"THERE'S ONLY 15 SECONDS LEFT IN THE ROUND!" screamed the overzealous voice of Callie over the stadium's sound system. Fans were cheering loudly for my team and I. We rose up the leaderboards, and smashed records, defeating team after team with a seemingly innate Turf War ability. It was all leading to this moment, right here, and right now.
"LOGAN SPLATS ANOTHER, AND ANOTHER, AND ANOTHER!" She yelled again, "IT'S A TRIPLE SPLAT! THERE'S NO WAY HE CAN LOSE NOW!"
I stood there, admiring my handiwork of a Triple Splat, when suddenly an enemy inkling swam up behind me and tackled me onto the ground, forcing my weapon out of my hands and a distance away from me.
"Get off of me!" I yelled up the person. They looked down at me with the fury of one-thousand suns, and the determination of competitor.
They bent down and stared at me straight in the eyes, their piercing red orbs drilling into my soul. With a smile, they hissed out, "You're nothing."
Before I could comprehend what they said, they lifted their roller high above their head and brought it down upon me…
"AH!" I screamed, sitting up quickly from the cold ground I was laid upon. I put a hand to my beating heart, as my rich purple tentacles fell around my face to hang at the sides of my head. I breathed deeply in, then out trying to calm my racing heart, and racing mind.
"That was in the past, it's over now," I thought, trying to comfort myself. I looked to my right and saw my reflection in a broken mirror. My weary, emerald green eyes stared back at me, analyzing my every flaw. From my dirt covered cheeks, to my ripped clothing, only just barely hanging on to my lanky frame.
I took a deep breathe in and focused, trying to take my attention away from my appearance. I moved my attention onto remembering how I got here in the grungy alley.
Ya see, about a little over a year ago, I was part of an extremely successful Turf War team with some of my best friends. We were crushing the competition in many casual matches we played in, and dominated other teams in weekly skirmishes which we participated in. So, we decided to try out our luck in the annual Turf Tournament.
Imagine our surprise when we destroyed our first team, then the next, then the next. We were sensational, we were the next rising stars in the Turf War World of Inkopolis. Well, that was until the finals.
Nearly all nightmares have a basis in reality. Mine was no different. The team leader of the enemy team was good, but I felt confident in my abilities. It was that overconfidence that caused me to slip up in the end, and suffer a humiliating defeat at his hands.
I became a laughing stock afterwards, the butt end of every joke. I was even ridiculed by the pop phenomenon, the Squid Sisters live on television. All of this forced me down a spiral of loneliness and failure. My friends left me, I had no job, and I was evicted from my apartment. A disgrace to society as a whole. Since then, I've been a wandering soul, traveling around Inkopolis, with a lot of time to myself.
"In, out. In, out. In in, out out. In- wait what?"
"HEYA LOGAN!" yelled a girl from right next to my ear, causing me to jump into the air and causing me to tumble away from her. I flipped around to get a look who snuck up on me.
"Oh jeez, it's just you Arora," I said, putting a hand to my chest. Arora was a friend of mine I gained a little while after everything happened. The Bobble Hat sporting, cyan-haired girl found me curled up in an alleyway late one night, and recognized me. She woke me up and offered some food and water to me, which I accepted graciously.
In between gulps of food, I asked her why she was helping when no one else would, which she simply replied, "You needed it," or "Because". I shrugged it off and asked what I had to do to return the favor, on which she simply said "Be my friend." I accepted instantly, as I was in short supply of those at the time, and still am.
She crossed her arms over her arms over Gray College Sweater covered chest and huffed. "When are you ever going to find somewhere that isn't an alley to sleep, Logan?"
I looked down from her bright pink eyes, and at her Purple Sea Slugs. "I dunno… no one is willing to let me rent, since they are afraid I'll reduce their property values." I paused for a moment to think. "Oh, and I'm not very fresh."
She sighed out loud and walked over to me. "Oh come on, you're the freshest guy I know!" She offered a hand to help me off of the ground, which I accepted.
"I haven't had a change of clothes in somewhere close to a month Arora," I deadpanned, "I'm not fresh in any sent of the word."
Arora groaned at my pun, causing me to chuckle. "Oh gosh, that was bad."
"Thank you," I said with a small bow.
Arora gave me a look and rolled her eyes. "Your horrible sense of comedy aside, you need to actually go out and do things, Logan," she said, reaching out for my hand, "You'll never get past all of this if you don't. And don't deny it, I heard you scream from the nightmare." She cupped my hand in hers, and patted the top of it.
I stared at our hands for a moment, before sighing. "Oh alright Arora, I guess I'll try."
"Really?!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining.
"Yes, I guess I can try, but I'm not promising results. The last time I did that, I failed horribly on national television!"
"Oh! At least you're trying! I'm so happy!" she exclaimed before giving me the tightest hug of my life. She crushed my arms into my sides, and lifted me up slightly. I was caught off guard by this, I knew I hadn't had much to eat recently, but was it really that little?
Eventually, she set me back down and gave me a bit of space. I looked at her with a small smile, which fell when I noticed she was covering her face, tears in her eyes.
"Hey, there's no need to cry, c'mon," I said, nudging her, "I'm pretty sure me trying something new isn't that good."
She backed away laughing, while wiping her eyes. "Nah, it's just that you smell like month-old herring."
I stood there for a moment, before lifting my arm and sniffing myself, then immediately regretted it. That smell… oh lords. I scrunched my face in actual nasal pain, and cried out.
This elicited giggling from Arora, causing her to cover her mouth in a vain attempt to hide her laughter. "Firstly, you need a shower," she got out between giggles, "You're coming home with me."
I did a double-take. "Wait, what?" Did she just offer me to go home with her?
She turned around and started skipping out of the alley. "You're coming home with me, now come on before your stench kills everyone in a five-mile radius."
"But- but…" I stuttered, running to catch up with her.
"But what Logan?" she asked, turning around to face me.
"I'm a boy. Aren't you worried people will get the wrong idea?" I said.
She stopped suddenly, causing me to run into her, nearly causing me to trip. She turned around to face me, and just stared at me. She then burst out laughing, a deep genuine laugh. She held herself up by her knees, trying to keep her balance, with letting out harty chuckles. I think I even heard her snort once.
Eventually, she managed to calm down regaining her composure and wiping a tear from her eye. "You're pretty funny Logan. If I were concerned about that, I wouldn't have offered it to ya!" She turned around and started walking out of the alley again. "With that sorted, are you coming or not?"
I stood there for a moment, silently contemplating my choices. However, my mind was made up quickly when Arora turned around with the most villainous look I've seen on anyone ever.
"Coming!" I shouted to her, picking up my feet to catch up with her before I became calamari.
Well, this was a lot of fun to write actually. Probably because this is coming more from the heart than my other stories. One's a craicfic, the other is a stereotypical self-insert story. Granted, this story is also pretty stereotypical, but what matters is if I have fun right?
And before I get called out for it, I am aware the One of the Worst already did this idea. The thing is, I liked the idea of a hated inkling getting kidnapped by octolings so much I wanted to try this myself. After a point in that story, I just lost interest, so my intention is to do my own spin on that story, and change things to how I personally would have done it. Nothing against that author, it is an excellent story and if it weren't for it existing, I wouldn't have ever wanted to write this story.
Anyways, I'm gonna try to keep it interesting, but please note that some of the topics are coming from my own personal demons, so be prepared for some risky business friends.
~Chao!