Splatoon: Aquatic Instinct: An Alternate Ending to Splatoon
Four cephalopods rose out of a pad, ink dripping off of their bodies. Three figures revealed themselves, colorful tentacles extending from down their heads. One by one, they took their humanoid forms, black rings forming around their eyes, a violet color filling their tentacles, corresponding with the ink. Each one of them wore a shirt with a similar humanoid on it, black tentacles and a jolly smile and wink displayed proudly on her face, all wearing the same black shorts with violet stripes on the sides.
The male wore a simple Baseball Cap and Cream Hi-Tops, with a Blaster equipped, the small black nozzle on the end of a flame-decorated cylindrical tank. The females wore similar shoe attire, but their headgear differentiated; one wore a Cycling Cap, and the other had on a Tennis Headband. Each had two small N-ZAP ink guns displayed proudly in their arms, decorated with nostalgic, yet fresh new white paint sheens, one painted orange, one a simple gray.
An opposing team, painted a fine lime green emerged from their own spawnpoint, a large warehouse space with a stack of boxes placed in the middle separating them. Each and every single one of them glared at one another, grinning readily.
"Whoo!" One of the females cheered in her own, squid language, "Let's win this for Callie!"
She was met with an uproar of cheers from her peers with quite the jeers from the opponents on the other side of the map, squids in green armed to the teeth standing in formation. Each Inkling was obviously raring to go, each squid's eyes glistening, most cephalopods in the arena equipped from head to toe, ready to win this match for their favorite Squid Sister pop star idol they so very adored.
"Hang on, I have to get this- Stupid harness."
The team having dedicated themselves to Callie swiveled around. Behind the three Inklings was another humanoid sea creatures. Her tentacles were shorter and curled, and there were many suckers lying atop her head. One of the female Inklings' eyes grew wide. For a moment, everyone stared at the odd cephalopod, fidgeting with what appeared to be a glass cylinder filling up with ink on her back, behind a metallic vest and black boots, green irises wrapped in a purple pool intently working to assist her in adjusting. After a while, she stopped attempting to fix her equipment, reciprocating the stares she was given. Each Inkling present stared at the octopus humanoid in awe, only creating discomfort for her.
"...Hi." She frowned, arching an eyebrow.
"Uh, hello." The female with the orange N-ZAP waved unsurely, staring at her in a mixture of surprise and uncomfort.
"So um… Team Callie, right? Heh… Always liked her cheerful attitude, am I right?" The Octoling grinned.
Suddenly, the other two nodded in agreement, "Yeah, of course!" and "Definitely love her pearly whites." filling the air. However, the orange N-ZAP player could not be more uncomfortable, and stepped away from the spawnpad, the others staring at her in confusion.
"What's up Nie? Don't be a stranger." The other female Inkling spoke up.
Nie rubbed the back of her neck. "Oh, it's… She just startled me. Let's just get ready for the match."
The Octoling across from her simply smiled and waved. "Right."
Immediately after she motioned to her, Nie backed up again, glancing in another direction, whistling absentmindedly. Blinking, the Octoling slowly lowered her hand, then stepped back. As she did so, Nie stepped forward reluctantly. As the Octoling stepped forward, she stepped back. It was somewhat of an awkward dance, the dance only finally stopped when the other two Inklings arched eyebrows at Nie, who finally paused mid-step.
"Oh. I get it." The octopus frowned, "I can leave if this is making you uncomfortable."
"What? Oh, no no no no, it's just… Guys, come here for a second." Nie gestured with her hand, the other two Inklings hopping off of the spawnpad. Looking over her shoulders, she smiled weakly at the Octoling, then turned back. "Look, I know I promised that we'd practice for the Splatfest, but… Eh…"
"It's about Lydia, isn't it?" The male Inkling crossed his arms.
Nie gulped. "L-Lydia. You guys gave her a name?"
"Nie! Are you serious right now?!" The other female Inkling hissed.
"I- Avri..." She rubbed the back of her neck, staring at the floor.
"We and Lydia have put our differences aside. Octavio is done sending wars, and we're done being agents." The male spoke up, "Why are you so specist?"
"Eli, I am NOT specist! I… Just have bad experiences with Octolings. Both of you know that!" Nie frowned, recalling a handful of incidents.
Once upon a time, she had fought against the very same Octarian forces, octopuses that had threatened to steal the electricity generating Zapfish away from Inkling society. However, most encounters that she had with the octopus-counterpart of the fresh squids of Inkopolis did not end well. She subconsciously shivered, remembering a time whence the Octolings laid a devious trap, somehow placing a rock near a puddle of violet ink, inconceivably using the rock to trip her up, and definitely-not-on-accident get her to fall face first into the violet. Yep. Totally their fault.
Now that there was an octopus right there, aimed with a gun, staring at her in the most innocent way possible, she could feel the PTSD just shaking her to the core. But for the most part, it was just species-ism.
"Hey!" Nie shouted up to the sky.
"Look, Nie, no one's perfect. That doesn't mean you can go around judging people." Eli frowned, shaking his head with his Blaster by his hip.
"Well, yeah-" Nie began, then frowned, "Hey, wait a minute! You were the one who always bragged about getting the most Octarian splats! You kept taunting them after each time you splatted one of them."
He scowled, blushing somewhat. "Because they kept taunting me when they were alive!"
"Nie, don't point fingers." Avri frowned, giving her a clear look of disapproval.
"And you!" Nie frowned, "You kept bragging about those amoeba…those statuettes! You kept going on and on about defeating Octavio three times in a row!"
Avri's eyes began twitching, and for a moment, the gray N-ZAP she had shook for a moment, the other female Inkling sighing. "Alright, alright, look, none of us have a clean track record. We've made mistakes. But still, we have to put aside those times and look to the future, for the sake of our new friend here."
Finishing up, all three Inklings in violet colors turned around towards the back of the spawnpad. Sitting by the edge of the spawn, the Octoling stared at the others with an expression that practically screamed, "I'm uncomfortable".
"Oh, um…" Nie rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.
Eli nodded, "Right, we're all teammates in this. The only thing that matters is winning against the other team, right?"
Staring back at her, the Octoling simply nodded, getting up to her feet, managing a warm smile. Standing side by side, she stared at the back of the Inkling's head, all three of them nodding at each other, turning their attention to the battlefield. She stared down at Nie's tentacles for a moment, attempting to take her mind off those horrible stories. She then found herself growing curious. They were shaped differently, longer, but they still had the trademark suction cups. Somewhere in her octopus mind, something came to her.
Biologically, she was led to believe that Inklings, while similar, might have some different traits altogether. Naturally, it was widely accepted that they were somewhat of counters of each others', different for a natural reason. And unfortunately, she had not realized that long ago in the primitive seas of mankind's days on the planet, one was technically able to prey upon the other. So, when she found herself enticed by the meaty texture, and shape, bumping her nose into it curiously, she could not help but taste.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Nie screamed, practically everyone on the surface of the planet noticing her, staring in her general direction.
Retrieving her tentacle from her side, she found that she had landed a catch in the shape of an octopus, its beak gnawing on the flesh as if it were a toy from a petstore. For a moment, all was quiet in Walleye Warehouse. No one said a word, no one made a move, nothing. Then, Nie practically snapped, unhooking her tentacle from the octopus' beak, tossing her into the rotating spawn pad ink, and ran, not realizing that the only where to go from behind was down. Switching into a squid, she hopped frantically, finding herself slipping through a railing, falling down towards a stack of boxes, where, while yelping frantically, found herself decomposing instantaneously, becoming nothing but a cloud of purple dust.
Team Callie were starstruck, their mouths agape, (though Lydia could not help licking her octopus chops with somewhat of a scrunched face) staring at the place where there friend had just spontaneously combusted with no reason or rhyme aside from "Turf War boundaries". Before they had time to mourn the quick passing of their Inkling friend, a familiar squid spirit spun around over the spawnpoint, reemerging into a familiar violet-headed Inkling, who was not having the time of her newly respawned life.
"Ahem." She glared as she cleared her throat.
Glancing behind, Lydia gulped, her face turning pale. Stomping over to the octopus, Nie glared down at her, grabbing her by the chest-plate. The other Inklings just stared, unsure of what to make of this.
"Okay, you may have scared me, bitten me, and practically splatted me…" Nie frowned.
The Octoling wanted to point out that it was not her fault, but stayed silent for fear of something worse happening to her.
Nie continued, "But if you and I want to win, we're going to have to get along now, aren't we?"
Lydia nodded quickly, hiding one of her under her longer tentacles obscuring her face. She was practically terrified, curling up more and more under her teammate's imposing stature. Her suspicion only grew as she offered a hand to the Octoling. Reluctantly raising her own, Lydia took Nie's hand, and found herself being pulled up instantly.
"Alright…" Nie sighed, glancing away suddenly, holding up her tentacle, "Please never do THIS again. And never tell anyone else what you've done."
All of a sudden, sense snapped right back into Lydia. "Oh Cod, I'm sorry, this doesn't usually happen."
Sighing, a shade of violet crossing her face, Nie just shook her head, rubbing her poor tentacle. "Sheesh, this stings…"
"I-I know a few medical treatments for that." Lydia spoke up.
"From biting?" Nie arched an eyebrow, turning back.
Lydia shrugged sheepishly. "Well, the Octarian army was always prepared."
"For everything except plugging in their weapons." Nie smirked, slowly eliciting one from the Octoling by her.
Lydia grinned. "At least we knew when to wake up in the morning."
The two began snickering at each other's jabs, eventually sitting down, with the octopus setting out on treating the scar from her bite, which still remained despite her reincarnation, because spawn points are confusing and make as much sense as a bird burning itself and reviving itself because it was bored or something. Behind them, Avri and Eli just cracked a smile, with both of their shooters holstered at their side.
"Told you it would go well." Eli nodded.
Avri frowned at him, lightly flicking him on the forehead. "You never said that."
Meanwhile, on the other team, one red violet tentacle with eyes and a mouth stared at a cluster of Inklings, most of which gave him a curious stare.
"...Er, why aren't you an Octoling again…?" One of them asked.
"Oh. My Cod."
"Seriously? You're going to play that card?"
The Octotrooper watched as the Inklings began to bicker. While the opposing team looked ready as rain, the Octotrooper sighed, staring down at his t-shirt of a pop star with white tentacles.
"Why did I join Team Marie?" He sighed, shaking his head.
AN: This does not have to do with any social issues plaguing the world, it's just a silly story. Please don't get offended somehow. ...Please?
If you are, somehow, I'm sorry, but thank you for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, NEVER TRUST A SQUID. See you.