it wasnât a bluff this time --- she really hadnât been to canyon in ages. a year, maybe. two years. a long-ass time. she half-doubted octavio would still be there, even. she wound her fingers around one chopped tenta nervously, oblivious to their growing length (she hadnât trimmed them since, and they were halfway to her shoulders now). regardless, her squid form dissolved into canyonâs kettle, moulding viscous around the metal of it, and she shifted color with the change in atmosphere.
  it was a joke, that so many of the stages had been her color. especially the splatling ones.
  canyon glimmered in the sun. her footsteps clapped against the rock between spawn and marieâs shack --- but she wasnât changed gear this time, not ever again. she finished this job. sheâd retired. she wasnât agent three anymore, thank you very much --- but her fingers closed protectively around the handle of the hero charger, and she lifted it from the cascade of weapons hidden in the shack. the feel of it was almost comforting. almost.
  octavioâs globe was a bit dusty, though not nearly as much as it shouldâve been. candy wrappers littered the area around him. he slept in the warm sunlight, even as ice sank through sodaâs veins; she wondered how often mani had visited him and wiped his globe down. soda herself was long overdue for a visit.
  she crossed the courtyard and tapped gently on the glass, charger held lengthwise to her side.   â hey, â  she said, softly.   â octavio. wake up. â
