The Little Differences

A very irritated looking Inkling boy walked out of Deca tower. He wore a Red Tentatek Tee, short pants and Amber Sea Slug Hi Tops shoes. His tentacles wear styled in the popular 'hipster' haircut style. He was red in the face with frustration and looked like he was going to throw his blaster at the nearest squid. He stormed off to sit at a table to calm down, all the while grumbling something about 'spawn campers'. Sitting down he checked his bank account on his phone to see what how much he had earned for the day. He groaned at the sight of such a low number.

"You ok, Jason?" asked a green haired Inkling boy, who came over and sat down with him.

"I won three matches today, Sam, three." replied the fuming yellow Inkling, apparently called Jason.

"And how long have you been playing today?" Sam questioned.

"Two hours" groaned Jason, banging his head into the table.

"Can't have earned much today then?" Sam asked with concern.

"Nope." Jason groaned into the table.

"Oh... Well Turf War season is almost over, maybe you're just a little burnt out." suggested Sam.

"It's not that I'm tired, it's just that I'm no good. I'm sloppy, I make rash decisions. And I, in general, have an anger issue." Jason said gloomily, tapping his fingers on the table. "Multiple times, I wanted to rip one of my teammate's head off! And don't even get me started on those spawn campers!" he said pounding his first on the table.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, teammates and opponents can make this sport pretty hard."

"Tell me about it! The salt is real. Maybe I should just focus more on other things that I'm already good at." Jason said with a sigh.

"Mmm, yeah. A break from turfing might help, but I hope you won't give up on it indefinitely."

"I'll admit, Turfing has kept me in good shape, and when I'm doing good, I'm having a blast! I don't want to give up, but when I'm having a bad day... eh. I'm probably just a sore loser." chuckled Jason.

"Well, I won't say something like 'you need to practice more' or 'you to find a squad to join' because I know you already know that stuff. For someone who doesn't have a lot of time to practice, you are doing very well. Many of these other players play all day, every day." encouraged Sam. "Besides, in the end, all they did was make a bigger mess than you!.

Jason thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Thanks, Sam. It really is great to have such an encouraging friend like you around." Jason complimented.

"No problem dude. You've been a great friend to me too." Sam patted him on the back. "You want to come over to my place and hang? I'd love for you to meet my girlfriend."

"Hmm, sorry no. It's getting late and I need to go get some groceries. Thanks for offering though. I could maybe come over the day after tomorrow." Jason said with a smile.

"That's fine with me." Sam smiled back. "But hey, you need to get yourself a girl eventually too you know." He said with a smirk.

Jason waved his hand in dismissal. "When you find an Inkling that wants to be my girlfriend, pinch me to wake me up." He joked.

"Well, it's not just Inklings who might be interested." Sam teased, breifly looking over his shoulder at a group of Inkling and Octoling girls.

"G-get out of here! There's no way an O-o-octoling would want to d-date me!" Jason almost choked on his words. "And besides, I'm not interested in getting a girlfriend right now."

"Come on! I saw you looking at the group of Octolings the other day." Sam continued to tease him. "You were staring for quite a while."

"Shut up man!" Jason half whispered-half yelled through his teeth. "I was just... observing!" He tried desperately to hide his big grin. His eyes drifted to a group of giggling Inkling and Octoling girls sitting at the table behind Sam. Occasionally, one would glance at him. Jason worried if they had overheard. His face began to turn red. "I just find the Octolings really interesting."

"Suuuuure. And why do you find them so interesting?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I'm curious about them. They're always so polite and kind to everyone, and they're good with machines and have amazing technology. Their culture is so different from ours in some ways and similar in others. I would like to learn more about them but I just haven't really struck up a conversation with any of them." Jason explained staring at nothing in particular.

"Well if you don't make a move soon, I'll find someone for you." Sam shrugged.

"Uh huh." Jason rolled his eyes.

"Ok, I better head home. Cya!" Sam got up to leave.

"Bye!"

Sam started walking away. As he passed the group of girls he did a cheeky wink and finger guns at them. The girls laughed and Jason chuckled to himself.

Sam had been a good friend of Jason's for almost two years. He was quite nice and caring and looked out for the little guys. But he loved to tease Jason. Like a lot! But his antics had never hurt their friendship. Sam was the reason Jason got a well-paying job at the Nautical Dining Restaurant where he worked as a waiter and an assistant chef.

Jason glanced again at the group of girls. They were still giggling and some of them were looking at him making him turn even redder. Girls were always so mysterious to Jason. He didn't have any friends who were girls, much less, a girlfriend. He knew to be polite and considerate to ladies (he learned that from working in a fancy restaurant) but he never had many proper conversations or meaningful interactions with them. And so, he could never understand them. He decided to push those thoughts to the back of his mind.

With the frustration of the day's turfing subsided, Jason decided to go do his grocery shopping. He'd be turning 17 in a few days and he had invited his few friends to his place for a nice birthday dinner. As he got up he noticed a group of Octolings walking and talking together in their native tongue. This was nothing new of course, Octolings were becoming a common sight in Inkopolis.

After DJ Octavio's recent imprisonment the Inkopolis city officials held a meeting to figure out what to do with the Octolings. Without their leader, the Octoling society collapsed and many of them needed new homes. Many of the Octolings never wanted to anything to do with Octavio's army and were just regular citizens who had never committed any war crimes. After weeks of deliberation, they decided that just letting the Octolings live underground in a collapsing and powerless society would be a moral injustice against their distant relatives. The city decided to start letting Octolings immigrate to Inkopolis.

The city reassured the Inklings and the other races of Inkopolis that the Octolings they had selected for the first contact had good intentions and that they were not being invaded. Slowly at first, they started letting Octolings live in the city. The city provided jobs and housing to help them get started and the Octolings in return had become a great asset to Inkling society. The more brainy ones shared their superior technology with Inkling researchers, many had joined the workforce and some had joined the army.

The Octolings had adapted well to life on the surface. Most of them lived in apartments and houses along with their squid counterparts, had learned fluent Inkling and in general got on really well with the citizens of Inkopolis. They worked and played in harmony with the people of the overworld. The Inklings gave the Octolings a new home and in turn, the Octolings gave back to the Inkling society.

Jason watched the group of Octolings walk, laugh, share stories and jokes in their native tongue and, in general, just have a great time. Jason had not spent a lot of time with the Octolings and only really encountered them in the Turf Wars. Like with girls, he was curious about them. Their culture, their clothes, their music, their food, and their language. It was all so different, so alien. And yet, so similar to the Inkling ways.

The sun was setting and Jason pushed his curiousness to the back of his mind. "Right, groceries."

As he walked to exit the square he heard the giggling behind him grow louder. He looked back to see the group of girls laughing their heads off and pointing at him. Some even had their phones out and were taking pictures or videos.

"What's so funny?" he called back to them, really confused.

"Check your back!" an Inkling girl managed to say in-between gasps for air. Jason reached behind his back and pulled back a large piece of paper. On it was a written: HEY LADIES! I'M SINGLE AND LOOKING FOR A GAL WITH BIG..."

Jason stopped reading and scrunched up the paper. SAAAAAAAAM!" he yelled. The laughing grew louder still as he walked away to do his groceries.

Hey there! Thanks for reading. It's not much yet, but I hope to make this a 12 chapter or so long series. I'm still a beginner writer and I'm using this as a practice for my other writing project, Astroneer: Terran and Beyond. While that project is on hold, I'm going to use this story as a practice to write conversations and romantic scenes. I thought that I could get some feedback from readers to help hone in on my writing style. I'm not going to ask you to review this chapter just yet (you can if you want though). I would like to get more chapters out first, then I'll start begging for advice. You can always follow me, for notifications on when the next chapter is out.

I'll stop babbling now. Thank you again. Until next time,

Dashanerocket.