The troubles of knowing yourself

Maps and awkward moments

"Did she say this was the only map of the area she could find?"

"The only one Captain Cuttlefish could find that had anything useful, yes."

"Look Eight I know I can't read any of this but even I can tell this is pitiful at best."

Eight let out a sigh. "Well this is the most detailed one he could find. But it's also the one they give to tourists, so therefore there's a bunch of information that they just wouldn't have access to."

Ilkani rolled her eyes. "I still don't get why. Did they not explore this place before opening it up to this 'tourism' thing?"

The other Octoling gave her a deadpan look. "Ilkani, have you seen how dangerous and precarious half of these rock formations are? There's probably a reason all the Kettles are hidden out here."

As the two poured over the map, and an old Octarian-made chart that Ilkani had brought, Three leaned against the glass of Octavio's snow globe.

"You're brave for being here at all." Octavio grumbled to her. "I know her well: if they were still partners, Ilkani would've ripped you to shreds by now."

Three's eyes narrowed. She was faced away from him, but he could guess the expression she was making. "I'd really like to see her try." The agent replied.

"Don't act like you're invincible. You told me yourself that Eight beat you when you were, how did you phrase that again...?"

"I think I said 'beefed up by brainwash slime.'"

"Yeah, that. If you were stronger than usual and she beat you, I'd be concerned about Ilkani. Those two were almost equals in combat. Eight hits harder, but Ilkani's faster. That kinda deal." The King remarked, waving a tentacle about as he did so.

Three took a moment to turn and look at him. Her eyes narrowed. "I'm beginning to get a bit suspicious about how much you know about them. Surely you can't know this much about all your subjects."

Octavio looked away. "Frankly that's none of your business."

She raised an eyebrow. "You're the one blabbering to me, I'm just sitting here minding my own business." She quipped. "I shouldn't be surprised, really. You never seem to want to shut up."

The Octarian seethed, but managed to keep his mouth shut rather than prove her right with the sarcastic remark he wanted to give.  Three was almost impressed.

Meanwhile, Eight pointed at a section of Ilkani's map. "Ok, this spot is pretty well-charted on both. Is that a bad sign or a good one?"

Ilkani took a moment to cross-reference the Inkling map. "Probably bad. If Inklings frequent this area enough then it probably wouldn't have been safe for you two to travel there in the first place."

"Maybe, But who's to say I would've even known which parts of the mountain are tourist spots?"

"Fair, but I'm betting on you guys referencing one of our maps when you decided where to go. This Inkling map is only useful for further clarification."

Eight paused for a moment at that, then her eyes were drawn to vague suggestions of shapes on one side of the mountain. It was the tourist map, and there was...something, a bunch of somethings...in the water?

"What about this area?" She inquired to Ilkani, gesturing to it.

Ilkani glanced at her sideways. "I still can't read that map, Eight."

"No, I mean, I know that, but there's no text. Just shapes. Is there anything in this spot on your map?"

Ilkani observed the spot on Eight's map and then glanced over to her own. She squinted. "Stopping spot...? Checkpoint? What the shell is any of this supposed to mean or imply?" The Octoling murmured as she leered down at the map. "And who wrote this? Their handwriting is terrible."