10000netherworlds | Adapting Is Key

Adapting Is Key

"Well, shit."

That was all Tidal had to say when she awoke in the grassy field that was very much not her apartment. She'd fallen asleep in her jacket and pants after an exhausting - but highly satisfying - day of turf wars, excited to have more fun the next day. Well, now the next day was here, and this was not the Inkling's idea of fun.

As she rolled onto her back and sat up, she took in the area. It seemed like there was a city nearby, from the smoke rising up beyond the hills. Where the hell was she, and how had she gotten here? This wasn't good; she didn't even have her Splattershot.

Damn. She didn't even have her hat.

But she wasn't going to find anything out by sitting around, so she pushed herself up to a stance, tied her 'hair' up into a topknot, and began to walk towards the rising smoke. At least she'd be near some kind of civilization, then.

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"Luck has nothing to do with it, oh lovely one," Morgan said, a hand to his heart as he airily shut his eyes and tipped his head back. "I am as cool as I am because I own my dorkiness, and as dorky as I am because I recognize my coolness doesn't mean a damn thing."

"Woah, hold on," Tidal said, holding her hands up in front of her. "How can you say coolness means nothing? You don't really think that, do you?"

"Doesn't pay the bills. Doesn't win fights. Doesn't help out others. And how much of it comes by luck? How much cooler are you and I because we're gorgeous people, instead of meh or blech?" Morgan flashed a grin sidelong at her.

She couldn't deny the first two. As for helping others... It was admittedly something Tidal didn't usually consider, outside of her teammates in a Turf War. And even then, Tidal was more of an "every Inkling for themselves" type, compared to most.

Even the flirtation didn't shake the weirdness that came from realizing, for the first time, that maybe she should be considering that in life. She certainly would have to here, at least with Morgan, if she wanted to survive.

"Huh... Yeah, I guess you have a point, but- I don't know."

Morgan shrugged. "I spent a lot of time worrying about that sort of thing, and it was dumb. Turns out if you just like being yourself and don't take yourself way too seriously, coolness comes with it anyway."

"Well, sure, of course I like being myself. I mean - who wouldn't like being me?" she laughed. It was a little forced, but only a little. "I'll have to think about all that, though. Sure."

"Well, you'll have time." His smile was sincere but also serious, since the town they'd been heading towards would be upon them soon. "You ready for this?"

Her expression was neutral, even leaning towards happy, but Tidal's tone betrayed a certain level of nerves. "Yeah. We've got this."

"Damn straight."

Morgan had enough confidence for the pair of them, striding right up to where the field became a dirt road in, and pacing into the town proper without a moment of hesitation.

No one seemed to take special note of the pair, fortunately, which meant visitors weren't terribly uncommon, and blue tentacle-hair was close enough to normal not to be a beacon of the uncanny.

At first, Tidal's whole demeanor took on a cautiousness that had been totally absent from her personality, prior. But as they went unnoticed, her cocky swagger returned full-force, and she smiled up at Morgan.

"This place seems kind of simple, even if it's a smaller town. Don't you think?"

"Less technologically advanced than I'm used to. Simple, mmm, we'll see." He liked that swagger, he decided, even if he wasn't sure Tidal could back it up in a life-or-death emergency. But he really hoped there wouldn't be one of those.

Oh, she absolutely could not, but to her credit, she'd certainly try.

"That's what I meant. Is there really a difference?"

"Could be political tensions, economic troubles, racial strife, war we don't know about, a nearby dragon due its annual tribute of a lovely maiden..." And so on, and so forth. Appearances could be deceiving.

"Oh," Tidal deflated a bit as Morgan made quite a few good points, all lined up neatly in a row like that. "Yeah, I guess I didn't think of that stuff..."

"Yeah, I just have a little experience. Used to not think about stuff like that either." No shame when everyone had to learn, Tidal!

"Yeah? I mean, there's some stuff like that where I'm from. Or there used to be, anyway, with the Octolings, but... I don't know. I just like to focus on the easier stuff," Tidal admitted.

"I don't blame you. But we don't have much of a choice here and now." They could get caught up in any sort of mess...

"Hmm, right..." Tidal frowned; this was certainly becoming a bit of a downer conversation, and that wasn't her style. Clearly a change in topic was in order. "I need to find a hat before I can deal with any of this."

"A hat?" Okay, he definitely hadn't seen that coming. "Why's that?"

Honestly he thought covering up that -- tentacle/hair, he needed to figure out what to call it -- would be a shame.

"Okay, so this might not exactly make sense, but just hear me out," Tidal began, holding her hands out in front of her. "If I'm going to take on a weird new world, I'm going to need a badass hat, or I won't feel ready, because... I don't know. I always have one, I guess. This just feels weird."

So it was just a thing with her?

Morgan considered that for a moment, looking at her curiously, then mentally shrugged. If it was a thing, it was a thing! "Well, I'm not sure where to look, but I bet we can find something here!"

"Oh, yeah, there's always hats!" Tidal agreed, happy he hadn't made a fuss about her quirk. "Or something that can be used like one, that'd work too. Some cloth for a bandanna, maybe?"

Hey, Morgan had his own quirks. Why be a hypocrite about it? "Sure, let's look around! Maybe there's a store or something here. Style doesn't matter so long as it's awesome?"

"Yeah, you got it," Tidal said, nodding. "Cool and stylish is definitely what we're going for - where I'm from, we call that combination fresh."

"So tell me a little bit more about where you're from?" While they walked and looked, what else did they have to do?

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