Festival of Colours
One week later…
Nightfall descended over Booyah Base, as various neon signs began to light up. A crowd of inklings began to gather, the plaza slowly filling up with the sounds of excitement and happiness. In the distance, various workers began final preparations, checking the fireworks are in place. At the very center of the plaza on top of two parked studio trucks, Callie and Marie of the Squid Sisters surveyed the excited crowd, waiting for the sun to set completely.
"Alright everyone, we're all set!" Marie said into a microphone, her voice broadcasting out of a megaphone next to her. "The Splatfest is about to start!"
"HELLO INKOPOLIS!" Callie cheered, "I see everyone is in good spirits as always!"
The crowd responded in unison with a cheerful cry, a majority of them in a collection of cyan and bright purple T-shirts.
"Woo! This crowd's fired up!" Callie responded. "Looks like the cold weather hasn't frozen us over! Clear skies tonight too, we cannot ask for better conditions! So Marie, we all set to spin the roulette?"
"Yes we are, Callie." Marie replied. To their left, the TV screen usually reserved for news broadcasts is now displaying a roulette slot with photos of the Turf War stages on them. With a jingle, the slot wheels began to spin, stopping one by one.
The first slot reel stopped on the photo of a bridge, still under construction.
"Hammerhead Bridge!" Callie shouted, "Looks like the workers still haven't gotten to finishing it!"
"If they had, there won't be any stage left." Marie replied, "It may be good for us they've been lazy."
The second slot reel stopped on a picture of a warehouse, crates stacked high in the background.
"Walleye Warehouse!" Callie exclaimed, "You know, I wonder how much of those crates contain merch of us?"
"Probably none, after our little disaster of a job over there!" Marie chuckled.
Finally, the third reel stopped on a series of apartment buildings, an assortment of jellyfish in the more distant buildings.
"Last but not least, Flounder Heights!" Callie cried, "Speaking of, I heard stories from the nearby neighborhood of someone that tried to jump from one building to another but landed in a tree 10 stories below!"
"Sounds painful. Fun, but very painful." Marie smirked. "Looks like we have our Turf War stages. Callie, mind explaining the rules to those that had been living under a rock?"
"Ouch, that's a bit harsh." Callie said. "The name of the game is simple: Go nuts, and coat the floor in your team's ink. For every win a team gets, they contribute to a pool of total wins! At the very end, points are rewarded based on how popular the teams are, and how many wins the teams had. The team that gets the most points is the victor of this Splatfest! Simple as that!"
"You can also win Super Sea Snails depending on your contributions." Marie continued, "If you can find a specialist, you can use them to either upgrade your gear with an extra slot for new abilities if needed, or you can scramble the abilities already present to potentially maximize your gear's potential!"
"They make great pets too!" Callie added, "I've kept one before as a child, they really love veggies, especially kelp!"
"Huh, you never told me about it before. What happened to it?"
"Some madman with a cowboy hat yoinked it one day. Dunno where it went afterwards."
"Well…." Marie said, brushing off that last remark, "I guess we should give thanks to everyone here, for coming as always, we'd also like to thank the crew that worked hard to set all this equipment up for us. Most of all, we'd like to thank the great gods to granting this opportunity to celebrate this festival as well as their guidance, as always."
"But enough about religious bullsquid, LET'S PARTY!" Callie screamed, fistpumping the air. The crowd responded with a wild cheer, as the plaza began to fill with the sound of music and the Squid Sister's singing. Splatfest has officially begun.
"Katelyn, I don't think I'm ready for this."
Next to a stairway, four inklings including Mei-Lin and Katelyn were gathered round, all of them in purple T-shirts depicting a skier sliding off a mountain.
"I tried, Mei-Lin. I tried." Katelyn grumbled, rubbing her forehead in frustration. "But I didn't think there'd be so many new inklings joining the whole Turfing sport. If I could've booked a training date the day right before the Splatfest started, I could."
"Yeah I know." Mei-Lin replied, examining her Splattershot Jr and adjusting her shirt. "I don't think I did so well on my first attempt though. I'm not even used to wearing this undershirt, feels kinda…..tight."
"Just relax," one of the accompanying inklings said. "Me and Mark will watch your back, even a newbie can be useful if they can paint the floor faster than the other team, you don't necessarily have to engage in combat."
"Besides, look on the bright side." The other inkling named Mark added, "You're semi-famous now. Look at Inkopolis Tower!"
On Inkopolis Tower, the entrance to everything Turf War related, two prominently displayed screens hung out for everyone to see. On the left side it depicted a dynamic shot of an inkling dodging and throwing snowballs while simultaneously diving out of a patch of ink, while on the right was a familiar scene depicting three skiing inklings, one rushing far ahead of the other two and leaving a spray of snow behind her.
"I made that remark expecting to lose that contest." Mei-Lin sighed, notably irritated. "I don't even know how I managed it, now I have to fulfill a promise I didn't intend to actually do."
"It's okay Mei-Lin." Katelyn said, putting an elbow over Mei-Lin's shoulder. "Think of it like this: We're not here to win, just simply to party it up and have fun. Heck, I'm fairly sure John here bought a freaking washing machine as a weapon for a reason."
"It's a Sloshing Machine, Katie." The inkling named John chuckled. "But you're right. There's just something silly about splatting opponents with something meant for laundry."
"Bottom line is, even if we lose this Splatfest, we can say we enjoyed it, not like those salty ones that complain about results for days on end." Hefting an Inkbrush Nouveau over her own shoulder, Katelyn raised her free hand in front of her. "C'mon team, let's go out there and party it up!"
Mei-Lin smiled, and put her own onto Katelyn's, with Mark and John pitching in too.
"Altogether now. 1…2…3! BOOYAH!" The cheers of the four inklings can be heard across the plaza.
On the other side of the plaza, Cobalt and Chris examined the crowd, both of them leaning on the wall next to the Pledge Box.
"Sounds like a wild batch tonight." Chris said. "What do you see?"
"Can't be too sure." Cobalt's eyes glared through his mask, first looking at the inklings entering and leaving Inkopolis Tower, then at the crowd dancing in front of the Squid Sisters, then at the ones that just arrived via the nearby train. "I'm seeing a lot more purple shirts than cyan shirts. Looks like Team Skiing has a lot more players than Team Snowballs, but I cannot be certain."
"Let me take a closer look…" Chris said, wandering into the crowd. A few moments later, he came back, a smirk on his face.
"I had a chat with some of the Snowballs members. Looks like most of them can put a sentence together without any grammatical errors."
"Alright then, Team Snowballs it is." Cobalt stopped leaning on the wall, then walked up to the Pledge Box, with Chris also tagging along.
"Oh, two more enthusiasts of the festival!" A jellyfish wearing a designer shirt and a cap said, "Are you the team of the balls of snow, or the team most enthusiastic of the skis?"
"Jelonzo?" Cobalt said, surprised. "Didn't expect to see you out of the shop."
"BLUUH, yes. My dilemma is quite the matter. With festival of the Splat shirts being of mandatory nature, my customers had the disappearings! I have the managings of the shirts here, so not to have the boredom!"
"Fair enough." Chris said. "Me and my friend here are joining Team Snowballs, if you please."
"It is done!" Jelonzo blurbed, pulling out two cyan shirts seemingly out of nowhere. "As per usual, the body cloth of the festival must-"
"-be returned by the end of Splatfest." Chris recited. "Thanks for the reminder, Jelonzo."
"Thanks to you too!" Good luck with the wars of turfs!"
"Well then." Chris said, looking to Cobalt and handing a shirt to him. "I'm going to the changing room nearby to change out to this shirt. You coming?"
Cobalt quickly took off his Vintage Check Shirt, and put the Splatfest Tee on. "….you were saying?"
"Sometimes I forget how much the cold doesn't bother you." Chris chuckled. "Alright then, see you at Inkopolis Tower in 5 minutes."
"Gotcha." Cobalt held his fist out for a fistbump, which Chris obliged happily. "Let's go kick some newbie ass."
"Hello Turf War enthusiasts!" A man with shining gray hair decorated with black stripes shimmering like fish scales and a simple striped shirt announced. "I'm Mack Saltwater, fellow Turf War enthusiast and host extraordinaire! Winter's first Splatfest is upon us, and joining me on this show today is a member of the Shrine of Guidance, Brother Haddock Pearson!"
"Formalities are unnecessary, Mack. Please, just call me Haddock." Another man with a similar appearance but with shining brownish hair instead replied, cloaked in a set of simple brown robes. "We are all equal under the guiding light of the great gods."
"Well personally I'm not much of a believer in all that mumbo jumbo, but I'll take up on your offer, Haddock. Tell me, what do you think of this Splatfest?"
"Spirits run high as per usual, Mack." Haddock replied, "It warms my heart to see everyone celebrate the festival of life so enthusiastically. I wished for one of the members of the clergy to join in, but she still refused."
"That's a shame. Say, you speak of this as some ancient tradition, would you like to elaborate on that fact?"
"Ah yes." Haddock nodded calmly, "For as long as Inkopolis existed, the Shrine always gave simple offerings to the gods, which in return gave us trivial and equal decisions for us to choose and fight over, symbolizing the actions of everyday moments. Some of the earliest Splatfests were as simple as Black and White, even."
"Sounds like simpler times to live in." Mack commented. "But for now, one of many matches of this Splatfest is about to start, and Brother Haddock here is going to serve as my co-host!"
"I've had a hand on the hosting business myself before I signed up for the clergy." Haddock replied. "I'm no slacker at it myself. Care to announce the contestants?"
"With pleasure!"
A TV screen behind the two lit up, and a scene of Hammerhead Bridge appeared on it, spotlights lit all over the unfinished bridge.
"So on the side of Team Snowballs," Mack began, as the scene switched to a team of inklings all wearing cyan t-shirts, "We have here Chris Tempest, Penelope Oceania, Michael Triton, and Cobalt….hmm this one doesn't have a last name registered."
"All of them are level 35 and over, Cobalt over there appears to be level 50, even." Haddock commented. "Three of them appear to have weapons tailored for close quarters aside from Chris using a Dual Squelcher. This team looks like they're playing to crush the opposition."
"I can taste the salt already." Mack chuckled, as the scene switched to the other team, all wearing purple t-shirts, "As for Team Skiing over here, we have Mark Allegro, John Colorian, Mei-Lin Jiaoyan and Katelyn Spectra."
"Wide level variety for this particular team, but Mei-Lin appears to be level 1." Haddock noted. "This could become one-sided, unless those boys know how to use that Sloshing Machine and Range Blaster."
"Looks like this will be an interesting match to see nevertheless." Mack turned to the screen, with Haddock doing the same. The camera switched to the view on the TV screen, now depicting a top-headed view of the entire bridge. "Sit tight lads, the match is about to start!"
Meanwhile on Hammerhead Bridge itself, the squad representing Team Skiing is having a bit of an epiphany after listening to the broadcast from the speakers, mounted on a huge TV screen on a nearby blimp flying over the turf war location.
"Of course we get matched up against a team with killing intent on our first match! The gods have a seriously bad sense of humor!" Mark cried, utterly exasperated.
"This could be problematic, that level 50 guy looks like trouble." John grumbled, "I don't suppose you got any clue on how to handle this, Katie?"
"Nope, stumped as you are." Katelyn shook her head. "I know I said we're going to have fun, but "getting murderized 10+ times" isn't very high on my to-do list."
"If I may…" Mei-Lin muttered, the others turning to her. "Umm… Katelyn, didn't you mention before you're very quick on your feet with that Inkbrush?"
"Faster than I can eat. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know much about Turf Wars, but I heard that getting to the front lines was crucial. If you can get to the front to lead the way for Mark and John, they can cover turf from the top pathway and the sides, with plenty of sight to see incoming enemies. Would that be good enough?"
"…not too bad of a strategy." Mark said, tapping his chin. "Where'd you learn that?"
"Read a few books about the Great Turf War as revision before Splatfest started." Mei-Lin replied. "I'm not sure if it'll be enough though…"
"Well it'll be enough to not get us trapped in spawn." Katelyn reassured, "Let's not make this easy for them, shall we?"
The other three inklings nodded, and prepared to run out.
As for the team representing Team Snowballs on the other end of the bridge, they were planning strategies of their own.
"Alright team. Here's the plan." Chris began, "Penelope, you know how to use that Carbon Roller Deco?"
Penelope nodded. "I've had my share of terrifying opponents with it. You want me to cover the ground with Seekers?"
"Yep, exactly that. Your job is to patrol the lower area, in case the other team decides to turf the lower area and try to set up a defense there. Use your Seekers to force them to stay out of the open. Think you can do it?"
"Sounds good. But…." Penelope raised an eyebrow as a thought occurred to her, "I'd be out in the open. That guy over there with the Range Blaster is going to be trouble. I could use some backup if I run into him."
"That's where me and Michael come into play." Chris replied, turning to the inkling in question, a Tri-Slosher in his hand. "Michael, your role is to take the upper pathway, to take care of any spot that Penelope might miss, as well as provide support by dumping ink through the grates if any enemy passes by under you. Your range is limited though, so that's where I come in. I'll hang further back, taking care of opponents that might be out of Michael's reach, and once I can I'll activate my Echolocator, so everyone can track down enemies that are hiding behind cover."
"Roger that, hombre." Michael said, checking his weapon one last time.
"As for you, Cobalt…"
"Nah, don't tell me." Cobalt interrupted. "I'll just do my own thing. Scaring the living crap out of the opposition with the Kraken has never failed me before. Just get that Echolocator ready as soon as you can."
Chris rolled his eyes. "Welp. Whatever tugs the hook, I guess. Alright lads, let's give them a trouncing that they'll never forget anytime soon!" The team positioned themselves, ready to charge out to the battlefield.
"The match is about to start!" Mack's voice rang through the speakers. "READY… GO!"
Author's Note: It would seem that as of this writing reviews are bugged out and don't actually show past a certain date. I hope they get that fixed soon.
Mack's appearance description baffled me a bit, because I'm having trouble trying to put his appearance down into words. Well, remember how Hightide Era's band members looked like? Think THAT.