#Oops it's all Octolings

[novaluxvi]

I'm not in this part of the fandom but I remembered that "Xeno designs" were a thing and decided to make one for fun! (They were right it is fun)

[lilaclever]

to start off Pride Month I drew 4 bisexuals when I found my sketch pad the other day

Sonora (OC)

Aldrick (Owl House OC)

Ashton (Splatoon OC)

And Cuervo (OC)

[seiishindraws]

reposting bc people were having issues ordering via kofi oops hehe ;;

splatoon chibis! inklings, octolings, other splatoon creature ocs, i'll draw them all !!! dm me or email me at seiishincomms (at) gmail (dot) com !!! 💪🏿😤✨

[p-wrryyy-mordial-soup]

Hiiii :3 heres my pack of losers (my x-rank team) because i needed ghost to actually have a team :]. heres a link to all my splatoons on toyhouse

seperate refrences, little blurbs about them and color alts where they all share eachothers colors below the thang v enjoy my word vomit idk how to write character stuff out teehee

sorry his ref is a year old and rushed for artfight </3 also the age is wrong i think i changed it to 23

he's from around where the deepsea metro is/was. had to leave because of unstable surroundings from an unknown to him cause. he's best friends with Rust and her kids, im gonna be honest i haven't actually thought through how they met and ive just realized this oops. since he spent most of his life underground and now lives in the splatlands he gets sunburnt way too frequently to not be covered up constantly, though he wears thing like tank tops and shorts during splatfest since those mostly occur during the night.

He met wisteria and ember first and then 72. they didnt apoint him as leader nor do they really care to have one but he's the tallest so everyone assumes its him. he's the most softspoken out of the 4 of them but thats a really low bar, he has a hard time making decisions but once he does he will die on that hill

(since its not on his ref like the other three)

72 escaped the metro before agent 8 went through it, he had found a memcake that was dropped after a test giving him just a clear enough mind to think for himself some. he ended up finding his way out after a while of accumulating a couple more memcakes, barely any where his though so hes walking around with memories that aren't his. It also took him a while to get used to the fact he isnt a soldier nor a test subject anymore. If he saw another sanitized mollusk he'd probably hide or run away </3.

72 met Ghost while after wandering around the area for a while, and ended up crashing in his car the whole time on ghosts way back to the splatlands (he thought 72 was like, drunk or something since he was tumbling around and seemed to be not the most coherent). he doesnt blink or breath unless hes actively thinking about it :[.

he had a hard time discerning things for a while but hes gotten better, at first he thought ember was just a weird octoling because she wears the old octoling goggles. we beat the evil soap with friendship in this house!!!

personality wise hes pretty hyper and cheerful which isnt usually your first thought upon seeing a zombie, forgot his age but hes an adult, he was encouraged to pick his own birthday :]

I have the least down for him at the moment, there will be more on her prommy </3 she's 21

She's a callie superfan with a vulgar sense of humor, usually the one who purposefully makes other players angry. born and raised in the splatlands she knows all the places to hide and get you lost in.

he's been friends with ember the longest, they where online friends until ember moved to splatsville. was introduced to ghost and 72 later by ember, he likes to antagonize 72 (think sibling antagonizing, theyre both in on it). down to fist fight you in the back of a waffle house

Originally from the inkopolis outskirts, they're 31

Ember's both a video game and turf/anarchy streamer, she has camera in their goggles for the latter. bad habit of talking in twitch/internet lingo outside of streaming. Once she has eyes on something its nearly impossible to get her to do something else. Very friendly outside fighting, will give you nice words and a pat on the back after a game whether they won or not.

met ghost while playing turf war in a random que, he was, in her words, "a bit to intense to be playing in turf" and told him after the game that he should try out anarchy, he was scared of it since he was new to the area. they ended up teaming up and playing a couple games together, later inviting wisteria and eventually 72.

theres def more to these guys but it will take me a long time to get the words in my head to cooperate 🙏im better at answering specific questions about things then coming up with what to write myself

have some color alts :3

[paramornal]

finally getting around to posting my silly hcs:!!!

ethnicities are in squid version btw

capn/dejon (day-jon): he/him, afrolatinx

four/belle: she/they, japanese

eight/niko: he/him, korean

neo: they/them, hispanic + white

—

eight still has his 10008 anklet to remind himself not to take anything he’s given or earned for granted

capn sees this as a form of self hatred and doesn’t like that at all

a group of inklings and/or octolings is called a “cephalosquad”

young marina’s first singing gig was voicing in “shooting starfish”

GUYS IK ITS CALLIE BACKWARDS BUT LET ME DREAM PLEASE ☝️‼️

octolings naturally color their fingers when they reach the age 18, it’s seen as a sign of maturity and independence

dedf1sh co-ran turquoise october before being sanitized

capn has 100% co-voiced or made music in a squid sisters song like don’t even question me on that. bc i know it’s true

deep cut are all massive fans of the chirpy chips, and when harmony showed up they all went totally apeshit and fell over each other to get the 1MM hotlantis badge

since they yknow spent 3 million gold combined they were kind of in debt for two months oops

[mixedmediahmm]

What kind of stuff do you have exactly for your Toppin stuff? Can they actually transform and stuff and why?

Oops it's all pizza magic bs! But yes in my head they've got the ability to go in and out of human/topping forms. I compared it to the inkling octolings abilities from splatoon cause it was silly but made sense to me. Another comparison could be like Cosmo and Wanda from Fairly Odd Parents when they shapeshifted in puffs of smoke; y'know cartoony fashion! They usually stay in human form out of "guest hours" but involuntarily turn back to toppins when they go to sleep.

As for why, I had the idea that they started out as living pizza toppings but Pizzaface gave them the abilities to transform purely for shits n giggles. Have all five of them act as little greeters for each floor of the tower and even work there on occasion.

Here's the floor plan of it!

[sapphiretarantula]

I made a prompt FINALLY

Since i completely missed splatober i'm making it up. I've never actually got into the mangas but I will now. I feel like a true Splatoon fan needs to own at least ONE of these so that's in my Christmas list. And pre-ordered the newest splastville volume I'm so excited! (Coming in April 2024) The coroika fandom is wack and I'm all for it

also oops i just realized there's mostly INKLINGS you can do the octoling team instead of school cardigan if you'd like:)

oh and feel free to jump on if you're feeling extra art-motivated this month

[blueskieswastaken]

Hiiiii if you dont mind I would LOVE to hear more of your pearlina moms propaganda its so good thank u. ps your off the hook magnum opus series is AMAZING

!!!!!!!!!! hang on let me think up some REALLY GOOD HEADCANONS just for you anon im so sorry it took me so long to notice this ask and also answer it,,,  (it has only been a few hours)

just like with all my moms posts (tm) this got super long it’s going under the cut. have a good meal anon

pearl and marina kept the fact that they were going to have a baby very much under wraps. tabloids spread rumors, but they just got shut down by off the hook personally. like, an article titled “off the hook spotted buying maternity wear- are they gaining another member?” gets posted on twitter or something and pearl reteweets it and she says “no, it’s for family.” or something 

of course, the article was right. it was just a secret. until they very much couldn’t hide the twins anymore… when they were five years old and had to be enrolled in school. don’t ask me how they did it.

i think it would be super sweet if everything was planned out from the start, so that’s how i write my pearlina moms. 

pearl and marina talked for a very long time about having a baby. it took three years to decide on yes and another two to get everything ready and for marina to get over her nerves… 

but everything turned out okay! :] 

when the twins are still super small, pearl likes to carry them in her sweatshirt pockets or her purse, cause they fit in there and it’s nice and comfy for good naps. if you think of her octo expansion outfit and look at her sweater she’s got a pocket there, that’s where she puts them. like a momma kangaroo! 

even when they’re teenagers pearlie still has them go swim form and crawl into her pockets when they get sleepy in public. 

even before haruko and marley were born, their moms sang to them. pearl used to press herself up to marina and sing into the light, super softly, just to make sure her babies got sleep too. it very quickly became their lullaby, not to mention it accidentally got marina to sleep too, oops…

pearl thought it was super super cute. she has videos. 

to marina holding and/or cuddling the twins is like a weighted blanket for her. it’s absolutely one of the most comforting things she’s ever experienced. she stims by scratching their backs, super gentle, and she’s very lucky that it makes both of them just melt and hug her and purr. they can’t reach their backs to scratch them, so marina doing it makes them very happy. 

octolings like to play-fight and wrestle i think, so especially when they’re little marina fake-fights her twins with just her hands to keep from hurting them and to teach them to play. once haruko bit her and marley got very upset when she pretended to die…

pearl did a lot of googling throughout the whole thing. like, take the amount that popped into your head when i said “a lot of googling”, and maybe quadruple it. and then take that amount and triple it. that’s about how much googling she did. she wanted to take the absolute best care of her wife she could, so she decided she was going to learn everything she could- good places to take her, comfortable clothing options, the bestest softest blankets to get, homemade ice cream recipes. marina would have felt a little bad, but pearl didn’t let her. 

haruko and marley are pretty much the spitting image of both their moms, so much so that once their aunt callie managed to genuinely mistake both of them for their moms at a glance more than once! they have never let her live this down <3

marina used to cradle the twins in her tentacles when she had her hands full. she owns a baby sling, she just never decided to use it. pearl gets more use out of it than she does. 

one of the first things pearl says to marley when she meets him and is no longer completely shellshocked by him existing is “why didn’t you let us see you, little guy? were you too shy to say hello?” 

(his response: rolling over and going to sleep.) 

i could say so many more but im getting carried away. 

[spaghetticat3899]

Does hachikō still speak octopus language I forgot what it’s called oops and also has he tried to teach slick how to speak it?

Hachikō can still speak Octarian, and sounds a lot more ‘casual’ speaking his native tongue than he does speaking Inkling. It often comes out when he’s frustrated or confused about something, and he speaks it very fast (at least compared to his Inkling). He almost always cussed in octarian just out of habit. When he was first learning more conversational inkling on the surface, he sometimes spoke in a sort of pidgin of Inkling and Octarian to try and communicate despite not knowing certain words yet.

Slick hasn’t asked about it (in fact, he had no idea Octarians had a separate language at all), before he knew Hachi was an Octoling, he assumed he spoke gibberish when angry. However, he has tried to teach some words to Roxanne, even if it’s by accident. She knows a few words, and is hoping to at least learn enough to communicate to the new surface-dwelling octolings effectively. Kieren doesn’t speak inkling too well, so he speaks almost exclusively octarian with him, but he also tries to teach him some inkling too.

[nomstellations]

My agents! (Not pictured: Maren's cape. Oopsies.)

Starting with my Captain 3, Maren! Came out to their friends and family as nonbinary when they were 14. Friends and big sis supported them; parents did not. So they ran away from home, moved to Inkopolis for a fresh start, tried to ask Cuttlefish what his deal was when they spotted him staring at them and got entangled in the whole Squidbeak nonsense oops. If they get involved in vorey shenanigans they can swing both ways, but are mostly a pred.

My Agent 4, Shiromi: was trying to focus on her studies pre-Splatoon 2, then finally buckled and went to Inkopolis to see what all the Turf War/Squid Sisters hype was about. Spotted Marie and wanted to ask her some questions and whoops! Time to save Inkopolis! Out of all the agents they're prey most often, partially on account of being the shortest cephalopod of the bunch(5'3"), but can do the eats if so desired.

Hachi, my Agent 8! Usually Octolings are only supposed to have eight tentacles, but something was wonky with Hachi and she mutated a ninth(which, imma be honest, is mostly because I wanted her to be more special). The conflict between her getting a low rank in the Octoling siege because she was a freak or being high-ranking because of her extra tentacle stressed her out a lot, so she decided to quit. Attacked by Maren who didn't quite get the memo and the rest was a blur but thus begins Hachi's Bizzare Adventure aka the Octo Expansion. Gained a new fit upon getting to the surface. A switch when it comes to vore, but will often let Maren eat her. :)

Lastly, my Neo 3, Mitsuro! Tired of living in the wilderness of the Splatlands for so long, they decided to move to Splatsville with their little buddy. Tried to figure out "why the heck is this old hippie scoping me from the sewer?" And became an agent oops. At first, she was just an observer to the others' vorey shenanigans, but some of her predator instincts began to surface after a while... Still doesn't nom that often though!

Yes they are all 19+, Hachi and Mitsuro are 19 and Maren and Shiromi are 21. (Shiromi doesn't look or act her age at all though!)

Ohhh, agent showcase!

I like all your agents, they're cute! Shaking hands with Maren on being nonbinary legends, and of course they're munching on Hachi c: they must have a sweet relationship...

I gotta respect Shiromi for actually wanting to study, though that didn't last long...no one can resist the siren call of turf wars! Mitsuro roughing it in the wild fits in really well for the Splatlands. I hope they all get along!!

maybe i should do a big detailed writeup of my agents...i feel like I've done that but i don't remember

[puppyluver256]

[Image Description: Several multicolored slime monsters getting up to shenanigans. Clockwise from top left: a green slime with maroon eyes and glasses appears surprised by their fate; a white and black slime with grey eyes, glasses, and a black beret with pink star pins is hopping about; an aqua green slime with lime green eyes and jewelry is looking back at a ring that has fallen off; a blue slime with dark blue eyes and a yellow and black slime with blue eyes have become stuck together and are trying to pull themselves apart; a purple slime with amber swirled eyes is popping out of the spout of an ornately decorated teapot; a blue and green slime is so relaxed that he is melting. The background is a pixelated pastel rainbow gradient. End ID.]

-----

I promise you, despite what the posting date implies, I had no intention of making "turn a bunch of random OCs into slimes" as an April Fool's joke. Y'all know I can't stand this "holiday" anyway ;P No, I've planned this weeks in advance at the very least (art queue! it is packed until August at the very earliest!!) and so this is just my normal shenaniganry :3

Okay, lessee, who do we have here? We've got Kusaoi, who seem to be less than pleased about having become slime, poor bean. There's Muette up there, they seem to be enjoying themself at least! Oshana's got some issues with a piercing not holding onto slime material as well as it does with her fin cartilage. Hachiro...is Hachiro, boy prolly thought he had some really potent edibles or something and is just vibing while trying to rest this off. Oolong is just taking to the nature of her original Pokemon counterpart. Aaaand oops, looks like Dimando and Potato have gotten themselves stuck together! How does one go about separating two stuck slimes? I don't think pulling like that will help all that much...though what do I know, I've never been a slime XD

💖🐶 Check out my pinned post for ways to support my artwork, among other things! 🐶💖

~Likes are appreciated, but reblogs are preferred as they let more people see my artwork! If you have something to say, feel free to give feedback in tags/comments/replies as well!~

Polteageist and other Pokemon concepts © Nintendo/GameFreak Zora race and other Legend of Zelda concepts © Nintendo Octolings and other Splatoon concepts © Nintendo Gens and other Engelbaum concepts © Spectramis Arts Kusaoi Watanabe, Muette the Mime, Oshana, Hachiro Nakajima, Oolong Chai, Dimando Oxford Blue, Potato Russet (and other Theia Historica concepts), and artwork © PuppyLuver Studios

[turtle-trash]

Please info dump about your oc sushi.

OK!!! SO yknow how it seems that inklings/octolings don’t know much ab salmonids and salmonid culture? Sushi basically helps researchers n stuff actually learn more ab the culture n stuff. Sushi basically hangs out in splatsville n stuff bc of this and it leads to funny situations like how little buddy is around the square while a big run is happening (yknow?)

Sushi isn’t his real name of course however bc of the length of his name (and bc he doesn’t expect anyone to say it) he just goes by Sushi. Btw while i havent drawn this yet, I think it would be funny if when he says his full name it’s visualized by a long copypasta or a wiki article. Also the reason he (and by extension I) chose the name Sushi is because it ties into how salmonids purposefully try to make themselves look tasty by carrying kitchen utensils n stuff

Hes pretty laidback ab the whole grizzco situation (honestly the main problems he has w it is the whole invading salmonid territory and the stealing of golden eggs), infact he sees big runs as a way for the salmonids to get back at the inklings/octolings for invading on salmonid territory by invading on inkling/octoling territory. He doesn’t exactly mean harm from stuff like that but it isn’t an exactly popular opinion

Ok I’m gonna give context for this next bit I’m gonna say. Basically how I see king salmonids is that they have their own types (like how there are different boss salmonid) and there’s multiple of them (cohozuna and horrorboros are the types we know of so far and it’s implied there’s multiple of those two). And each of these king salmonid rule over their own groups of salmonid and have different subcultures and/or salmonids depending on the king. What I’m getting at here is that sushi’s king is a horrorboros (like in the comic redraw I did w them)

Oh yea I almost forgot to explain why he’s a chimera, oops lawl. So basically somewhere in one of the grizzco manuals it states that every one in something eggs hatched into a Goldie, which is interesting bc it implies that unlike other salmonids who are formed by their environment Goldie’s are born. How him being a chimera works is that he was probably like those eggs that have two babies in them instead of one however the zygotes fused (or whatever the actual term is) to make a chimera, with one of the zygotes being that of a goldie

[Note: I have no idea how biology actually works so I’m just guessing with what I know and glancing at a wiki article]

I think that’s all I can think of rn, he has a toyhouse page that has a picture I took of a sketchpage with him if you want to see it, something to note ab his toyhouse page However is that it’s a bit less accurate than this post is since I think I wrote his toyhouse page on a whim and probably didn’t put much thought into it

[trisloshr]

[herosplatling-replica]

just realized i don’t remember if i posted these two here 😳 they don’t have concrete names yet but they’re mostly background characters for T&G... they are sisters 

[ace-octo-pix]

flopping on a little box

[devilmeows]

8. for both

thank you for enabling me kib :]]

8. "So you lied to me."

8. "Go on. Make a wish."

not beta read bc i like living Dangerously

8. “So you lied to me.”

Ari knew a lot of things about her girlfriend. Cadence was smart, she was funny, she always needed 8 hours of sleep to be functional, she was incredibly fast despite her short legs, and most importantly, her birthday was extremely important to her. If there was one good thing that she remembered from her horrible family, it was the birthday parties and the hype around that date. The inkling had once told her that she missed throwing herself big birthday parties: her apartment was far too small to host more than three people at once. And that day, as her girlfriend snored in her arms, Ari had grabbed her phone and created a new groupchat.

Cadence’s big 21.

Naturally, the first messages sent on that chat were memes, because Callie and Spencer always had to have a competition for who would send the best meme in any groupchat they were in. It was a weekly occurrence. They had three separate groupchats together. And now Ari had just added a fourth. I’ve made better decisions in my life, admittedly.

Ari - Please stop this or I will kick you out.

Spencer - :(((((

Callie - ok but one more? :D

Ari - No.

Callie - pweaaaaase?

Marie - say pwease again and i’ll throw my charger at you

Callie - pwease? :3

Callie - I DIDNT THINK YOU’D ACTUALLY DO IT

Spencer - marie is a woman of her word

Spencer - one time she said she’d toss me off a roof and then she did

Marie - lskfjgdfgkd

Marie - please stop bringing that up it was an accident

Ari - Is no one going to pay attention to the name of this groupchat?

Marie - no <3

Marie - jk but yeah cadence’s birthday /is/ coming up

Ari - Yes, it’s on February 12th. Aka next week.

Callie - ARE WE THROWING HER A BIRTHDAY PARTY

Ari - That is indeed what I was thinking of doing.

Callie - NICE

Spencer - NICE

Callie - GET YOUR OWN WORDS SPENCER

Spencer - YOU GET YOUR OWN WORDS

Spencer - i can make the food!!

Ari - Good, I was about to tell you to take care of that.

Marie - where are we having this party? if i recall correctly cadence and spencer’s apartments are too small, and our landlord would kill us if we had a party here

Callie - :eyes:

Marie - ?

Callie - so you admit you’ve been to spencer’s apartment before :eyes:

Callie - STOP THROWING SHIT AT ME

Ari - Pearl and Marina will be out of town for a few days, and they’ll only be back on the 13th. So we can have it at the mansion.

Spencer - WOOOO ITS A MANSION PARTY

Callie - OH HELL YEAH

Callie - can i take care of Decorating :D

Ari - So long as everything isn’t pink, yes you can.

Callie - :(

Ari - You can come to the mansion in the morning and we can set everything up together, and then I’ll go get Cadence.

Spencer - gotcha!

Spencer - whats marie in charge of?

Ari - Anything. I trust her.

Callie - ouch????

Spencer - yeah ouch ari

Marie - :)

----------

“This is a lot of pink.”

“It’s not all pink though!” Callie held up a string of orange fairy lights. “Look, this is orange!” With her other hand, she pointed at the army of balloons lying on the floor. “And those are blue and white!”

“Callie, there is a total of five blue and white balloons for twenty pink balloons in this room.”

The inkling stared at the balloons for a moment, as if she’d only just noticed that. Then she turned back to Ari with a wide smile.

“Oops. Sorry!”

She did not look sorry at all. Ari sighed, then pinched the bridge of her nose. Well, at least it’s not khaki. Cadence hates khaki. Do khaki-coloured balloons even exist? At least the rest of the room looked really nice, despite the overwhelming amount of pink. Granted, Ari wasn’t an expert on what birthday parties were supposed to look like, but in her humble opinion, Callie had done a good job. She had even gotten a giant Great Zapfish cutout that stood in a corner of the room, looking at her with its big goofy smile.

“Anyway,” Callie clapped her hands excitedly. “Wanna help me tie some balloons to the ceiling fan?”

“I would love to, but I have to check on how Spencer and Marie are doing. Just to make sure I don’t have to go to the supermarket before I go pick up Cadence.”

Callie smirked. Ari mirrored her smirk. They nodded, exactly as they had a few hours ago when Marie had innocently decided to help Spencer bake. The octoling left Callie to her work, and trotted down the stairs to the kitchen. She checked her phone: it was 12:31pm. She frowned. Hopefully baking was going okay, because she definitely wouldn’t have enough time to swing by the store before 1pm, the time she was supposed to go get her girlfriend. She pushed the door without looking up from her phone as she checked her texts, but a clanking noise did make her look up. Marie and Spencer were standing a strange distance away from each other, considering that their two bowls were sitting right next to each other on the counter. They also both looked the slightest bit flushed. Ari lifted a single eyebrow.

“We’re baking!” Spencer provided a bit too quickly for it to be natural, waving the whisk she was holding as a greeting. “Right?”

“Right!” Marie supplied helpfully. “Baking...food. Good food.”

“Uh-huh,” Ari pointed to her own nose as she looked at Marie. “You have batter on your nose.”

The white and green inkling quickly brought her hand to her nose, her face turning a darker shade of blue. She threw Spencer an accusatory but lighthearted glare, which made her chuckle, and she turned around to grab a paper towel to wipe it off. Ari walked up to her friend, looked at her bowl, then stared at her. Spencer stared back. She cocked her head to the side, as if asking her why she was staring.

“Useless lesbian.” Were they doing that thing they do in the movies where they flirt by tossing food at each other?

“I- What- You-” the orange inkling sputtered, then pointed at Marie, who still had her back turned. She’s right there! Spencer mouthed.

Ari snorted, then shrugged with a slightly smug smile. “Anyway, how is the baking going?”

“Pretty good! The coxinhas are ready to go in the oven, I’ll put them in later so that they can be warm when Cadence arrives.”

“And the cake is almost done,” Marie continued, now back with no batter on her nose. “It looks and smells amazing. Cadence better like it.”

“If she doesn’t, I’ll eat my spatula.”

“There’s no reason she won’t like it,” Ari said, turning around to look at the oven. Inside it sat a chocolate cake that gave off a decadently delicious smell. “This is her favourite. Is the...the thing already in it?”

“The brigadeiro?” Spencer asked. “Not yet. I’m just finishing up the kibes and then I’ll get to it.”

“Perfect.” I don’t need to go to the supermarket then. “In that case, I’ll leave you two to it, and I’m going to go pick up the birthday girl.”

Ari had never been more happy that she’d made a duplicate of Cadence’s keys: it was freezing cold and there was absolutely no way in hell that she’d wait for her girlfriend outside. She loved her very much, but there was only so much she could take in the name of love. And even in the hallway outside her door, with her scarf, Spencer’s old pilot hat, her two sweaters and her thick winter coat, she was still cold. She couldn’t wait to go back to the warmth of Pearl’s mansion. She took a deep breath, then knocked on the door.

“I’ll be there in a second!” Cadence’s voice echoed from inside her apartment.

There was some rattling, then a crashing sound followed by a loud “Fuck!”, then silence. Ari thought she heard the soft thump of something being tossed on top of a bed, and after some more shuffling, the door finally opened.

How is she allowed to look that cute.

Her girlfriend was wearing a fairly simple outfit: she recognised the pale purple dress Ari had bought for her a while ago, as well as the little paintbrush choker which also happened to be a gift from her. She was also wearing black tights and boots just a shade darker than her dress. And to complete the look, she had slung a long black coat over her shoulders. She looked adorable.

Cadence looked her up and down, and chuckled.

“What?” Ari asked with a little smile.

“You look funny,” she replied, pointing at the hat.

“It’s freezing, I don’t even know how you’re not cold right now.”

The inkling shrugged. “It’s only 16°C, it’s not that cold.” Then she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Ari’s waist. “Here, let me warm you up.”

The octoling smiled as her girlfriend kissed her. She’d never get tired of kissing Cadence. Or hugging her, or cuddling with her, or curling up in her arms as she slept.

“There you go!” Cadence said as they pulled away, face slightly flushed. “Feeling warmer?”

Ari nodded. “Definitely.”

“Alright, let’s go then!” The inkling bounced on her toes as she whirled around to lock her door. “Crêpe time, crêpe time, crêpe time!”

Ari felt something vibrate in her pocket. Making sure that her girlfriend wasn’t looking, she discreetly checked her phone, and smiled as she saw a thumbs-up emoji sent by Spencer. Nice. Let’s do this.

She gasped, which made Cadence jump and almost drop her keys.

“Sorry,” she apologised, “but I just realised that I forgot your gift at home. Do you mind if we stop by the mansion before we get our crêpes?”

“Oh! I thought this was way more serious,” Cadence laughed, her shoulders slumping with relief. “Yeah, no, sure, we can do that!”

“Great.”

Cadence pocketed her keys, then held out her hand and wiggled her fingers. Ari took her girlfriend’s warm hand in her own, and they set off towards the mansion.

Spencer - ari dont come to the kitchen

Callie - yeah dont

Marie - or if you really want to do that, do it later. way later. like 1am later

Ari’s excitement only grew as they neared the mansion. She’d felt her phone vibrate a few more times in her pocket, but hopefully it wasn’t anything important. At least no one had called her, which automatically meant everything was fine. Everything better be fine. The two cephalopods walked up to the large metal gate and Ari pressed the button to ring the bell and warn the other three that they were here. Cadence gave her a puzzled glance.

“Why are you doing that? Aren’t Pearl and Marina...not home?”

The octoling froze, hoping her look of realisation looked convincing enough. Without a word, she shoved her free hand in her pocket and pulled out her keys, which made Cadence laugh. She pointedly avoided her gaze and focused on the lock, feigning embarrassment, then pushed the door. Thankfully, she managed to keep her excited smile off her face. They were so close, there was no way she could fuck this up now.

The smell of cake still hung in the air faintly when they entered the mansion. Ari tensed. Hopefully, Cadence hadn’t noticed. She didn’t dare look at her to check. Instead, she simply pulled her girlfriend towards the stairs.

“Isn’t your room over there?” she asked, hopping up the carpeted stairs.

“It is, but your gift is in that room,” Ari responded, pointing towards said room.

She could feel her heartbeats racing as they stood in front of the door. Her hands felt clammy under her gloves, and slowly, she opened the door.

Instantly, three party poppers went off and a song in a language Ari didn’t understand started playing.

“Surprise!” Spencer, Callie and Marie shouted. “Happy birthday, Cadence!”

Now, Ari could smile. She looked back at her girlfriend, who was just standing there with her mouth hanging open in surprise. She still hadn’t let go of her hand, and her gaze flicked from Spencer, to Callie, to Marie, to the giant Zapfish cutout, to the balloons hanging from the ceiling fan, to the tables of snacks, back to Spencer, then to Callie and Marie again.

“So you lied to me.”

Ari froze. “What?”

Cadence turned to her girlfriend with the most adorable pout on her face. “We’re not getting crêpes?”

Ari opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. On the other side of the room, Spencer exploded with laughter, quickly followed by Callie and Marie.

“That’s what you’re-”

The short inkling cut her off by cupping her face and kissing her very gently. Ari felt herself melt, and when they pulled away - just a bit too soon, in her humble opinion - she felt her hearts fill with joy as she saw her girlfriend’s face. That smile, those shining eyes...I did it. Mission Cadence’s big 21 is a success.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you so much.”

It was only later in the evening that Ari stumbled across the mess that was the kitchen. She simply stood there and stared at the carnage. Then she decided that cleaning up was a problem for future Ari to deal with. Right now, all she wanted was to get some water and get back to cuddling her birthday girlfriend.

8. “Go on. Make a wish.”

They’d never been more scared in his life. It came nowhere near close to when Reef had torn them to pieces, or when the alarms had blared the minute Agent 3 had appeared in front of Octavio. They were terrified, because they knew that if they got caught, they would not live to see another day.

The tunnel was dark, damp and suffocating. Not being able to see anything besides the faint glow of their freckles only exacerbated the loud clamor of the soldiers chasing them - and they were already so horribly sensitive to sound. The noise pricked at their skin and their head, and they had to pick between controlling the tears streaming down their face and stopping the pained whines from coming out their mouth. They chose the latter.

I never should’ve done this. I should’ve waited. I should’ve woken them up. They should’ve come with us. I can’t do this without them.

The person in front of them suddenly halted. She was saying something, but their brain couldn’t seem to process her words. They only tightened their grip on her wrist, which didn’t seem to help since they felt a nervous flick of tentacles against their arm. They tensed. If she didn’t know what to do, if she was as stressed as they were, if she was lost...then they were utterly lost. And to be fair, they couldn’t exactly blame her. They fought the urge to curl up on themself and cry. Was it possible to die from crying too much? Right at this moment, they was perfectly willing to try.

A cracking noise split the air. Before they had time to realise what was going on, they felt their companion shoving them to the side. And this time, they were able to hear her scream.

“Run!”

Their body reacted faster than their mind: running was a simple command, and obeying it was committed to muscle memory by now. Everything around them trembled. Where should they run? They had no idea. All they knew was that they had to run.

Behind them, something crashed to the ground with the loudest crack they’d ever heard. A thunderclap of pain coursed through their body, and this time they couldn’t contain their scream as they fell to their knees, hands clutching their head in a silent plea to make it stop.

And then it stopped.

Now all they could hear was their own laboured breathing.

What...happened?

For a moment, they didn’t dare move. Because maybe if they moved, the world would fall apart again, or they would be crushed by either rocks or a steel-toed heel. But nothing stirred as they gently let go of his head. The air around them was completely, entirely and utterly still. They uncurled themself extremely slowly, both out of wariness and because their body was shaking so violently that they were certain they’d fall back down if they moved too fast. When they were finally sitting up straight, they turned around. The faint glow of their freckles bounced off of a wall of freshly-fallen chunks of rocks.

The tunnel...caved in.

Tentatively, they reached out to touch the stones. They felt freezing to the touch, which sent a harsh shiver down their arm. Horrible, horrible feeling. Don’t know why I did that. They rubbed their arm to try and get rid of the awful sensation. The movement seemed to calm their trembling as well. The purple glow dimmed. And slowly, a feeling of dread and apprehension creeped in their gut.

“...Marina?”

Their voice echoed and bounced off the walls around him. No reply came.

Is she…

They refused to finish the thought. They refused to think about the possibility that the other octoling might be…

But she might as well be. Because there was no way they could get back to her now. their limbs were weakened from all the shaking so they couldn’t even think about lifting a single rock, and they weren't that strong to begin with. No matter what they did, they would not be able to find Marina again. They brought a hand to their face and took a trembling breath as they tried to stop the tears from falling again.

A breeze blew past them, making their tentacles twitch. A...breeze? It was cold, so cold, but it felt fresh, unlike the hot and heavy air of the domes. They turned around. It was still pitch black ahead, which terrified them, but...if the surface was beyond that darkness, maybe they could stress themself enough to make their freckles light the way. And maybe if they got to the surface...maybe then they would be able to feel something other than pain.

They got to their feet, and thankfully their legs did not give up on them. They still felt like they might fall over at any moment, and their muscles were screeching with pain, but at least they could stand. Progress. Now...walking. They took one tentative step. Then another. Then another. Then some more. Then they tripped. They managed to grip the wall next to them and prevent another fall, but they immediately regretted it: the earth was squishy and wet and disgusting. They hated it.

But they continued. They continued to walk. They occasionally tripped, which earned them some scratches. They could feel the blood trickling down their legs, but they couldn’t do anything about it, nor did they care. The more they walked, the colder they felt and the stronger the wind was. They knew they were getting closer. The surface was just beyond their reach. Soon, they would be able to call the domes a distant memory.

Somehow, all they could feel at that thought was dread.

Then, they noticed that the tunnel wasn’t as dark. They had to blink several times to notice the difference, but they noticed it. A rush of anxiety seized their chest. I’m so close, they thought, clenching their fists. I’m so close. I can do this. Soon the ground sloped upwards under their feet, and while the roof closed in on them as they progressed, the air only grew fresher. A small hole came into view. Their heartbeats quickened. They could no longer stand, so instead they crawled, ignoring the loud protesting of their entire body. The hole was now an arm’s length away from them. Slowly, very slowly, they inched closer to it. They stuck one arm out, then the other, and once they were sure that their grip on the outside of the hole was secure, they pulled themself out of the tunnel.

A violent shiver shook their body.

They had made it to the surface.

They stood in a large, grassy valley, dotted with the occasional bush and tree. They were blooming. But they didn’t care. Because above them, an indigo blue sky stretched out. It was huge. It looked like the sky they’d always seen on the domes’ monitors, but at the same time it didn’t look like it at all. They didn’t have the words to describe it, simply because it was beyond anything they’d ever known or imagined. It was...beautiful? Stunning? Breathtaking? Magical?

They fell to their knees.

Above them, the stars twinkled. They remembered that old inkling tradition they’d read in a book one of their sisters had stolen. The one about wishing upon stars. They’d promised each other that they would do that once- if they ever reached the surface.

Go on. Make a wish.

But they couldn’t.

They couldn’t bring themself to make a wish when this was how they had gotten here. Sure, they had escaped the domes, but...they were alone. They’d lost Marina during the escape, and most importantly, their sisters had not come with them. Their beloved sisters, the only octolings they knew they could trust with their life down there. The only people that had ever mattered to them. They were up here, while they were still stuck in hell.

They were completely alone.

I don’t deserve this.

This time, they didn’t try to stop the tears. The endless sky above them grew lighter with the sunrise as they sobbed on the cold, dewy grass.