but never had she heard of adult squids that had dropped out before. A part of her was curious and wanted to ask him what was the reason he left school. The other part was telling her that it may be personal and something that he might not want to talk about. Sol never really listened to that last part though.

  She was going to ask her question after he finished drinking what was maybe half the contents of the water bottle, when Khyran spoke up again.

"Don't let anyone judge you for it. School doesn't teach you shit except how to cope with unfair situations and the cruelty of others. You should keep doing what you love, instead."

    Sol was at a loss for words. She simply stared at the man next to her, who was smiling gently. The words resonated in her head, the first serious ones that didn't make her sigh in boredness since a long time. Don't be a weenie!!! Don't cry dude oh my god!! 

    When the man asked her if she wanted a snack, Sol took a slightly shaky breath to compose herself and finally answered, her cheery demeanor returning, and a smile back on her face.

    After him refusing her iced tea, she wasn't going to let him buy her something just like that. An eye for an eye man... "I'm offering you a deal. If you buy me a squidckers bar, I'll give you TWO of those bad boys." She reaches into her backpack to pull out the two squix she had in her bag since this morning. "They're partially melted but they're fresh from this morning so I say it's a good deal, what do you say?"

    She was afraid he was gonna refuse again, so she kept going. "I don't like those anyway. It's just trade merchandise. I know how to cheat the plaza's vending machine and make it give me two of these, but it doesn't work with the other snacks, so I usually buy the squix, and then trade them for other snacks with kids." Her explanation finished, she looked up at the man, smiling at the ingenuity of her snack trick.

"Business. You know how it is!"

   Sol had her palm open to accept the bar that was offered to her, her other hand still holding the inkbrush. She gave a thumbs up to the man before unwrapping the squidckers and devouring the entire bar in two bites. Hand in front of her mouth to ensure nothing would slip out, she gave a small nod to Khyran with her finger raised in front of her to signify that she got this. After chewing for some time, barely troubled by the quantity of food in her mouth, she swallowed and gave a small bow to her audience, awaiting the applause.

    She listened to the man while reaching for the drink she had put down earlier in order to trade the snacks.

"Oh man no, don't worry about it, I can handle that myself. Mostly by hunting them down during the entire match or if we're not in a Turf War, by screaming really loud until they go aw... AAAAAAA"

    When she turned her head to look at Khyran again, he had lifted his eyepatch, revealing a very empty and very pink eye socket. Sol didn't care much about his missing eye, but it sure was quite startling to come back to a sight like that, and she hadn't been able to contain her surprise.

    She started laughing after her initial shock, hoping she didn't offend the inkling. "Oh shit man.... You gotta give me some sort of warning there, I didn't expect that!"

"Doesn't it feel weird having nothing up there?? Why don't you get a glass eye or something? Dude you should totally get one with a little LED in it so you can scare off those kids bothering you by making them believe you can shoot lasers! Can you imagine that?? That would be so cool..." Sol was getting more and more excited about the idea of a fake laser shooting Khyran and she started getting lost in her thoughts of different designs for it. Colored sclera for maximum effect? Yeah, that sounds good. She stored the idea away for potential future use.

    Sol was extremely curious in her very nature. But when it came to asking questions, she always followed the same pattern: first, the questions with the highest humor to seriousness ratio. Then? Then we laugh man, that's the point. She still wanted to know why the man left school early, a part of her still curious to learn the story of someone who followed the same path as her. But after some thinking, she figured it wasn't that funny to ask, and felt glad she didn't do so earlier.
    Khyran looked like a pretty serious guy maybe even... Sad somehow? That wasn't an expression Sol was used to seeing on the people she usually hanged out with, but somehow, managing to make the older man smile and laugh made her feel a lot cooler than telling funny jokes to inklings her age.
    She wanted him to laugh a lot more.

"You don't look like it but you're quite the prankster am I right??" She elbowed him gently, making sure to keep away from the spot the sniper had shot earlier. A wink accompanied the gesture, though she never quite got the hang of it, so it resembled more a weird blinking with both eyes than anything.

    Hearing about the glass eye, she lowered her elbow. "Oh damn... That's lame! Maybe if you could find a glass eye that's the shape of your eye socket, it would fit!" It was actually quite a good idea, coming from Sol. Something like that made to measure would cost quite the money though, she thought, but she wasn't giving up on the idea. I'll find something! Think of all the prank potential oh man... "To be honest, I should probably patent the idea, this is too good of a thing."

    When Khyran talked about going home, she worried a little. "Wait! Won't it be a problem if your boss finds out you've skipped this area?" She'd feel bad if the man didn't get part of his pay because he had used his time to indulge in her talk instead of doing his job. Tossing the different wrappers and the drink box in the trash can, she grabbed her inkbrush with both hands.
    Disconnected from the inktank, the weapon had no ink flowing into it, and was nothing more than a very expensive mop. Bringing her hand up, she passed her fingers through the strands of the brush, making sure there was not a single drop of ink remaining. 

"I'm sure it'll be extra quick if we're two on the job!"

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OOC: khyran ASDFGHEFIZHIJKLL she's just a dumb kid (also please consider: laser eye)