Disclaimer: i do not own splatoon, i see other people do this so I'll do it to.
Revival
Chapter 1
"Does today have to be the day we release the subject? We can't be too sure, we should wait until we're sure that we ca-"
"Nonsense, Maya. The tests came in and the results were high, there's a low chance of anything going wrong," Steph said. He was a little different than your average inkling. He was older, so his features were more mature, his green tentacles were fashioned in a more professional manner of that befitting a scientist, stood a bit taller than most, and wore a lab coat like the others in the room. He motioned to commence the project.
"But Steph," said Maya, "What if there was a mistake? We need to be careful, it took more than a year to grow and nurture him. We should take extra caution and wait patiently."
"That's enough, Maya. Computers do not lie, the results are in and it should be fine… and don't call it a larva... Its name is Subject H1, it's merely a test subject and nothing more. If's its not ready now we can always try again until it is."
"Again?" Maya walked up to Steph and placed her arms on his shoulders and shook him violently, "We can't possibly risk its its life just because you're eager to have results which you'd deem an expendable resource. We have to be careful!"
"Look, you have nothing to worry about, it will be fine!" Steph steadied himself from being shaken, "It's been restored enough to be able to survive if we wake it up, and besides…" Steph sighed and silently removed her hands from his shoulder, "...You shouldn't let your emotions get in the way of our experiments," His eyes narrowed he spoke, "It's unprofessional. If it weren't for your genius we wouldn't tolerate such behavior.
"Seadney! Don't you agree with me? Isn't it too early to wake him up? We should let him get up on his own!"
Seadney let out a simple sigh, flicking her head to the side and shaking it slowly, her pink tentacles waving as she did so. She was also eager to awaken the subject but she was also patient. She did not want to rush this and face failure. They had put a lot of time and money into this and wanted good results. "I agree with Maya, It's best if we let him wake up on his own."
Julinka stood by on the sidelines watching the three of them argue. Well, Maya and Steph anyway. She wasn't sure if she wanted to awaken the living fossil, but like the others, she was eager. When Steph had motioned for her to flip the switch to drain the container the subject was in, Maya paused long enough to call Steph out on his eagerness. She was always up-front and assertive, and never backed down. She waited for them to come to a consensus before flipping the drain.
Steph was visibly annoyed. He wanted to proceed ahead of schedule and awaken the subject; why were the others so determined to slow this breakthrough? He had run all the tests and checked over them twice just to be sure, and it had a ninety-eight percent of waking up normally. Just a small margin of failure, it was next to nothing! It was going to fine, and any damage could be repaired… mostly.
"What if it wakes up when we're not around, though? It'll probably just freak out," Steph didn't want to wait any longer, now was the time! This would make history!
"He's a person you know…" Maya said dejectedly. She didn't understand why Steph could not see him as a person and nothing more than a test sample. The data shows that his race can form coherent thoughts and have sapience. Their entire race did gain their technology from his kind after all
"Wait, hold on! I think he's waking up right now!" Steph said with vigor as soon as he noticed it's eyes open slightly. He motioned again for Julinka to flip the switch. He was annoyed with her but his eagerness for the subject awakening made him forget all about it.
As soon as Julinka flipped the switch she joined the other three who were up close examining the fruits of their labor. The poor thing looked confused and tired, it probably didn't even know it existed at this point, let alone any self awareness of its surroundings. But that would all change soon, given enough time it would be able to move around and talk like any other person.
Steph was grinning in anticipation and excitement, all that hard work, those months of slowly watching the equivalent of what was basically a embryo grow to the size of a normal Inkling, but you know, with a fossil. Looking up close he realized that the subject wasn't all that impressive in terms of looks but what it was is what made him valuable. Many like him walked the planet a millennia ago, the idea of having one walk around as a servant or pet seemed fitting. Seeing as how they all died off, what an inferior race, if it wasn't for their technology they would have been almost completely useless and wouldn't have been worth his time and genius into recreating one.
Seadney studied the H1 subject closely, calling it that would get old, so she decided she would call it by what Maya named him. What was it again? Ahhh that's right, she named him after a Larva. That name was better fit for a insect, we'll have to do better than that. He was a weird looking thing, he had strange eyes, strange fur on top of his head, strange everything, on top of that bones underneath all that flesh. If he was dressed properly and given some make up, he could pass off as cute, but without a doubt some weirdos out there will be into him just the way he is.
Maya was bursting with energy! This was it, her magnum opus, the mark that she would leave on the world. This is what the masses will remember her for! Her contribution to society, a fully intact living fossil! The poor little thing is shivering though, we should get him some clothes, but first we'd have to measure him… not to mention trim that little patch of fur on his head, but in her honest opinion he was fine just the way he was! There was so much to do, so much to raise this child of hers, yes. So much to do! Seeing how the other 3 were still shock and in awe of his very presence she decided she would make first contact. She wanted to leave a good impression and wanted to be trusted and held as someone close by him, perhaps even a mother figure!
"Rise and shine!" said Maya as she neared him "Come on, seize the day! Carpe diem!"
Everything is black. I'm not moving. I'm not breathing. I don't need to move. I don't need to breathe. I'm in a void. I open my eyes and see everything is a blur. I can't make out shapes, but I can see the colours just about clearly. Everything is white, for the most part, with four blobs of colours; one blue, one orange, one green, and another pink. I hear a sound below me; a draining sound. I suddenly feel exposed at the tip of my head. The feeling flows down my body until I feel completely exposed. I suddenly fall down, only for a moment, before I stop. Everything's still blurry. I hear voices, but they're only coming through in waves. My vision darkens until everything is black.
-dashes and shit-
"Isn't it too early to wake him up? We should let him get up on his own," A voice I don't know.
"I agree with Maya. It's best if we let him wake up on his own," Another unfamiliar voice.
"What if it wakes up when we're not around, though? It'll probably just freak out." Someone else I don't know.
"He's a person, you know..." Another voice. Just who are these people?
"Wait, hold on! I think it's waking up right now!"
My eyelids slowly drag upwards, until I can see a white ceiling. White fluorescent lights blind me as I squint.
"Rise and shine!" I hear a girl giggle. I roll my head to the side and see a lab coat. The person wearing it bends down so that her face is only a few inches from mine, "Come on, seize the day! Carpe diem!" She puts an unusual amount of stress on the "carp" in "carpe diem."
"Who are you?" I ask her.
"No, the more important question..." I heard someone speak, and turned my head to see a tall man in a lab coat limbering above me. His skin is dark and eyes are green, just like his hair, and he looks at me with cold, solid eyes, "...Is who are you?"
I think about this question. I sit there for a while, maybe too long, and finally respond, "Where am I?"
"He needs some re-" I hear someone else speak before the green-haired man raises his hand to motion her to be silent.
"Look around," he says.
I do. My eyes slowly gaze around the room. On one side of the room, I see a few buzzing computers wired up to each other. On the other, there's a couch next to a window. The shutters are closed, so I can't see outside, but I can hear some people and cars faintly. As I look down, I see that I'm sitting upright in a bed, with long, thin tubes attached to my arms.
"Is this… a hospital?" I say weakly. A blue-haired woman, dressed similarly to the green-haired man, quickly takes a pen and scribbles something down on her clipboard. I ask once again, "Is that where I am? Was there an accident?"
The green-haired man smiles, "Success."
"What?" I say, confused. The green-haired man starts to get excited; a bit wild, even. He grabs the shoulders of a pink-haired girl standing next to him and shakes her.
"Success! Eureka! We've done it, ladies, we've done it!" He rushes to an orange-haired woman and hugs her, and she hugs him back tightly. The pink-haired girl smiles and claps to herself. I'm stunned.
"Okay," I say, laughing, "Uh… what have we done?" The green-haired man doesn't seem to have heard me at all.
"Tests! Tests, right, we need to run some-" He starts excitedly, but is interrupted by the orange-haired woman.
"Steph, calm down!" She says firmly, "He's clearly confused, can't you see? He was just brought into this world; we need to give him some time to ease into it." The blue-haired woman nods in response. The green-haired man, evidently named "Steph," calms himself down.
"Right, right..." He takes some deep breaths for some time, before exhaling sharply, "Okay. Do you remember your name?"
"My name?" I think for a few seconds. I have a name, don't I? I can't seem to remember if I do. Come to think of it, I don't remember anything at all. Who am I? Where am I from? Why am I even here? "Um… I actually don't know anything."
Steph nods as the blue-haired woman writes something down on her clipboard. "Right, then..." he starts, "...We'll start with introductions. My name is Stephanlopod Oceana."
"Stephalo-" I start.
"Just call me 'Steph,' please."
"Oh, right, Steph."
The orange-haired woman steps forth. She's tall, but not much taller than Steph. In fact, the two seem to be at about the same height. She's a bit on the plump side, but considering her features, the physique actually suits her well. She smiles at me warmly, in a motherly way, almost. Just seeing her makes me feel happy.
"My name is Mayangler Oceana," She says warmly. She extends her hand, and for a moment I hesitate, slowly reaching forward and accepting her palm. It feels strange, a little soft and a bit colder than mine. The texture makes her fingers feel almost like tentacles. I stare up at her and she smiles back at me, "Nice to meet you!"
"It's nice to meet you, too, Mayangler…" I respond shyly.
"Please, call me Maya. If there's anything you need, just ask me," She pats my head as she steps away.
The next one to talk is the blue-haired woman. As she steps forward, I immediately feel a formality in her presence. Her physique doesn't help at all, either. She has at least a foot on both Steph and Maya, and as I look down at her feet, I see that she's not even wearing heels. She has an almost perfect hourglass figure, and her face is so cold that it makes me shiver a bit.
"My name is Seadney Caspian, It's a pleasure to meet you," She says, "I hope we can get along well. That is if you want to, I have all kinds of fun toys to make you play along."
I start to shiver at what she might mean by that. Her cold smirk doesn't help at all.
"Stop it! You're scaring him" Maya scolds her. Seadney only looks down at her clipboard, scanning over her notes.
The pink-haired girl, who seems to be much younger than everyone else, steps forward. Her skin is dark, but a little bit lighter than Steph's. I notice her face is the same one which greeted me when I first woke up. She stands quite a bit shorter then the others, her features aren't as refined, and her head is more round. Her eyes are more youthful compared to the others, and look lively and full of emotion. I realize I'm staring and turn my eyes away. I hear a giggle and bring my eyes back so that she's in my view. She smiles brightly, and I can almost feel the optimism bubbling out of her.
"Hiya!" She says, beaming at me, "My name's Julinka! Julinka Oceana!"
"Oh, n-nice to meet you." I reach out and she shakes my hand joyfully, giggling. Julinka? That's a bit of an odd name. Did she mean to say "Julia?"
"Well, then, with introductions out of the way..." Steph starts as Seadney hands her clipboard to him, "...I suppose we should learn about you, first."
"Me?" I say.
"Yes," He continues, "Now, do you remember anything from before you woke up?"
"Um..." I stop to think. I'm sure I must have at least been up to something recently, but despite all efforts, I can't seem to remember a thing. "...Not at all," I answer.
Steph nods and writes something down, "How about a name? Do you have a name?"
"A name?" Well, yes, of course I should have one. What is it, though? I rack my brain once again, and come back empty-handed, "I… I guess not."
The notion of not having a name is pretty dumb, once I think about it. I'm certain I should have one, but I have no idea why I don't.
"Well, you know what that means!" Maya chimes in.
Julinka giggles in response, "Time to name him!"
Name me? Well, it should only make sense, since I don't have a name already. Maya drops a stack of papers, all stapled together, on my lap.
"That right there is a list of some names for you to choose from!" She says.
"All this?" I say, flipping through the packet and looking through the seemingly endless names. I try searching for a name, but realize that I can't understand any of the text. It's in an entirely different language.
"I, um…"
"Those are the ones that are written in its language, right?" Steph asks.
"His!" Says Maya, lightly slapping his chest, "Er, also... no. Well, we can always go with the one I chose."
Steph lets out a sigh, "This was your plan all along, wasn't it? So you could name it whatever you wanted to?"
He said that word again: "It." Why does he keep calling me that? Did I do something wrong to somehow offend him?
"He's not some creature, Steph!" Maya insists. Steph is about to retort, but Julinka interrupts before he has the chance,
"Guys, stop it! Just name him already!" She looks away in a huff, "To think I'm related to a couple who argues all the time..."
"Watch it, young lady," Steph scolds as he taps her head with his clipboard, "Is that any way to talk about your parents?"
I stop listening to their idle chatter. "Creature." Am I a creature? Am I unnatural? I grip my palms; they feel different from the others' hands. Both Maya and Julinka had a different feeling, a soft, wet, feeling, almost like a salamander. When I touch my own hands, it's different. They're warm, with a sort of rough, dry texture.
As I watch them argue, not listening to their words at all, I start to notice something odd about their hair. I pinch a tuft of my own hair, rubbing the strands between my fingers. My head is full of actual hair, but theirs is different. I hadn't noticed it before through the rushed introductions, but their hair wasn't actually hair. After taking a second glance, I saw that what they had covering their scalps were… tentacles.
Throughout all of my thinking, I hadn't realized that Seadney had come up next to me. The tapping of her pen as it hastily scribbles on her clipboard suddenly calls her to my attention. After a few seconds, she turns to the others and clears her throat.
"Will you three stop your bickering and take a look?" They stop at once and look at me. The room falls silent. I look back at them, not knowing what to say.
"Hey, are you ok? Can't decide on a name?" Julinka says, completely failing to read the mood.
"N-no, it... it's just that, um…" I stutter. I don't know why, but I feel nervous for some reason. I look at Julinka as she smiles at me. Her teeth bared, I see that she has three sharp teeth; two canines on the top row, and one right in the middle of the bottom row. They look perfectly suitable for ripping apart meat. I shiver in fear, suddenly realizing that I don't know anything about these people or what they want to do to me.
"Well, I um…" My voice trails off.
"Out with it," Steph says impatiently.
"Is everything okay? I'm starting to think this is about more than just deciding a name," Julinka inches closer to me.
"P-please don't get near me..." I peep.
"O-oh. Okay, I'm sorry," she frowns.
Maya stands silently, her orange eyes piercing mine. After what feels like an eternity, she breaks the silence between us,
"Oh its okay, my little larva! There's nothing to be afraid of." Before I know it, her arms are wrapped around me. She smothers me into her chest, and for a moment I feel embarrassed. At first, I don't know what to do. I try to pull away, but something about her embrace only wants me to stay in this moment for even longer. I awkwardly start to put my arms around her to return the favor, but my fear of the unknown holds me back. Is this just some way to keep me from thinking that they want to do anything bad to me? Does she even care about me at all?
"Um…" I want to ask them what they're going to do to me, but I hesitate at first. I take a deep breath and loudly blurt out, "What am I doing here and when do I go home?"
I noticed Julinka and Maya exchange strange glances towards another. "Let's… not talk about that right now," Julinka says, smiling awkwardly.
"But what about my fam-"
"Oh, that's right! Your name!" Maya cut me off.
"Yeah, we still haven't decided what you'll call yourself," Julinka cut in quickly, "Here, I'll help you decide."
"I… can't read any of this," I tell her uncomfortably, "Well… I guess it's sort of readable, but I only recognize a few characters..."
Julinka presses her neck on my shoulder to get a better view, leaning in too close for comfort. I shudder as I feel her "hair" touch my cheek. It's slimy and wet, but most uncomfortable of all is its warmth. Is the "hair" a part of their actual body?
"How about… this one?" Her finger glides through the air in front of me and swiftly lands on a series of scribbles. I don't recognize the characters, so I ask her what it says.
"Inkless," she responds.
"Inkless?" I blurt, and Maya happens to say it at the same time.
"Isn't that a bit of an insult?" Maya asks.
"Hmm… It is accurate," Julinka responds, "What do you think?"
"Why 'Inkless?'" I ask.
"Well, you know, since you're not an inkli-" She stops suddenly, seeming lost in thought for a moment. She continues talking after a brief silence, "A-actually, maybe something else..."
"Synthesis," Seadney says quickly, "It'll be temporary, just until we can decide on something for sure."
"I can't argue with that," Steph says, "If we decide its- his name right away, we'd probably be here all day and come up with something unsatisfactory."
"Well, that's kind of deinklinizing, don't you think?" Julinka says.
"Deinklinizing?" I think to myself, "What does that even mean?"
"Well, first of all, in his case, it would be 'dehumanizing...'" Maya admits, "...Second of all, Steph does have a point. If we decide right now, it'll probably be something… lacking."
Julinka finally pulls away from me. She looks at me as she says, "Well… I guess we'll stick with it for now."
"Regardless, we should still keep brainstorming some ideas," Maya says, nodding.
"Well, now that we have your name down… Well, for now, at least..." Steph starts, "I guess we'll start with the tests."
"Not just yet," Maya interrupts, causing a mild, impatient groan to come from Steph, "He's not just here to answer our questions. I think we owe him a few explanations."
"I agree with Maya," Seadney admits, "If we want him to perform well, we should at least make sure he's psychologically fit. We want to make sure he knows that he's in a safe environment."
"Hey, I'm right here," I say half-jokingly.
Maya gently puts her hand on my head, "Well, what do you have to ask us?"
"Um..." I hesitate.
"It's okay, you can ask me anything at all."
"Well..." I stop, afraid that I might offend her with my first question. She's probably one of my caretakers, probably, so I don't want her to think too little of me. Regardless, I take her previous words into mind and ask, point-blank, "What are you people?"
Silence.
Did I strike a nerve? I start to feel nervous.
"Well, it makes sense that you'd ask us," Maya says, sitting beside me on the bed, "We call ourselves 'Inklings.' We evolved from squids, and you can actually notice that we have a lot of squid-like features, compared to you. You've probably already noticed our hair, haven't you?"
"Yeah, I have."
"On top of that, our skin is similar to that of our ancestors," she explains, "And on top of that, we can actually turn into squids."
The last part catches me completely off-guard. I echo her words just to make sure I heard them correctly, "You can turn into squids?"
"Well, yes, we can."
"No way. Can I see it?"
"Oh, well-"
"I'll do it for you!" Julinka butts in. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a container full of pink liquid. She splashes some of it on the ground before jumping up. At the peak of her height, she quickly shrinks and turns into a pink squid, about half of her original size. She falls right into the ink, swimming in a circle around the small puddle as if it were at least a few feet deep. She resurfaces and jumps high up, turning back into her humanoid figure at the peak of her jump. She bows as she lands, and I can't help but give a small applause.
"That's amazing!" I praise.
"Well, hardly, I do it all the time..." Julinka says, blushing. Through her act, I forgot about my next question, but as soon as the moment is over, I remembered what I had to ask.
"Well, I do have another important question. What am I doing here?"
The group exchanges glances, mostly between Steph, Maya, and Julinka, as Seadney is busy writing in her clipboard.
"Fine, I'll tell him," Steph steps forward, "We're here to experiment on you."
I'm taken aback by this. What kind of experiments is he talking about? From the looks that they kept giving each other, it couldn't be anything pleasant. Steph seems to read my mind as he gives his response.
"Granted, it's nothing that you should be worried about; just some simple physical and mental tests to know about you and… your species."
"My species?"
"Yes, your species. You see, we've been collecting data from ancient civilizations; some that have existed long before our time..." He seems hesitant in his speech, as if he's carefully wording what he has to say, "...and those civilizations have been built by a certain species. Your species, actually. And, well, you see..." He sighs, "I don't see a point in keeping you from knowing. Synthesis… You've been dead for fifty million years."
I almost laugh. Dead for fifty million years? That has to be a joke. As I look around at everyone else, though, I see that Steph is dead serious.
"Furthermore… You and your entire species has been extinct for fifty million years," Steph finishes.
"Ha-ha, okay," I say. "Come on, what am I really doing here?"
"I believe Stephanlopod just said that," Seadney says bluntly. I quickly look at her, and she looks back at me. Her expression is dead serious… Well, maybe a bit more on the "dead" side. She looks at me, holding her blank expression. We stare at each other for some time before Maya breaks the silence.
"It's not a lie," she says, and nothing more. Those four words are almost enough to convince me. I look around the room, shooting glances and nervous laughter before I finally give in.
"You're serious," I finally say.
"We brought you back through… Well, not really through resurrection, but something simi-"
I interrupt Steph halfway through his sentence, "What killed us?"
"You- I'm sorry, what?" Steph says.
"How did my species die?" I ask. Steph sighs and sits down in a chair by a desk covered in papers.
"Synthesis, we've been researching your species for decades; almost an entire century now, in fact. Not just us, but Inkling scientists as a whole. We believe we've learned almost everything but that… Funny enough, that's the only thing we don't have a clue about. We've learned that your species was widespread across the planet and faced many challenges, especially towards the end of your existence. It's hard to pinpoint what it exactly was, or if it was even just one cause in the first place."
I can't believe it. The rest of my kind is entirely gone. If they are, though… "How am I even alive?" I ask Steph.
He nods, "That's what I was getting to before. It's a complicated process, but it involves using the remains of someone and using their DNA to bring back a revived version of themselves. Since DNA doesn't last forever, we had to use the youngest remains that we could find, and we needed DNA from other species in order to bridge the gaps."
"So I'm not really me, am I?"
"Erm… No. Most of the remains that we find are fossilized, but yours… Yours were different. You weren't actually fossilized, otherwise your statement would be completely true. Rather, you were naturally mummified. Your body was preserved through natural causes. In fact, we found your body in a glacier."
"A glacier?"
"Yes. We actually had been going through the process of 'revived fossils' for quite some time, until you came along. When we found your body, preserved, we knew that you were perfect for what we were looking for. What we weren't sure about were the lasting effects. We weren't sure if you would be completely mobile, or even mentally functional. Luckily for us, however..." He gestures towards me in a motion as if he were introducing me to an audience, "...Here you are. Granted, you may have some physical impairments; we'll need to take some tests to be sure."
I'm still not sure how to take this news.
"Is everything alright?" Maya says, rubbing my thigh comfortingly.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, it's just… This is all happening so fast," I say. My head is swimming with thoughts. Everyone of my kind is dead. People I knew, but can't remember. I can't remember anything, in fact. Steph said that I may be physically impaired in some way. What if I am? What if I'll have trouble doing everyday tasks because of it? No, forget the impairment, what if I can't get around because I'm human? What if the Inklings hate me?
I suddenly feel a warmth on my cheek. I come back to reality and see Maya, her arm outstretched to touch my face. Her face is concerned, and mine mirrors hers. Just seeing her worry about me leads me to worry about myself. Her voice brings me back once again before I drift off into a sea of worries,
"Are you okay, Synthesis?" She says. I hate that word. I hate that name. I don't even know what it means, but I hate it. Maya's thumb moves gently, stroking my cheek. "You need some rest."
"I… I think I do," I admit.
Maya looks to everyone else, "I think we should leave."
"Wait!" I blurt out. She looks at me. "Um… I don't want to be alone."
She smiles at me, "Okay. I'll stay here."
Those few words make me feel so much more comfortable. I smile back at her as everyone else files out of the room. I close my eyes and hear a click. Shortly afterwards, I'm fast asleep. Maya pulled up a chair as she watched Synth fall asleep.
"What an intriguing little creature you are, i just can't wait to see you blossom."
-AuthorsNotes-
Hi. So me and my co author "Toxink" decided to write this story on a whim, you can find him on wattpad. If anyone reads this which i doubt, i hope you enjoyed it. If you'd be so kind to leave a review with tips it'd be much appreciated. This is also my first story btw. Bye.