Unnatural Omen

After what felt like a very short time to some and an eternity to others, the sun rose over the partying city of Inkopolis, signaling the end of Splatfest. The last few Turf War matches ended climatically, and now the last of the inklings exited Inkopolis Tower, with a crowd now gathered round the plaza as they eagerly awaited the final results for this Splatfest.
The Squid Sisters finished one last loop of their song, and silence fell across the crowd as they awaited the announcement for the winners.

"The sun has risen!" Callie shouted, "This Splatfest has ended! Thanks to everyone out here for your participation!"
"We're going to need those Splatfest tees back, unfortunately." Marie added. "We'll need them tailored for the next time, so just go ahead and return them to the baskets set up in front of the Pledge Box once this announcement is over." That elicited a few groans from the inklings that only played their first Splatfest that day and weren't completely aware about the rules.

"Stick around once you're done with the T-Shirts!" Callie finished, "The staff will hand out the prizes for this Splatfest in a moment. Stay fresh!" Both members did their signature pose as the crowd began scattering to various places.

There was a brief scuffle as the inklings began moving about to change out of their Splatfest Tees for their usual attire (some proved to be more attached to the t-shirts than expected and had to be persuaded. Rather forcefully with a hammer). While the inklings got themselves sorted out, Callie and Marie had relocated back into their usual spot in the TV studio, seemingly in the space of a minute without being noticed. A couple of workers drove the trucks away, while a couple of others began removing the various neon signs placed all over the plaza.

"Guess they're about done." Marie said eventually, looking out at the plaza of Inkopolis, the crowd now focusing on the TV screen. "Callie, you set?"
"Just about!" Callie shouted, walking next to the news broadcast set, adjusting the hat on her head. "Yo, Steve! Are the results ready to be announced yet?"

A shrimp with a set of goggles and a headset finished adjusting the camera pointing at the news TV screen, ticking another box off of a clipboard. "I just finished adjusting the camera, Cal. And um…" Steve put a claw over the headset as chatter came in through them. "Yes…yes. Okay, they've just finished calculating the results. You and Marie are up in a minute."
"Alright, cheers Cranky!" Callie said, waving Marie towards the studio set.
"Cal, you know I don't like being called- eh, whatever. Smile for the camera, Sisters!" Steve stepped behind the camera, a handful of jellyfish moving in with various filming equipment.

"Hang on to your tentacles…"
"It's Inkopolis News time!"

Callie and Marie showed up on the TV screen hanging above Inkopolis, the crowd below now watching the screen in hushed excitement as they awaited the results. Onscreen, a picture of both Team Snowballs and Team Skiing are displayed, and 2 sets of numbers appeared under each team, displaying zeroes.

"Once again, we'd like to thank everyone here for participating in this Splatfest!" Callie began.
"So without further ado, we are announcing the results now!" Marie said, "First off, we have ourselves the Popularity points!"

The first set of numbers began to spin randomly. The crowd stared at the numbers in bated breath.
"C'mon…" Callie muttered under her breath.
"Wait for iiiiit…." Marie mumbled, watching the numbers.

The numbers stopped abruptly, displaying a 37 under Team Snowballs and a 63 underneath Team Skiing.
"Well, look at that." Marie said, smiling.
"Aw…" Callie grumbled, but there was a glint of hope in her eye.

The crowd's reactions were mixed.
"WOO! Skiing rules! Take that, Snowballs!"
"Wait, doesn't that mean…!"
"That's quite the difference…"

"Next up, we got the results for the matches won! These points are worth SIX times as much as popularity!" Callie announced, and the crowd went quiet. Some of the inklings were talking amongst themselves like they were expecting what would happen next.
"Oh boy, I think I know what's coming now." Marie said as her smile faded slightly as realization hit her.

The second set of numbers began to spin as well, before they stopped. A gasp was let out from the entire crowd as they saw the numbers displayed: Team Snowballs had Team Skiing beaten by a ratio of 71% to 29%.
"A deadly knockout!" Callie cheered, fistpumping the air.
"Woah… that's quite the discrepancy." Marie stumbled slightly, staring at the numbers in disbelief.
"No hard feelings though, right?" Callie said. "Anyways, there's still the final results remaining!"
"Let's….get this over with." Marie said stoically.

A third set of numbers appeared underneath the two sets, and x6 appeared next to the match scores. The numbers finally stopped on the final score: 463 to 237.
"AWW YEAH! Callie cried, "Get struck out, Team Skiing! Snowballs wins by a massive margin!"
"Guess our team took the tumble. We'll carve them up next time, lads!" Marie said, taking the loss at face value.

The crowd's reactions were as expected.
"OH YOU GOTTA BE SQUIDDING ME!"
"So that's why I barely ran into any good players…"
"The system is broken man, I tell ya! BROKEEEEEN!"
"Well if I get my ultimate equipment with the smaller amount of snails, joke's on them. *heh*"
"The salt is real! PAHAHAHAHA!"

It took a while for the sounds of smugness and complaining to die down. After that, a handful of burly eel workers showed up, pushing what appears to be multiple wooden crates, filled to the brim with shiny bluish-purple shelled creatures that glimmered in the sunlight with a strange iridescent glow.
"The snails are here!" Callie said excitedly. "Oh look at them, they're so adorrrrbs!"
"As stated before," Marie continued, "Everyone that participated gets Super Sea Snails. Depending on your contributions, you can acquire up to 24, so use them wisely!"

"Alright then, everyone! Time to-" a harsh tone suddenly interrupted Callie's sentence. "Woah….what the?!"

The TV Screen, without warning had suddenly displayed the Fax Machine Altar, next to it an inkling dressed in what appears to be traditional garb stared at the machine in surprise with a cleaning cloth in her hand, then quickly at the camera as the altar began printing something out of schedule. The crowd abruptly stopped lining up for the sea snails, and turned to look at the screen. The workers stopped what they were doing and observed the screen itself as well, and even some of the Super Sea Snails hobbled in their crates to get a good look at the TV screen.

"CRANKY! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Marie screamed, looking at the camera. The lens shook slightly as whoever was holding it jumped slightly from her outburst.
"I'm just as clueless as you are!" a voice behind the camera said with bewilderment. "The next Splatfest isn't due for 2 weeks at least!"

"Err….umm….uh…" Callie stammered, as she struggled to come up with an explanation. "Marie….um…. looks like we have a special announcement to make!"
"Oh uh…yes! It appears the gods have decided to gift us a Splatfest event earlier than scheduled!" Marie replied, her forced smile doing nothing to hide her concern. "I feel bad for the workers now, they gotta work overtime!"

The Altar finally stopped printing, and as the inkling in the camera ran off elsewhere, the camera zoomed in onto the printed paper. The crowd fell into stunned silence as they saw what was written on it.
"…what the." Callie stared at the contents of the paper, for once her active mouth deserting her as she absorbed what was on the paper.
"…Callie," Marie said, no longer hiding her worry, "This isn't a Splatfest announcement."

The contents of the paper don't even have two contrasting colors normally present on Splatfest announcements. Instead, there was a flat white background with four crosses printed on the side and an ornate border, with an ominous message written in the middle with bold text:

For the longest time, the children of the sea took their bounties for granted.
No more shall this be true.
Beginning on the dawn of winter, the festival of life shall be no more.
Dusk approaches upon this infertile land.
Pray for judgement. Pray that your final verdict is just.
May the heartless gods grant you a shred of mercy that may never arrive.

"…this is a joke right?" Callie said quietly. "If it is, I'm not laughing."
"I don't like it." Marie replied. "It would seem that now there won't be any more Splatfests…"
"No more?!" Callie shouted, "This can't be true, right? Those Splatfests we've been having, they've reinvigorated the populace every time! Without them, the spirit of Inkopolis will shrivel up! What are we supposed to do?"
Marie shook her head, her expression fearful. "I don't know, Callie. I just don't know."
The broadcast ended abruptly as Steve shut off the camera, a "technical difficulties" screen now taking up the space.

The crowd outside watching the broadcast didn't even make a noise. No outrages, no screams that the apocalypse is coming. They only stared in horror at the television screen, their future now uncertain.

AN: Bloody hell, 6 chapters for the plot to finally kick in. Well, I guess it's less about the chapter count and more the word count.
A little shoutout to a certain pizza eating turtle BTW, that guy has both written one of my favorite Splatoon fics to follow here, AND has been consistently reviewing nearly every chapter thus far. Thanks man!