Chapter 1: 14th Birthday

Luke woke up with a start. He jolted upwards from his sprawled position on half of the bed and worked himself over to the mirror to see if it had happened.

Only to see that he still looked rather gelatinous.

With a sigh, he looked himself over. His blue skin had showed signs of looking a humanoid tone but it seemed to just have vanished over the night. He went out of his room, down the steps with his head down, crestfallen.

"What's wrong Dear?"

The sound of his mother's voice made Luke jolt his head in her direction. She was a tall, slim young woman with pale skin. Her sapphire eyes looked worried for her son.

"Oh! Mom... I-I didn't know you were up yet." he stammered. He slowly walked over to the bar and sat down on the the stool, his head followed and he huffed in disappointment.

They stayed in awkward silence for half a minute.

"Soooo..." Luke's Mother began, "Are you gonna tell me why you look like you lost your best friend?"

"It hasn't happened yet mom!" Luke blurted out, "I don't know why! I don't know how I'm gonna change into my humanoid form I-it's n-not-!"

His mother came around the wall and came over to comfort her sobbing child. As she embraced him, she noticed two things: Luke had seemed a bit taller than when she initially hugged him and the texture of his skin was changing. She grinned widely and began to stand up to look at her precious child. Luke looked his mother's giddy look and stared at her confused.

"Mom?" Luke looked around before looking back at her, "Why, are you staring like that?"

Then the thought occurred, and he looked down at his tenta- no his hands.

He stumbled towards the downstairs bathroom. When he got there, he looked at himself in the mirror and gasped at his new form. He retained his deep blue eyes and the pony-tailed, blue tentacles on top of his head, but he now had tan skin like his father. He smiled to see that his upper beak had split into what now resembled fangs. His lower beak, much to his suprise, stayed the same. He looked down at his legs and saw they looked more defined than yesterday. He was about to take his pajamas off the examine himself more when he noticed both his mother and father looking at him.

His father was very toned and he aspired to get muscular like his father. Besides his father's muscular frame, he was tan like him with a turquoise ponytail and green eyes.

"You know you look just like your father we he was your age?" said his mother.

Luke's blue eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Eh... your still a bit pudgy but yeah, really." Luke's dad joked, his eyes having an amused green light flickering in them.

Luke stuck his tongue out at his father in a weak attempt to feign annoyance with his father and they all chuckled.

"Alright you two, I'm going to get breakfast started now." Luke's mom leaned down, kissed him on his forehead and winked at him. "For our birthday boy, I'll make something special: blueberry waffles in confetti syrup."

Luke smiled at his mother before going in for a hug," Thanks mom, your awesome."

His mother returned the hug. After Luke let go his father said, "We have a suprise for you." Luke turned to him and began to ask what it was only for his father to stop him

"However!" he paused, "First you have to eat and get dressed."

"Okay!"

With that he ran as fast as he could, which wasn't all that fast as he still was adjusting to his legs and stumbled a bit, up to and onto the steps.

Only for the twins to flop right into him. He fell back first down to the, fortunately soft-carpeted floor, below.

"Hiya hiya big bro!" chirped his younger brother Faust, who had dad's colors as well his own rite of passage tentacle tie. His eyes were unique as they were two different colors. One was blue but the other one was very dark, almost black.

"Happy buffday big bwotha" chimed Faustine, Faust's female counterpart, who was more blue than turquoise in comparison to Faust. Like Faust,she was heterochromatic but instead of blue and dark grey she had brown and blue. They were very much younger than Luke, they had just started walking albeit in a shambling manner.

"Hey Fau-faus." he said with a strained voice to the twins. "Thanks for the happy wishes and all but could you get off please?"

"Sowwy"

With that said, the twins slinked off towards breakfast. Luke sighed, he love the twins but they were beginning to pack in the pounds.

Continuing up the the steps, he went into his bleak looking bedroom. He had some collectables here and there but that's all. He gathered up the clothes he was going to wear today and went into the bathroom to wash.

Inklings couldn't bathe in pure water since they'd dissolve in an instant. Instead they cleaned themselves in water diluted ink. It was just enough to clean off the grim of the day without completely dissolving an inkling's body.

After cleansing himself, Luke put on his clothes he selected and headed down to join his family for breakfast.

/ \

After breakfast, Luke washed his plate and cup of the remnants of his dish, sat back down and stared at his parents. The twins looked on in curiosity at the atmosphere in the room.

"So, the surprise. What is it exactly?" Luke asked shifting his eyes between his mother and father expectantly.

"Pack your bags up Luke, you staying with your sister for the next week." his father said, and immediately and blatantly searched for a reaction.

Luke eyes widened hearing those words and he felt an overwhelming sensation of joy, surprise, and intimidation at once.

All that came out of him was a squeak.

His father chuckled and continued, "Both me and your mom believe it to be a good experience, what with her being so close to Inkopolis Plaza and rising star at turf wars."

"You'll also be able to participate in turf wars yourself while you're there and get your own ink weapons." his mom added on.

Luke rushed around the table to hug them both in quick but tight hugs. "Thank you so much!" he exclaimed, tears welling up with emotion.

"We don't want to miss your rendezvous with your sister, so pack up all the things your taking with you so we can take you to the station." his mom told him.

His mother notice Luke had replaced his smiling face with another surprised look, this one less than happy.

" You're not coming with me?" He said, his eyes looked up at her with some form of nervousness.

"No," Luke sagged his shoulders in disappointment. "Hear me out, Luke your old enough to be able to take care yourself now and the experience isn't the same with your parents around." she looked up at the ceiling recalling memories. "Anyways, Felicia is reliable and I know she won't put you in..." Her pauseing made Luke even more nervous than he was already. "Unnessacery danger." she grinned, hoping to sell her point.

'Oh is that all? OK see you at my funeral tomorrow then.' he thought.

"Besides that, we want you to make friends sweetheart. You've barely made any here and we're hoping this trip will bring you out of your shell." she explained.

Luke simply sighed and headed up stairs to pack his things.

"Big bwo gonna be okay mama?" Faust asked, sad at how his bigger brother reacted towards end of the whole thing. His mother turned to see him hugging her and looking for reassurance.

"He'll be just fine Faust," she said reassuringly to him. "He just needs a couple of minutes to know how to take it."