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“So would you still sit on my face?”
Four always used jokes as a crutch, a way to gain control over a situation, but still hearing her wife in a robot body crack a lame joke shouldn’t have surprised her. Captain Kaori Sango of the New Squidbeak Splatoon stood in her apartment with her wife Eight, her other wife Four, and her wife’s robot duplicate that housed the other half of her soul, Parallel Canon.
Four and Eight left the room to give Three and Parallel Four time to talk.
Three sat in her chair. An evil A.I. made a copy of her wife’s brain and used it as an attack shark until Eight beat the A.I. rescuing all the trapped creatures and undoing the control it had on Parallel Four. P-Four was then given a robot body by Marina and allowed to visit the real world and her other wife, Three.
This was too much. A twelve thousand year old bear who was mutated and tried to use salmonid eggs and a zapfish to cause global xenocide was bad, but an A.I. world with fully sentient beings seemed too out there. Three’s head began to spin.
Three tried to focus, her eyes latched onto the only thing in the room, Parallel Four.
Her wife.
Alice Surume.
Marie’s lessons rang in her ear. Place yourself in another squid’s shoes. After eight years with Marie, Three was mature enough to learn empathy. If she were a robot copy of herself sitting in front of Four and Eight she’d feel alone, scared, and unsure.
And those were feelings Three swore her girls would never feel.
Three reached for her hand and pulled Four to her, placing Four on her lap.
Four latched on instantly. They sat there for a moment. Four was a bolt of energy, lightning in squid form, a still Four was never good, for her or others. After an unknown time Four spoke. “I wish I could feel you.”
Three could hear it in her voice; it was subtle, but she could hear the artificial quality of P-Four’s voice.
P-four was light. Lighter than regular Four. Both of the Fours were so small; it was hard to remind herself after all the missions they’d gone on that Four could be delicate. Life was fragile and her wives could die in their line of work. P-four sitting here in her lap so vulnerable, it felt like she could shatter at any moment.
“Marina said that she was working on a new body using the Parallel Canon exoskeleton. They'd use a bunch of prosthetics to let me have my senses back. She said I’d be able to feel things again.”
The words left her mouth before she knew what she was saying. “I’ll be with you.” She meant it, even though she never registered what she was saying at the time. Her wife was in need so she would be there.
Four’s body couldn’t shudder right; being made with servos and motors and not muscle, but Three could feel the movement in Four.
“Marina is a genius, she’ll do right by her daughter-in-law. I’m sure she’ll figure this out. The Splatoon can easily get you the new I.D. and social security, but how are you feeling? No jokes, be as vulnerable as you can be with me, please Alice.”
Four let out another robotic shudder. In the six years that they’d been together as a unit, through all the trials and tribulations, being emotionally vulnerable with each other had gotten easier. Whether that be through Callie’s games to getting to know each other, Eight having to write letters to communicate her feelings, or Four, keeping notes to deal with problems, learning how to communicate feelings to others and be receptive to feeling was one of the few skills they had learned through the Splatoon.
“I feel scared. I don’t know how to feel, I’m not Four, but I’ve got all her memories and emotions. I went through a whole breakdown in the Memverse.” Four paused, Three couldn’t see it, but she guessed that Four was moving her lower beak back and forth like regular Four did when she was processing things. “I-I love you, but I’m not your...
“You’re my wife no matter what you look like.” Three looked at her with the same intensity she did when she stared down Octavio eight years ago. “You’re my wife, and that’s not up for discussion.”
Three held her close, whatever rebuttal Four had died in her throat, Captain wouldn’t have it any other way. “Alice, I love you no matter what form you take. I don’t care. As long as you’re still the same energetic, funny, goofball I know I will always fall in love with you.
Three pressed her beak to the plastic face. It wasn't elegant and Four couldn’t feel it but she could feel what it represented. Four melted like she always did and let out a relieved sob.
“Thanks.”
She stayed there on her lap.
Four turned away from her: she went still again. Three knew she was preparing something important to say some of the smaller motors showed her robot body was moving ever so slowly.
“W-would you still sit o-on my face?”
Four laughed, she gaffed and guffawed at her own lame joke. As Three dumped her to the floor; a warm smirk never left her face.
This adorable little fucker.
Four stood up, even without a mouth she still had the biggest grin Three could possibly imagine. She stretched before tossing herself back onto her wife lying back on the couch, taking up more room this time. “What? It’s a serious question. Now that I’ve got a robot body, that’s going to change a lot. I need to know what kind of weird sex stuff we can do now, the possibilities are endless!”
It was true Four always used jokes as a crutch, a way to gain control over a situation, but it was also true that her wife also just likes to tell lame jokes.