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#the kids arent ok!! but also end up as each others strongest support network so its not all bad and eventualLY they are
cinephalopods · 3 years
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tell us about your beloved agent 3 on their first night back from the metro!
SOBS,, YEAH I CAN DO THAT i owe you my life now actually
some important context on the actual happenings to start because that puts most of it into perspective i think
my personal take on the octo expansion happens over the course of around two months, give or take
before first getting dragged underground, Ollie (my 3) is only 15 years old
she's relatively extroverted and, due to a somewhat rocky upbringing, very much thrives on attention and/or approval from those around her and will seek it to a fault
unfortunately she also gets to spend the duration of the expansion entirely isolated and alone
she's very competent, and dedicated, and good at her job, but this is not her job. her job is taking down enemies and clearing obstacles and generally all the problems she'll encounter can be solved by shooting and/or hitting them really hard. this is being stranded alone in an entirely foreign place without any prior preparation, cut off from the outside world and anyone she was previously with, and being left to fend for herself. for WEEKS. which is not something she's prepared nor equipped for, emotionally or physically
and she doesn't take it well! who would! it's just a long, painful clusterfuck of scrabbling around in the dark, and though she does eventually get access to video feeds of the facility after stealing getting her hands on the employee CQ-80, for a vast majority of the time down there she isn't even sure if the others are alive- and even when she does find out, she can't so much as contact them, leaving her just as alone as ever. needless to say, despite her home life not exactly being fantastic either, all she really wants for the duration is to get out and go home and surely, then, everything will go back to normal just like that
but then there's the distress signal, then the blender, and the Telephone Goo happens, and it's all a bit of a big uncomfortable blur from that point, but the long and short of it is that she gets out. and everything is the same- nothing much has gone on in the time she's been gone, with other squidbeak members (mostly Indie/4) picking up the slack when necessary, keeping things reasonably peaceful. so naturally, of course, this means everything is Totally Fine and everyone just gets to pick up where they left off with no repercussions whatsoever and also 8 is there now i guess thats a thing :)
except no! it's not even half that easy! because while ollie is already very good at covering up when anything is wrong- she can just about hold it together in front of everyone else, at least, if a little jittery- it's super easy to tell she's had a terrible time. she's covered in dirt and soot, scratched up all over the place, dripping green goop and glowing to name but a few things, and then there's also the significant brainfog and partial blindness caused by the goop to contend with (both of which clear up with a bit of time, but her eyesight doesn't ever completely recover). all of which only rams it home that no, just getting back to the surface isn't magically fixing any of her problems, she's got long-term shit to unpack whether she likes it or not! and then to top it all off she's got to go home to an empty house and stew alone with her thoughts yet again with that increasingly hopeless knowledge in mind. not to mention it's the first time she actually gets to see the extent of what she's been through, let alone start to process it. hence the first night especially being.. like that
ollie's time in the metro and the immediate aftermath are responsible for some of the biggest turning points in her character/arc, and things do get significantly better for her following all this, but the first few days or even weeks are... difficult. in between trying and failing to navigate her emotions and trauma by herself, attempting to figure out where she stands with Eight and how to address everything that happened down there, and running away from home but actually for real this time (long story but lets be real. it was a long time coming), she ends up with her hands way more full than she'd like. with time and a lot of patience on everybody's part, though, maybe she can have a little accepting there's people that legitimately care about her and letting them share the burden. as a treat :)
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