coralpolyp

[coralpolyp]

The Complete Works Vol 2: All my Favourite Songs

Cover I did for the fic in Procreate - fully painted by myself this time, instead of rearranging official assets like I had done for Finding the Flow. Again, formatted to be Wattpad-sized, just in case I ever ended up stooping that low.

Welcome back to The Complete Works! This is part two of a two-part archival project I'm doing, where I gather together every piece of unreleased Splatoon writing I've ever done that does not pertain to an ongoing project, and put it all up publicly on AO3, alongside my own personal reflection on it, both over there and over here - what worked, what didn't, why I didn't finish it, and how it influenced what came after it. And I mean everything - full multi-chapter sequences, half-written chapters, plot outlines, one-sentence headcanons, and French revision, it's all here.

All My Favourite Songs

Started: 8th July 2023

Abandoned: 7th December 2023

The fic itself: AO3

Unused content/Complete Works: AO3

At its core, All My Favourite Songs is a very angry story.

It started as a spiritual successor to Finding the Flow - the further my interest in telling Marina's story waned, the more fascinated I grew with this tiny subplot about Harmony being in a constant war with her own neurodivergence rather than working with it, trying to make her way in a field that people of her species are largely unrepresented in, and being in love with her guitarist. What started as "when I'm done with Finding the Flow I'll make a 3 part Harmony story with a similar ethos, and have the two intersect near the end" turned into "I can't be bothered with Finding the Flow lets just get straight into it", with the 3-parts idea being dropped somewhere along the way.

When I was working on this story, I think what excited me was how subtly offensive it all felt, especially with Harmony as a protagonist - the chapters I actually have to show for my time invested in this one present a scrappy, endearing and deeply relatable character, plagued by misfortune beyond her control, and yet later scenes would go on to depict this character that should be "just like you fr" as sad, pathetic, obsessive and a borderline creep - and then somehow go on to bring her back from the brink.

The main thought I had on my mind at the time of brainstorming this one was, in effect, a strange contempt for "losers" - people living under unfortunate circumstances who are ready to just lie down and let it happen to them, letting the god in the machine take every last bit of the blame for who they've become, and inadvertently framing themselves as completely powerless to stop it, seeing as they supposedly did nothing to start it. In its most basic sense, Harmony's character arc is feeling irreparably broken, getting a serious reality check, and then still being irreparably broken but as happy under the circumstances as she possibly can be.

It was an incredibly convoluted serenity prayer, before I even knew what that was. It wasn't a story of "You've been dealt a bad hand, you may as well just give up", nor a story of "You've been dealt a bad hand - here's how to go back in time and get a new one that's way better", it's a story of "You've been dealt a bad hand, now what?"

The key word here, however, is "convoluted" - by the time I felt confident I knew where the story was headed it was just...too much...too much for me to write in my lifetime. Too much for anyone to really follow. It needed serious cuts, and I didn't know where to even begin with making them. In the end I just put it all to bed.

For all it's worth, this story still means a lot to me. It really solidified the ethos I try to carry in all my work of brutal realism and complete and utter greyness - no good guys, no bad guys with ideologies that I disagree with, simply a bunch of deeply flawed people just fighting for what they're pretty sure is right, and all equally capable of hurting other people, whether they realise it or not, or even if they do it in purpose. I don't believe its my job as an author to tell you what's good and what's bad, and make up a scenario to illustrate my point. Its always been my hope that, when I write, I am just showing the reader the world around me verbatim - even, perhaps especially, the bits that aren't pretty. I try to ask questions I genuinely do not know the answer to, because those are conversations I want to have. In some ways I almost feel a little disappointed with myself that I failed to realise this vision, but the simple fact of the matter is that I have a lot more faith in the things I'm working on now than I do the things I was working on then.

Outside of talking about plot, AMFS was, at one point, unique in its use of illustrations, being a picture book of sorts - its an idea that has always interested me, as I never quite understood why visual mediums such as comic books are perfectly capable of being mature, and so are literary mediums such as novels, but the intersection of the two, and having the best of both worlds, is apparently inherently childish. Of course, I would later realise that the "adult picture book" I was envisioning already existed in Japan and its called a light novel, but I still felt quite proud of myself at the time for having a go at it. It didn't quite work out, however - it was too big a time investment, even when I had undeniably slipped into creating rushed, poor-quality illustrations, and I felt that my technical skill with art was not yet up to standard with my prose, and combining them was inclined to make my work seem less serious than I wanted it to. It's an idea I still love, and still want to come back to, however.

This story is also responsible for starting my love of epigraphs and referencing songs in chapter titles. I'm not unique in this at all, if anything I've fallen into an amateurish fanfic-y trap, guilty as charged and completely shameless, but it's still worth noting when trying to evaluate what working on this fic meant for me.

What would have happened:

When writing volume 1, I condensed a 2000 word plot summary into 1000 words. The plot summary for this fic is 7000 words. Like I said, I was insane, its just too much. All I can really do is link the unabridged version here.

For more, read All My Favourite Songs and The Complete Works

The illustrations I did for this fic are in an older post on this Tumblr, linked here.

[coralpolyp]

The Complete Works Vol 1: Finding the Flow

Wide version of the book cover I threw together in Procreate for this fic at the time - there's another version which is arranged to fit a Wattpad cover

Welcome to The Complete Works! This is a two-part archival project I'm doing, where I gather together every piece of unreleased Splatoon writing I've ever done that does not pertain to an ongoing project, and put it all up publicly on AO3, alongside my own personal reflection on it, both over there and over here - what worked, what didn't, why I didn't finish it, and how it influenced what came after it. And I mean everything - full multi-chapter sequences, half-written chapters, plot outlines, one-sentence headcanons, and French revision, it's all here.

Finding the Flow

Started: 9th October 2022 (Earliest dated work in private)/20th December 2022 (First chapter posted to AO3)

Abandoned: 14th February 2023 (Last AO3 update)/29th June 2023 (Final attempt to work on it in private)

The fic itself: AO3

Unused content/Complete Works: AO3

It feels like it's been much longer than it actually has been, but this is the first piece of fanfiction I ever wrote - and the first one I ever gave up on too! I had original writing experience outside of school prior to this, but it was my first time working in a fandom, and my first time posting anything online.

This one was supposed to be a prequel/origin story with Marina as the protagonist, beginning at the end of Splatoon and ending with the beginning of Splatoon 2. I got the urge to start this not long after having watched the absolutely phenomenal Takotsubo Heartbeat, and also having just finished Better Call Saul. It goes without saying that I was in love with the ethos that both stories shared - that of taking intriguing but underdeveloped characters from an existing story, and building an unexpected and compelling backstory for them, which sheds new light on the source material without ever retconning or contradicting it - you never would have imagined that these characters had suffered so much when looking at the source material, because not even the people who created it imagined that - but once you see it it makes too much sense to look away.

Finding the Flow was a flawed, if noble, attempt at picking up what Takotsubo Heartbeat was putting down, and exploring Marina's life as an illegal refugee just trying to have a music career. Maybe I would have succeeded if I finished this one, but when I look back on what I wrote I find it rather hard to read, it's just not very good.

I had a very hard time writing the opening to this one, given how tricky the tone was to nail down - lesbian fluff, xenophobia, break ups, and killing someone don't usually need to occupy the same story, but here we are. I had this one fully plotted, and to this day I can somewhat applaud myself for the overall flow of it when I look back - there was some quite bold and satisfying payoffs, such as the police station scene, the breakup, and the big fight, but even at the time I was acutely aware of the sheer lack of meaningful character arcs outside of Marina herself. I feel like this was before I actually enjoyed writing, and it was more fun to daydream about it in lessons than it was to actually write it. It took me a long time to realise that being an "idea guy" isn't good enough - anyone can do that, the people that get remembered are the people who put in the work to make it real themselves - which still isn't quite as applicable to myself as I'd like it to be.

Once the daydreaming ended, and I burned myself out on caring about Off the Hook, this fic was as good as dead. One of the few subplots this fic actually had ended up being expanded into its own thing, All My Favourite Songs, which I also never finished! I feel like I still occasionally pic plot ideas from this thing's corpse whenever I'm going near similar subject material, and in my head I still treat most of what I had planned for Marina as canonical - not that that matters because she's only had one speaking role in my work since then.

What happens in it:

Marina narrowly escapes from Octo Valley, getting wounded in the process. She journeys aimlessly, (as did I as an author) in search of where the Inklings live, infatuated with the Squid Sisters and their song. To keep herself company (and asa bandaid solution to the fact that there is not a single other character for like 8 chapters), she makes the Squid Sisters her imaginary friends, albeit with their personalities completely wrong as she has never heard them speak before - it is then revealed in a flashback that this tendency towards imaginary friends and other such childlike behaviour is a result of military recruitment at an early age, and premature repression of such tendencies.

She spots the Inkopolis skyline from atop Mount Nantai, but has to hide when an Inkling Girl (Pearl) climbs up, screams a whole bunch, and then leaves.

Marina is fascinated, and regrets not confronting her. She decides to camp out near the observation deck until the girl returns, during which time she records the Ebb and Flow demo on a beat-up keyboard - the only thing she took with her, revealed to have been a gift from her Sergeant - a woman fiercely loyal to the regime, albeit with a more sympathetic and supportive approach to leadership, which brings with it a misguided and self-righteous sense of knowing what's best for everyone, better than they know themselves.

The Octarian forces catch up to Marina, and a firefight breaks out at dusk. She fends them off and retreats down the mountain, accidentally bumping into Pearl again - literally.

What would have happened next:

(This is abridged, the full version is here)

Feeling guilty about her usual abrasive tendencies, Pearl takes the paranoid and distressed person with weird hair speaking a different language home with her to try and help her out, not knowing what Octarians are. Marina plays her the Ebb and Flow tape, and they form a band.

Later, when her Inklish is much better and they're working on their debut album, Marina sees a wanted poster of her own likeness in downtown Inkopolis, put up by someone who is apparently wary of the "Octarian menace". Knowing she is now being hunted down by both her former allies and the people of Inkopolis she is trying to assimilate with causes her a great deal of distress, which Pearl notices, but never gets an adequate or truthful explanation for. She processes her emotions through writing more personal songs and going for long walks at dusk.

During their debut gig in a small lounge, Marina impulsively sings in Octarian on the last song, which gives her a deeper connection to the lyrics and makes her performance incredibly moving. From then on she always sings in Octarian.

The next morning, Marina is arrested, and has a humiliating experience at the police station at the hands of Octarian-hating police officers. The man pressing charges interrogates her personally, and identifies himself as the author of the wanted poster and an audience member of the gig - Craig Cuttlefish. The interrogation is interrupted by his grand-daughter Marie barging in and urging him to drop the case, saying that he's taking his NSS duties way too far. He does so upon learning that Marina likes the Inkantation. Marie sponsors Marina's residency in Inkadia, and they are both given a mountain of paperwork to do.

Marie and Callie take Marina out of for coffee, and offer to kickstart Off the Hook's career - pushing for them to be signed to the same record label as them, recommending them to their producer, Shy-Ho-Shy, and letting them open for their next concert, where they perform their debut single Ebb and Flow, which is released the same day.

While preparing for said concert, Marina discovers a homeless community of Octarian refugees one night - they had followed in Marina's footsteps, but received no support from Inkling Society on arrival. Marina realises that she has nothing to give them, despite her life of luxury, as all of it actually belongs to Pearl - they warn her that she is no better off than them, but she does not understand. When she gets home, Pearl and Marina begin dating. As the relationship goes on, Pearl becomes more uneasy with Marina's inability to tell her who she is and where she comes from.

The relationship is not made public until their second concert. Pearl tries to kiss Marina on the lips on stage, without her prior consent to the stunt, which angers her greatly.

Later, Pearl discovers Marina's paperwork, which includes mention of her having been arrested at one point. Marina still fails to explain anything, and they agree to break up, with the band going on hiatus and Marina leaving the house with nowhere to go.

She returns to the homeless community, which she discovers has been completely wiped out by her former sergeant, who is disgusted by her betrayal of the Octarian regime. Penniless and alone in a individualist society which doesn't want her and has little to no welfare provisions, she almost accepts, but ultimately refuses, doing battle with the sergeant and killing her when left no other choice.

Marina goes on to live a meagre life in hiding, DJing under a pseudonym, producing for Harmony, and crashing at Marie's apartment every night, sleeping in a room that used to belong to Callie, who has now gone missing.

Dissatisfied with her creative output without Marina, and aware of the ggrowing legend around the band's sudden disappearance, Pearl tracks Marina down and Off the Hook is reformed. Together they complete and release their debut album, and are hired to host Inkopolis News.

For more, read Finding the Flow or The Complete Works

[coralpolyp]

Pinned

My name is Polly, my friends could call me Coralie if they wanted to but they don't.

I spend a lot of my free time drawing and writing, and if I do anything particularly special during the week then I like to leave it here on Sundays.

Ongoing Projects

The Sin of Fear - Splatoon 3: Side Order rewrite

Miscellaneous one-shots and drawings

Links

[coralpolyp]

Being incredibly inconsistent with your artistic output is great because every time you have something new your art style has been completely reinvented and any prior boredom you may have had of doing the Squid Sisters is completely gone as well so you just never end up doing anything else

[coralpolyp]

On the eve of the summer nights splatfest, I'm now thinking about the life choices that have ultimately lead to me having no art to post for two consecutive new Squid Sister outfit drops.

I'm sorry for falling off

[coralpolyp]

bitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyoubitesyou

Show yourself coward

[coralpolyp]

I wouldn't say Nintendo themselves are guilty of this, but the fandom has definitely come down with a very, very bad case of it. Maybe the favouritism has always been there and only feels apparent now because I've stopped caring about OTH, but either way it's getting pretty tiring (personally), especially when none of it has any real grit to it.

Splatpoll fights week one

From: anon

OTH is so annoyingly overrated and the squid sisters barley get any attention anymore.

[coralpolyp]

STOP THE COUNT

[coralpolyp]

i sincerely apologize for bringing attention to your british-ness 😔😔

It’s ok, they still don’t know about my Frenchness

Wait-

[coralpolyp]

pip pip cheerio innit

oh my god

[coralpolyp]

HOLY SHIT YOU'RE BRITISH!? I never would've guessed

Is everyone just losing their shit over my British reveal 😭😭😭

[coralpolyp]

There is a part in the dialogue of The Sin of Fear where Pearl says "innit" and at first I thought 'oh haha they made Pearl british' but then I read your other fics (Waving Goodbye). Turns out you are in fact very much british and that's why Pearl said that!! 😭

I should tag that fic with Bri'ish Pearl it would be so funny riyfkggvhgv

But, I mean, yeah. I pick up what Nintendo is putting down with this character, I filter it through my own experience with those kinda people, and I guess what comes out is, y'know.

Pearl being a right proper roadman like. She probably drinks lots of lucozade or some shit too. I call it "my own experience" but really she's probably just a pastiche of People Just do Nothing Characters lmao

It's funny though because I almost made the Squid Sisters French. It's always gonna be my headcanon and I still wanna do it, but like, doing bilingual characters a whole can of worms innit.

[coralpolyp]

Out of curiosity, are you british or something?

Yeah!??? 😭😭😭😭😭 What did I do that made that so apparent to you 😭😭😭 /lh

[coralpolyp]

Idk if any of y'all read Waving Goodbye, but on the off chance that you did, did you listen to the songs from the epigraphs?

I'm just curious because Streaming is suddenly in the top 10 for No-Man with a significantly lower overall playcount than everything else there, and if I've *actually* influenced the Spotify page of an artist with only 34,000 monthly listeners then I think that's kinda funny.

[coralpolyp]

Just a quick little bit of, like, market research as it were, for *anybody* who reads fanfic, not just people following my Splatoon stuff.

[coralpolyp]

Just a quick little bit of, like, market research as it were, for *anybody* who reads fanfic, not just people following my Splatoon stuff.

[coralpolyp]

Obsessed with early Spiritualized photoshoots because they're all literally just "Me and the bad bitch I pulled by being autistic doing lots of heroin and making weird space music"