It was a hot day in Octo Canyon. Sweltering, really- not a single cloud in sight. Disappointingly, the pure, light blue sky foreshadowed full sun for at least a few hours- probably the rest of the day. But all this was common, and the Canyon itself was red, rocky and dry as a result.

This was arguably, along with the need to maximize space, why the Octarians had set up shop underground. No one wanted death by sun-roasting, so “beat the heat” was the tune everyone played to. Even if some of them had to beat the heat far away from other Octarians.

This was Yorosuke’s case. The secluded cave that he had found years ago was formerly a complex of some sort for the Octarian military, he figured, but it had been completely abandoned. Abandoned in a haste, apparently. All of the old tools and stuff were still there. With time, he came to trust that none of the stuff was actually dangerous, and could be found tinkering around most of the time.

Heavy rain fell onto the top of the research compound, filling the air with an almost static din. Rain was uncommon in the canyon, and when it did, one could expect it to bring extreme flash-flooding. It was one of the negatives of living in Octo-Valley- sometimes, the “valley” became something of a “ravine”.

And, of course, it had to happen on the day Yorosuke had planned to grab his long-overborrowed things from the labs. Because of course it would.

Given the rain, Yoro couldn’t sit at his preferred little perch and spy on the compound beforehand. He had no idea what he was going to run into as he crawled around in the vents, and it didn’t do anything to steady his nerves that his tentacles were kind of loud as he pulled himself along. For all he knew, his sisters, or Octavio, or both of them could have known somehow that Yoro was here to take back his blueprints, and could have set something up. A deathtrap? No, as painless as that would be, Yoro knew that they might try an extort more inventions out of him, not just kill him outright. Mind control, then? A plain ol’ hostage situation?

Quit focusing on what could go wrong, Yoro had to remind himself. Instead, focus on what will most likely happen. Yoro would need to find an abandoned computer, and figure out where in the Mariana’s Trench his blueprints had been moved to. He’d probably have to go to another computer, get the files onto his jump-drive, delete all other traces of the plans-

For those of you that feel strongly about one species or the other as a sweeping whole, I am very sorry that you feel your grievances regarding the given topic have not been rectified. I hope that at some point, those issues are addressed in a productive manner, and that you can go on to lead a life indicative of peace and a need to understand, not defend.

For those of you that stand staunchly on the middle ground, know that your behavior and thoughts are what ultimately flourish into a wide acceptance of a subject- in this case, century-old enemies becoming friendly again. But know that just yelling at someone that disagrees with you on this is not going to convince them to trust anyone. Temper yourselves, and you may find that you gain more allies than you would have splatter-shots a'blazin'.