Stifling Exposition

The protagonists sat around a table, while the priestess set out tea cups for them. Soon afterwards, she bought out a teapot alongside a small pile of scrolls, setting the scrolls aside and graciously filling everyone's tea cups.

"Please, drink up while the tea is still hot." Saika said calmly. "Tea is best drunk during cold weather."

Cobalt took a look at the substance the priestess just poured out. Somewhat viscous, it seemed like the liquid inside settled down slower than usual after being poured from the teapot. Grasping the cup the substance inside shifted color tones slightly to match his own.
"Hmm." He said. "Not used to drinking Ink Tea. Chris, is this stuff safe to drink?"
"Slightly hot, but not half bad." Chris replied, taking a drink from his own cup. "A bit bitter from the tea leaves, a nice mature taste, and it beats drinking that tempura sauce from earlier."
"Tempura sauce…?" Katelyn asked, perplexed.
"Long story. Trust me, you don't wanna know."

Cobalt decided not to drink from his cup, and pushed it at Chris. Taking a look at the priestess, he noticed that Saika has placed a small stack of scrolls on the table.
"Say, what are those supposed to be?" He asked.
"These are various scrolls passed down from generations of shrine maidens." Saika replied. "They tell an ancient legend with connections to the Splatfest altar. It is best if I tell you all about the tale linked to the altar before I show you the altar itself."
Mei-Lin nodded, taking a sip from her cup and taking out a notepad from her backpack. "Please, start from the very beginning. Leave no detail out, any of this could potentially come in useful."

Saika unrolled half of the first scroll, and spread it out evenly on the table. Depicted upon the scroll, were what appear to be two balls of light over an endless expanse of ocean in plain black ink, with text written next to the picture in what appears to be ancient Inkling dialect.
"Long ago," she began, "The world as we know it was nothing but oceans. Endless expanses of water, chaos flowing beneath the waves. Up within the heavens, the Great Gods looked upon this tumultuous blank slate, and decided to grant order to the chaos. With this goal, they sent down two emissaries from the heavens, each glowing as brightly as hundreds of thousands of glowworms."

Rolling up the scroll, the priestess unrolled the second half of the scroll, this half depicting what appears to be one ball of light underneath a massive landscape that was now in the center of the ocean, and above it the other ball of light was hovering over a large crowd of various specimens of life.
"The emissaries were brothers, their bond unimaginable to many. Both agreed on a plan, and began to set off creating a utopia from the endless expanse of water. The first one plunged into the ocean, and with his blinding glare he raised a massive landscape from the ocean floor. The second emissary, with his soft and gentle glow created life upon the landmass his brother raised, creating all that now dwells upon this land. He settled down above the land, illuminating it and guided the life upon it every waking day."

A loud snore emanated from one side of the table. Turning to the source of the noise, Saika saw that Cobalt had fallen asleep, and had passed out on the table with his gas mask tapping the table as he snored.
Chris grumbled and got up, gently dragging Cobalt by the shoulders and placing him gently onto a nearby corner.
"Sorry about that." He said, coming back to the table and sitting down. "Cobalt's not good when it comes to exposition. Please, continue."

With a slightly amused expression, Saika rolled up the entire scroll, and unfurled a second one. Katelyn gasped as she saw what was drawn onto the first half of the scroll, in what appears to be the landmass being devoured from underneath by a giant serpentine creature, a sole antenna similar to an angler fish on the gargantuan monster's head encapsulating what appear to be one of the balls of light, with the other ball of light hovering over the landmass but not as iridescent as before. The entire picture was drawn with a variety of dark color tones, enhancing the menacing aura of the image.
"However, all was not well." Saika continued, reading the dialect on the scroll. "Within the ocean, the first emissary was exposed to the chaos of its currents, stripping away the divine protection that was once cast on the being and stripping away his ability to return to heaven when the divine duty with his brother was finished, condemning him into the abyss. On the surface, the life the second emissary had created began worshipping him as their sole creator, ignorant of the first emissary that had created the landscape for them.
Various emotions festered in the first emissary's heart, with his divine protection no longer present. Loneliness, for no longer being able to return to the heavens. Betrayal, for his brother having abandoned him to his fate. Envy, for the brother that had stolen the accomplishments he had completed. This tidal wave of emotions coupled with the bedlam of the abyssal waters consumed the emissary, transforming him into the Shining Serpent, a godlike monstrosity hell-bent on reclaiming the land into the abyss below. With his own light alongside an alluring song of the deep dark, he began to mislead the life that dwelled above, luring them back into the ocean. With that, life on the land began to vanish one by one, as he prepared to return the land to the ocean where it once originated."

Saika unrolled the second half of the scroll. Upon it, there was an image of a hooded being holding a scepter with the ball of light contained inside the very tip, leading a crowd of marine life from the serpentine creature.
"The second emissary had not expected this. Being incapable of communication with his own creations, he was at a loss on how to rectify this change of events. Reaching out to the Great Gods, he requested that they grant him a mortal body, so that he can learn and understand how his creations felt, so that he may be able to guide them back to where they belonged. They gave him the ability to create an avatar upon the land he had made, so he may explore his own work and reverse the mistakes that he made. Thus, the Guiding Light came to be, and he led many an expedition to rescue the lives that the Shining Serpent had dragged into the abyss."

The priestess opened a third scroll, this one picturing the serpent with a malevolent grin and encircling what appears to be an inkling maiden and grasping onto her eyes and shoulders with thin spindly claws, causing her to arch back and scream into the sky, clasping her hands in front of her. On the opposite side of her, the hooded figure was facing her while surrounded by a crowd of marine life, in the act of what appear to be singing. Looking at the image, Mei-Lin grimaced in revulsion at the maiden's position.
"The Shining Serpent was without cunning, however. Realizing that the key to winning the tug-of war was in the life the Guiding Light had created, he seduced a maiden that was in his captivity, whispering into her mind an incandescent aria that blankets higher thought in an alluring mist, giving way to base instinct. Woven into this song was encoded the embrace of the ocean, calling the life which had once existed there back into the waves below.
The Guiding Light discovered this, and rallied the people he had led. Together, they sung a hymn that celebrated the brightest light of all, the radiance of life. With each species singing a different verse that complemented one another, they created a harmonious piece that while incomplete outshone the tempting light that the maiden and the Shining Serpent composed."

Moving to the second half of the third scroll, it depicted the maiden kneeling onto the floor. A pair of angelic wings had sprouted from her back, and she appears to be in the act of singing, alongside a crowd of marine life behind her doing the same. Above her, the hooded figure had his arms held wide in a conductor's gesture, while below the maiden the serpentine creature lay in darkness, bound together by what appear to be various chains.
"The melody awakened the maiden from her trance, allowing her to reunite with her brethren. Her exposure to the Shining Serpent had endowed her eyes and spirit with an incandescent light, allowing her to put the finishing touch on the hymn of harmony with a grand finale. With their combined power, the Shining Serpent was sealed away into the abyss, never to rise again."

Cobalt abruptly awoke from his corner and looked at the gathered group.
"Hey, is the story over yet?" He asked.
"Patience, Cobalt." Saika replied, picking up one last scroll. "This tale is almost finished."
"Oh, okay then." Cobalt instantly fell asleep again, snoring loudly.

The priestess unfurled the last scroll, this particular one thicker than the others. Depicted upon it was the maiden surrounded by eight other creatures, all of them in a kneeling position with the hooded figure above them kneeling as well seemingly in prayer. Around them, a large crowd of marine life appear to be jubilant in celebration.
"With gratitude to the Guiding Light, the life he had created formed the Shrine of Guidance, dedicated to the entity that had saved them. The maiden became its representative alongside ten other members chosen from the various species. Alongside the Shrine, the creatures created the Festival of Life, a holy festival where the creatures fought one another in ritualistic combat to represent the hardships and struggles of everyday life, blessed by the Guiding Light to invigorate the participants so that they will be reborn anew each time, as if the light of the emissary was shining down upon them once more."

She unrolled even more of the scroll, revealing a second image of the hooded figure raising his staff and pointing to the sky as a beam of light from the heavens raised him from the ground, flanked from four sides by what appear to be small stone crosses. The crosses themselves appear to have a circular hole in the center, which glowed with a strange light.
"The Guiding Light sensed that his time in the realm was almost up, now that his creations had learned to live without his guidance. Before his departure, he erected four sacred crosses upon the four corners of the land, each representing an aspect of life that his creations will indulge with: Infrastructure, Evolution, Sentience, and Unity. The four crosses were planted firm upon the land, ensuring that even as the Guiding Light will vanish from this world, they will protect the land in his absence, so that the Shining Serpent will never lead his people astray ever again."

Saika unfurled the scroll fully, and Chris, Katelyn and Mei-Lin let out a collective gasp. The very last image was that of a familiar one: the Splatfest Altar which was in the middle of printing a new Splatfest event, a border surrounding the image the exact same one that had told the masses that there will be no more Splatfests.
"Returning to the heavens, the Guiding Light left behind nothing but a relic: the Altar that to this day receives words from the Great Gods, and grants their creations the permission to partake in the Festival of Life. With this, he also left a message behind: When the seas attempt to swallow you whole, when the earth you tread tries to split apart, when untold calamity is to descend upon the land, speak to the altar and state your problem. My thousand avatars will be there to guide you anew."

Mei-Lin finished jotting down the last of her notes onto her notepad, and sighed a breath of relief. "That's… a lot to take in." she said. "I only heard snippets of the ancient legends from some of my history books, and even then only the oldest ones had bits and pieces of this."
"Tell me about it." Katelyn added, pointing a thumb at Cobalt who abruptly woke up as Saika finished her story. "Put poor ol' Gas-Face over there to sleep."
"Hey don't blame me!" Cobalt replied, shaking his head. "I already struggle to stay awake with Chris's battle plans. Something like this konks me right out."
"Still though," Chris said, trying hard not to think about Cobalt's snark, "This is all just a legend, right? How has this any correlation with our current objective?"

Saika smiled warmly, and walked towards a closed door in the back of the room.
"A legend this may had been, but stories like this are often grounded in reality with a few facts." She waved a hand at her own eyes. "I was allegedly a descendant of the first shrine maiden, the very same one within the legend itself. Truth be told I'm unsure of my own heritage, but I knew that with my eyes and color like this I had to belong somewhere special."
"You know, come to think of it." Katelyn interjected, setting aside her tea cup and getting up with everyone else. "Those eyes, the monochrome color of your tentacles. You kind of remind me of-"
"Callie and Marie, of the Squid Sisters?" Saika finished. "I've had many visitors tell me this before. I believe they had potential to be Shrine maidens too, but they had foregone that in pursuit for a singer's career. Very few inklings display the traits qualified to be a Shrine maiden, and usually what makes them unique is a talent in singing. The Squid Sisters had been popular for the longest time, had they not?"
"So can you sing, too?" Katelyn's eyes widened in anticipation. "I'd love to hear your singing voice!"
Saika blushed slightly, and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I have to refuse. Forgive me, I'm easily embarrassed when it comes to my own talents. In any case, time for me to show what you had all came here for."

Opening the door in the back, Saika revealed to the group a small space, easily the size of a small van. Nine cushions were arranged in the center of the room, one being surrounded by eight others. In the back, the Splatfest Altar was neatly placed onto a wooden table.
Along with the sight, a huge cloud of dust emerged from the room. Everyone caught in the cloud had a brief coughing fit.
"Ahh…" Saika said, frowning. "Perhaps I should have mentioned. Three weeks ago the visitors had stopped coming to the shrine altogether, and even the clergy stopped showing up. I may have said the weekly prayers were yesterday, but with nobody coming I had stopped maintaining that room altogether. Pardon the dust cloud."

"It's okay." Chris said, coughing out the last mote of dust in his throat. "So this is it, huh? The Splatfest Altar… looks like a fax machine."
"That's because it IS a fax machine." Katelyn said, looking closely at the altar. "Is this some kind of joke? If it is, I'm not really laughing." She reached out a hand at the buttons on the altar, trying to examine it.

"Wait, don't touch-" Saika began to say, but right as Katelyn's hand touched the altar, the machine whirred into life, the buttons lighting up with a green light. In response to this, a sharp beep resounded from the ceiling, as a camera mounted on the ceiling and directed at the altar whirred to life, filming the scene before it…

"Agh, blast it. Where in the name of the gods is it?"

Cranky Steve is not having a good day. First one of his co-workers called off sick due to the blizzard and leaving him with double the work he had to handle, then he had spent a few unnecessary hours to repair and replace cameras when some of them inexplicably broke, now the staff told him their studio couldn't procure enough mics for a talk show, so he had to trek through three hours of howling gales just to retrieve spare equipment from the Squid Sister's studio. "It's not like they're using it right now", they reasoned.
It didn't help either that nobody had bothered to power the ceiling lights with electricity since it became somewhat defunct when people stopped coming to Turf Wars, so the unfortunate prawn had to wade through a tangle of wires and unpowered spotlights in darkness. The dim light from the window outside didn't really help in any shape or form.

"Confounded- WOAH!" Steve tripped over another wire and faceplanted on the floor for the fourth time that day. Just then, someone turned on a flashlight right next to him, and helped him up. Turning to whoever helped him, he saw that figure slightly taller than he is had helped him up, the flashlight in one gloved hand and what appears to be a walking stick in another. He was dressed in what appears to be the cloaked garb of clergymen from the Shrine of Guidance, but his face was obscured in shadows.
"Are you hurt?" the mystery man asked Steve, checking his shell for any scratches.
"Right as rain." The prawn replied, brushing himself off. "Who are you?"
"Just a passerby that saw you trip from outside when I was going for a relaxing walk. Call me Brother Hermit."
"I see, cheers Mr. Hermit. But…" Steve frowned, "Civilians aren't allowed in the studio. You shouldn't be-"
"It's okay, I'm acquainted with Brother Haddock. I happen to have a studio pass." The man chuckled. "That man loves his moments in the limelight, always pushes these on us so we can see him show off from the sidelines. Hohoho."

"Yeah, yeah, okay then." Steve shrugged off the man and rummaged through a few cupboards, the clergyman assisting him with the flashlight in his hand. Just then, the news screen turned itself on, and Steve looked in surprise as it displayed something on-screen.
"What's happening?" the cloaked man asked. "I thought this place has no power."
"All the equipment round here have backup batteries installed in case power fails, keeps the quality together in case of a power outage." Steve explained. "But… hey, isn't that the Splatfest Altar? And who are those kids?"

The protagonists stared at the activated Altar before them, while Saika was frantically turning her head between the group and the camera that had activated above them without their knowledge.

"It's…on?" Katelyn said, befuddled. "That's unusual. If this really is a run-of-the-mill fax machine, this should be plugged in somewhere. But I don't see a plug of any sort connected to this thing…"
"Hmm… can I try something?" Cobalt said, nudging Katelyn aside and picking up the receiver. Putting it to his ear, Cobalt's eyes narrowed as he tried to listen for anything.

"Umm… my friends, would you kindly leave the Altar for a moment?" Saika interjected, still looking at the camera mounted on the ceiling. "It wouldn't be ideal if you all get in trouble…"

Cobalt tapped at the wooden table impatiently, then took the receiver away from his head, shrugging.
"Not even a dial tone. Just silence." He simply said. "But I suppose it is worth a shot…"
Putting the receiver back onto his head, he began speaking to the phone as if there was someone on the other end.
"Umm…hello? Personally I don't believe in the baloney that miss priestess over here was spouting, but if anyone is even listening at the other end… I wish something can be done about the Splatfests. Everyone's lost their spirit, and now they've even stopped playing Turf Wars because of it. And…" His eyes narrowed for a moment, as he recalled something. "…I'm sorry I threatened you guys at gunpoint. Turf Wars mean a lot more to me than simply a sport, and I'm sure it meant a lot to Chris, my new friends over here, and every citizen of Inkopolis as well. If there's anything that can be done about it, I'll gladly sacrifice myself to the jaws of Cthulhu if it means we can go back to the old days. So…"

There was a moment of silence as Cobalt contemplated what to say next, then he simply put the receiver back down, chuckling to himself.
"Man, that was rather out of character for me, wasn't it?" he laughed. "Well, I guess this lead's a bust. Any ideas, Chris?" His laughter died in his throat as he saw the other three staring at him in slight disbelief, while Saika was still trying to gesture to them that a camera's been recording their actions so far.
"Wow…" Katelyn said. "Didn't strike you as the dramatic type."
"Umm…yeah, me too." Mei-Lin added. "You really are a serious player."
"Well," Chris finished, "Even if this lead's a bust, we still got something out of it, the legend behind the Splatfest itself. It should lead us somewhere if-"

Suddenly, a harsh beep tone interrupted his sentence, and the group looked at the Altar as it started to print something. Saika stopped trying to get their attention and looked at the Altar as well.
"Gods be praised…" the priestess said, smiling. "It would appear your cry for help has reached the gods."

"By my good mama's shell…" Steve mouthed, looking at the scene before him. The Splatfest Altar had just finishing printing another message, and now the camera had zoomed in onto the page itself.

Just as before, the message had a flat white background with an ornate border. However the four crosses had been replaced by + signs, and the one on the top left was shimmering in a rainbow color. The contents of the message itself was no less cryptic:

Your cry for help has been received.
For the spirit of the land to be restored, the partaking of the four virtues shall be required.
The spirit of Infrastructure awaits in the heart of civilization.
Where life first took root, and flourished.
May your pilgrimage be steady and stable.

Steve looked at Hermit, which had been looking at the image for a while now. Noticing he was being watched, he turned to the prawn. The light from the news screen revealed his features were obscured by some sort of ornate mask.

"Has this all been recorded?" the cloaked man asked, "If you went so far as to install backup batteries in case of unexpected power outages, this is all recorded already, right? I advise you to inform my college and let him know the Altar printed something."

"Don't tell me how to do my job!" the prawn spat back, "But you're right, I'll do that." Pulling out a phone, he quickly tapped a contact and plugged in the phone to the headset he wore. Soon, the phone clicked as someone picked up from the other end.

"Ugh…hello?" Haddock's voice resounded from Steve's headset.
"Ah right, Brother Haddock, right?" Steve replied, speaking into a built in mic. "One of your colleges by the name of Brother Hermit just advised me to send some footage to you. The Splatfest Altar just printed something."

"Excuse me?!" Haddock replied, the sounds of shuffling bedsheets being heard from the other end. "I see… this could be big news. I'll get that footage to the media. You go ahead and inform the Squid Sisters about the news. By the way…"
"Hmm? What is it?"
"…nothing much. I am acquainted with each and every one of my colleges in the Shrine of Guidance. But this the first time I heard of a Brother Hermit. You sure you got that name right?"
"Huh?!"

Steve turned around to where the cloaked man was, but had seemingly vanished into thin air. There was no trace of anyone else besides Steve ever being there, as if the cloaked man were a figment of his imagination.

AN: You would not believe how hard it is to come up with an original religious story that would fit right into the Splatoon universe. I've had this idea for a while now, but actually executing it is REALLY HARD. Well at least I don't need to think about it anymore for the time being.
That being said, I had no idea of why I'm getting so little reviews (PizzaLovingTurtle, that advice is only fitting if I want GOOD reviews, but what I want is more reviews in general, burn not intended). Then my family of all places told me that it might be because this story is too complicated even by Splatoon standards. Granted, my family aren't gamers by a long shot, but I see where they are coming from. Simpler stories get more attention because they are easier to comprehend. That being said I'm not stopping with this anytime soon because if even ONE guy enjoyed my story I'll take the satisfaction nevertheless.