Mr. Grizz's dialogue is from the game.
Roy's PoV
A few days before the Splatfest...
Roy hung up his Starfish Drinks apron on the rack, in return for his jacket. He put it back on, covering the black tee he wore underneath back up. It felt nice to wear his varsity jacket again, after a long day at work.
Oscar hung up his apron as well, also ready to leave for the day. "What are you doing now?" he asked him.
"Me?" the red-haired inkling asked, surprised. The octoling nodded. "I was gonna battle. What about you?"
"Salmon Run," he replied. "I want to try Salmon Run."
"Huh?" He blinked, surprised. "You've been in Inkopolis for what, a year? How have you never tried a Salmon Run?!"
"I not want to," Oscar explained. "Then Yvonne tells me, 'Salmon Run fun.' We agree to go to it after I done with work." He looked towards the door. "I must hurry. I do not want Yvonne to wait more."
"Oh, OK," Roy simply muttered.
The octoling nodded. "Goodbye." He dashed out of the staff room. Roy followed him towards the exit, but by the time he entered he entered the dining area, Oscar was already gone, the door swinging back in place. The tan-skinned inkling chuckled and proceeded to exit Starfish Drinks as well. He walked down the street, the orange-haired octoling small in the distance. Eventually, he could no longer see him. Roy sighed and stepped on the pavement outside of the Deca Tower. He glanced at the entrance. It slid open as a few inklings walked out of it.
Roy hadn't moved, much to the inklings' dismay. "Can you get out of the way?" one of them asked, putting her hands on her hips. "I wanna order a Crusty Seanwich."
"Sorry," he apologized coldly, stepping out of the way. The group passed by, giving him a few rude looks. He rolled his eyes and stepped out of the tower entrance.
He looked over at Grizzco Industries. Surely, Oscar was with Yvonne now, doing some Salmon Runs. It would be embarrassing for him to walk him to see the orange-haired octoling still waiting.
He took a deep breath and walked towards the shady-looking building. What harm it could do?
The entire time, his heart was pounding. Why was he so nervous? When he stepped inside, he was relieved to find that no one else was in there. Only the bear statue was there, a faint sound humming from it. An orange light was cast on him, and he walked up to the statue, kneeling down to be eye-level with it.
"Right on time, kid," a raspy voice buzzed out of the radio. "I've got work for ya."
Right. He had been here twice before—once when it initially opened, and once when Bonnie tricked him into coming here. He had never been a fan of it, but the thrill he felt the last time might give him a reason to change his mind.
He took a deep breath, and entered the empty elevator.
About a week and a half later...
Salmon Run was more fun than he could have ever expected.
He came again.
And again.
And again.
It was July now, and Roy was out of school. Meaning that outside of work, he had all the time in the world. Unfortunately, that was not the case for Geneva—if she wanted to graduate with the rest of the Rainbow Squids, she would have to take summer school. It saddened him, but very long vacations came with consequences. At least he knew where she was this time. And she still came to visit them after summer school.
Roy was once again in the employees' room with Oscar, hanging his apron up. Once again, he put on his jacket, but this time, he walked with Oscar out of Starfish Drinks. They merely talked among themselves, the sun beaming down on them. Getting hot, the red-haired inkling unzipped the varsity jacket, making the black tee visible once more.
"It surprise me," Oscar remarked, "how the heat goes high now."
"It's not unbearable," Roy pointed out. "I can take it. Most squids can."
"You say that," the octoling argued, "but it cold in my old home."
"Don't the Octarians live underground?" he asked. "I remember reading that in the textbooks."
"Yes," he confirmed. "So, little heat."
"...Shoot," he grumbled. C'mon, Roy, can't act dumb right now. "I-I see," he replied, louder.
"Are you going to do the battling?"
"Yeah."
"Wishing I can join. Giovanni wants to meet."
"We can battle tomorrow!" he blurted out. "Just go meet with Gio! I'll make sure I'm as strong as ever to fight you tomorrow."
"Strange..." Oscar muttered. "Well, I looking ahead to it. Bye."
By now, they had reached the square, and the two boys went their separate ways. Roy let out a sigh of relief. At least he didn't have to come up with an excuse in case Oscar did try to go with him to the Deca Tower. He looked around to see if anyone was watching him. When the coast was clear, he ran to Grizzco Industries, running up the pavement, past some inklings sitting outside the entrance.
He entered the building, the bear statue welcoming him. Somehow, it was even more humid than outside. He stepped over a pile of scrap metal and headed towards the elevator. He leaned up against the wall, sweaty. He took off the jacket and tied it around his waist, using his hand to fan himself from the heat. With no one else entered, the door closed, and the elevator shuddered. It began to descend until coming to a sudden stop, almost knocking Roy off of his feet. The floor paneling slid open with a hiss, some steam rising from it. The red-haired inkling rubbed his eyes and turned into a squid, slipping through the grate.
He launched to the boat, landing on the deck. He took a few moments to adjust to his surroundings before heading towards the door that would lead deeper into the ship. As he put his hand on the handle, he heard his name.
"Roy?"
He turned around to see Geneva, eyes wide.
"Uh..." he spoke up. "I don't know who that is."
"Yes you do," she deadpanned.
"Dang it," he cursed.
"I thought you didn't like Salmon Run," she puzzled.
"W-Well, why I'm here is none of your business," he snapped, flustered. He turned around and opened the door, walking through it before shutting it closed. He walked down to the changing rooms, quickly dressing in the uniform every employee wore. The stench of salmonids lingered on the suit, much to Roy's disgust. He ignored it and left the room.
When he was walking back to the deck, he bumped into another inkling. He gasped, both of them stumbling backwards. Roy regained his composure and looked at the stranger. He faintly recalled seeing a picture of him on Yuri's Squidsagram—a dark-skinned inkling with pink hair and red eyes, wearing a patched hat.
"Hey! Watch where you're goin'!" the inkling complained.
"I should be saying the same of you," the other boy growled, pulling on the rubber gloves he now wore. "Else I'm feeding ya to the salmonids."
"That's kind of messed up," he pointed out. "...Though, guess I wouldn't miss you if I fed you to the salmonids."
"What?!" Roy was too bewildered to notice that the dark-skinned boy had walked right past him. "Huh? Hey!" He ran a few feet after him until he decided it wasn't worth it. He clenched a fist, muttering a curse to himself, and continued on the path back up to the deck.
On the deck, Geneva was joined by someone else—Naomi. The olive-skinned girl was already dressed in the Grizzco uniform, chatting away with the fair-skinned girl. Roy cleared his throat, and the two turned to look at him.
"Oh, Geneva was right," Naomi marveled. "You are here!"
"Can we please stop making this a big deal?" he begged. "So what? I'm doing a Salmon Run. Stop talkin' 'bout it."
"So, you want to keep this a secret?" she perplexed.
"Yeah, I guess," he confirmed.
Soon, the door opened again, and Roy looked over his shoulder to see the dark-skinned inkling from earlier, donned in the Grizzco uniform, just like Roy and Naomi. Dang, he changed fast.
"Something smells fishy," he remarked, "and it's not just this uniform."
"Y'know what's fishy?" the red-haired inkling seethed.
"What?" A sly smile came across his face.
"The fact that everyone keeps botherin' me." Roy stomped away to the railing of the boat, looking out towards Inkopolis. It was getting smaller by the second as they drifted away from the coast.
Feeling the sea breeze, Roy took a deep breath. The ocean was always refreshing. It had the extraordinary ability to calm anyone down from an outburst, including Roy himself. Unfortunately, it was always Wyatt and his parents who went to the beach. The relations between his mom and his uncle were strained, though it had gotten better in recent years. And as a result, they only went to the beach when they could afford it.
He heard Geneva and Naomi talking beside him. His red eyes drifted over to them, interested. However, before he could start eavesdropping on them, he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He flinched and turned around. There the dark-skinned boy was again.
"Hey," he greeted, stretching his arms. "I've seen ya before. On Studio's Squidsagram."
Roy raised an eyebrow. "'Studio?'"
"Err, Yuri. We just call him Studio."
"Well, that's a stupid name," he remarked.
"You're kinda rude, y'know."
"You were literally telling me to watch where I was going down there."
"Anyways, what's your name? Ray?"
"Roy," he corrected. He turned back around, looking out at the ocean. "Stop botherin' me. Thought I made that clear."
The dark-skinned inkling snickered. "I feel like you got some complex or somethin'. Explains why you're so grumpy."
"Shut up!" Roy struck a fist out, though he didn't hit anything. He turned around to see a pink squid on the ground, scowling at him.
"I see..." The squid reformed, still having that angry expression. "So that's how ya wanna play."
"What? You wanna fight?" Roy barked.
"Gladly."
The two boys were about to leap at each when someone grabbed Roy from behind, pulling him down. Another person did the same for the dark-skinned inkling.
"Stop, stop!" Naomi cried. "Don't fight! We can't break up this early!"
"Yeah, talk this out," Geneva pled.
The red-haired inkling turned into a squid and escaped his captor's grasp. He reformed in front of the fair-skinned inkling and looked down on her. Geneva jumped to her feet and crossed her arms.
"Promise?" she asked.
Roy turned back to the other boy. He still wasn't happy, but he seemed calmer than before. Naomi was staring up at him with wide eyes, frowning.
"I'm, um, sorry," the tan-skinned inkling apologized. "We still have work to do."
"I'm...sorry, too!" the dark-skinned inkling exclaimed. "Yeah, we still gotta work."
"Can I at least call you a name?" he requested.
"Patch is what they call me," he introduced with a toothy grin. "Wish Grizzco's was closer to the east. All these Central Inkopolis squids mess me up. Barely know anyone outside of my friends, when they're in the square."
"Again with the strange names..." Roy sighed. "I should really shut up."
"Anyways, I need to change," Geneva spoke up. "We'll be there any moment now." She dashed off, leaving the others behind. They stood in silence until she returned, wearing the Grizzco outfit. The mask from the sneaky beanie still covered her right eye.
"You allowed to do that?" Patch asked.
"Yeah, I asked Grizzco," she replied. "He didn't really say anything, but he didn't say no."
He shrugged. "I guess that's fair."
The boat continued to drift, until the sky turned a brilliant shade of orange. They were now entering the unpredictable territory of the salmonids. A small building, docks sprawling out from it, came into view. Some towers that Grizzco workers did not access were floating off to the side. This was the Lost Outpost. And now, they were at their destination.
Everyone changed their ink color to pink and super-jumped to the center of the building. It had no roof, so they simply landed on solid ground, a spawn point marking painted onto the cement. They landed in a puddle of ink, where Roy felt something heavy appear in his hands. He emerged from the ink to find that he was holding a Tenta Brella.
"A Tenta Brella?!" he exclaimed. "Whose idea was it to give me this?"
"You're one to talk," Naomi remarked. "I got the Dark Tetra Dualies! My least favorite ones!"
"Eh." Geneva threw a Splat Roller over her shoulder. "Could be worse."
However, the sky began to darken, the egg basket popping out of the platform behind them. An uneasy feeling settling in Roy's stomach, he gulped. If glowflies started to swarm them, it was over from wave one. He could barely use a Tenta Brella, let alone master it.
"A Mothership," Mr. Grizz commented, much to Roy's relief. "You'll need to organize to bring it down. But don't even think about starting a union!"
In the distance, a dark object flew in the sky, green lights flashing on it. Some more figures started emerging from the Mothership, flying towards the shore. Roy walked down to the grated area, where some chinooks were placing plastic white crates. He started blowing the crates up, though he was too slow. One burst open to reveal some lesser salmonids. He started backing up, opening the canopy of the Tenta Brella. Over, the canopy wouldn't detach, folding back against the handle of the brella.
Realizing he had low ink, Roy started running around, looking for a place to submerge and refill his ink tank. He soon found a pink spot of ink, but a cohock simply ran over it, whacking him in the head with its frying pan. The tan-skinned inkling stumbled, dazed as black edged his vision. Another chum approached him and knocked him into the water, causing him to let out a pained cry. He struggled to get back onto the grate, only to dissolve into a cloud of pink ink.
The life preserver floated onto land, Roy's ghost bobbing in the small puddle of ink that was left. He inched towards the center of the map, where the Mothership was flying towards. Chinooks continued to drop crates around him, soon bursting without anyone to blow it up.
"Help..." he moaned. Where is everyone?
His silent question was entered when he entered the building. The Mothership had attached itself to the egg basket, sucking up golden eggs from it. Naomi and Patch were aiming at the ship with their shooters, slowly covering it in pink ink. Geneva was running around with the roller on the ground, splatting any chums and smallfries that came her way. She ran into Roy, reviving him, though she didn't seem to be aware of his return. She soon bumped into a cohock, who proceeded to splat her.
The Mothership finally detached from the egg basket, but it came at a cost—all but two eggs were stolen, and now they would have to try collecting each and every egg again to meet the quota.
Panicked, Roy opened the Tenta Brella's canopy and let it shoot off of the handle, causing it to ram into several crates and salmonids. Patch jumped down to revive Geneva with his .52 Gal and started running away from them. He later returned with a golden egg in hand, tossing it into the basket.
"There's a ton of chinooks over there," he remarked. "Don't wanna let them off the hook."
They followed the dark-skinned inkling to the group of docks, where, as Patch had said, several chinooks were landing. Geneva did a vertical swing at one that was trying to fly away, splatting it and causing a golden egg to float down. She jumped over to the crate, destroying it and grabbing the egg that was on top of it. She swam back to the basket. Roy aimed at a chinook himself, destroying both it and the white crate. He jumped up and grabbed the egg from midair. He quickly turned around and headed back to the basket.
Naomi, meanwhile, was dancing around some smallfries, her long hair flying in the wind. Roy's canopy regenerated, and he jumped next to her, launching the canopy from the Tenta Brella once more.
"Huh," Naomi chuckled. "Does protectiveness run in the family?"
"The only reason I helped you is because you're my coworker right now," he shot down the remark. "Wouldn't have saved you otherwise."
"But you at least care about me, right?" she teased. "I mean, I did date your cousin for what, two years?"
"You also cheated on him. For the Vigilante," he pointed out.
"It's not the first time."
Roy blinked, surprised. "That just makes things worse."
"Well, he didn't find out about any of it until the whole incident with the Vigilante," she tried to lighten the mood.
He shook his head. "Enough talking, more fighting."
"Oh, yeah." Some salmonids were surrounding them, raising their weapons. Smirking, the olive-skinned girl leaped into the air, a pink circle marking the area of impact. She plummeted down, creating an explosion of pink ink that splatted most of the salmonids around them. A chinook even got caught in the blast, dropping a golden egg and her feet. Roy grabbed it and tossed it into the egg basket.
"How many eggs do we have now?" Naomi asked herself. She walked over to the front of it and kneeled down to look at the counter. "Eight. We need five more."
"Five?!" Roy gasped. "Cod, we've been slacking big-time! Let's go!"
The tan-skinned boy rushed out to the grated area once more, shooting down chinooks. He grabbed one and headed back to the egg basket to plop it in. He heard some whirring from above him, and he looked up to see that the Mothership was aiming to steal eggs from the basket once more. He started to run back to the building, only to make the mistake of turning into a squid on a grate. He plunged into the water and dissolved once more.
Once again stuck as a life preserver, Roy crawled towards the building. In a similar situation to last time, the Mothership had once again attached itself to the egg basket, sucking away the team's well-earned golden eggs. All three remaining inklings were attacking it this time, allowing some lesser salmonids to sneak in the building.
"Dang it!" Patch growled. "Who has the Sting Ray?"
"Not me!" Geneva replied. "I have a Bomb Launcher!"
"I have Splashdown," added Naomi.
"Which means..." Patch's red eyes widened. "Roy has it! Where the heck is he?"
"Over here!" Roy called, jumping up-and-down in his life preserver.
"Finally!" He threw a bomb at him, reviving him. "Use your Sting Ray against the Mothership!"
"Why?" he demanded, pushing through some lesser salmonids and joining the inklings.
"It can drop golden eggs if you shoot at the top," Naomi explained.
"Hurry," Geneva pled, "before time's up."
Roy pulled out a Sting Ray and shot it up at the Mothership. Just like Naomi said, some golden eggs were floating down from it. However, it wasn't enough. The Mothership was sent flying back a few seconds later, and the tan-skinned boy's Sting Ray expired. The group scrambled to get the golden eggs that had fallen. Patch activated Ink Jet, shooting at the lesser salmonids to clear a path to the eggs. Once they had gathered all the eggs, they found that they only needed two more eggs.
"Two more!" Naomi gasped, looking around. "Where could those chinooks be?"
"Let's split up," Geneva suggested. "Better than just sitting around."
The group nodded and went their separate ways. Roy followed Geneva to the shore, where there was a chinook flying down. He shot it, dropping a golden egg. Geneva grabbed it and started running towards the basket. She tossed it in.
"One more!" Roy exclaimed. "We need one more!"
"Got it!" Patch called, running back to the basket.
"C'mon!" he egged, taking out some salmonids. "Get it in, get it in!"
Patch was about to throw the golden egg inside when the basket closed and retreated into the ground, causing the egg to fly past it. It dissipated into yellow goo, and a siren rang, demanding the crew's return.
Frustrated, Roy cursed and threw his Tenta Brella on the ground. "We almost had it!" he growled. "We almost [redacted] had it!"
"There's always next time," Geneva tried to comfort him. "We can just try again."
Roy sighed. "It's fine," he muttered. "I'm done for today, anyways."
"What? Only one Salmon Run?" Patch marveled. "That's kinda sad."
Roy shot Patch a warning glance, causing the dark-skinned inkling to lose his smile. They super-jumped back to the boat, where Mr. Grizz proceeded to scold them. The words burned in his mind, Roy walked back down to the changing rooms, where he took off the uniform and changed back into his normal clothes.
He threw the varsity jacket on and exited the room. Outside, Patch was waiting, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.
"What do you want?" he grumbled.
"Y'know, I think I've figured out why you're even here," he answered.
A blush crept onto Roy's face. "Y-You do?" His nervousness returned. If Patch found out the truth, how would he react?
"You like someone," he declared confidently. "There, I said it."
"I-I-I..." the tan-skinned inkling stuttered, his face turning a brighter shade of red.
"Ha, I'm right!" Patch boasted, pumping a fist. Roy was at a loss for words, cursing internally. Patch's face fell. "Shoot, didn't mean to make ya uncomfortable."
"P-Please don't tell him..." Roy begged, his voice quiet.
"Who?"
"Oscar..." he muttered.
"I don't know any Oscars, but OK," Patch said.
"Huh?" The tan-skinned boy looked up at the dark-skinned boy. "You're not mad?"
"Why would I be mad?" he puzzled.
"...Never mind." Roy walked over to the vending machine and put a coin in, a can of Tentacola popping out on the bottom. "I need a drink."
Roy went to an empty room and drank the can of soda, drowning out his earlier nervousness. He threw it away and walked back on the deck. They were out of salmonid territory now, the sky blue, though the sun was slowly lowering towards the horizon. The ship stopped not far from Inkopolis, and Roy super-jumped back. He landed outside the Grizzco building, surprising a few inklings sitting nearby. He rose to his feet and wiped some dirt off his leggings. He started walking down to the main area of the square, only to come across Oscar.
"Oscar!" he yelped. "I thought you were still with Giovanni!"
"I was until five minutes past," the octoling informed. "...Did you do the Salmon Run? You smell like fish."
"I..." Roy sighed. "Yeah," he admitted. "I thought we could do it together some time."
"About Salmon Run..." Oscar rubbed his arm. "I...do not like."
"What?" he uttered. So I did two weeks of fish hunting for nothing?
"Yvonne take me, and..." He frowned. "It hard to splat salmonids. It make me sick."
"Like, seasick? 'Cause Perry gets seasick a lot."
"No..." Oscar shook his head. "It is an Octarian thing. You no will understand."
"I can try," he said. "...Please?"
"Another time," the octoling replied. "When I am the ready."
Roy simply nodded, and the two went their separate ways. He entered the Deca Tower, ready to battle by himself.
Even if his efforts came to naught, it might just have provided him an opportunity to get to know Oscar better.
A/N: The alternative title of this chapter is, "Roy's Emotional Constipation." You can probably figure out why. Anyways, are you guys glad to see Patch and Naomi again? They do act quite differently when not around Yuri and Inigo, respectively. Other than that, it's just a simple Salmon Run chapter. Unfortunately the last one for this season. It feels strange we only got two Salmon Run chapters this season... To be fair, there was a lot of other things going on. The next chapter's going to be a fun one. I'll give you this small piece of information - the Rainbow Squids are going camping! Isn't that fun? See you next week for our camping episode, and Branchwing, out!