#but why would he and the octolings on his side have been forced to live underground when other octolings still live on the surface? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

salmonidparty · 4 years

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The Spicy Calamari Inkantation was still ringing in Carice’s ears, even as she dashed to her quarters in the barracks. The surrounding sounds were drowned out by her breathing, the pounding of her hearts, and her boots hitting the damp pavement. She had never been averse to crowds, however as the impromptu concert came to an end she found herself pushing her way through dazed and confused Octarians.

She needed space, she needed time, and she needed quiet. All to think, to go over what was tumbling about in her brain. Although her head felt clearer than it had for years, a storm of confusion and indecision was brewing deep within her mind. Her body felt light as a feather, and yet her mind felt as heavy as a ton of bricks.

In what felt like no time at all, she had made it to the barracks and fled to her room. The building was surprisingly empty--usually someone would be around to keep an eye on things, or resting after performing their duties... It was likely due to the streets being so full from the grand battle that DJ Octavio had called everyone to see. However, now it was clear that the outcome was one that the emperor never saw coming.

He was defeated in battle. Agent 4, the perky little Octoling that had sided with the enemy had knocked his crown off, got her allies into the dome, reclaimed Callie’s voice, nabbed the Great Zapfish, and took the Octo Emperor into custody.

Everything was in place for the Octolings to want to stage revenge, and yet...

Carice looked to her hands. While she would have normally felt the urge to rally up some troops and dive head-first into the Squidbeak’s base, for the first time in her life she didn’t feel as though she needed to spring into action. She frowned and pressed her back against the door, heaving a sigh.

It was as if she could breathe easy for the first time in her life, but that felt so wrong to her. She knew she should do something about the problematic Inklings and their antics to take the precious Zapfish away, however she felt such a lack of need to go and free their emperor. The conflict stewing in her mind made her stomach feel like an unsteady tempest. Until now, she had an undying loyalty to Octavio. A compulsion to serve him, and do whatever it took to help her homeland and people.

What made the difference, now?

Shuffling over to her bunk bed, she flopped unceremoniously onto the stiff lower mattress. She found herself humming the same song she had heard in that stadium just minutes before, breaking the dead quiet of the quarters. It was a good song, and it had wormed its way into her ears like no tune before it.

Carice slipped her shades off of the bridge of her nose, and held them at arm’s length above her head. As she stared into the dark frames, she wondered why she and the others had been wearing these and those bulky goggles for so long. Fashion? A sense of unity? Practicality? She felt like there was a significant reason, but whatever it was had completely lost its edge. Her hands fell to her sides, the frame of the shades still held between her right finger and thumb.

She continued wondering, her mind getting dangerously close to thoughts she never could have imagined before. Could the Octarians manage without Octavio to push progress? They did survive without him for two years, but it wasn’t as if the domes were getting any better in his absence. But with Octavio’s focus on making Octo Weapons and Bosses, were the domes improving much with him around, anyway?

His aggression and frustration with the Inklings were both pushing himself and his people towards war... When most simply wanted peace. Even still, the Inklings weren’t making things any easier, and even when Octavio was out of commission, Carice had to aggressively protect the people that lived in the crumbling domes.

Carice grunted. She pressed her left palm against her forehead and screwed her eyes shut, her nose wrinkling with mild frustration. She wanted to help the Octarians that lived here. She wanted them to live in comfort, to have the sun grace their faces. But what of Octavio? He wanted to take the surface by force. Surely, that could get them what they wanted. But maybe Octavio’s desire for war was... Wrong.

And maybe her loyalty wasn’t to Octavio, but to the Octarians themselves.

If he were to return again, wouldn’t they just keep doing the same thing? Continue to make weapons and steal Zapfish to power them? It hadn’t worked for the past 100 years, what would make the difference now?

But.. All the same, could they really reach the surface without a fight? Carice couldn’t hope to know. Her knowledge of the surface was limited at best, only able to steal glances of it now and again. She knew it was beautiful. She knew it was something to fight for, if need-be... But...

If one cephalopod from the surface could stand to face groups of Octarians alone, she dreaded to think of what it could be like to face an entire army of them.

Shifting slightly, she opened her eyes and stared at the bunk above her. There simply wasn’t an easy answer to this. Her ink felt cold, and now her body was feeling as heavy as her mind. She looked back to the shades held in her hand.

With her thumb she rubbed at a smudge at the edge of the lenses, her brow creasing slightly. What was she to do? Was there anyone else that had felt the same way that she had? She slipped the shades back over her face and rested both hands over her stomach. She considered calling one of her teammates, someone she knew she could trust.

But, she hesitated. Perhaps she should keep this to herself. She was at such a high rank, and held so much respect that she couldn’t stand to have her peers and subordinates see her in a weakened state--especially not after the events of today. There was no room for doubt right now. So why was it that she couldn’t shake her own?

Suddenly, a message came through her shade’s radio, causing her to jump upright in an instant, “Carice!” a voice came through, “Squidbeak Agents 3 and Craig Cuttlefish have been found near the egg processing plant! Backup needed!”

“Copy,” she replied flatly, “I’ll be there in a snap.” Carice sprung to her feet and flew out the door, grabbing an Octoshot and a few Burst Bombs on the way out of the barracks. She had rarely been to the egg processing plant, but she knew how important Power Eggs were to the Octarians.

There was no time to dwell on confused thoughts. One thing was certain: she wasn’t going to let yet another Agent take their other supply of power. If they lost those Power Eggs, it’d spell a disaster for her people! As she rushed to the plant, she tried to shove her own thoughts out of her mind.

Until now, that was always such an easy task...

-----

Thousands of eggs, hundreds of fish. Agent 3 wasn’t at all prepared for what he had seen within the deepest part of the Octarian’s egg processing plant.

At first, it was what he had expected; Power and Golden Eggs being counted, sorted, and processed to be used for energy, and even food for Zapfish. 3 had found this to be more than enough information to relay back to Orabella, the Salmonid who had hired him to collect this information... However, that was until he had found something much more.

Secret entry ways, hidden paths. Skeletons hidden within the belly of the beast, just barely out of reach for the average Inkling. But Agent 3 was no longer your average, every-day squid.

Leaving Cuttlefish to keep watch above, Agent 3 followed after some workers, doing his best to keep hidden. He tried to say close enough to slip between pipes and security that only got more intense the further in they went. He had to weave through machinery, scramble behind walls, and stay in his squid form more than half the time. His hearts were pounding so loudly that he was sure that the Octarians would have been able to hear him...

Finally, when the Octarians reached their destination, 3 hung back for a few minutes, hiding within some pipes to ensure that the coast was clear before he decided to take a look around. The room was spacious and round, and had a walkway that wrapped all the way around the outer wall. A series of doors lined the metal walkway, and at the other end of the room was a set of stairs that led down to the open center. The fluorescent lights above buzzed, leaving the walkway just bright enough to navigate.

Slinking out of his hiding place, 3 looked this way and that before eventually peering over the walkway’s edge, and into the deepest part of the room. There were a series of tubes, all of which were filled with a golden liquid and glowed warmly in the dim lighting.

His ink turned cold when he managed to make out the shape of a handful of them. Were those... Salmonids? The agent hesitated, his brow creasing and his tentacles tensing. They didn’t look quite... Right.

Double-checking his surroundings again, his hearts nearly jumped out of his throat when he heard someone exiting a room nearby. Without thinking twice he slipped through the railing in his squid form, and landed on a crate below with a mighty plop! He hastily hid himself behind the crate, straining his ears for any sign that he had been seen or heard... He could hear the confusion of the Octoling above, however it seemed that, for now, he had avoided detection.

Still, he waited a few minutes before peering over the crate. Eyes widening, he was shocked at what he found within the tubes. It... Was a Salmonid, that much was true. But it looked as though it were growing arms and legs in place of its pectoral and pelvic fins. The others were much the same but at different stages. Some had hands. Some had differently shaped faces. Some lacked tails completely. A few shifted and twitched within their tubes.

3′s mouth had gone dry. He remembered Cuttlefish hearing rumors that the Octarians were working with someone on biological experiments... An external help to make Octotroopers into Octolings. But he thought that it was just on their own people, not another species entirely...!

Dumbfounded and unable to believe what he was seeing, the Inkling found himself reaching for his phone as his beak dropped. He opened the camera, and with trembling hands, he started to take a series of pictures of these odd-looking Salmonid experiments. Without a doubt, this was something Orabella had to see.

After the third or fourth picture, 3 nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the cry of a nearby Octarian. He looked over and saw a group of them, each with an Octoshot wrapped up in their tentas. He nearly dropped his phone as he scrambled to get out of their firing range.

Ripping his radio out of his jacket, 3 cried into the speaker, “Code red, I’ve been spotted! Get moving!” the radio spat out static and 3 swore, however he had no time to confirm if Cuttlefish could have heard him this deep below.

Now grabbing his Hero Shot, 3 had to defend himself as he scrambled past Octarians, gathering Octolings, and security measures. Inking himself a path, he swam through to the other end of the room, trying to focus more on his escape instead of the oddities within the tubes that surrounded him.

Throwing a bomb up over the metal stairs, he skillfully skipped over a number of the steps, eyeing the scattering Octarians as the bomb exploded. Rather than trying to run past them, he grabbed hold of the railing and jumped to the other side, where it was clearer for him to make a break for it.

However that didn’t last very long, as the number of guards and attacking scientists only grew. They spilled out of the doors, attempting to impede his path or threaten him with whatever supplies and weapons they had grabbed in their haste. Skidding to a halt, 3′s gaze darted between these simple workers, and the guards gaining on him from behind. An idea sprung to mind all of the sudden as he spotted an ID tag wrapped around one of the Octarians--the same tag that the others had used to open the doors that led here.

He knew he was going to hate himself for this later...

Rushing forward, the unsuspecting Octarians shouted in surprise and started to back away, their cries only growing louder when the Inkling wrapped both arms firmly around one of the smaller lab workers. The rather scrawny Octotrooper cursed at him, squirming, kicking, and thwacking him with the blunt end of a stapler as the Agent attempted to get them locked into one arm.

The whole room seemed to freeze when the barrel of Agent 3′s Hero Shot was pressed against the side of the Octarian’s head. Sweat dripping down his brow, 3 stared at the group with a cold, hard stare. They returned his stare with equally hard, but far more worried glares. Hearts pounding away in his ears, the agent hoped that they weren’t going to call his bluff...

Backing away, he approached the door. The tension in the air was so terribly thick, that what took mere seconds felt like hours to everyone involved. The moment 3′s heel hit the door, he used the dangling ID card to open it, popped the lanyard off the Octotrooper, dropped them, and ran as fast as he could through the twisting corridors.

Through the last door, 3 was almost home free. However as he looked about to see if there were any soldiers about, he ran into someone and was sent tumbling onto the ground, a familiar voice shouting out in pain.

“Oh! My cuttlebone...!”

3 grunted and shook his head. Once it dawned on him who he had tripped over, he jumped up onto all four legs, “G-gramps?!” he cried. The old cuttlefish was sprawled on the ground, looking a bit dazed, “Oh shoot, I’m sorry!” he scrambled over to help the Captain get back up onto his legs.

Cap’n Cuttlefish wobbled a bit, pressing a hand against his back and shaking the daze out of his eyes, “Hooh! You right near gave me a heart attack, young’n!”

“S-sorry!” 3 puffed, looking around, “I thought you had already escaped...!”

“Ah, yes!!” Cuttlefish went on to say, “I found a fire escape, that should take us right outside!” with the end of his Bamboozler, he pointed the way.

“G-got it! Let’s go, now!”

-----

There were fewer Octolings ready to battle than normal. It was as if half of the soldiers hadn’t received a call to action, leaving their numbers quite thin. A number of Octarians came in their stead, but...

Carice didn’t know what to think of this. Where could everyone have gone? Did they miss the call? Were they hunting after Agent 4 and Octavio? Could they have possibly been facing the same doubts as she had?

Her boots sank into the muddy earth as she charged past her fellow soldiers, a notable sense of dread looming over their heads like a brewing storm. It was clear that they too were worried about their current numbers. Every soldier knew well that when an Agent was threatening their livelihoods, they needed to be on the defensive. Especially after what happened with Octavio earlier that afternoon.

“Ah, Carice!” a Twintacle darted up to her, flagging her down by waving a tenta in the air, “We were trying to take down the Squidbeak Soldiers when we had completely lost track of them once they got outside!” he bowed his head, tightly closing his eyes with regret, “I’m very sorry!”

“Okay.” came the Octoling’s reply, “Do you have any idea what he was doing in the processing plant?”

The Octarian hesitated, shrinking back a bit, “Um.”

An Octocommander in a lab coat spoke up quickly, “He was sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, perhaps planning to steal another source of our power.” his face grew intense, “He escaped before he managed to get his filthy tentacles on anything.”

Carice nodded, “Got it...” she mused briefly, placing a hand to her chin. She always wondered what all was in the plant, but she rarely ever looked. Power Eggs, surely, but other than to feed a Zapfish, what business did the Squidbeaks have there? She shrugged off her own questions and returned to the matter at hand, “You fought your hardest and called for backup. That’s the best thing you can do when it comes to the Agents.”

The Twintacle seemed relieved that he didn’t get chewed out for this failure. He looked up to her with a tiny smile on his purple lips. The Octocommander on the other hand, returned to the plant.

Diving straight into things, Carice squared her shoulders and took charge of the group by calling them to order. Once she had their attention she said, “We need to find those Squidbeak soldiers.” the others nodded in agreement. She pointed to a pair of Octarians, “You two patrol the surrounding area. Call us if you see anything suspicious.”

When the pair nodded in reply, she started to divide the Octolings and Octarians into groups of two to four, “Group A, you head north, group B, I’d like for you to head south.” she clapped her hands together, “Group D, head east, and group C will come with me to the west. Fan out, but keep close to each other if anything happens. ”

Carice had decided that no other Squidbeak Agent was going to get away with effective murder today. Either they were going to be driven out permanently, or they were going to be taken as prisoners. It was only fair, after all. Perhaps they could work out a deal with the remaining Squidbeak Soldiers to get their emperor back on the throne.

That was what was needed for her people, right? A strong leader that would help them get to the surface? Even now, Carice still had a cloud of doubt clogging up her thoughts. Why was she struggling with this so much?

Now, to convey this idea to her soldiers, “Try to not splat them,” she instructed, “Capture both of them, and bring them back here.” she thrust her right fist into her left palm, “If they’re going to take our leader into custody, then we’ll take theirs.” she threw a hand into the air, “Dismissed!”

The soldiers saluted and called, “Roger!” before executing their orders. With a satisfied nod, she motioned for her group to follow after her.

Carice ushered her group to fan out, and started to hunt for the Squidbeak Soldiers. Nowhere to be seen, the Inklings were always a slippery sort, squeezing between your fingers and getting away at a moment’s notice. However, it wasn’t until now that she had thought about how strange it was for Cuttlefish to be here as well. Wasn’t he always just out of reach, feeding instructions and input to his little agents? Of what she had seen of him, he was hardly in any shape to go into battle.

Inking a path she swam past her teammates, her keen, brown eyes shrewdly tracking down the bright yellow ink that Agent 3 typically had. Traces of his ink could be seen--a few signs of fights here and there from when she had initially gotten the call, but for the most part, the evidence pointed to him trying to high-tail it out of the area.

In a strange turn of events, the Octarians couldn’t help but notice that Agent 3 had started to take paths that would make it so he could avoid splatting anyone. He’d run, swim and dodge his way out of trouble nearly every time, and it made him difficult to pin down. He was quite good at subduing his opponent, but he rarely ever took the option to splat. Carice could never understand this--she knew from experience that he was a horrifically skilled fighter once he applied himself. So why was it that, even now, he took the path of the coward?

That hardly mattered. He was causing a problem, and it needed to be taken care of.

Jumping out of her ink, Carice realized she had lost the trail. Blast, where did those stinking cephalopods go?! She surveyed her surroundings, looking for any signs of oddly colored ink or out-of-place footprints. Perhaps she had gone the wrong way, and 3 had managed to give her the slip. Just her luck today... Things really were going from bad to worse. Was this planned? She almost couldn’t put it past them.

It was about time she went back to regroup. Turning back the way she came, her ears caught the sound of some voices whispering nearby. Narrowing her eyes and straining her ears, Carice tried to determine if she was just hearing things, or if the Squidbeaks were nearby. It could have also been a group of allies, however she wanted to be certain before moving on.

With careful footsteps and her gun at the ready, she crept closer to the source of the sound. Her body was tightly wound like a spring, however it seemed as though the case were the same for her targets.

Out of a nearby bush, Craig Cuttlefish sprung into view shouting, “Y-yo-you’ll not be taking me today, Octarian!” and the moment he had enough footing, he fired his Bamboozler.

Covered in rust-colored ink but no worse for wear, Carice took a few steps back and fired herself, “I found the Squidbeaks!” she barked into her radio, spurting off the coordinates with each shot she took at the old captain.

While she had nailed the older cephalopod with a few bullets, his cohort, Agent 3, appeared from the woodwork and used a tattered old cape to shield the captain from fire. He quickly ordered Cuttlefish to stay low, then threw his cape behind him, flinging red ink everywhere. Hero Shot in hand, he shot Carice a serious look before taking aim.

Diving into her ink, Carice dodged the first barrage of bullets. She sped off in the opposite direction when she heard a bomb flying towards her, flecks of ink from the explosion scattering all about. Jumping out of cover, she surveyed the area for the agent, however he was out of sight, likely hiding in ink himself.

Throwing two Burst Bombs in succession, she managed to weed him out from behind a rock, and in no time at all the two were firing at each other. Breaking herself out of the heat of the battle, she realized: she didn’t want to splat him, not just yet. Taking a few hits, she dove into her ink and hid behind a crumbled wall, ready to throw a bomb the second that 3 came near. If she could at least break his shield, he’d be easier to subdue...

A few seconds had flown by, and just as she had determined, 3 had made his way towards her. Leaping into the air she threw one Burst Bomb, which nailed him directly in the face. The Inkling shouted as his shield broke, reeling backwards as he wiped the ink and off his face and rubbed the stars out of his eyes. Now was her chance!

Gripping his armed hand with a firm grip, Carice grinned beakily when she heard the footsteps of soldiers drawing near, “Alright, Agent 3!” in his surprise of hearing Inklish, she took the opportunity to drop her own weapon and grab his free hand, “You’ve got nowhere to run!” without looking to see who had approached, she barked, “Okay soldiers! Help me bring 3 into custody! Someone go grab Captain Cuttlefish,” she used her head to motion to where the captain was hiding, “He’s in that bush, there!

It was then that she noticed the stupor on 3′s ink-stained face. He was staring wide-eyed at the soldiers behind the Octoling, a look of worry and confusion slowly creeping across his face. Blinking, Carice was tempted to demand why no one had listened to her order, but held her tongue as she glanced over her shoulder.

Those... Weren’t her subordinates.

Pale green skin, deep blue tentas tipped in a bright, acidic green, and a striking smell of cleaner that accosted Carice’s nose. A small army had suddenly surfaced out of nowhere, and they were nothing like Carice had ever seen. They certainly dressed like Octavio’s army, however it was glaringly obvious that these were not under the Octo Emperor’s ruling.

One lifted her weapon, a Splat Charger, and aimed it between 3′s eyes, “Target found.” she said with a robotic tone. The Inkling tensed.

Hearts leaping out of her chest, Carice let go of 3, throwing their arms apart in the process. She stumbled back as a bolt of fluorescent ink shot between them. Unknown soldiers and unknown ink. She had seen similar colors, but this stuff almost looked alive as it plummeted to the ground.

Meanwhile, 3 hardly hesitated to dive back into his ink. He called out to Cuttlefish to get moving, worry striking his face as he quickly realized the elder may have some trouble keeping up. His shield recovered as he swam, however he had a strange feeling that this wasn’t going to help him very much...

Confused as to what was going on, Carice wasn’t sure if she should deal with these strange soldiers, or continue after 3--

Her question was soon answered, as the Splat Charger was now targeting her. Inhaling sharply she dove into her octopus form, the strange ink dangerously close as it sailed over her head.

“Seek and destroy,” the first Octoling stated. With a nearly mechanical shout, the rest of the Octolings charged forward, splitting off into two groups; one to go after Agent 3, and one to go after Carice.

Scrambling to get her Octoshot, Carice managed to fire down a soldier that had gotten a little too close for her liking, and instead of splatting as she had expected, their body evaporated into a mess of pixels, almost like a digital glitch.

Carice’s ink turned cold. What were these?

No time to dwell on the oddity--where one had been splatted, two more were in their place. Hearts pounding, she attempted to call for backup again, dreading to think that these strange Octolings had taken out her group...

3 wasn’t fairing much better. While the captain could fight for the most part, the Bamboozler wasn’t exactly the strongest of weapons out there. In trying to take down these weird Octolings, protect Cuttlefish, and maintain his own ink levels, the Inkling found himself quickly overwhelmed by these numbers. Where were they coming from?!

In a panic, he executed a Splashdown, splatting a good number of the soldiers, and knocking back a few others. A quick reprieve, if nothing else.

“Huh?” Cuttlefish cried out of nowhere, “Look there, that girl is fighting them, too!” he pointed through the parted sea of soldiers.

Looking about, 3′s eyes eventually landed on the Octoling that had nearly trapped him. She had at least five soldiers surrounding her, and it appeared as though she had started to resort to melee moves as her ink tank depleted.

3′s brow creased, “Wait,” he huffed, slightly out of breath, “Why is she fighting them?” he continued to puff, “Aren’t they Octolings, too?”

As more soldiers approached, 3 was met with a dilemma. He had to get Cuttlefish out to safety, but, if he was being honest with himself, he couldn’t leave this girl high and dry either... Even if she was an enemy. He swore under his breath, shooting down a few more soldiers. He hadn’t any space to think, and he was almost out of ink!

“Captain!” he called, “What do we do?!”

“We run away!” the elder cried, firing his Bamboozler rapidly. He was getting much too old for this.

“But what about her?”

Cap’n Cuttlefish knew Agent 3 well. He knew that there wasn’t much point in trying to argue with him when he got an idea in his head. The boy valued the lives of the Octarians as much as he valued the lives of the Inklings--so to tell him to just abandon this struggling girl in the heat of battle was likely not something that would sit well with the young agent.

“Uh...!”

SPLAT! The sound of a direct hit of a Splat Charger rang through the area, accompanied by the sound of 3′s armor breaking. Flecks of the strange-colored ink scattered over the elder inkfish. With a look of horror in his wide eyes, he called out in shock when he saw Agent 3 toppling over. Before he could even reach out, he was swarmed by pale green hands.

Despite her efforts and best fighting, Carice stood no chance against these numbers. She was out of ink, out of bombs, out of breath, and out of time. The splotches of ink that were splattered across her skin stung, and finally, she gave in to the swarm. Her consciousness slipped away, the Calamari Inkantation ringing in her ears one last time as numerous hands and faces made her vision fade to black.

#NILS Destroyer #Zapfish Protector #Agent Stories

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small-leviathan · 6 years

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The themes of the Splatoon series

(Heads up, this essay analysing Splatoon is literally 2300 words long. You’re gonna be for a while if you decide to stick around.)

In case you've missed it until now, Splatoon has taken the world by storm. Nintendo's cephalopod-based multiplayer shooter series has sold almost 12 million copies across two games in just about three years, and as a result of this still young franchise has cemented itself as one of the legendary Japanese game developer's new hallmark series. Nintendo seems inclined to agree, as Splatoon's central Inkling characters have been featured prominently in the marketing for their latest game in the prestigious crossover series, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, with the Inkling girl even earning a prominent spot on the game's cover art alongside titans like Mario, Donkey Kong and Link.

So perhaps some of you would scoff at the idea that Splatoon has a deeper message behind it than it first appears. Nintendo isn't really known for baking thought-provoking stuff into their games, and this seems like it'd be doubly true for a game that is first-and-foremost a competitive multiplayer shooter. I don't know if I'll be able to convince you otherwise, honestly, but I do sincerely believe that Splatoon has something to say and in this essay, I will explain why I believe that to be the case, and just what that thing is.

Let's start by describing the most important elements of Splatoon's narrative, and just as a heads up, I think it goes without saying that I will be spoiling pretty much every major reveal across all of Splatoon 1, Splatoon 2, and its DLC, Octo Expansion. Splatoon is set twelve thousand years after global warming and environmental pollution has wiped out mankind as well as most mammals. Having taken our place is a large assortment of evolved sea critters, including crabs, jellyfish and most prominently, cephalopods. Squids and octopi alike have evolved the ability to shift into humanoid forms, becoming known as inklings and octarians, respectively. Unfortunately, our squishy successors didn't get along very well, as rising sea levels forced them into a violent conflict known as the Great Turf Wars. This conflict was eventually won by the Inklings, letting them claim the surface while the octarians were forced into hiding in great underground cities.

Splatoon proper takes place a hundred years later, and the Octarians have been reduced to just a distant memory in the mind of Inkling society. Trouble is brewing under the surface, however, as the leader of the Octarians, DJ Octavio, is planning an attack on the hub city of Inklingkind, Inkopolis. The player takes control of a customizable inkling who is recruited by the military veteran Cap'n Cuttlefish to help take down the Octarian menace before they can start their campaign. Along the way the player, now dubbed as "Agent 3", is helped not only by Cap'n Cuttlefish, but by his granddaughters Agent 1 and Agent 2, who are eventually revealed to be the two members of the pop idol duo The Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie (to no one's surprise, the game does not try very hard to conceal their identities). Long story short, Agent 3 defeats the Octarians, ending in a grand battle against DJ Octavio. The Octarian threat is defeated and DJ Octavio is captured, with inkling society none the wiser.

Splatoon 2 unfolds two years after the events of the first game, and a lot has changed. Callie and Marie have drifted apart, following a popularity contest ending in Marie's favour, and taking their place as the number one musical act is a new duo known as Off the Hook, consisting of the rapper Pearl and the DJ Marina (who looks suspiciously like an Octarian, but more on that later). Marie discovers that DJ Octavio has escaped his containment, and now alone due to Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3 having gone on a new mission and Callie suddenly disappearing in the midst of a trip, she is forced to follow her grandfather's footsteps and recruit a new Agent, this one being our new playable character, Agent 4. Not much is different from that point onward, except for the eventual reveal that DJ Octavio is responsible for Callie's disappearance, having kidnapped her after he escaped and is now brainwashing her with a pair of hypnotic sunglasses. Nonetheless, Callie is saved and DJ Octavio is defeated once again.

You might be wondering why I bothered to explain all of the plot of Splatoon's singleplayer content, and the reason for that is that I believe that understanding all of this is necessary to explain the first and most important of Splatoon's themes: The positive power of pop culture and self-expression.

Splatoon heavily encourages that the player uses its system to express themselves. Aside from having character creation, there is an emphasis on fashion, both in the culture of the inklings themselves and in the gameplay proper, with the player having access to a wide variety of clothes, headwear and shoes with which to accessorize their characters. It might be easy, perhaps even tempting, to read this in a cynical manner and characterize inklings as a bunch of shallow trend-chasers, slaves to consumerist fads built to wring as much cash out of them as possible. And this interpretation is, in all honesty, valid, but it's certainly not a philosophical standpoint that Splatoon itself agrees with. The game encourages mixing and experimenting with its fashions, but all of that fashion is bought with a currency that you earn by playing the multiplayer game, which in-universe is explained to be a kind of competitive shooting sport, not unlike paintball, that seems to be the hyperfixation of every single inkling teen like the player character. It's a bit hard to read the game's take on fashion as cynical when you literally earn money by doing something you were not only going to do anyway but were also actively seeking out and enjoying. The multiplayer mode itself is also encouraging self-expression, in a way, due to there being a wide variety of weapons available, all of which feel distinct and unique, allowing the player find the ones they like the most and use only those. This isn't "do tireless work to keep spending money", it's "do the things you like to get the things you like." And I feel like that is a very clear subversion of consumerist culture, unless you feel like pointing out that Splatoon itself is something you have to spend money on to play and therefore it is inherently a part of consumerist culture, in which case, alright then, Holden Caulfield, don't you have anything better to do?

Moving on, there is also a massive focus on music in the setting, with a lot of different fictional bands, all of which sound completely unlike each other. Crucially, the "pop music" in Splatoon is not as heavily standardized as our own pop music is, in Inkopolis everything from the Bottom Feeders' Celtic rock to Chirpy Chips' chiptune to Diss-Pair's... whatever they are, can find mainstream success and popularity. Perhaps the most telling sign that Splatoon thinks music is important is that all of the most important characters are artists, from Callie and Marie to Pearl and Marina and even the antagonist himself, DJ Octavio.

That said, there is a very important distinction to be made here. In an interview with Famitsu from 2015, series art director Seita Inoue stated that the music that plays during the singleplayer levels is composed by DJ Octavio and his subordinates, and that "it’s like the Octo side broadcasts their music in order to control the many Octarians.” When this is combined with the fact that DJ Octavio uses a pair of sunglasses to brainwash Callie, I think it's clear that the true face of his villainy is shown. DJ Octavio isn't just the antagonist because he's the final boss, but because he takes music and fashion, which the game has established as ways in which to express personal freedom, and repurposes them as tools of control and oppression. DJ Octavio is literally the antithesis of Inkling society and Inkling values.

There is one final point I want to make, but it requires delving into Octo Expansion a bit to explore, so we'll start that now. Octo Expansion is the paid singleplayer DLC for Splatoon 2, adding a pretty sizable new story campaign. In this new story, the player takes the role of an Octoling (the Octarian equivalent of an Inkling, though I will be using two terms rather interchangeably in the rest of the essay) who wakes up in an underground subway with no memories. Here, they meet Cap'n Cuttlefish, who explains that they had been in a fight with him and Agent 3 before all three of them got swept away to the locale they are now in. As Agent 3 has gone missing, Cap'n Cuttlefish teams up with our amnesiac player character to find a way out of the subway, giving them the nickname Agent 8 in the process. Along the way, the two of them end up coming into contact with Pearl and Marina, the previously mentioned music duo, who resolve to help Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish escape. A lot of things happen between the start and beginning of the story, but I want to focus on the most important revelation: Marina is revealed to have been a high-ranking member of the Octarian military who deserted after the final battle between Agent 3 and DJ Octavio in Splatoon 1, and was inspired to become an artist after hearing the Squid Sisters perform their iconic hit song Calamari Inkantation, the very same song that was stated to have inspired Agent 8's desertion as well. Calamari Inkantation was always played up as being a very special song, as said by Marina herself: "Once our souls have been freed, there's no way we can continue to live under the oppression of Octarian society."

So at this point, it's not even subtextual but literally textual, Splatoon sincerely believes that music has liberating properties, able to make people realize that they're being held back by societal structures and also gain the willpower to break free of those shackles. The lines are very clearly drawn here: In Inkopolis music and fashion are ways in which people express themselves and therefore it is an idyllic and diverse place, but Octarian society is an oppressive dystopia where these things are used to control the populace. To really hammer the point home, in the final battle of Octo Expansion, in which the very fate of the world hangs in the balance, the day is saved by Pearl and Marina (and Agent 8) working together and combining their talents and technology to destroy the giant superweapon threatening their home. The world is literally saved by a pair of musicians. It doesn't get more explicit than that.

There are two more themes I think Splatoon play with, but to a much lesser extent than the one previously mentioned. The first of these is the importance of moving on and not being stuck in the past. This is an explicit character trait in both of the central antagonists. DJ Octavio, who was the leader of the Octarians in the Great Turf Wars a hundred years ago, has been holding a grudge against the inklings for all this time when he could have been focusing on trying to improve his people’s living conditions, or even broker peace with the Inklings, who clearly don't have an issue with a bunch of Octolings running around following the events of Octo Expansion. The second case study is the antagonist from Octo Expansion, Commander Tartar. An ancient AI built by a human scientist before their extinction to pass on their knowledge to whatever species inherited the world to come, Commander Tartar fails this mission because it holds humans on such a high pedestal that it sees the flaws of the Inklings and Octarians as proof they aren't worthy to pass the torch to, and resolves to wipe them both out and create its own "perfect species" instead. Additionally, I think it's worth mentioning that the weapon it plans do this is with is a repurposed statue resembling a Greek marble bust, a relic of the past that becomes a literal metaphor for how Commander Tartar's mindset is destructive.

The second of these themes is the recurring motif that despite all of their differences and their conflicts Inklings and Octarians become complete when working together. The first sign of this is their opposite traits as species, Inklings are energetic, flighty and have a short attention span while Octarians are more serious, work-focused and obedient. It's pretty clear that both could stand to learn from each other's positive traits, and a bit of dialogue from Marina in Octo Expansion implies that she hopes as much. Off the Hook themselves are also an example of this theme in action, Pearl had trouble finding herself as an artist and was not doing very well before meeting Marina, and it's through Pearl that Marina gains the chance to follow her dream, and their cooperation makes them so successful that they become Inkopolis' number one artists. This theme is also a part of the final battle of Octo Expansion, as mentioned earlier, as it is the cooperation of Inklings and Octarians that saves the day.

If there's anything to take away from this overly wordy essay, it's this: Splatoon wants you to know that there is no shame in enjoying "shallow" pop culture, that there is meaning even in things not deemed "high culture". Splatoon wants you to know that the value of something lies not in the value of its production, but in what it expresses and the joy it brings to the people observing it, and the people making it.

Because to Splatoon, these simple things have the power to unite, to free us, and ultimately to save the world.

And personally? I think that's a pretty worthwhile message.

#splatoon #splatoon 2

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bellygunnr · 5 years

Text

The Music is Muffled

<= Previous Chapter | Ao3 | Chapter Three (pending)

The basement Yellow-Green had commandeered for their team meetings had since become theirs entirely. It looked well lived in, the walls plastered with posters and various maps which in turn were covered with marker. A dry-erase board had been erected at one end of the concrete room and, currently, they all sat Knight-style at a round table. Since Rider's departure, the head was left empty, but now it was occupied by Stealth.

Bamboo set her hat on the floor, in conjunction with Stealth casting aside his goggles.

"That was definitely Rider."

"Yes, well, we got that when Goggles took him home," Bamboo said tightly. She drummed her fingers across the surface of the wooden table. "He looked so... ill. Sick!"

"I've never seen anything like it before," Blazer said. "And the way he was acting..."

"Do you guys remember when Blue Team disappeared for a while? And Rider, too?"

"Goggles said they lost Rider down there," Blazer said slowly.

Stealth leans back in his chair, the lenses of his goggles flickering on and off. He was prone to fidgeting with the settings dial when thinking.

"I don't think they lost him. I think they ran away from him."

Now that was a new concept-- one they hadn't considered before. Silence falls over the table as they all look at each other. Each of them remembers distinctly how Blue Team, and the Octolings they brought with them, behaved.

It had started with a text message..

Bamboo. Can you come over? With the others.

Bamboo has to fish her phone out of the blankets from which it had been entangled. Blazer still snoozed, undisturbed, her limbs spread akimbo as she snored. She grumbles to herself as again, the phone vibrates, this time with the urgent pulse of a call. A number she saw rarely-- Goggles.

Confused, she blearily answers the phone, willing something to spike her into wakefulness.

“Hello…?”

“Blazer! Thank cod you woke up. Um, something happened. We really need you to get Yellow-Green and come over. Have you heard anything from Rider in the oh, past… uh… how long were we down there?”

There’s a murmur of voices and Bamboo’s anxiety spikes. Drowsiness still pulls at her but it’s less acute now.

“...Rider hasn’t been around for a couple of days,” Bamboo cuts in. “We’ve been looking everywhere for him! Even his Dynamo is gone.”

“A-- a couple days? Guess we were down there for awhile! Well, um, can you please get everyone to come over? You know where my place is, right?”

Goggles sounded… anxious, unsure of himself. Bamboo swallows and starts to nod, only speaking when she remembers it’s a phone call. “Yeah! Yeah, absolutely. We’ll all be there. Is everything okay? Is Rider okay?”

She rubs over Blazer’s shoulder as she notes her girlfriend beginning to move.

“I’ll see you soon, Bamboo.”

And the call goes dead with a soft blip.

“Who was that, babe?”

“It was Goggles. He wants us to come over-- I don’t know why, but it sounds serious. You up for coming with?”

“Weren’t we going to look for Rider today…?”

“Blue Team may have done that for us.”

They had never been to Goggles’ house before, but they were fairly certain it wasn’t supposed to feel like this. The air was tight but somber, heavy with something that Bamboo could have cut with her carving knife. Hell, she could have made hundreds of little sculptures out of the tension in the air. Her ears folded back against her head as Yellow-Green was ushered inside.

“Thanks for coming so soon, guys. It means a lot.”

“Y- yeah, no problem,” Bamboo says. “Who are they?”

Inside the tiny studio apartment, six Inklings were crammed, all of them dressed weirdly but two of them sticking out more than the others. Bamboo stares at them with critical, appraising eyes, skin prickling with apprehension. Even their tentacles were strange-- a bright, glossy pink-red, their suckers facing outward.

Almost Inklings. Yet not quite.

“Th- this is Hachi and Nana! Um, we rescued them from… from a really bad guy, way underground.”

“Underground?” Stealth cuts in.

“It’s called the Deep Sea Metro,” one of the strange Inklings says. Their tentacles are arranged in pretty, dancing locks. “My name is Nana. Hachi and I used to be Octarian soldiers before being freed by the Inkantation. I assume you are familiar?”

“The Calamari Inkantation,” Stealth clarifies. “Yes, of course. One of our oldest traditional songs.”

“Correct. Well, shortly after being freed, I was captured and held prisoner by.... By someone--”

“Something,” Specs hissed.

“Someone named Tartar,” Nana finishes firmly.

“And I woke up alone. An ancient squiddo named Cap’n Cuttlefish met me first. Something had knocked me cold-- but I apparently escaped being captured. It wasn’t long before we met Goggles down there.”

Nana’s friend-- Hachi, Bamboo surmised-- had a low, clear voice that told her many things. Her ears flipped out from their folded position.

“And when I met Hachi… we met the Phone.”

Blazer cuts in, frustrated, stepping ahead of the rest of Yellow-Green. “None of this explains where Rider went, you know!”

“We have to tell you everything else!” Hachi exclaims. “Or else you won’t understand the severity of the situation!”

“We don’t understand the situation now! Why are we supposed to believe you guys, huh?”

“Because Rider was with us--! He was with us through the whole thing, and we failed him, and he’s stuck down there and now we don’t know where he’s at, and we’re sorry, we’re really sorry! None of us could do anything! That stupid Tartar got the better of all of us!”

Goggles’ outburst was loud, wobbling with the wet bubbling of an Inkling in distress.

“Rider was with us! He bought us time to escape! Then there was this whole other thing and- and- and we had to save Inkopolis, it was really scary, but we managed to do it but Rider wasn’t there because we failed him! Okay?! We lost him!”

Bobble puts her arm around Goggles’ shoulders, hugging him close.

“It’s hard to believe that all happened in only a few days,” Specs says breathlessly. “It was… really scary.”

“We are not afraid to admit that it was terrifying,” Nana says solemnly. “Rider was-- was a good Inkling, for what little… I saw of him.”

“He’s still alive!” Headphones hisses, smacking the Octoling’s shoulder. Goggles had his face buried in Bobble’s shoulder, clearly suppressing tears.

“Cod, this is a fucking mess, isn’t it?” Bamboo snarks. “Are you saying you got our team captain killed?”

“No! Never,” Hachi bursts out. “Your Rider made a sacrifice, miss, but I promise you he is not dead.”

Nana shoots Hachi a look that Bamboo couldn’t hope to interpret.

As soon as Goggles ushered Rider into his home, Rider fled from his grasp, diving into the first room he saw-- the bathroom. The door closes with a loud slam, then a soft click, and Goggles is left staring at the empty space with confused shock. Tentatively, he follows after his partner, pressing his ear against the thin door.

There’s the sound of retching.

“Ri-- Ri, are you okay? Do you need anything?”

The retching doesn’t last long-- maybe five minutes-- but by the time it’s over, Goggles is trembling, nails digging into the palms of his hands. He gasps with relief when he hears the sound of rushing water, indicating that Rider was trying to clean himself up. He knocks on the door with three gentle taps.

“Rider…?”

“M-- Mmm, fine,” a voice mumbles. The door swings open.

“You are not fine! You are so bad! You’re gonna kill me, Rider!” Goggles cries. “We’re getting you some water and you need to lie down!”

Rider whines at the loud voice, pawing at his ears with long, unkempt claws, shoving past Goggles with a groan. He’s wincing and flinching beneath the overhead light. He unceremoniously falls to the floor, burying his face into his tattered vest.

“It’s too warm,” he complains. I want to be back underground! It’s nice and cool and quiet…!

“Then let me cool it down…”

Goggles… busies himself, because if he doesn’t, he will cry. He drags out the futon that he sleeps with, setting it within the AC’s line of flow, and guides Rider into it. He kneels down beside him, offering a single upturned palm to show that he wants-- no, needs-- to interact with him physically.

“Please, big guy? Let’s get those old clothes off you, okay?”

Rider unfurls just slightly, enough for Goggles to get a hold of his gear. The jacket is unzipped and unfastened, which proves not to be overly difficult as most of the fastenings are worn and torn. He slides the heavy gear from Rider’s shoulders, leaving a plain sweater. It’s bright red.

“Where’s your black jacket, bud?”

He receives no response except violent shivering.

Goggles sighs and coaxes Rider into lying down.

“I’m just glad you’re back…”

“Do you think Hachi knows that we found Rider? Maybe we should tell him…”

This idea comes from Blazer, wily and impressive always. She slams her phone down onto the table, the Octoling’s contact information already pulled up. A determined light dances in her eyes.

“They have to know something, right? They can help us fix Rider!”

“I think… that would work. What do you think, Stealth?”

Stealth nods very slowly. “It really can’t hurt. Then tomorrow… we should check on Goggles and Rider. I’m worried.”

Blazer dials Hachi shortly after their agreement, fang digging into her lip. Silence becomes heavy and suffocating in their little basement, threatening to choke her, until finally, an accented “Hello?” comes through the other side.

“H- Hachi! Hello, I know this is sudden-- are you free? Something happened, uh…”

“Oh, Miss Blazer? Well, Headphones already told me. About your Captain, yes?”

“O- Oh? Did… she? Yes, Rider uh-- came back today. He looked really…”

“Sanitized. Yes. You should come over. The others are already here. Nana will add you all to the group chat.”

“Thank you, Hachi…”

And the call goes dead with a soft blip.

“Guess we’re going to Hachi’s! Blue Team is already there,” Blazer says with forced cheeriness. But she couldn't help but think-- what the hell was "sanitized?"

“AGENT. You’re beginning to upset me-- bring that blue pest and his friends to me! Enough of this weakling act.”

#Splatoon #splatoon coroika #yellow green team #gogglesrider #agent 8 #sanitized au

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superjumpintomyheart · 6 years

Text

Thunderbolts and Lightning (Marina x Pearl)

Marina was one of the best combat engineers in the octarian military, and when she went AWOL, Octavio had one less person working to make him more powerful. He had to reuse ideas from his previous machinery to try and upgrade his gear, but it could never be as good as what that combat engineer could create for him. After he kidnapped Callie and the New Squidbeak Splatoon put him back in a snow globe, he heard the Squid Sisters talking about a group called Off the Hook. He heard the name Marina and his interest was piqued, that was the name of his combat engineer that went missing so long ago... could it really be her?

As he continued to eavesdrop on their conversations, he learned more about Off the Hook and that Marina was indeed an octoling. It wasn’t until one afternoon when the duo showed up in the canyon to visit their friends that Octavio knew for sure Marina was his engineer. He’d recognize her unique tentacles anywhere, someone so talented could never leave his mind. No, not like that, he wasn’t that bad of a guy, he needed her for his weapons, his arsenal, for octarian society itself, not... reproduction. She avoided his gaze, doing her best to ignore him but he saw the nervous glances she shot his way. If he could lure her back in somehow he could have everything he had ever wanted in the past three years since she disappeared, and he knew just how to do it.

It took months of planning and secret contact with soldiers from his army, but eventually they would kidnap Pearl and turn her against Marina, forcing her to come back to where she began. Callie’s kidnapping was merely a test run compared to this new plan, it was well thought through and detailed, dare he say fool proof. Octavio was well aware that he’d need to go deeper with the brainwashing rather than just a pair of shades, how he would do that was undetermined yet, but he had teams of people working on a fully developed plan, he trusted his elites to come up with something good. And boy did they, electroshock therapy was the final conclusion after they learned of Pearl’s accident when she got electrocuted, they decided to use the weakness of her fear against her.

They had successfully captured Pearl and broke Octavio free in one swift mission, the team of octolings hardly making a sound in the night. An invisible kettle lead them to what Pearl thought resembled something that was a cross between a training ground and a prison. When they locked her up in a cell though, she was leaning more towards the prison definition.

It was a generic block cell, concrete floors and walls, iron bar doors to keep her inside, and tally marks on the walls from previous prisoners who were counting down the days until they were free. Maybe she should start her own tally mark calendar, if this was going to be her jail experience, why not do it all?

Her time in the cell was short, maybe a day at the most, until a pair of black-tentacled octolings arrived and moved her to a different room. It was far away from the other rooms, located on the lowest level of the facility. She had a very bad feeling about this, not only the fact that she was being held captive by Marina’s former boss and biggest threat to Inkopolis, but this room had to be so isolated for a reason. Was it a torture room? A secret place to keep her hidden from anyone who would come to save her? Both?

The door opened, reveling a small room with a separate control-like room, visible through thick panes of glass, and a single chair. There was another door that looked like it lead to the control room, but it was under strict security. Pearl examined the chair, hesitantly wondering if it did what she thought it would.

There was no more time to ponder, however, and she was being pushed into the uncomfortable metal furniture and locked in. Maybe it was just to keep her in place, that control panel was for something different, right? She felt her heartbeat quicken as she lost control of her body, unable to move from the chair or get away from the people surrounding her.

Octavio was smirking as his plan unfolded, seeing the fear in the girl’s eyes brought him a reassurance that this plan would go well. Soon he’d have his best engineer back, and maybe a little inkling soldier too.

The two octolings who had been Pearl’s escorts entered the control room where Octavio was, standing on either side of him. He nodded to them, “Good work girls, and welcome Pearl.”

“As if I want to be here with you psychopaths.”

The DJ shook his head, “Here’s how things are going to work around here, if you obey us, things are going to be a lot easier than if you choose to fight. Because you already have shown some resistance, we’re going to give you a little taste of what will happen if you continue to act this way.”

There were a few beeping noises, some movement, and then a sudden pulse of electricity. No, no, no, cod damnit not again. Flashbacks ran through her mind, the shock that had ruined her all those years ago was all she could feel, the intensity of that one shock was enough to destroy her body’s growth cycle and leave her permanently stuck in her current body. She couldn’t help the scream that escaped her throat, though it was short lived as the electricity suddenly vanished and she was left shaking from both fear and aftershock.

“Look, I’ll do what you want just don’t go near that panel again, fuck all of you-” Pearl tried to reason with her kidnappers, who didn’t seem to be taking any shit from her. Each of her snarky comments were followed by short controlled shocks, nothing that would damage her in the long run. They still did plan to use the hypnoshades, the electrocution was more of tool to help speed up the process and hopefully make it more effective.

Octavio exited the control room, leaving his two guards to take care of the shocking mechanism. He shot a devious look at Pearl, telling her before he exited the room, “You might as well make yourself comfortable in that chair, your little friends won’t be coming after you for a long time.”

“That’s what you think, they’ll find me before you can even step foot into your over glorified office, they’ll save me just you wait!”

Pearl did not, in fact, make herself comfortable. She would protest and scream and kick and fight, but all to no avail as each action they disapproved of was treated with more shocks and more locks to keep her still. There were bars around her torso and biceps, her thighs and calves, leaving her utterly helpless against the chair.

She lost track of time too quickly, only telling time by when there was a soldier by the control panel or not. They would come in once each day to give her food, and they worked in shifts to watch and (attempt to) train her. The training was useless, as long as she still had free will in her mind, they’d never break her. They obviously hadn’t heard of the MC Princess down here, she was too tough and stubborn to ever give in to their oppressive beliefs. Even if it meant getting continuously electrocuted, her fears weren’t enough to scare her into submission.

After what felt like an eternity of octolings trying to change her morals and beliefs, she was shaking, her veins prominent against her pale skin and eyes bloodshot from crying. She was weak and drained of all the energy she had, too tired to argue and deal with the pain of the shocks.

The sound of the heavy metal door opening made her ears ring, steel scraping against concrete and rusty hinges, revealing an elite octoling with a pair of sunglasses. The glasses looked mechanical, she couldn’t see what was so special about them though, that was until they were put on her. They forced her to see differently, quite literally, the octoling in front of her now registered as an ally as well as Octavio and the rest of the army. She thought she could now hear a dubstep beat playing in the distance too, it was entrancing, she’d do anything to hear more of that song.

“How do you feel?” The soldier asked, giving a sly smile to the inkling.

“Different,” Pearl replied.

“Good, that’s how you’re supposed to feel. Now, about your little friend...”

The octoling went on to try and successfully train Pearl, finally explaining their plan to lure Marina back to Octavio’s forces to work for them again and gain her trust. With the shades on, she thought the plan was perfect, and Marina was a trader for leaving them in the first place. Her mentor seemed to like that response. She continued to ask questions and run through what part the inkling would play in their glorious plan. Marina’s skills could give them the power to take over all of Inkopolis, the tech she made was revolutionary, once they had her, they would be unstoppable.

When they thought they had thoroughly trained Pearl, they allowed her out of the room to go practice some fighting techniques with a few soldiers (on the occasion that she would need to fend for herself). On her way down to the next room, an octoling rushing by bumped into her and knocked her glasses off, causing her to feel dazed and dizzy at first. As the affects of the glasses wore off, she realized she was out of the room, the chair, she was free from the restraints. The only thing that she could focus on was escaping, and that’s exactly what she tried to do.

She tried.

A group of octolings found her no more than ten minutes later and immediately took her back to the room with the electric chair. This time, Octavio was back by the control panel with an elite octoling, she knew she was in big trouble.

She was not going to give up without a fight, she tried to squirm away from the soldiers holding her, but it only made them more forceful with her. Her lack of strength was apparent, and they easily forced her into the chair once again. The metal locks clicked around her wrists and stomach, preventing her upper body from moving almost completely. She attempted to kick the octolings away from her, but was only met with a backhand straight to her face.

“You don’t get to touch us, doll. You aren’t the one in charge of yourself.”

Pearl glared at her, she wanted to wipe that smug look right off her face, oh the things she would do if she had just one hand free. Her moment of stillness allowed the locks by her ankles to click in place, holding her still. After learning what they planned to use her for, she promised herself she wouldn’t give up until the New Squidbeak Splatoon came to her rescue or until she escaped, whichever came first. She hoped it was the latter, the idea of Marina anywhere near this place made her shutter in disgust, Octavio didn’t deserve to even look at her.

“What should we do with this one?” Octavio asked his partner, leaning over the control panel. “So many fun options to choose from, what do you say about the auto setting? We could run it all day just for her, or what about the motion detecting setting? We wouldn’t even need a guard in here to watch her because she’d have to stay perfectly still if she didn’t want to get shocked. As always, we could do it the old fashioned way too... the highest setting on here would suffice.”

“That last one sounds like a fair punishment, sir.”

The DJ smiled devilishly, “Very well, max it out.”

Pearl’s eyes grew wide, “Max?! That’s gonna kill me you octo slob!”

“Oh we won’t kill you, what use is dead bait?”

The rapper’s breathing grew heavy watching the octoling set up the intensity level, maybe it would be better to die at this point. She couldn’t handle any more of this nightmare she was in, the electricity was starting to get to her head. After all if she was dreaming, the easiest way to wake up would be to die... no, she couldn’t think like that, what about Marina and Off the Hook? She couldn’t leave behind the two things she loved more than anything in the world just to stop suffering through her phobias.

Without any more time to think, electricity coursed through her veins and spread throughout her entire being. She hadn’t even gotten to curse Octavio out yet, but her punishment was inevitable now. Her screams were ear shattering and her sobs were heartbreaking, the electric current flowing in her body like the ocean. It felt as though she had been struck by lightning, though this bolt lasted far longer than a regular one would have lasted. Her mind was growing foggy, the corners of her vision started to cut out and she couldn’t hear herself screaming anymore, though she was sure she still was. She couldn’t feel the electricity or the cold metal of the chair she was in, the last thing she saw before she went under was sparks flying from the panel and octolings running from the room.

When Pearl woke up, there were hands shaking her, delicate yet firm and a voice rung inside her head. She blinked her droopy eyes open, lazily bringing her head up to look at whoever was shaking her awake. Instead of the bright red or pure black of a regular octoling’s tentacles, she saw plum brown and teal colored ones swaying nervously around a dark skinned girl.

“Mar...?” Was all Pearl could get out in her dazed state, still feeling the effects of the electrocution.

“Yeah, yeah! Pearlie it’s me, oh thank cod you’re alive,” Marina rushed her words as she held her girlfriend’s face in her hands. “We gotta get you out of here, give me one second while I go figure out the control panel.”

The inkling shook her head as violently as she could with the little energy she had, “No... don’t touch it please, no more, no more.”

She felt her eyes fill with panicked tears and fear, her mind simulating the feeling of the shocks they had given her. Marina quickly realized that Pearl was not awake enough to focus on anything besides whatever had happened in that room, she quickly assured her that she was only going over to release her from her restraints. Still, the octoling didn’t fail to notice the way she trembled as she watched her walk over to the panel. It wasn’t anything too complicated, but, boy, was it damaged. It looked like it had fried itself, busted knobs and broken glass scattered along it while the corners were charred and black. This thing had to have been in better condition before she showed up... had Pearl screamed so powerfully that the machine broke? She had an insane voice, evident from when she helped save Inkopolis from Commander TARTAR. Even if she had used that scream to protect her city, she had assistance from a killer wail, it wasn’t purely her voice. Had she perhaps used that same type of cry to break herself free here?

Marina had to tinker a bit with the parts to get the metal restraints to unlock, but it didn’t take her longer than a few minutes. The inkling slumped down as the locks around her wrists, ankles, and torso opened and failed to hold her up any longer, and Marina scooped her up in her arms to take her back home. Callie and Marie had taken care of capturing Octavio, it was just up to her to go get Pearl and bring her to a safe place. She wished she could’ve been the one to put Octavio back in that globe, when she found out her girlfriend was missing, she was ready to do whatever it took to get her back. When she found out it was the DJ that took her girlfriend, she was ready to splat him into oblivion and the rest of his army to get her back. She trusted the squid sisters gave him a good run for his money, though.

When they arrived back at home, Marina got Pearl settled down in bed and made some food and tea for her, knowing she probably hadn’t eaten in a long time. It had been a whole week that she was missing, an inkling could survive that long without eating, but she hoped they had given her at least one meal. While cooking, she felt overwhelmed at all the thoughts running through her mind, finding her girlfriend strapped to that chair was the worst sight she had ever seen. Imagining what had happened to her in that room was terrifying, and she couldn’t bare to think about how long they had been hurting her.

Marina shook her head to clear her mind and grabbed the plate of food she had prepared and the cup of tea, bringing it back to their room for Pearl to consume as she wished. The inkling was curled into a tight ball when she entered the room, shaking lightly under the blankets.

“Pearlie...” the octoling said softly, as to not scare her. “I brought you something to eat and drink, how are you feeling?”

Pearl looked up at her partner, watching her place the plate and cup on the bedside table. Her voice was barely a whisper, “I’m okay.”

She was not okay, her veins still stuck out prominently on her arms and up her neck and her already pale skin looked stark white. Her muscles were tense and ached, she didn’t have the strength to get up even if she wanted to. Her mind was a mess too, replaying everything that happened to her over and over again.

It must have been obvious how much it was bothering her, because the octoling sat next to her girlfriend on the edge of the bed. Her soft gradient eyes were full of concern and worry, a gentleness that the inkling almost forget existed.

“Will you tell me what happened?” Marina asked and brought her hand up to touch Pearl’s delicate skin, cupping her face gently and running her thumb over her cheek.

The inkling closed her eyes and leaned into the touch, nodding softly and reached out to grab hold of her girlfriend and bring her into the bed with her. They settled in, Pearl took the food she had been given and ate a small amount of it before she began, she felt like she’d need all the extra energy she could get to tell this story.

“Octavio took me, or rather, one of the soldiers did. They brought me to some secret place in the canyon where they kept me, I was in a regular cell type room at first but then they moved me to another room with... the chair. The electric chair,” she felt a wave of shivers run through her body at the mental image, trying to ignore the way her mind was reminding her what those shocks felt like. “They strapped me in and it was non stop from there, everything I said was wrong, every word that came out of my mouth that they didn’t like, they shocked me for. It was like reliving the accident all over again and again and again.

“I got too tired to fight back anymore, and that’s when they brought me the shades, like Callie’s. They were... they were going to use me to get you back, Marina. Octavio wanted me to be the bait, to comply and work with him to get you back.”

Marina looked down, reminded of her past working in the military. She had been proud of her achievements then, but now she looked upon the weapons she had built and commendations she had received and frowned. They were proof that she was an excellent engineer and smart cephalopod, but the meaning behind each of those titles made her sick. Working for Octavio again was her worst nightmare, and to think it was almost a reality.

“I tried to get out, but they caught me before I could. When they brought me back, they put it on the highest setting, I was...” she shook her head. “I was so scared. I don’t know what happened after that, all I remember seeing was sparks and those fuckers running away.”

“Oh Pearlie,” the octoling wrapped an arm around her girlfriend, pulling her close to her side to comfort her. “I won’t ever let anyone hurt you like that ever again.”

Pearl put her plate on the beside table and fully cuddled into Marina, both arms wrapped around her like a koala bear. Tears stung in her eyes from reliving the events that had taken place, and she wasn’t afraid to let them fall. She craved the safety of the embrace and gentleness of her partner’s touch, she needed to know for once in the week she had been gone that she wouldn’t be hurt by anyone. Here, in their mansion, nothing could touch them.

“If only I would’ve been there when they took you, I could’ve stopped this from happening—“

“Marina, it’s not your fault, I don’t want you thinking for one damn second that any of this is your fault. What matters is you saved me, you rescued me from that hell and I’m forever grateful for that, I love you, nothing could make me think otherwise.”

Marina nodded, giving Pearl a tight squeeze and replying, “I love you too, Octavio messed with the wrong cephalopods this time.”

“I’d personally like to strap him to an electric chair, see how he likes it.”

“For once, I think your violent problem solving sounds like a wonderful idea,” The two laughed at the bitter humor, settling under the covers together and chatting until they felt their eyes couldn’t stay open any longer.

That night, they slept with an undercover brella and a pair of dapple dualies by their bedsides, tangled in each other’s arms with a relaxed playlist playing quietly to aid them in falling asleep. The silence filled with their steady breathing and music made the large house feel not as empty, and the two of them knew they were safe and sound as long as they had each other.

#Splatoon 2 #spla2n #pearlina #pearl x marina #fanfiction #dj octavio #electrocution #electroshock therapy #brainwashing #abuse #?#im tagging for tw #kidnapping #hurt and comfort #a whole lot of hurt #pearl #marina #mentions of Callie and Marie #This took way too long

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splattershotsundae · 6 years

Text

Ink is Thicker Than Water --- Chapter 14: Trust goes out

"Bato...~ Wake up Bato~...." The voice called to him, pulling him toward consciousness.

He slowly cracked open his eyes, still squinting as bright lights shone in his face. He felt dizzy, the side affect of the gas... the gas... Oh Dear Judd. He forced himself to open his eyes all the way as he attempted to take in his surroundings.

He found himself in an entirely white room, a spotlight shining onto him, the light that didn’t hit him bouncing off the walls in a blinding fashion.

“There you are, finally awake.” Onella said, he hadn’t been able to see her until she spoke; her transparent form glinting and shimmering into the background, and he felt himself be a bit repulsed at the sight of her. “I hope you’ll be willing to cooperate.”

“Where am I…?” He demanded, then attempted to stand, only to find that his arm had been strapped down to the arm of some kind of white mechanical chair. His head throbbed as she tied to make sense of this, of what he’d seen, of what had happened. It didn’t help that everything here was the same bright white, leaving him disoriented.

"I'm sorry, I'm the one going to be asking the questions here..." Onella said slowly. "How long were you watching us?"

"Long enough." He grunted flatly, pulling against the restraints on his other arm. "What was that about? What was on the drive you gave 2?"

Onella gave a sigh and turned, walking around something, something like a desk or console, it was white like everything else so it’s edges were indistinct and blended into everything around it."I said no questions, Bato. Or ‘Agent 4’." And then she slammed her finger down onto the console’s surface, and a painful jolt of electricity shot though him and caused him to cry out. "This machine can detect when you lie, Agent 4. Every time you lie, you will be shocked at greater intensity. It has no cap. If you lie in a long enough succession you will kill yourself. Now... Answer my question."

He gritted his beak and screwed his eyes shut. What could he do? Lie detectors didn’t actually work, did they? He’d just have to give as many half-truths as he could and hope for the best. "... I was there before you were..." He braced himself for a shock, but none came.

"And how did you know I would be there?" Onella asked.

"I didn't." It wasn't a lie exactly, Orvokki hadn't told him she would be there... Judd, that's why she'd said to hide. He opened his eyes again, attempting to get a read on Onella’s expression, but there was nothing to see. She blended into everything else, he just… knew she was over there.

"Then why were you there? Watching me." She asked, sounding almost agitated.

"I was told to go there." He said, dodging the answer he knew she was looking for.

“By who?”

“Someone you know.”

She clicked her tongue, then slammed her finger down on the console again, and once more a surge of electricity bombarded him. "Tell the full truth!"

He cried out, pulling against his restraints and gritting his beak so hard he felt himself bleed. As the wave of pain subsided he slumped back in the chair, trying to catch his breath. "... Orvokki... told me to be there..."

"Good boy." She said. "Was she responsible for getting Yuri Skwidd out of jail?"

"... Yes..." Why was she asking him this? Why did it matter to her? Why did any of this matter?

"Did she do that to get into contact with you?"

"... No, I don't think so." He replied, though he'd paused for a beat. She had given up rather quickly when he went after Yuri... Maybe she had. “I don’t know.”

"Do you know how she knew where I was going to be?"

"No, I don't." He said, pulling against the restraints once more, experimentally. He felt a numbness along his side, and he wasn’t sure where it had come from. Some reaction from being shocked perhaps?

"Let's change topics. How much did you hear of my conversation?" Onella asked, her voice faintly gurgling.

He hesitated for just a second. "I heard all of it. I said I was there before you were."

"Just because you were there, doesn't mean you heard everything... Were you able to contact someone with this information?"

"No." He replied, frowning slightly as the pain got worse.

"How many Octarians are in your house?"

His frown sharpened and he squinted, trying to locate Onella, his pain droning on more readily, rhythmically. "... Three..."

"Is one of these escaped criminal Olympiah 'Hachi' Windsley?"

"... No." He lied, and no sooner had those words left his lips than a shock coursed through him once more. It did work, it had known the instant he’d lied. He screamed in pain, tears springing to his eyes.

“Aw, you want to protect her, how sweet.” Onella said softly. "Tell me the other two."

"... Oswald... and Oana..." He said slowly, feeling an immense guilt. He wanted to protect them, but he couldn’t, he couldn’t keep going through pain like that.

"Do you know their last names?"

"… Oswald Croft. I… I don’t know Oana’s last name.” He said, the pain in his side growing more and more… or was that a pain in his head?… Both. Both of them, angled rather coincidentally in the direction of Onella.

"Are the other members of your squad agents as well?"

He looked up abruptly. "No. It's just me." Dear Judd, leave them alone, leave them out of this.

"Do they know you are an agent?"

"No."

"Are you keeping this knowledge from them?" She asked, beginning to pace around the room. He felt his pain begin to follow her, like moths to a flame… This had to be psychological.

"Yes." He said, pulling against one of his restraints again, only for it to get even tighter than before. He had to get out of here, he had to leave and keep his friends safe from whatever it was she was planning.

Onella stopped, seeming to pause in thought. "Then I believe we have leverage on your position, Bato. Quit, and we shall leave you in peace. If not... We will hurt them. All of them. And I don't want to do that."

He stopped, turning this over. "... You would trust me to just walk away and stay quiet?" He asked, skeptical.

Onella began to pace again as she continued. "Far away, the great Madeline Grace is training for when competitive battles are reopened next month, news of which has not been announced yet to the public. During this training, she gets splatted an awful lot. I say the word, and a spawner in that facility will /tragically/ malfunction."

Bato felt as though his hearts had all collectively skipped a beat. “No… No you wouldn’t.”

"An anonymous tip gets sent to the police, they find a fugitive Octoling hiding in your house.” She continued, fueled by his protest. “You all get arrested and will never see each other again, Hachi would likely be executed. The apartment complex goes up in flames that night, thanks to some structural damage there is a collapse, and Anita and Scott Rodes are no longer with us, leaving Toda an orphan. All of this will happen unless… you resign as an agent. I swear upon my honor, Bato Euthis.... that if you simply agree to leave well enough alone... None of this will happen. Life will continue on as normal. Your family lives normal lives. Your friends remain happy.”

His hands started shaking, sweat pouring down his brow. Could she really do all of this? Did he dare risk it? Getting the information to 3 wasn't worth risking his friends... His moms... His sister... But what was to say she wouldn't go through with all of this anyway? He'd seen how blatantly she'd disregarded 2's wishes in the park... He didn't trust her... But he had to admit it was tempting. Just walk away, tell 3 he hadn't heard anything before he'd been caught, and things would be fine... Except they wouldn't. They would find and kill Ophelia--

"Ophelia's not going to die." Onella spoke automatically, as if she’d…

Read his mind.

He looked at her sharply, things starting to click together; the way she already seemed to know some of the things she asked him, the way it hurt to be around her, the way she knew exactly what to threaten him with to scare him... hell, even the room they were in, it was too bright, too unreal, and how he could barely see her, but still knew exactly where she was. It all made sense now. "... You’re in my head.”

The lights flickered and Onella sighed. "Well, it was nice while it lasted. I honestly had my doubts that you would actually shock yourself, but it worked splendidly."

He hadn't really worked that part out until she mentioned it. Judd, he was an idiot. He stood up, the restraints snapping and falling away as he did. His brush appeared in his hand as he steeled himself, then he flung a splash of purple ink at her, driving her away from him.

She let out a short yelp and stumbled backward, bracing herself against a wall. "Now now, I haven't really hurt you, or anyone else yet, and I don't want to."

"That doesn't mean you won't." He snarled, raising his brush again. "What are you planning to do?"

“Open this door.” She said, reaching over and manifesting a handle from the wall. “Stop right now, or I’ll open it.”

"You do that and there will be an ink mine on the other side." He told her, brush still raised as he willed this to happen. This was his mind, he was in power here!

"Well, it could be!" Onella snapped. "But instead it'll be Hachi screaming!!!" She said, and then yanked the door open.

He staggered back as the force of Hachi’s terrified screams bombarded him, bringing back images of that night when she’d been disgraced. He cringed, gripping his brush more firmly. That sound still shook him to his core. If I'd gotten there faster maybe I could have-- “NO stop it!” He shouted. “Enough!”

At his words, the door swung shut, leaving them in silence once more.

“Well, I’ll be leaving you to think.” Onella said, slowly beginning to fade out. “Decide whether or not to quit your job."

He glared at her, hands trembling has her threat came back to him. She’d meant every word, hadn’t she? She faded from his sight, and the aching pain all over began to fade, as did his surroundings as he grew more and more drowsy. He... still hadn't gotten her to tell him anything... She was good… very good. He needed to find a way out of this, out of here, tell 3... but if he did that, Toda… Jill, Hachi… everyone he cared about... as he struggled with these thoughts, his eyes started to feel heavy, and the light on the ceiling began to grow dimmer and dimmer, until it went out altogether.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

“Mmmmph.” Callie groaned, stretching and sitting up. It took her a moment to remember that she wasn’t in her condo anymore, she was in the hotel which recently they’d decided to take shelter in, away from Ovokki’s prying eyes, and prying bombs. She let that sink in a little bit. She was terrified of Orvokki before she attempted to blast her into oblivion. Now next to nothing could shake that fear.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Right! Someone was at the door! She stood up, taking a glance at the time. 4AM? Why would someone be bugging her and Marie this early in the morning? “I’m coming!” She called, tossing her tentacles over her shoulder while she made sure she looked presentable.

Right then Marie ran into sight, grabbing her arm and pulling back. “Don’t open that door.” She said. “We’re not expecting anyone, don’t open it.”

“What, Marie? Were you awake already?” She yawned. “Why didn’t you answer the door?”

“I told you, we’re not expecting anyone, it could be dangerous!” Marie insisted, grip still firm.

After a second she pulled away from her cousin’s tight grasp. “Well let me check the peephole, that’s what it’s for!” She marched up to the front door, then looked through the peephole. She beamed as she took a good look, seeing a woman in her perhaps early 40s, and Hachi the octoling girl. “Oh! It’s 4’s mother!” She said, opening the door despite Marie’s strangled-sounding protest. “Good morning!” She continued, giving another yawn. “You are 4’s mom right? I’m not just imagining that, you helped to clean my house?”

"Yes, that's me." She replied. “Leah. May we come in?”

“Yo!” Oswald said, a sudden greeting which caught her off guard; She hadn’t seen him off to the side.

��Oh, hi.” She said, attempting to keep up her bouncy persona. "So ummmm Quick question. Why are you here, how did you find us, annnndddd why do you have Oswald?"

Leah answered them without missing a beat. "We need to talk to Marie, 3 told us how to find you, and he's been staying with us for a while, just like Hachi, and I offered to let him come along."

"... Whyyyyyyy?" She asked, still eyeing Oz. "I don't like the fact that my secret life is becoming less and less of a secret."

"Ey, we're jus lookin' for '4'." He shrugged. “Can we come in now?”

"4...?" Callie paused, then pulled the door open. "What happened?"

"He went out on a mission last night, and he didn't come home." Leah said as she stepped inside. "Please understand, we wouldn't have asked if this wasn't so important."

Callie nodded a couple of times, then held up a hand to stop Oz. "Not you, maybe you should just wait outside?

Oz blinked. "Wha- why?”

"Marie's in a bit of a bad mood today. You can just wait here-"

"Bad mood? I thougt that was 'er name!" He replied.

Callie froze, and then burst out laughing, opening the door wider again. “N-Nevermind! Come on in!”

“You’re not funny!” Marie called, back turned as she closed all the curtains.

“It’s big in here...” Hachi murmured.

“Well, it’s a suite!” Callie said. “Now, what did you want to talk to Marie about?… And what happened to 4?” She asked, grabbing a piece of leftover pizza they’d ordered last night. Mmm, pineapple...

"He's not even an official agent, Callie. You don't have to call him 4." Marie said, stiffly. "We can't afford to pay him."

"... You know you say that..." Callie said, glancing around the hotel room. “… I think we had a little something laying around before now.”

"He joined because he wanted to help, not because he wanted to be paid." Leah spoke, rather curtly. "I don't know very many of the details, but from what I understand, Orvokki told Bato that she was concerned about what her sister... Onella? What she was going to be doing, and arranged to meet him at the memorial park on Mariana and Puffer, supposedly to discuss it... except, it doesn't look like he ever saw Orvokki. But he did see you." She said, pointing purposefully at Marie.

Callie froze. “M… Marie? No, no, she was out like a light! I know her, and when she’s out, she’s out.”

"If you're going to be spreading lies, you might want to make better ones, Callie’s right.” Marie agreed.

Leah's expression hardened. "He took pictures, Marie."

"I thought you said he was missing." Marie said, eyes narrowing.

"I got him this mask..." Hachi said hesitantly, holding up a beaten and worn octarian mask. "And he dropped it."

“Isn’t that why you have a strap, so you don’t ‘drop’ it?” Marie snapped.

“W… wait.” Callie said. “Can I see those pictures?”

"Callie it-" Marie faltered.

“Here, it’s unlocked.” Hachi said, holding the mask out to her.

She took it, rubbing the front for a moment before slipping it on. This had to be some sort of misunderstanding, right? It’s not like these pictures would have…

A woman almost exactly her age, wearing Marie’s clothes, her tentacle style, meeting with some mysterious man in the middle of the night.

Her breath caught and she pushed the mask up onto her forehead, slowly turning to look at her cousin. "... Marie...?"

Marie hesitated a long moment, then bolted into one of the side rooms and slammed the door with an audible ‘click’ right afterward.

Leah was right behind her, pounding on the door with her fist. "Marie! Open the door this instant!" She called in an awfully motherly tone.

"This is MY hotel room, and I’m going to have to ask you to leave!" Marie called.

"Hey! It's my room too!" Callie said as she drew near, then blinked as a piece of paper was slid out from under the door. A Receipt? She picked it up and looked it over. "... So what if you paid for it!? It's still mine!!"

"Marie, my SON is in danger!" Leah said, dangerous edge coming into her voice. "He's already been gone for hours, if we don't find him soon it might be too late!"

Callie crunched the receipt in her hands, attempting to stave off the feelings of betrayal she felt. She hadn’t explained herself yet, maybe there was still... something. “Marie, please. What did you do? Let me help you!” She glanced at Leah, giving her a pleading expression. Shady deal or not, she didn’t want her cousin getting hurt.

Leah grimaced, then closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Marie, listen." She began slowly, an attempt at being calm. "I'm sure you know what you're doing, and that there's more to this than what we can see; you're a smart young woman, and you have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and it shows. But this isn't some one-and-done deal anymore, there are others involved now. I need to know what's going on. I need to find my son, and you're the only person that can help me."

There was a long pause. "... If he was watching me, Onella has him." Marie said.

"Is that who that man was? The man in the pictures?" Callie asked. "Wait, if Onella was there, what were you even doing? She did things to you!! Just like Orvokki did things to me! What were you thinking, that was dangerous!"

"What matters is that she was there, and she most likely took him." Marie snapped.

"You knew she could take him and you did nothing!?" Callie demanded. “Did you trade 4 for something!?”

“Nonono!” Marie said quickly. “I had no idea he was there! I may disagree with him joining the team but I’m not a monster! I would never..."

"Where would she have taken him?" Leah pressed.

"I don't know. That's not what I asked for." Marie replied. “The deal was… a location, for information.”

“What did they give you?” Leah demanded, her fingers digging into her arm. "Is there some way you can find out where he is? Did she tell you something that might give you an idea?"

Marie was silent for a long time, thinking through her words before she spoke. "... They're hidden somewhere, I think they use a corporation as a mask. And you know I mean that as a disguise. Cover. Terribly cliche."

"... Who's they?" Hachi asked. "Is this that... one person thing or..."

"No, she's backed by an entire organization." Marie replied. “So many people, all with her ideals. She's the only water one... but I don't know for how long."

"What?" Callie asked. "Marie, how much have you not been telling me!?"

"And how much have you been keeping from me?" Marie replied.

"Ahh... nothing, really?" Callie replied. “Why would I keep something from you!?”

“Ey look agents-” Bato said as he stepped up. “Ya can argue all ya want, but righ now Bato’s gone, an we’re runnin outta time ta find ‘im. So for tha love a all thins good ya betta tell us wha can ‘elp us! ‘Ow do ya know all this shit?”

Marie took a deep breath, door rattling as she slumped against it. "I've been searching for answers for years, you have hours… If you want to find him, you better head to 3's. You'll get some answers."

"... We just came from 3's.” Hachi said hesitantly.

"Then you better head back." Marie said. “You won’t have much time.”

"Marie, What did you do?" Callie asked, panic welling up inside her. "Why don’t they have much time?What did you do to 3!?!?"

"I did what I had to to get answers."

"Answers to WHAT!?" Callie sobbed, slamming her fist against the door. “3’s our friend, you gave her location away didn’t you!? You sold her out to some enemy we don’t know! And why!? Was it worth it!?”

"I… I don’t know yet.” Marie replied, voice quiet.

Callie felt the first of her tears soak into her shirt. “How could you…?”

“Hachi, you said, in one of the pictures... She gave a man a piece of paper?" Leah said. "They would want something in return for these 'answers' Marie wanted... some sort of information... if Orvokki's worried about something Onella might do..."

"Ophelia!" Hachi exclaimed, scrambling for the door.

“Son of a--” Oz said, hot on her heels.

Leah lingered in the doorway for a moment. “Callie… thank you for your help.”

And then she was gone. Callie sobbed and closed the front door behind them, feeling as though her whole world was unraveling. “… Marie, come out here. Right now.” She demanded.

There was a long pause before Marie opened the door, stepping out cautiously into the light. “I… I can explain.” She said quietly.

“Can you!?” She asked, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “You betrayed 3! You exposed her location, and Ophelia’s location! Octolings could be doomed thanks to you! You betrayed her; You betrayed me! Why!? What for!?”

Marie raised up a pristine USB stick, meeting her gaze with conviction. “Our heritage.”

Bato, and Leah are Knitter’s characters.

Hachi, Oswald, Stacey, Ophelia, Ovokki, and Onella are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon and the squid sisters belong to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

[<PREV] [INDEX] [NEXT>] (coming soon)

#Splatoon #inkling #octoling #nintendo #Squid sisters #SS Bato #Octo Hachi #Octo Oswald #Misc Leah

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secretagentspydetectiveninja · 7 years

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Splataclysm! - chapter 5

Hey does anyone remember that really weird Splatoon AU fic I was writing? I promise I didn’t forget about it. I’m gonna try and get it finished as soon as possible because I have been in such a Splatoon mood lately. Anyway, have some Octoling appreciation :D

Also on AO3 as always

It wasn’t long before the next Splatfest was announced in Inkopolis. The difference was that this time, it was the final Splatfest. The Squid Sisters were becoming too busy to regularly host them.

“It’s so unfair!” Nath complained to Rose as they walked towards the voting booth to pick their teams. “I didn’t get here very long ago and I’m only ever going to experience one Splatfest while everyone else got to participate in loads!”

“At least this is the most interesting one!” Rose said. “Usually our team choices were things like Barbarian vs Ninja, or North Pole vs South Pole. But this time? Mireille vs Aurore! That’s much more exciting!”

Nath sighed. “I don’t even know who I’ll pick. They’re both equal to me.”

“Same! I’m going to feel ever so bad for having to choose between them!”

Of course Rose would. She was just too nice for her own good. Nath was slowly starting to feel weirdly protective over her, like a little sister, and he wasn’t sure he liked it.

There was the voting booth up ahead, where people picked their teams and were given a “Splatfest Tee” to wear for the duration of the event to signify which side they were supporting. Nath was about to go up and just flip a coin to pick a random side when he noticed who the inklings standing at the booth were.

The Slaughter Squad.

“Let’s just stay back a second,” he muttered, grabbing Rose’s arm and pulling her aside.

The Slaughter Squad seemed to have trouble choosing too. They didn’t appear to notice that they were completely blocking off the voting booth from anyone else who wanted to vote and had already made up their mind.

“What do you think, Max?” Kim asked.

Max just shrugged, his sunglasses obscuring his expression but body language betraying that he seemed rather bored.

“Mireille does tend to always win,” Alix said.

“Yeah, duh, we all know that. No need to point out the obvious, jeez.”

“Alright, I was just saying!”

“So anyway, I think we should pick Team Mireille. Everyone always picks Aurore’s team so the multiplier will be in our favour and whatever other maths stuff Max told us about last time.”

“But if everyone knows that Mireille always wins, and this is the final Splatfest, then more people might pick Mireille and the multiplier might boost Aurore’s team instead…”

“Oh shut up,” Kim snapped, shoving her aside. “We’re voting Team Mireille and that’s final. Right Max?”

Max just shrugged again, very much looking like he was stifling a yawn.

“Okay, that’s settled. Team Mireille it is.”

The three of them pressed the left side buttons on the machine and were given three magenta-coloured Splatfest Tees.

“I hate these stupid t-shirts,” Alix said, scrunching hers into a ball.

“Of course you do, you’re way too small to fit in them properly.”

“Actually I hate them because all the abilities I worked so hard to earn on my hoodie just go to waste for these two days when we’re forced to wear these instead–”

“I don’t care. Let’s go.”

Nath watched the Slaughter Squad walk off, suspecting that he might have been gripping Rose’s arm just a little too tightly. How were the Slaughter Squad so fresh? How did they become so good? Was it practice? Luck? Were they just born like that?

Well, he suspected in Kim and Alix’s cases it might be luck and practice. But Max? Max “Unsplattable” Kanté? That guy just oozed freshness, so easily, so effortlessly, with his E-Litre 3K Scope slung over his shoulder, that 3-star triple Damage Up jacket, those sunglasses catching glints of the light from the sky and buildings around them, the way the sun seemed to shine its rays on him specifically, basking him in some kind of ethereal glow like a sort of immortal omnipotent being–

Nath looked away quickly, blushing. He hadn’t realized he was staring.

“Have you decided on a team yet?” Rose asked, distracting him from his rather overactive mind.

“Hm?... Oh, yeah…” He loosened his grip slightly and led her over to the voting booth. “I’m picking Team Mireille. I don’t want to lose my only Splatfest, and if she always wins, well…”

“Good choice!” Rose said, beaming up at him. “I think I’ll pick Mireille too! Then the two of us can be on the same team.”

He smiled back, feeling oddly comforted at the thought of Rose being his teammate. She was pretty much still his only friend here. It was good to have her around.

They cast their votes, then were given Splatfest Tees to wear. The actual Splatfest would begin the next day, so they didn’t have to wear them until then. Meanwhile in the plaza, a large stage was being set up near the television booth. Apparently every Splatfest, the Squid Sisters would perform their songs standing up on here. Nath couldn’t wait to see it. Of course he’d heard them perform live before – he had been there to watch them win the Youth Folk-Singing Contest in the first place – but here in Inkopolis, where they were celebrities, it would feel much more exciting.

“Oh! I’ve got a new message!” Rose pulled her phone out of her pocket.

“Let me guess, it’s from Juleka?” Nath asked. Juleka seemed to be the only person Rose got messages from these days.

“It is, it is! And oh listen… she’s asking me if I’d want to get a coffee… that’s so sweet…”

“You don’t even like coffee,” Nath pointed out.

“I know, but still! It’s the thought that counts!”

“Have you even met Juleka before? In person?”

“Of course I have!” Rose frowned at him, looking slightly annoyed for once. “I know I don’t tend to battle much, but I have asked her to update my gear with more ability slots before. I’ve spoken to her a lot. She’s just shy, she doesn’t like going out of her way to talk to people. It doesn’t mean I can’t get to know her well. And where better than a coffee date at Arowana Mall?”

She had a kind of fire in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. Huh, she really cared about Juleka, didn’t she?

“You should ask her to be your girlfriend,” he said on a whim.

“You think so? I mean, I would love to, but… she’s… a sea urchin…”

“No one bats an eyelid at Mylène the anemone and Ivan the inkling.”

“True! You’re right, maybe I should ask Juleka!” She giggled a little. “So, what caused your sudden dramatic turn-around, Nath? According to Juleka you weren’t even willing to give her my number at first…”

Oh drat, Rose knew about that? How embarrassing.

“I was just being stupid,” he said quickly. “Seriously though, you and Juleka deserve each other. You both seem to like each other a lot, so why not?”

“Aww, Nath!” Rose hugged him. “Do you really think she likes me back?”

“Well why else is she asking you on a coffee date to Arowana Mall?”

“Good point! Anyway, I’d better reply and then head off to go find her. I’ll see you later, okay?”

She started typing away on her phone as she walked off.

Well, now what? Nath found himself wishing he had more friends. People often tended to go battling in groups, but he just wasn’t close enough with anyone else. It wasn’t like Rose ever battled much anyway.

He sighed, watching all the other inklings milling around in the area. Why couldn’t he just talk to them? He had always been so shy, so reserved, so quiet. And now, here in this city, he wasn’t fresh enough either. How long was it going to take?

Octo Valley was slowly becoming more unforgiving as the Octarians were improving their forces. Some of the foes that Marinette and Adrien had to face were much more difficult than before, with advanced weaponry that could only have been stolen from the inklings. How was that possible? Did they get the information from Nino? And where were they keeping him? How long would it be until he could be found?

The most difficult of the Octarian enemies so far were the Octolings. They were essentially the Octarian versions of inklings – humanoid creatures that could shift into octopus form at will and swim through their own ink, with weapons and bombs just like the inklings used. It was far more tiring to fight them than any of the other, simpler Octarian enemies.

“This kettle looks a lot like Kelp Dome,” Marinette said to Adrien as they entered a new area. “It’s like they’ve copied it.”

“I was thinking the same thing…”

“Beware of the Octolings!” Fu warned them through the radio. “There’ll be plenty ahead, no doubt!”

“It’s no problem,” Marinette said. “We know this course inside out. Adrien, you go right. I’ll go left. We’ll meet back in the centre. If you need any help or find the butterfly before me, just let me know by radio.”

“Are you sure we should split up?” Adrien asked.

“It’ll be fine.” Marinette smiled at him, hoping she looked encouraging. “You can do it. Octolings are just like inklings, right? Pretend it’s a Turf War or Ranked Battle and you’re just splatting your opponents. I’ll be close by to help if you need it.”

“Alright. Thanks, Marinette.”

He put his Krak-On Splat Roller on the ground and began running off down one of the side paths. Marinette turned to the left and headed the other way.

It wasn’t difficult at first. Sure, Octolings were tougher than other Octarian enemies. But Marinette was a battle veteran, she was used to difficult situations. This kind of thing didn’t feel particularly out of the ordinary for her. She splatted Octoling after Octoling, keeping her eyes out for the butterfly, trying not to feel too guilty. Octolings really did look like inklings to her. At least they would respawn – though hopefully not too soon.

She had reached the opposite side of the dome when she heard something that sounded incredibly familiar. Was that… the Squid Sisters? Singing?

Marinette ran towards where the sound was coming from, though cautiously in case it was a trap of some sort. Sure enough, as the music got louder, she did recognize it. That definitely was the sound of a Squid Sisters song, and not just any song. “Calamari Inkantation”, as it was called, was the inkling song. The most famous melody in existence. The Squid Sisters had covered it and their version was topping the charts, it was such a favourite among the citizens of Inkopolis.

Hiding behind a wall, Marinette slowly inched forwards and had a look around the corner. There! A radio was sitting on one of the platforms, playing Calamari Inkantation. And someone was sitting in front of it, quietly singing along.

Not just anyone. An Octoling.

Marinette lowered her weapon slightly. Why was an Octoling listening to inkling radio stations? And singing along? Marinette hadn’t even thought Octolings could understand the inkling language. It usually took jellyfish and other sea creatures long enough to learn.

The Octoling… she had a lovely voice, that was for sure. She was sitting facing the other way so only the back of her was visible. Her tentacle hair was longer than most Octolings usually kept theirs, a beautiful auburn colour with gentle curls. It swayed slightly in the breeze.

Huh, a breeze? Here, underground? Maybe the Octarians pumped air into their caves or something. Or perhaps this Octoling’s hair just moved like that on its own. Marinette watched in fascination.

The song came to an end, and the sound of the radio presenter followed.

“…And that was our good old Calamari Inkantation, by the Squid Sisters we all know and love! I hope everyone out there was singing along! Now for the Splatfest news – our final Splatfest, Mireille vs Aurore, has begun! We can’t say for sure what the results will be yet but surely it’ll be close…”

“I’m missing a SPLATFEST?!” Marinette yelped, unable to stop herself. She quickly put her hand over her mouth and dipped into squid form.

The Octoling switched off the radio and jumped up, looking around. Marinette stayed as still as possible.

“Hello? Is someone there?”

The Octoling had spoken in inkling – oh, she had spoken in inkling. Singing a song was one thing, but she had really said a sentence in the language. She could speak it. Her words had a strange lilt to them, her voice sounding slightly lower and smoother than that of inklings. Marinette held back a gasp.

“I know I heard someone…”

The Octarian turned around. Her tentacles were cut short at the front into a fringe, and she had little foxtails dangling down by her shoulders. Most Octolings wore visors but this one didn’t – her eyes were green, a beautiful, leafy green that was surprisingly uncommon on this wasteland of a planet.

Marinette moved backwards a little. It was a mistake. The Octoling’s eyes snapped down to where Marinette was hiding in the ink.

“You’re there, I know you are! Please come out! I promise I won’t attack you!”

“Don’t fall for it,” Fu muttered through the radio. Marinette had forgotten he was there. “She’s just luring you into a false sense of security. Better to splat her on sight.”

It was true. Octolings were not to be trusted.

But this Octoling… she didn’t have a weapon with her. She was entirely defenceless. And anyway, how could she be all bad? She had been listening to inkling radio, right? Apparently she liked the Squid Sisters. She couldn’t be an enemy to the inklings.

Marinette slowly stood up into her full humanoid form, still keeping her weapon close just in case. The Octoling’s expression softened as she watched.

“You’re an inkling,” she said quietly, keeping her distance. She looked a little afraid. “You’re one of the ones travelling through our lands and taking the butterflies away.”

“I’m taking the butterflies back,” Marinette clarified. “They were ours to begin with.”

The Octoling sighed. “That’s true…”

“What are you waiting for?” Fu said. “Splat her! She’s right there!”

“Why were you listening to inkling radio?” Marinette asked, ignoring Fu for the moment. She was too intrigued now. She needed answers.

“I love the Squid Sisters,” the Octoling replied. “They have such amazing voices! And amazing songs! I want to be a singer too, so it really inspires me.”

“Don’t you have any Octarian idols of your own?”

The Octoling shuffled around nervously. “We’re not supposed to make our own music. Our leader likes us to listen to his music only.”

“Your leader doesn’t sound very nice…”

The Octoling shrugged. “What can we do? Inklings won’t let us have any land up on the surface, and we can’t go back in the sea. Our leader and our kettles are all we have.”

Oh, so was that why they were stealing butterflies? Because they didn’t have anything else? To them, the inklings must seem so privileged. Marinette was starting to feel rather bad indeed for how many Octarians she had splatted recently. Weren’t they just doing exactly what she was doing? Trying to protect her home and her friends?

“You’re not as bad as they’ve told us the inklings are,” the Octoling continued. “Are all inklings like you?”

“Every inkling is different, I suppose. Maybe some are good, some are bad.” Like Octarians, she thought to herself, though she didn’t say it out loud. Fu was still listening, after all, and he hated all Octarians no matter what.

“You seem like a good inkling. You just want to get your butterflies back. I understand.”

“And I want my friend back too,” Marinette said, feeling stronger as she thought of Nino. “He’s been kidnapped and we don’t know what’s happening to him down here. Me and my fellow agent have to rescue him.”

The Octoling nodded. “I know who you’re talking about. Your friend. He’s… well… please don’t be too shocked when you find him, okay?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“He might be a bit different now. Well, a lot different. I don’t know exactly what our leader has done with him but I’ve heard some rumours.”

“What rumours? Please, tell me what’s happened to Nino!”

“I don’t know!” The Octoling looked scared again. “Even if I did, how could I tell you? You’re an inkling! You’re… you’re an enemy…”

“Exactly,” Fu said, sounding impatient. “She’s your enemy, now just splat her already!”

“We don’t have to be enemies,” Marinette said.

“I know,” the Octoling replied. “But what can I do? I’ve already betrayed my people enough by telling you all this. And listening to your music. And wishing I could move to Inkopolis and be as fresh as all of you are–”

She snapped her hand over her mouth, looking around as if she was expecting someone to be spying on her.

“It’s okay,” Marinette said. “You don’t have to tell me anymore. I’ll, uh, leave you alone now…”

“Wait! I just want to know… what’s your name?”

Marinette hesitated. No one was supposed to know her identity, not even people back home.

“Ladybug,” she replied finally. It wasn’t a total lie. “What’s your name?”

The Octoling hesitated too. After a few seconds she said, “Volpina.”

That must be a lie. Marinette just nodded.

“Volpina. Thank you. I wish you luck in your singing career.”

“And I hope you can rescue your friend.”

“WHY AREN’T YOU SPLATTING HER?!” Fu screeched.

Marinette hurried away, back towards the outer edges of Kelp Dome. How could she have splatted “Volpina”? Sure, Volpina would have respawned, but still. It would have seemed so unfair.

Things were still not sinking in. An Octoling who was a fan of the Squid Sisters? Who wanted to move to Inkopolis and be just like the inklings? Marinette carried on trudging through the dome, but she just couldn’t get her mind off it. She couldn’t get her mind off Volpina.

This Splatfest was not going well. Nath had decided to try out a Blaster, and his teammate Ivan was just staring at him in dismay.

“What?” Nath asked.

“You’re using a Blaster,” Ivan replied, his voice completely monotone. He sounded more disappointed than Nath had ever heard him.

“Yeah? So? I like trying out new weapons.” More like, he kept trying out new weapons because he still hadn’t found one that fit, and Tikki wouldn’t help him with it.

“You’re using a Blaster. For a Turf War.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

Ivan rubbed his forehead. “Blasters are for splatting. Not for inking.”

“Well so are Chargers, right? And Max uses a Charger!”

“Max is an exception to every rule. Some people might be alright at using Blasters during Turf War, but you? On your first try? During a Splatfest, when it actually matters whether we win or lose?”

Ouch. Did Ivan really have such little faith in him?

“Relax, Ivan, it’ll be fine,” he said. “Okay, so I know Blasters have a low fire rate and stuff. But they have exploding bullets! I’ll be able to splat people way more easily, so they won’t be able to ink any turf, and we’ll win. That’s how it’s going to work.”

Ivan just sighed. “I sure do hope so, Nathaniel…”

The match that followed was a disaster. It was true that Blasters did not cover much turf. Nath had hoped that the bullets would make up for it, but the low fire rate meant that if Nath missed his shot, the opponent would have time to splat him before he could take another shot. And that happened far, far too often. Nath was terrible at aiming. The only thing that kept him going through the match was the Squid Sisters music that was blasting through the speakers, keeping his motivation up.

“I knew our team would lose,” Ivan said once the match results had been announced. The rest of the team members were trudging away solemnly. It seemed that people took losing Splatfest battles much more seriously than normal battles.

“It’s my fault, isn’t it?” Nath said, looking at his Blaster. “You’re right, this weapon sucks for Turf War. I should have thought about that first.”

“Hey…” Ivan looked like he was trying to smile, though it didn’t look particularly genuine. “You still did pretty well for a Blaster, though.”

“No I didn’t! 400p? That’s awful!”

“And what did you get on your very first match here in Inkopolis?”

Nath thought back. It suddenly felt like a long time ago. “I think it was about 140p…”

“See? So you are improving!”

Well, that much was true. He wasn’t anywhere near as bad now as he used to be. Alright, so he wasn’t amazing yet. But at least things were changing.

“Thanks, Ivan,” he said, really meaning it. “Hey – are Heavy Splatlings easy to use, by any chance?”

Ivan picked his Heavy Splatling up off the floor beside him. “Not that much. It took me a while to get used to it. But this is the exact kind of weapon I love. I can keep back, away from the front lines, but still protect my teammates when they need it. And unlike a Charger, I don’t need to bother with single, accurate shots. I can just pummel the opponents until they give in.”

That sounded amazing. “Maybe I’ll try that next.”

“Sure, but remember, it’s still hard to get the hang of. Most weapons are. Maybe a Mini Splatling would be better for someone as… well…” Ivan looked down at Nath from his rather high-up point of view.

“Yeah, okay, I get it,” Nath muttered. “I’m small. But I can lift a Heavy Splatling, don’t worry.”

Ivan’s smile looked a lot more genuine now. “I’m sure you can. Good luck, Nath. I know this is your only Splatfest so I’m really hoping we win.”

“Me too.”

“Will you two hurry up and go away?” Plagg called from the centre of the arena. “I need to start the next match!”

Oh – of course! Nath quickly Super Jumped away.

Heavy Splatling didn’t work so well. Mini Splatling didn’t either. Just like Chargers, those weapons had to be charged up before being fired. And Nath was constantly being splatted while waiting to charge. It was just so, so tedious.

“Tikki, what kind of weapon should I be using?” he asked her after yet another lost Turf War. At this rate Team Mireille were going to lose the Splatfest for sure.

“That’s not up to me,” Tikki said.

“But I’m trying out so many different things and it’s not helping!”

“Well, you do seem to be very good at using a Splattershot these days…”

“Everyone’s good at using a Splattershot. And anyway, I’m not above average when I use it. It just doesn’t feel like the kind of weapon I should be using. I know there’s something out there that’s perfect for me, and I just need to find it!”

“In that case, here is my advice.” Tikki took a deep breath. “Watch your teammates and opponents very carefully. See what weapons they’re using, what playstyles they are employing. Do they play aggressively? Cautiously? Defensively? Are certain strategies better with particular weapon types? Do some analysis. See if you can imagine yourself in their positions, whether or not you would feel comfortable playing the way they do. Use that to help you narrow down what sort of weapon you want to use.”

That was pretty much what he had been trying to do already. But getting mad at Tikki wouldn’t achieve anything – she was just trying to help him.

“Thank you,” he said. “I think I’ll stick with a Splattershot for now…”

“That sounds like a good idea. But let me know if there’s anything else you want to try out!”

“I will. But I’ll wait till the end of the Splatfest first.”

Tikki glanced at a clock on the wall. “Isn’t that in about 2 minutes?”

What?! Nath looked at the clock to see–

No! The Splatfest was about to end! Did he have time for another battle?

Without even bothering to say bye to Tikki, he raced out of the door and across the plaza towards the Lobby. Surely he could make it in time?

But he didn’t. The doors were closed. And a few seconds later, the screen in the plaza lit up with an announcement from the Squid Sisters. He turned to look, trying not to feel too grumpy.

“And that’s the end of the final Splatfest!” Mireille said, punching a fist up in the air as usual. “I can’t wait to find out the results!”

“Same!” Aurore said, a rare smile on her face. “We’ll let you all know when the results have been calculated. In the meantime, carry on with all your regular battles, and stuff.”

“And now to announce the Turf War stages…”

Nath didn’t bother to listen to any more. This Splatfest was over, and he had hardly contributed at all. He’d lost most of his matches. It wouldn’t be a surprise if his team lost.

The next morning, he sat in his apartment drinking a rather large mug of coffee and feeling more glum than usual. He had been intending to psych himself up to find out the results of the Splatfest and then go into the plaza when he was ready. But the morning newspaper had arrived and already told him the bad news.

TEAM AURORE WINS FINAL SPLATFEST DESPITE GAINING FEWER VOTES

Wasn’t that exactly what Alix had been warning her teammates about? Most people would have voted for Mireille, expecting her to win, and the mysterious “multiplier” (whatever that was) would give enough of a boost to Aurore’s team to drive her to victory instead.

So that was it. Nath had lost his only Splatfest. He would never get a chance to participate in another one again, ever, in his life.

He grabbed an energy drink off the counter beside him and dunked it all into his coffee mug. He was definitely going to need it today.

#this fic accidentally ended up very tomato centric and i'm not sure how #but anyway have some julerose and lilanette #(yes lila is the octoling)#miraculous ladybug #cinnamon roll tomato cutie #rose lavillant #le chien kim #max kante #alix kubdel #marinette dupain cheng #lila rossi #ivan bruel #tikki #splatoon #random stuff #splataclysm #aish writes

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splattershotsundae · 6 years

Text

Ink is Thicker Than Water --- Chapter 2: A minor Cake-tastrophe.

Two days ago:

INKLINGS IN OCTARIAN 'DOMES'?

Ophelia Lunulata has awoken and has remained conscious. She refused to give any quotes until her 'public voice' was with her. The voice she was referring to is Oshea Thornell, who serves Ophelia to send her orders to the people. He arrived in the company of armed police officers, spending an hour in Ophelia's company before being available for comment. "She (Ophelia) demands that they (the government) take action in the rescue of the octarian citizens trapped in the domes." These underground 'domes' are where the octarians have lived since the great turf war claimed their land a hundred years ago. Oshea makes claims that inklings ('Squidlings') should have enough incentive to help if only for the fact that there are inklings in the domes, and have been since they were captured during splatfest. We have yet to hear a reply from city hall or the capital although the president claims to be readying to make a public appearance.

OCTARIAN PLAGUE SWEEPS INKOPOLIS

It seems that the Octomaton isn't the only thing Octarians have brought up to the surface, they have brought up a potent strain of rhinopharyngitis. This contagious disease is spreading across the city and infecting various citizens of Inkopolis, particularly inklings. Experts say the pathogen will only last a few days, they recommend resting for a few days, and drink plenty of water. Symptoms include stuffy nose, sore throat, and coughing.

Yesterday:

1,000 INKLINGS RETURN HOME

After 16 hours of heroic digging and cooperation from octarian forces, workers have unearthed a path for many inklings to super jump to freedom. Along with these inklings, approximately 5,000 octolings also made an escape. Unexpectedly, many of the rescued inklings protected these octolings and refused to allow them to be taken into custody. As a result a compromise arose, allowing octolings to have access to a homeless shelter.

SQUID SISTERS LEAVE URGENT CARE

Callie and Marie, Inkopolis' favorite idols were able to return home today after being greatly injured after a suspected kidnapping. They both refuse to discuss the cause of their injuries, only that they do not plan to press charges on the culprit.

Today, Toda’s birthday:

OPHELIA ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION?

At 5:24 AM this morning; doctors were alerted to a commotion in the room of Ophelia Lunulata, known as the queen of the Octarians. A nurse had walked in, only to be attacked by an octarian with a knife. The Octarian is now in custody, but claims that they were protecting the queen on her orders. Also found was a tube of ice which was the right size to be inserted into the machine's equipment and contained a fatal dose of poison, likely intended for Ophelia. The nurse remained unharmed, and was safely able to return home. Ophelia has requested five armed octarian guards be posted to her quarters. The request was denied, however she was allowed inkling guards.

Toda sat, leg bouncing as he looked over the headlines. He couldn’t help it, Bato was trying to get him into the habit. Things seemed to be getting worse and worse, or were they just… happening? He sighed and lay back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling.

… At least everyone he knew was alright…

He sat bolt upright as there was a knock on his front door. “Coming!!!” He called, then stood with a grunt before heading to the front door.

On the other side, Bato smiled warmly at him, holding out a box of store-brand Mochi. “Happy Birthday bud.” He said, then leaned against the door frame.

“I told you guys that you didn’t have to get me anything!” He said, then stepped forward to give him a hug. “You know me too well for your own good...”

He laughed and hugged him back. “Right back at you.”

“Let’s sit you down, your leg’s still hurt.” He said, wrapping his arm around Bato’s shoulder and helping him to the living room.

“Toda, I’m fine.” He replied, even as he stumbled. “… not perfect, but fine… Thanks.”

He rolled his eyes, flashing him a grin as they both sat down. “Anytime.”

“Oh, you should probably get these into the freezer.” Bato said, holding up the mochi box.

“I got this.” He said, then lifted his head and called. “Hey daaaad!”

After a moment, Scott peered around the corner. “Hey soooooon?”

He snorted, then took the box from Bato and held it out. “Still sort of hurts to move, can you put this in the freezer?”

His father nodded and turned to head back to the kitchen. “Have fun you two.”

“We will.” Bato said, then turned to Toda. “… So, uh… How’s Necrodancer going?”

He snorted. “Getting back into practice. There’s not much else to do lately… I miss battles much, we barely got to do any of them before this all happened...”

Bato nodded solemnly. “Agreed. I’m… not getting my hopes up that battles will come back anytime soon though.” He nodded, ears drooping. “I mean, the plaza’s a wreck, so… there’s that.”

“There’s that.” He agreed, frowning.

Just then another knock on the door caused Toda’s ears to perk right up. “Coming!!” He called, standing and making his way to the front door.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAAAAA!” Jill exclaimed, holding out a big bowl of what appeared to be M&Ms.

“H… Happy birthday.” Simon said as well, awkwardly clutching a wrapped box with an adhesive bow stuck meticulously on top.

“You guys too!?” Toda laughed. “I said you didn’t have to give gifts, I just want to hang out!”

“But we love you!” Jill said, proudly striding through the door. “And we want you to be happy!”

He snorted and closed the door, casting a small worried glance at Simon, who wasn’t making eye contact. They looked super nervous… and he wasn’t sure why.

“Hey Bato, want some candy!?” Jill’s exclamation shook him from his thoughts, and he made his way back to the couch, leaving a large enough space next to him for Simon to sit.

I’d love some.” He said, grabbing a small handful.

“What about you Toda?” She asked, holding the bowl out to him.

“Yes please!” He said, though something felt a bit suspicious... He scooped up a handful and popped a few into his mouth, cringing as the flavor of chocolate, fake fruit, and a blast of cinnamon all hit him at once. He spluttered, then swallowed, shooting Jill a short glare. “Judd damn it, Jill! Did you mix skittles, M&Ms and red hots??”

She started laughing, setting the bowl down on the table and picking out a few candies. “What? I didn’t do anything~!”

"Sure you didn't." He replied, grinning.

"If you want m&m's, you just need to get the blue ones." Bato told him with a grin of his own. "There aren't blue skittles."

He snorted. "Yeah, thanks, that's real helpful man.” He told him, lightly elbowing him in the side.

"We can turn it into a candy sorting party instead if you want!" Jill teased.

Scott leaned around the corner, smiling as he saw the four of them. “Hey Kiddo, your mom’s making the cake, but it’s going to be a while, so we’re going to order you kids some pizza, Do you have a topping preference?”

"I like pepperoni!" Jill said, enthusiastically waving her hand into the air.

"I'm ok with pretty much any usual kind of pizza." Simon said, still seeming… off.

"Got it." Scott said, then looked at Bato and Toda, "And I know what you two like... So I guess I'll get a cheese and a pep? Sound good?"

"Sounds good," Toda nodded.

"Alright then." Scott beamed… then leaned down and gabbed a handful of candy and popped it all into his mouth. His grin slowly faded as the flavors began to sink in.

“Do you like it?” Jill teased.

Toda snorted. “Yeah dad, isn’t it great?”

Scott slowly looked more amused, then grabbed a paper napkin off the dining table and spit out the candy into it. “Yeah, you got me kids.” He chuckled as he turned into the kitchen. “I’ll go order you those pizzas.”

“Thanks!” Jill said, then rocked on her heels for a moment before sitting down in the room’s armchair. ".... You guys heard what happened today, right?"

"The attempted assassination." Bato frowned. "It's troubling, that's for sure."

"That 'nurse' was going to poison her, I know it." Jill scowled.

"Jill why now, why today... " Simon pleaded "I thought this was going to just be a hanging out sort of day."

“Yeah, I… I would sort of prefer it.” Toda agreed.

Jill paused, then made herself smile. "You're right, I'm sorry. Hey Simon! Why don't you give Toda his present?”

Simon blushed brightly, holding the gift behind their back. “A-Ah! Um… I...” They gave a huge sigh, and then held it out toward him, avoiding eye contact. “It’s a… a joke gift.”

“My favorite!” He flashed them a quick smile, trying to be reassuring as he pealed the paper off. Inside was an in-box Rubix cube, with colors he knew well, gray, gray, gray, gray, gray and white. He started laughing, showing it to Bato.

“Simon you’re a genius.” Bato said, grinning broadly.

They looked up, still blushing. "What? You never thought of that before?" They asked, a slight smile crossing their face.

Bato shook his head. "No, that never occurred to me!"

“Thanks Simon.” Toda said, setting the cube down on the table and pulling them into a hug.

Simon hugged him back, giving a little happy sigh. "No problem."

"I told you he'd like it." Jill hissed, grinning.

“Shush!” They hissed back.

"So! Is there anything in particular we're going to do?" Jill asked.

Toda shrugged, pulling back from the hug. "I didn't really have anything in mind." He said. "We could watch a movie, or.. We have board games and stuff."

"Oooo, I'm up for a movie!" Jill said. “Dim the lights, have some popcorn...”

“I think having popcorn will get in the way of pizza and cake later.” Simon said. “I think just a movie’s a good idea.”

“Same.” He agreed, reaching forward and grabbing the remote. “We’ve got all kinds of movies in the cupboard over there, the animated ones should be up right right now, from when Hachi stayed over. There’s Monsters Ink, How to train your dragon, Up...”

"Ok, can I just rule Up out?" Jill asked. "Like, I really don’t want to cry about that today?”

"Yeah that’s reasonable." Bato agreed.

Toda nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Monsters Ink then?”

“Sounds good to me.” Simon nodded.

“Alright, let me get the DVD player on...” Toda said, turning on the TV.

“WE INTERRUPT THIS SCHEDULED PROGRAM TO BRING YOU THIS BREAKING NEWS REPORT.”

Toda jumped so sharply he dropped the remote onto Bato’s lap, staring as the screen flashed the headline; ‘Ophelia Lunulata Kidnapped’

“Mere moments ago, Ophelia Lunulata, Queen of the octarians, was kidnapped from Mustard Hill hospital, even with the presence of armed guards.” The screen changed to an image from a security camera, where two figures were climbing out a window, forms indistinct thanks to some bright reflective strips along their clothing, and shining lights on their weapons. “The two suspects smashed through the window of the hospital, forced Lunulata to transform and put her into an inktank before stealing an entire rack of medicine and jumping out the window. They then jumped into a white van and are currently resisting capture. We now go live to Brian on the weather chopper. Brian?”

“THANK YOU JULIE.” The Reporter on the helicopter replied, having to shout over the deafening sounds of the helicopter’s whirring propellers."WE'RE HERE GETTING A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF A HIGH SPEED CHASE, AS THE POLICE ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND THE KIDNAPPERS OF OPHELIA LUNULATA."

The camera panned down to show the police attempting to catch up to and trap the white van, which took a sickeningly sharp turn onto the highway. Toda swallowed anxiously as he watched, grabbing at both Simon and Bato’s hands. The van twisted and turned, a little too quickly, crashing into a guardrail and tumbling down a steep slope. “NO!” Jill shouted, standing up as the tension got to her.

“C’mon, c’mon be okay...” Bato murmued.

Toda watched with baited breath as the van finally stopped at the bottom of the hill, slowly rocking onto it’s wheels. It was still for a long moment, then shuddered and began to drive again, although this time much much slower, and dripping some sort of fluid. Despite how rough it was, it had bought them a little time, as the police backtracked to the nearest exit instead of driving straight down after them.

The helicopter had to pull up a bit as they neared a bridge, and as soon as the van went under, the helicopter went to the other side, waiting for the dramatic shot of the van exiting the underpass.

... but it never happened.

“WHERE’D THEY GO!?” The reporter was shouting, begging the pilot to go back around to the other side of the underpass to make sure they hadn’t backtracked.

“Clever...” Bato murmured, a smile touching his lips.

“… Yeah.” Jill said. “They cloaked under the bridge, right?”

“I’m surprised it worked.” Simon said. “That van looked like it was barely moving...”

“… Same.” Toda agreed.

"... I hope they're alright..." Jill whispered.

“… We’ll find some way to check up on them.” Bato said. “After we eat.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Toda agreed, though he noticed Simon looking warily at Bato… Were they still mad? “… Let’s start up that movie.”

---

“To youuuu~!”

Toda blew out the candles on his birthday cake, heaving a sigh as the tendrils of smoke curled upward. His friends and family applauded, and he smiled warmly at them.

“Welcome to the 16 year old club.” Bato said, chuckling softly.

“Less talk more cake!” Jill said, making grabby hands.

“Toda first.” Anita said firmly, stepping forward to slice the cake.

He noticed how hard his mother and Simon were trying to avoid looking at each other, not that he could blame Simon in the least. “Thanks mom.” He said softly as she passed him a piece of cake.

“You're welcome.” She said, then passed a slice to Jill.

Jill licked her lips and took a deep breath to smell the cake before speaking dramatically. "Oh Cake, my all too platonic love~. I must murder you."

“That is about the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard someone say about food.” Scott said, slightly worriedly.

“I get that a lot.” She beamed, then took a bite of cake.

"So, how have the two of you been doing?" Scott asked, looking between Jill and Simon as he got himself a piece of cake. "Been healing up okay?"

"Yeah." Simon said, not looking up as Anita put a piece of cake in front of them.

"Better all the time!” Jill said. “I still have to remember to take it easy though. Helps that turf wars are canceled... "

"That's good." Scott said with a nod, then paused. "I mean, not glad that turf wars are canceled, but glad that you two are recovering. I do hope they get this all sorted out soon so they can start turf wars again, though."

"Yeah..." Jill said quietly. "It's really worrying with mom unable to work…"

“Wait, what?” Bato asked. “Did they stop profreshional battling as well?”

Simon nodded a little. "The Octomaton put everyone in a real scare... Not that I blame them…"

“… I’m sorry to hear that.” Anita said.

Scott sighed, setting his plate down for a moment. "... Well, I'm sure they'll be able to work things out with the Octolings soon enough, and then things can go back to normal."

"Or as normal as they can be." Bato muttered under his breath, as he accepted a slice of cake.

Toda couldn’t bring himself to say anything. How hadn’t he realized? Or asked? Or… why didn’t they say anything? Maybe it just wasn’t his business...

“… So, Bato, how’s Hachi doing?” Jill asked.

"She's healing up alright." He replied. "Though I think she's getting a little restless, sitting around the house all day."

"Oh man, I would be too…" She frowned. "At least I can sit out on the porch, but she can't do stuff like that right now, can she? Not to mention you guys don't exactly have a porch."

"No, no porch." He said with a small smile, "But... Yeah, it really isn't safe for her to leave the apartment right now, even if they have supposedly stopped detaining Octolings."

"Yeah...Have you left a window open so she can have fresh air at least?" She asked.

"You know, that kind of depends on if they replaced that window in the dining room yet." Simon said. "They might not have a choice."

He shook his head, "No, not yet; we can't really do much with three Octolings under our roof." He sighed a bit. "We're lucky the ink didn't sink through the floor to the ceiling of the apartment downstairs, or we might not have a choice; the landlord would have to come and inspect the damage. We'll have to call and report it ourselves eventually, but..."

Toda’s ears drooped. “That’s a lot of money in damages.”

“No kidding.” Bato agreed.

They fell silent for a while after that, enjoying the cake to the best of their abilities. Eventually Toda cleared his throat. “Hey um, I have something in my room I’d like to show you guys.” He said, standing up and helping Bato get to his feet.

“Okay!” Jill chirped. “Thank you Toda’s parents for the cake!”

“That was all Anita’s doing.” Scott smiled.

“Your welcome. You kids have fun.” She said, putting her hand on Scott’s shoulder.

“Okay!” Jill said, then nodded to Toda.

He nodded back, and then led the way down the hall, opening the door and flicking on the light. His room was messier than usual, a fact he tried not to get embarrassed about as he stepped over three days worth of clothes on the floor.

“Whoa, this is your room?” Simon asked.

He felt his cheeks flush brightly. Embarrassed it was. “Yeah… I um… haven’t been cleaning. It hurts a bit to bend over, you know?”

“I do know.” Simon agreed, slumping against the wall. “My room’s been a bit of a pit lately too...”

“Your room’s still cleaner than mine on a good day!” Jill huffed, then gasped and ran over to the wall. “Look at all these posters! You went to see Leslie Stringfish!?”

“Yep! I went with my dad.” He beamed, clearing off a space on his bed for Bato to sit. “It was really fun, I hope she comes back to Inkopolis soon.” He was pretty sure she wouldn’t, not for a while. Everything was chaos here.

Jill nodded, then sat down on the floor. “So what did you want to show us?”

“Jill...” Simon sighed. “We’re here to talk about Ophelia.”

“Oh. Right.” She said a bit guiltily. "... Where do you think they'll take her?"

“I’m sure they've got it under control." They said, huffing.

“… What if they don’t?” Toda asked, sitting down on the floor and leaning against his bed with a frown.

"We can't do anything anyway." They said, a little bit of pressure in their tone. “We have no way to contact them anymore, we lost their numbers with our phones.”

"Simon's right, there's nothing we can do. We're still recovering anyway." Bato said regretfully.

“So are they!” Jill pointed out. “They had it even worse than we did!”

"It's either recover later or watch the Octarian leader be assassinated." Simon said.

"... This is good, though." Toda said slowly, "The Octarians needed Ophelia to survive if they wanted to have any chance up here, she's their only political power; if they took her to protect her, that means they want to at least give them a shot, right?"

Bato nodded slowly. "We just have to hope that's why they took her."

“Why else would they take her?” Jill asked. “Why save her from assassins if they want her dead?”

Simon opened their mouth, then closed it again.

“That’s what I thought.” Jill huffed.

“… Well, We saw two in the picture, maybe only two of them went?” Toda said.

"Yeah, I'd say… Just Callie and Marie went." Simon said, resting a hand on their chin thoughtfully.

"Wait, no, whoever was driving that van was driving like her, right? Callie would drive worse, and Marie would drive more carefully." Jill said.

"It certainly seemed like Stacey to me," Bato said, nodding a bit.

Simon paused, then nodded a little bit. "She does seem to be their getaway driver..."

There was a long pause, and then Bato spoke again. "... We know how to find Stacey if there's an emergency, and 1&2 are likely to be back at work before long, if they can pull a stunt like that. But we did say we were going to leave well enough alone for the time being."

"You mean Simon did." Jill corrected.

"… Well Simon's right." Toda murmured, breaking off eye contact.

"And it's not like we really can do much anyway," Bato pointed out, "I'm pretty sure none of us can even walk pain-free right now."

“… You got me...” She sighed. “I still wish we could do something though... Because I want to make sure Hachi and all the Octolings can well... be safe. Plus, come on, we'd get to hang out with 1&2~~~"

"I'm not sure 'hang out' would be the right term." Simon muttered.

"I want Hachi to be safe just as much as you do, Jill," Bato said with a little sigh. "But for right now, the best we can do is hope the agents know what they're doing."

“I’m sure they do.” Simon said.

“… Yeah.” Toda agreed. “Stacey’s got a bunch of plans… We might not have made it without her help.”

Just then a loud bling rang out, and Bato hurriedly… pulled a phone out of his pocket?

“I thought we all lost our phones in the domes.” Simon said, eyes narrowing.

“This is Stepmom’s.” Bato explained, then frowned. “… Mom asked me to come back downstairs but… it’s misspelled. I should go..."

Toda felt a bit of panic creep up his spine, Leah was rather direct when she texted. "No, yeah, that's fine." He said quickly, turning to look at him. “It’s bound to be important.”

"I hope everything's ok..." Jill said.

Bato just nodded and stood, groaning as he put weight onto his leg. "I'll talk to you guys later." He said, limping out the door.

"See ya." Toda called after him, unable to keep the worry out of his tone.

"... Later we should get on Skope... in case he needs to talk about whatever's going on..." Jill said quietly.

"Yeah." He agreed quietly. He had a bad feeling about this...

Bato, Toda, Leah and Tanya are Knitter’s characters

Hachi, Oswald, Oana, Simon, Jill, and Orion are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

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#Splatoon #nintendo #fanfiction #inkling #SS Simon #SS Jill #SS Toda #SS Bato #Misc Scott #Misc Anita

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splattershotsundae · 7 years

Text

Better Eight Than Never --- Chapter 40: Oh shit, the recap one

The car ride to Coral Riff apartments felt incomparably short. One moment the car had been packed, Jill and Simon had clamored into the car, Toda was back to normal, phone calls were being made to parents, and in general it was a total bustle. But then Hachi closed her eyes for just a moment, and when she opened them again It was near silent. Jill and Simon were gone, and the car had just pulled to a stop. Another moment and they were at the apartment’s door, and she was supporting herself against Bato’s shoulder.

"They... would've taken things from you, right?” Tanya’s voice faded in. “What did you have to leave behind? Wallet? Keys? Phone?"

"Yeah, all of those." Bato replied.

"Well, phones and wallets and such can be replaced... them having your keys might be a problem, though..." She murmured as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. "We're back!"

There was the sound of three pairs of feet standing and moving towards the entryway all at once, and Leah, Scott and Anita all came into view, running forward to embrace their children, and Hachi found herself pushed to the side in the rush.

"Oh thank Judd!"

"We thought you might be..."

"Where have you been!?"

She leaned against the wall and watched, a frown forming on her face. This... this was a normal squidling reaction to hearing someone wasn't dead... It wasn't just 'hey, welcome back'. Or 'nice!' It was... she wasn't sure what to think, she just felt alone again… and still dizzy. Ink loss sure was something.

"What on earth happened!?" Leah demanded, examining the nick in Bato's ear with concern. "Where have you both been?"

"I-it's a long story, Mom." Bato said, as he wiped his eyes.

"Right, the sooner we get a full explanation, the better." Tanya said as she glanced at Hachi. “Do you need anything before we begin?”

She paused. “… Pain pills? And… water… and… a chair?”

“We can do that.” She nodded gently.

"... Hachi?" Leah asked after a moment. “Is… that you?”

"Last I checked.” She huffed.

She blinked, and looked like she was about to ask something else, when Tanya stopped her. "Leah, let's all sit down first, alright? It's been a long day for these kids."

Leah paused, then nodded a bit and lead the way to the living room, holding Bato’s hand as if she were to let go she’d lose him again. Hachi felt herself wishing someone would hold her hand like that as she stumbled after them, hanging back as she tried to figure out where to sit. Toda and his parents were busy taking the couch, Antia with her arms still wrapped around her son, and Bato and Leah were busy pulling in chairs from the dining room… That left the soft armchair. She paused a moment more before hobbling over, sinking gratefully into the cushions.

A moment later and Tanya came over to her, handing her a glass and three small red pills. “Take your time… I can fetch you one more pill if that’s not enough.”

She nodded gently and took the medication and water, then looked around at the dozen eyes watching her. “… W… Where should I start?”

“From the beginning.” Bato said. “I’ll help fill in.”

She took a deep breath. “… Okay, so… I’m… I’m Hachi. Though um… Until… today? Actually I was… Olympiah Windsley. I was… a surface reconnaissance agent of mid level classification for… the… the octarian military.” When the parents just stared uncomprehendingly, she pulled the beanie off her head, cringing as she moved her tentacle stubs.

This time the reaction was more what she expected, gasps arose from Leah and Anita, and Scott’s eyes widened so much that it looked like they were about to pop. “Octarian?” Anita asked, gripping Toda tighter. “But aren’t they…?”

“Extinct? No.” Hachi said. “I was… shocked when I found out you thought we were gone. Your war over our lands in the cataclysm-- er, the ‘great turf war’--” She couldn’t say that with a straight face. “--forced us deep underground, into the domes we built. The domes are running down now, so we… might not be alive much longer if we don’t take action. It started simple, at… at least from what I’ve been told… We stole zapfish, to power our domes, but it… wasn’t enough, so we stole the great zapfish to power our home. The ‘sea sirens’, your ‘agents’ stole it back, and… killed king Octavio in the process, may he rest in peace...” She paused for a moment, formulating her next words. "We... Needed a different approach. There were talks of a device which could change ink into other colors, but word died quickly. There were no applications other than the revolvers... or so we were told. I was sent to the surface to find the location and nature of the main threat to our operations, the Sea Sirens, They'd been stopping us for hundreds of shifts, killing us, destroying some of our kettles... Ah, ways up to the surface, and... in general just hoping to kill us all off. We hoped with them out of the way we could find out how to survive. As well; If I were to find out any information of so called 'associates' of a particular squidling named 'Yuri', I was to report back immediately."

At the mention of Yuri, Leah sharply inhaled a little, Anita frowned, and Scott straightened up a bit, almost simultaneously. "Yuri?" Scott asked, "How would... how would your people know about him?"

"It was their device that was behind his... condition." Bato explained. "They were the ones that turned his ink into water."

“Well, not me personally...” She continued. "I only had limited knowledge of what it could do, but I was aware that he was.. made of water. At least for a time... Progress was slow in my work until... Well, I crossed paths with Bato's splatoon. Err, Squad. They figured out what I was, and accidentally brought me right to the Sirens. The Sirens made them all take care of me. Keep me under wraps, but alive, since I might have info. And that's how I came to stay in your houses... Everything went fine for the first shift, then Orion, my superior officer, came to the surface to retrieve me. It didn't go well."

"... Shift?" Leah asked with a small frown.

"A day, more or less." Bato explained.

"So... wait, when was it that your.. 'superior officer' came? What happened?" Scott asked.

"That was... Wednesday, I think... it's been a long week." Toda answered. "And... well, Jill and I were going to meet up at Humu mall to hang out for a while, since Hachi wasn't feeling well that morning. But before she got there, she realized she was being followed by this Orion fellow, who took her captive; I managed to find where he was keeping her, but I wasn't able to fight him--I'd left the house so fast that I left my weapon at home--So he ended up taking me prisoner instead, letting Jill go so she could bring Hachi her mask."

"Mask...? Why would he want her to have a mask?" Leah asked.

"An octoling mask is everything. I had mine taken away from me by the sirens.” Hachi said, avoiding eye contact. Her face felt so barren. “It works like your 'phones', allowing for textual and vocal communication, as well as low light vision, vital readings, optical focus, identification, calculating, note keeping, information storage, threat detection, maps, and several others. An octoling without a mask is... Unheard of. Even disgraces have one, with minimal functions."

Leah nodded slowly. "I see… Wait, disgraces?"

She sort of froze. “… I… Can we go back to Toda’s part in the story?”

“Oh, ah...” Toda said. "So... yeah, he took me hostage, then told Jill to get the mask to Hachi so she could contact them, let them know she was still alive."

"So, wait, why did he take you and Jill captive to begin with?" Scott asked, frowning a little himself.

"At first, it was so they could get Hachi back." Bato explained. "The plan was to exchange hostages and leave it at that, or so they told us... but when Hachi got the mask back and contacted them, she told them that we'd met Yuri, and... that's when things really went south."

"Wait... Wednesday..." Anita said slowly, starting to grip Toda tighter. "That was... I thought you said that was when you went to Port Mackerel, and you got run over by the forklift?"

"Yeah... that wasn't a forklift. That was Orion," Toda muttered sheepishly.

Hachi swallowed. "Bato and 'the twins' found one of the sirens again, then made me take them all to the hideout I suspected they were keeping him at. I was right. I wanted to go home so badly, so I alerted my allies inside that we were coming. At the time my actions were completely reasonable, but then they stole the siren and abandoned me.” She pressed her palm against her eye, trying to keep it dry.

"So it... it was just you, Bato, the two twins, and one of these... Sirens? You just went in there?" Scott demanded.

"You should have called the police!" Anita said. "Or us!"

"We were told not to." Bato said. "Bringing the authorities into this would likely have just put Toda in more danger than he already was, and we were told not to tell anyone about the Octarians."

"By who!?" Anita demanded. "By these 'Sea Sirens', whoever they are?"

"Yes, by the Sea Sirens." He nodded.

"I was... honestly surprised when I found out that nobody up here knew of the Siren's existence...” Hachi said. “They brought you the great Zapfish back, you can trust them." She gripped the arm of the couch. She wasn't so sure that she could trust them herself, but... These squidlings could.

Silence fell for a moment before Scott continued."So, you got Toda back out safely, though one of these 'Sirens' got captured. Then what?"

"Then... well, Thursday was pretty uneventful, as far as all that goes." Bato said. "Simon wasn't feeling well that day, so we checked in briefly with the other Sirens, then just got lunch and went home. That was when she went to Toda's house."

"... So when you... ran." Anita said slowly. "That wasn't because you and Toda got into an argument? You were... trying to escape?"

Hachi slowly nodded. "Toda told me that inkopolis had 13 million citizens. Using incomplete data I overestimated the population to 6 Trillion, and panicked. With this data, we didn't stand any chance against your kind, and I tried to run for home to tell them this, that it was hopeless. That we were all doomed."

Scott whistled a bit. "6 Trillion... Yeah. Wow. That’s way off."

"So... yeah." Bato continued. "Friday, we're going to check in with the Sirens again, and... well, Hachi managed to get away… Wait, how did you do that? I had only taken my eyes off of you for a second, and you weren't exactly... feeling well that morning."

She huffed, unable to keep a small smile from her face. "Oswald came and picked me up. He’d been waiting for me… He hid me in a containment tank, and we walked right back to the domes." She wondered if he still cared...

Bato shook his head a little, chuckling. "Huh... no wonder, I was looking for the wrong person."

"Oswald?" Leah asked.

"The one that attacked the Underpass." Toda said, then paused. "Oh... we didn't mention that, did we? The Octarians were the ones that attacked the Underpass, near the Sundae Shop."

"No, no you didn't." Scott said, frowning again. "... What was the point of attacking the underpass? To scare us?"

"...You don’t want to know." Hachi said quietly.

Scott's frown deepened, but Bato pressed on. "Anyway... After she escaped, we talked briefly with the Sirens about what to do. They told us to try and stay low, not to tell anyone, and to keep in constant contact with each other; we were sure we were in much more danger now that they knew about our involvement with Yuri, and now that Hachi could tell them everything else she might've learned up here." He sort of glanced at her briefly as he said this. "And... Well, Simon and I decided that if they didn't give us something to do, we were going to go looking for these underground domes ourselves after Splatfest. We were in danger already, and we thought there wasn't much point in waiting around for them to come and find us."

"You should have told us." Tanya said, placing a hand on Bato’s leg.

"We were told not to. And we couldn't risk getting the authorities involved." He said, not meeting her gaze.

"That's what the police are for." Anita said, somewhat exasperatedly. "To deal with this sort of thing!"

"To fight militia?" Hachi asked, genuinely curious.

"... To deal with threats." She replied, though not quite as firmly anymore it seemed.

"This is more than just the police force can handle." Bato said. "This isn't just a few rogue squads, these are trained soldiers."

“... You still shouldn't have just... gone down there without telling anyone." Leah said.

"We... didn't. Not exactly.” Bato said. “On the day of Splatfest, we were playing at the Kelp Dome arena, and... And they attacked again. They splatted us, all of us, and we were respawned... somewhere else. We were put into these containment tanks, which are sort of like modified ink tanks, and sent down to the domes."

"There are hundreds they've taken now." Hachi said, frowning. "At the time I was taking things into my own hands. There was something I was missing, something nobody was telling me. I broke into the classified files and did some looking around to find out more about Yuri..." She sort of trailed off.

"... While they had told her about the water-into-ink part of it." Bato said, "They didn't tell her about the... ah..."

"The... possession part of it.” Toda cut him off. “That he could get into other people's heads."

All four adults became even more uneasy. "So, that's... Why they wanted to know about anyone that had met him..." Scott said slowly.

"... I'm sorry." Hachi said quietly.

Leah sat up a little more, a small hint of anger joining the confusion, "So, they... they know about that part. What else did you tell them? Do they know where we live?"

"If they do, that would be my fault, not hers." Bato cut her off. "I didn't know they could track her mask."

"Be that as it may, she was still the one that put you in danger like this." Scott said, straightening up a little himself.

"No, it wasn't." Bato argued. "We were the ones that revealed her in the plaza, we were the ones that offered to watch her--"

"Preeeeeety sure that was mostly you, B." Toda muttered.

Bato huffed, then continued. "We were the ones that got involved, even after we said that we wouldn't. And besides, if it weren't for Hachi, we would likely still be down there, if not already dead."

"If it..." Scott broke off, glancing between her and Bato.

She hunched down as once more all attention went back on her, half expecting one of them to attack her. "... I... I didn't like that they were doing so I freed Bato and let him have a chance to get his friends back..."

"She gave me everything that I needed." He said. "Clothes, armor, mask, as much information as she could. She put her life on the line to give us a chance to get away. She got me back into the facility again, and I went looking for the others. Not long after I got inside, though, this alarm went off and I was told to look for an escaped inkling, who turned out to be the Siren that had been captured on Wednesday. We managed to find a place to hide while the commotion died down, and I found this... scientists journal, that belonged to an octoling named Orvokki."

"A journal?" Tanya asked.

"Sort of. It was like a mask, but it went on over another mask." He sort of mimed putting it on. "After they learned about what happened to Yuri, they were taking Inklings and trying to... recreate what happened to him. It... wasn't going well." He and Toda both shuddered, almost simultaneously. "So she decided to take matters into her own hands, and she turned herself into water. It worked, and she was able to find out why the results had been so mixed previously; how well it worked depended on two things, state of mind, and ink color. Purple was the most stable, for both being turned into water and being... controlled by it. It makes sense, I guess, considering Octarian ink is purple." He blinked, "... of course... purple ink... that's why they struck during Splatfest. All those purple inklings, it would be the perfect time… But even with this information, she couldn't figure out how to take someone over without killing them... until she... until she got into Toda's head." Bato continued, casting a brief glance over at him before continuing. "When she was in his head, she was able to find out who else Yuri had controlled, as well as how to control someone herself without killing them… That was about when Orvokki found us where we were hiding, and we had to make a run for it. We managed to get away, barely, and we found where they were doing the testing. They had turned Toda to water, and... and put him in Simon's head."

"They did what!?" Anita pulled away a bit and stared at Toda, as if she could tell this just by looking at him.

"It's true." Tanya told her. "I saw him before they changed him back."

Hachi still had nothing to say, but at least the parents weren't staring at her anymore...

"After Simon woke up, Orvokki came into the room as well... but she was controlling Jill. She threatened to hurt her if we didn't stand down, and so we did, until... until Toda got out of Simon's head and into Jill's as well." He glanced at Toda, as did the parents, but when Toda didn't appear ready to talk, he continued. "I... assume what happened was that Toda was trying to get Orvokki out, and she was trying to make Jill hurt herself in order to get him to stop..." Another glance at Toda, who just nodded slightly."… Well, okay, long story short, he was able to get her away from everyone else, and get into her head, even though she was still water.”

"Just her central brain." Toda said. "Octolings apparently have four other brains too, one for each of the tentacles on their heads. I couldn't control those."

"Multiple brains?" Leah asked, glancing at Hachi again.

Her gaze shifted to the floor, her tentacles twitching just the slightest. She knew where this story was going. She didn’t want to talk about it. She didn’t want to hear it. She felt her breathing grow more rapid in fear.

Bato continued after a moment’s pause. "We were able to use this new situation in order to get the Octolings who were about to detain us again to leave us be, though after that Orvokki managed to get Toda out of her head and get away. He was able to find out, though, that they had managed to capture the other two Sirens and that she planned on controlling one of them."

"Why?" Scott asked.

"They were used as backup singers during a... performance, a little later." Bato said, sounding disgusted.

"... That... can't be the only reason, can it...?" Toda said with a small frown, "I mean, if they're under their control then they would no longer be a threat, which is something, but..."

"If the MC didn't need them, they’d be dead.” Hachi said, finding herself short of breath. “Can I… I need to… go…”

“What?” Leah asked in surprise. “Go where?”

“Another room, I… I’m...” She trailed off, gripping the arms of the chair tightly.

"... You may, Hachi." Tanya said, nodding gently.

She sighed in relief, then stood and hobbled out of the room, choosing to lock herself in the bathroom. She slumped against the wall, tears welling in her eyes. She felt so… broken. Of course the MC wouldn’t have saved her tentacles to make new octo troopers, not after what she’d done… why was she even surprised? No… it wasn’t that she was surprised, it was that she had to see it. Not even a small bit of her legacy would remain down there. She’d betrayed her own species, she had no place left with them… so she’d either have to stop them… doom all of them to death… or they’d overtake the surface, and kill her along with Bato and the others. She sniffed and stood up, pouring herself another glass of water, but just held it in her hands for a moment, as if she expected it to come to life. There was no right answer. She had no place she could live. No home to call her own. She had nothing. She’d given up everything for a future that wasn’t even hers. A pair of tears slipped from her eyes, and she felt powerless to stop them, sobbing as she watched the tears drop into her glass.

After a few minutes she tipped her glass into the sink, feeling a touch guilty for not drinking such a valuable resource, but she was too depressed to care. She took a deep breath, wiped off her face, then stepped out of the bathroom and made her way back to the living room.

"She doesn't deserve to die! It's wrong!"

Bato’s voice caused her to freeze, just short of the doorway.

"Bato, I'm not saying that it would've been right." Leah said firmly. "But you can't just..."

“I already did. And we’re both fine. I saved her.” He said.

“Fine? Her tentacles were cut off!”

“She’s… alive.” Bato said. “That’s what’s important. We don’t know what they’re planning. They have the Sirens, and they have this ink transfusion weapon, which they're learning more about all the time. And by what Ophelia said after the performance, they plan on trying to take the surface again. But how, and when, we don't know. We need all the help we can get."

Hachi took a deep breath, then peered into the room, just in time to see Tanya stand up and begin to pace. "And... they won't leave you alone. Not with all you've been through, not with all you've learned."

"Right. And they most likely know where we live. We're not safe, not anywhere..." Bato agreed.

Tanya frowned. "It can't be helped... we'll just have to be ready. Keep weapons with us at all times, even here around the house. Especially around the house. And we'll look into getting your phone replaced as soon as possible."

Bato nodded. “In the meantime, we have Jill and Simon’s Skope accounts, and we gave them Tanya’s number, just in case.”

"What about the... Octarian girl?" Scott asked. "What will we do with her? Should we... call the police?"

Her breath caught, and she pulled back around the corner, feeling like her hearts were about to jump out of her chest.

"No." Bato said firmly. "We're not calling the police."

There was a brief pause, then Leah spoke. "She'll stay with us, for as long as is needed. Bato’s right, we need all the help we can get.”

"You trust her, then, Leah?" Anita asked, the first time she'd spoken in quite a while. "After she betrayed so much information about us to them?"

"... I do, Anita." She replied. "She clearly has no reason or desire to go back to her own kind, not now that she knows what they're doing, not after what they did to her. And she did help our children escape, almost at the cost of her own life."

"... I still don't like it..." Anita muttered.

Hachi swallowed, gripping the corner tightly. There would be nothing stopping those two from calling the authorities once they left... especially if they sent soldiers to assault their houses... She didn't come all this way and get rescued for nothing...

"She's in just as much danger as we are right now, Mom." Toda said. "... Actually, probably even more so."

"It wouldn't be right to just hand her over." Tanya said. "Not after everything she's done for us. She's on our side now, she wouldn't have told us all of this if she wasn't."

There was another pause, then Scott finally spoke. "... Well, I'm not so sure about her yet, but... I do trust you four. We trust you four.” There was a long pause before he continued. "Very well then, we won't call the authorities."

"Good. I'm glad we could get this sorted out." Tanya said.

Hachi let out a held breath, feeling relieved.

“Hachi, is that you?” Asked Bato.

She yelped as the voice broke through her thoughts. And she leaned around the doorway, feeling her ears pull back. “...Yes.”

“How much have you heard?” He asked.

“… A bit.” She admitted. “… Thanks Tanya, Leah...”

Tanya nodded and smiled softly, "It's the least we can do, for bringing our children home again," She paused, her expression growing serious again, "Would... you happen to have any information about what the Octarians plan to do next? Or when they plan to do it?"

She frowned. "... No... I might know how to get it, but there's no way I could make my way down there to do it. Everyone will be looking for me, it would be a suicide mission... And I'm not sure I'm emotionally ready for that type of commitment."

Tanya nodded. "Alright then, that's fine; no one's asking you to. I just wanted to make sure." She turned back to the others. "So, I suppose for now, all we can do is be alert. Keep weapons close, and stay in contact with each other at all times."

Bato and Toda both nodded in agreement.

“… Um… All octolings have the same ink color.” Hachi said. “I can’t exactly be armed.”

Tanya looked back to her, frowning."Right... what else would you prefer to use, then?"

She thought about this for a moment. "Something sharp, do you have any knives?"

Leah and Anita both blanched a bit, and Scott's eyebrows went up.

"Ah... yes, but..." Tanya started slowly.

Bato cleared his throat. "The, um.. the Octarians can't respawn either way. Whether you use an ink weapon or not."

"Still, though..." Leah murmured.

Hachi sighed. “Yeah, I get it... Maybe I can finally use a fork for something.”

The corners of Tanya's mouth twitched up into a small smile. "We'll see what we can do."

"I... suppose that's all we have to discuss? At least, with the information that we have right now." Scott said, standing up.

Tanya thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose it is."

Scott nodded, "Then I think we'd like to head back to our own place, if that's alright; we'll need to get prepared ourselves, and... we should probably talk about a few more things, just between the three of us."

Tanya nodded again. "Right, of course."

"We should get online fairly soon, though." Bato said. "Let the twins know what we've decided on our end, that sort of thing."

"Right." Toda nodded, starting to stand.

Hachi sighed quietly and began to walk back to the armchair, when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She quickly looked up, finding herself face-to face with Scott.

"... Thank you, Hachi. For helping to bring our son home again." He said gently.

She paused, then gave a little nod. “Um… sure.” She’d been thinking more about Bato when she’d done it, but she wasn’t going to argue.

"Talk to you later, Bato," Toda said with a small wave as he and his parents walked out of the apartment. Just before the door closed, you could hear Toda asking his parents. "So... do we still have any of that Mochi left?" Followed by a loud laugh from his Dad.

Bato chuckled. "Classic Toda."

Leah sighed. "Right then. I.. suppose we should get armed up."

Tanya nodded her agreement, and the two of them slipped down the hall towards their bedroom, arm in arm.

"... You doing okay?" Bato asked.

"... There's... not much really stopping them from calling the authorities...” She muttered, walking over to the armchair to sit down.

He frowned, nodding slightly. "I understand your concern... I know it probably won't be much comfort, but Scott does keep his word as long as he is able to, I'm sure he won't be the one to call them. And he will try to keep Anita from doing so if she tries... but, yeah... I guess all we can do is hope they do stay true to their word."

"... You're right, it's not much comfort." She muttered. “... But It... makes me glad I'm staying down here. Despite the abnormality of two mothers, they are kind and I respect them. W-wait, I mean- abnormal to... me? I... it appears it's… I… Ugh...” She sighed, suddenly growing awkward.

"Ah... yeah. Are... same-sex couples illegal down in the domes?" He asked.

"Pairing up is an abnormality in general... But… I’m pretty sure it’s illegal." She glanced at the hall. "... I want to believe that it's solely for population reasons... but now I hesitate... It... It is beginning to seem like it is solely for control... I don't know what’s right anymore..."

Bato sat down on the couch, facing her. "There's... probably going to be a lot for you to learn, and unlearn, about both of our cultures." He said quietly. "But it'll get a little easier with time."

She nodded just a little.

"So... is there something you want to do? Watch a movie? Get some more sleep?" He asked.

"... I... I'm not sure... I'm still lightheaded..." She admitted.

“I’m not surprised...” He murmured.

"Judd, I don't remember this thing being so heavy..." Leah muttered as she came back into the room, Tanya in tow. She fiddling with a tank on her back, and she had a splattershot at her hip.

Meanwhile Tanya had a much bulkier weapon Hachi was unfamiliar with, with a bright pink handle and a massive tank, it must pack a punch. “Honestly, me neither.” She said. “But it feels good to get it out again, I haven’t used it since I was part of the Gal Pals.”

Bato laughed. “I forgot that was what your squad was called!”

Hachi frowned in confusion. "I don't get it."

Tanya flashed a grin at her, placing a hand on her gun. "Gals being pals as they take down the competition."

"... What?" She asked, glancing around.

Tanya chuckled. “Lesbians, Hachi!”

“… OH.” Hachi blushed, taking a moment to cover her face.

“It’s alright!” She said gently. “Are either of you hungry?”

"I'm good." Bato said. “Those sandwiches were more filling than they looked.”

"Alright then." Leah said. "I guess... if either of you need anything, just let one of us know." She and Tanya walked on, grabbing the dining room chairs as they passed, returning them to the table.

After a moment or so, Bato cleared his throat. "I should... probably get on my computer. It might still be a while before everyone else is on and ready to talk, but it wouldn't hurt to be ready."

"Are you asking me to come with you, or was that a strictly prisoner thing?" Hachi asked, glancing up.

"Ah... strictly prisoner thing." He said after a moment. "But you're welcome to come with me if you'd like."

"... I suppose I have nowhere else to be, and I can always come back out here..." She murmured as she stood. “Do you have any socks I can use?”

"Oh, yeah, absolutely." Bato said as he lead the way down the hall.

"Good, my feet are cold." She admitted as she followed him into his room and sat down on his bed. It was so much softer than she’d remembered.

“Yeah, I can't say I'm surprised..." He said as he tossed her a pair of black socks. "We'll probably have to find some sort of shoes for you to wear too, next time we go anywhere... hm... your feet are about the same size as Stepmom's, she might be able to lend you something."

"You can tell by looking?" She asked, slipping on the socks. These were soft too!

"I'm just sort of guessing," He admitted with a small smile. He then turned and sat in the chair at the foot of his bed, opening the flat computer that had always been sitting there. She watched curiously as the screen came to life with the word ‘Welcome’ on a bright blue background, and then it faded and changed to a black screen with several ink splatter designs all over it. There were a few icons here and there, and after waiting a moment, she saw him click a blue and white one.

It took a moment to boot up, and then Bato began to type in some things on the all-too-loud manual input. “Toda’s not on yet, I’m not surprised.” He commented. “Could still be talking to his parents… Or eating Mochi.”

She rolled her eyes. "... So is this what came before phones? It's not very handheld."

"Not... exactly." Bato said. "Phones have been around for a long time, though it used to be that the only thing they could do is call other people; the sort of phones that we have--or, well, that I had- is sometimes called a 'smartphone' and is a more recent thing." He pulled a napkin out of his pocket and looked it over. “Alright, so Simon is… ‘SloshmasterV3’, and Jill is ‘4PawzAndMeow’.”

“And who are you?” She asked, wrapping a blanket around herself.

"… HollyJollyInkbrushNinja0519... I haven’t used Skope since Squidmas.” He chuckled.

“What’s squidmas?” She asked.

“Ah, Squidmas is one of our holidays; everyone gets together with their families, eats dinner, exchanges gifts with each other, that sort of thing. And then there’s ‘Father squidmas’. who’s a fictional person that, according to the legend, flies around the world in a magical sleigh the night before Squidmas and gives gifts to all the kids that have been good that year." He sort of paused. "Which... may have just been a way for parents to try and get their kids to behave, actually."

“Huh.” She murmured. “What’s Toda’s weird computer codename?”

Bato huffed. “His username is… "PuppyD0gEyez", he must've used Skope more recently than me.”

Just then, there was a bling from the computer, and Hachi jumped.

S: it's not even Squidoween yet, father squidmas. B: lol, It's been a while since I've used Skope S: I shouldn't be one to judge... S: I haven't touched this in years. S: brb, updating my profile. B: Okay.

Hachi yawned. “You know, we have holidays, but they're only when something's happened. Like a few shifts after we got the great zapfish, everyone got some time off, and they put on a play... I was able to go see it. It was amazing." She paused. "I... Suppose this shift became one as well..."

"Yeah..." Bato grimaced. “Ours happen once every year, on a specific date, but we have lots of them. Like Valentine’s day, and Squidoween, and Father’s day and Mother’s day and--”

“Stop! Too much!” She laughed. “You’re going to make my head explode or something.”

He chuckled, turning his attention back to the screen as there was another bling.

T: hey Bato, hows it going? B: It's going alright, just settling in again. You? T: same. it's good 2 b home again B: Agreed B: Looks like we're all online, let's see if I remember how to get multiple people onto one chat...

Bato typed, and clicked a few times, then switched to another chat. B: Alright, I think I've got everyone in here? B: Judd, it's been a long time since I've used this. T: u shouldve said "roll call" or something B :P B: lol, true S: looks like we're all here to me. J: hey T! hey B! T: hey! B: Hey Jill J: the only good thing about this outd8ed username is th@ me & T match. B: Hah, I hadn't noticed that B: Toda's has a sort of double meaning, though :P

A short pause. J: ooooooh. Clever! :3 S: ahhh. S: I see you are embracing your past self, Jill. J: :3c A Double meaning…? Hachi wasn’t sure she understood, but she was too tired to ask about it. Besides, she was sort of snooping in on Bato’s conversation. T: :P B: Haha B: So... did you guys get everything explained okay? S: Mostly. J: Sort of...? S: Until we get confirmation from Stacey I think we're technically grounded. B: Ah T: Oh J: 3 may need 2 bail su out Bcause we r grrrrounded. J: S u stole my spotlite! S: Stop saying what I'm about to say! T: lol B: Yeah, I honestly can't say I'm surprised... T: Me nether S: Yeah. I think he's just afraid, I can't blame him. J: How did it go 4 u 2? B: Pretty well, all things considered. B: They seemed to believe everything B: well, having Hachi explaining it with us helped, for sure T: nd frankly, Im not sure if we cold've made something lik that up if we tried... B: Fair enough B: But yeah, they're going to be on the alert too B: My Moms both found their ink weapons and pulled them out. T: Same w my parents B: And Hachi's staying with me for as long as is needed S: Yeah, think our dad got his too. J: oh totally. S: I suppose now we need to either plot our next move or just take a bit of time to relax. S: I guess it depends on what Hachi knows. J: I bet she knwos lots of things. J: LOts OoOoOOf TThhhINNgssS. S: the question is, is it HELPFUL things?

She sighed, laying down on her stomach. "... No. It's not.”

Bato briefly glanced at her. "It's alright. You can’t know everything."

T: I don’t think it is B: She said it's not T: it didn't seem like it earlier T: oh T: is she reading this ovr ur shoulder B? B: Yeah, for the most part J: Hey Haaachiiiiii! B: But anyway, yeah, unless Stacey knows something, I don't think we know enough to try and plot our next move. J: Im glad you're alive! B: lol S: hm... I'm going to do some thinking anyway, even if we don't make much progress. S: as soon as me and Jill can get out of the house we're changing our ink color. B: Yeah, good idea J: I want blue. XP B: No J: wh@? B: stay with purple if you can B: It's safer J: Y? B: I mean, yes, change from the Splatfest color, but stick with purple B: Oh, right, I didn't get to tell you two B: In Orvokki's journal, after she turned herself to water, she found out that there were two things that determined how well it worked B: For... both parties involved B: State of mind, and ink color. B: And purple was the one that handled it best. J: O J: Yeah, purple souns good S: just to clarify; the purple is to make us better able to survive. S: not to make us a bigger target? B: Yes B: To be honest, I'm not sure if we could be a bigger target right now. B: They won't leave us be, not with all we know S: Good point. J: mayB we should bored up th windows J: buy cans&cans of food S: Jill if it gets to that point I think it'll be already too late. J: 3: B: I have to agree with Simon B: For now, all we can do is be alert B: Keep a weapon close at all times, stay in contact with each other as much as possible B: This will have to do until we all get our phones replaced B: And if you have to go anywhere, don't do it alone. J: got it J: also J: Aerospray or custom dual scuelcher? S: 'squelcher' J: Im not using a charger in the houze the lest u can do is not correct m spelling. S: Toda, you've been quiet, you ok? B: I vote squelcher. J: mayB I should use BOTH T: Oh, yea, srry. T: I was still thinking bout the ink thing... T: B, did she say anything bout how well other colors handled... that? B: It’s… complicated. B: I don’t really understand it. J: ??? S: ... The sisters. J: !!!! B: Oh Judd T: Yea B: I don't think even THEY would know how well that would've worked B: C&M are the only ones that I know of with that ink color B: if... if they are planning for something big, they must have been VERY confident in their ability to keep them both under control and alive B: From what I remember, Callie should be fine, I think darker colors have a resistance? B: So we should be worried about Marie... J: I dont want them 2 die S: Focus. They're both experienced with Octolings, they're bound to be at least somewhat prepared. S: And strong. They both sound like they've got willpower. J: S, nobody is prepared 4 Orvokki J: th@s how u spell it right? B: Yeah, that's how you spell it T: ... J's right... T: no 1 is... S:... S: you would know better than me.

Bato sort of sat back, gaze having dropped to his fingers.

"... Should I be asking if you're alright right about now?" Hachi asked.

He sighed, then glanced over his shoulder briefly. "I'm fine."

She paused. "… We say that all the time. You're not fine, but you don't want to talk about it... And that's ok…?" She waited for a reply, and when she didn’t get one she sighed. "... I did miss you you know."

He turned to look at her at that, surprised. "You...?"

"Yeah." She said quietly. "Why I'd miss someone as silly as you, I have no idea."

He chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "Can't say I know either."

"If it makes you feel any better I could just say I missed having people make my food for me." She paused. "It's not true, but..."

"If that works for you, I guess.” He smiled a bit and shrugged, but then his attention was diverted by another message from the computer, and having nothing better to do, Hachi continued to snoop.

J: Hey, R U all still there? B: Yeah, still here T: yup S: yep. J: I was wondering iiiifffff J: we all wanted 2 streem somthin 2gether! J: ther R sites 4 that. J: we could all watch a movie J: the 4 of us S: Five, if Hachi's still with Bato. J: oh, right. 4-5. B: Sure B: Just let me ask Hachi.

He turned back in his chair to look at her again. "Hey, you want to watch a movie with us?"

She paused. “… Which one?”

He briefly glanced back at the computer. “Sounds like they want to watch the inkdredibles. It’s a super hero movie. Yes like Batman.”

She snorted. “… Sure.”

“How about we make some popcorn?” He asked.

“What’s popcorn?” She asked.

“Oh, you have to see this.” He smiled as he stood up. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”

Hachi frowned thoughtfully as she stood up and followed Bato to the kitchen, where he reached up into the cupboard and pulled down a plastic package with something inside.

“So, the popcorn is packaged in these little bags.” He said, tearing the plastic off with his beak. "You just stick it in the microwave for a few minutes and it's ready to eat."

“Like half of your crazy cuisine.” She huffed.

Bato laughed, then placed the packet into the microwave, setting it for ‘200.’ Wait, no, ‘2:00’. Right, because it was two minutes. She’d wrap her head around that eventually. A few seconds after he hit start, the packet began to sizzle, and she squinted warily.

POP!

She squeaked and stepped back, her tentacles shifting to bright yellow. “It really pops!”

Bato chuckled. “Yep! There are little dried kernels inside, and they heat up in the butter in the bag and explode.”

“Whoa...” She murmured as the popping began to quicken. “How many are there?”

“Well, there’s not a strict count, but I’d guess a hundred. Some of them don’t pop though.” He replied.

“Wow…” She said, watching as the pack inflated, and then eventually the popping slowed, and Bato opened the door to the microwave, a cloud of steam escaping and rising to the ceiling. “That looks hot.”

“It is, you have to be careful opening it up, there’s a lot of steam inside.” He said, carefully picking the pack up by a fin-like corner and pulling on the opposite end to open it. He then dumped the fluffy white contents into a big bowl. “Go ahead and try one.”

She paused, then took a piece and bit into it, smiling somewhat at the crunch. “Mm!”

“You like it?”

She nodded, taking another piece. “Not as good as oranges though!”

“Can’t say I’m surprised.” Bato said. “I bet you Jill’s gotten the movie ready by now. Let’s go watch, you can hold the bowl.”

“How kind of you.” She joked as she scooped up the large glass bowl in her arms, breathing in the salty scent of the popcorn.

Maybe… she could learn to like this place one day.

Bato, Toda, Leah, Scott, Anita, and Tanya are Knitter’s characters

Simon, Jill, Hachi, Orvokki, Orion, Ophelia, Yuri, Stacey, and Orvokki are Shuckle’s characters.

Splatoon belongs to Nintendo.

Please consider liking or reblogging if you enjoyed, it’s nice to know we’re doing things right.

Shuckle has a patreon if you would like to provide additional support!

[<PREV] [INDEX] [NEXT>]

#Better Eight Than Never #Splatoon #splatoon fanfiction #splatoon fan character #SS Bato #SS Toda #SS Simon #SS Jill #Octo hachi #Misc Tanya #Misc Leah #misc scott #misc yuri #Misc Anita #BS Stacey #Octo Ophelia #Octo Orion #Octo Oswald #Octo Orvokki

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