Full bold quotes is inkling speech unless said otherwise. English names are not part of Inktonian language, so they're not bold. I tried using Underlines for inkling speech but the look just didn't sit right with me. Hope this isn't too hard of a read!

The moment I woke up I knew immediately that something was off.

Blinking my eyes open, I yawned and smacked my mouth. I grimaced, practically tasting the foul morning breath that I was cursed to have every day. I looked to my side and noticed Tenta wasn't there.

Probably downstairs eating breakfast, I thought. Pulling off my covers, I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and stood up like I always did every morning.

At least, that's what I was planning on doing. Instead, I fell to the floor as soon as my feet made contact to the ground. Confused, I tried to slowly rise back up and walk over to the mirror to see if anything visible happened to me, but I flopped right back onto the floor before I could take even one proper step. I was sore and weak and I had absolutely no clue why.

Okay, fine, we're gonna crawl.

Pushing past the humiliation, I slowly pushed myself on all fours towards the mirror, begging to whatever force is out there to not let Alyssa or Terrell walk in at this embarrassing moment. Mostly the former. Knees aching slightly from being on the carpet so long, I managed to make it to the mirror.

What I saw in the mirror? The answer may shock you.

Okay, not really. You know what I saw at this point, I'm sure of it. Let me give you a hint, it has brown skin, a big forehead, and purple tentacles tied up in a ponytail instead of a bun. Know what's wrong with the picture? I'll give you five seconds to guess.

Got it? No? I'll give you five more seconds.

Ready? No? I'll give you- Nah, I'm just messing with you.

I sat in shock at the reflection before me, disbelieving anything I was seeing was real. The inkling in the mirror had bright golden eyes and a black face mask around them, much like the rest of the inkling race. The "hair" he had on his head was purple and he had three main tentacles, two in his ponytail and one draping off the side of his head. The side of my head.

I slowly lifted up my right arm, my reflection lifted up his left. I opened my mouth, and sure enough, the beak was there with all its white glory. I noticed that the inside of my mouth was purple, the same shade that matched my ink color.

When I lifted my arm I realized why I couldn't walk. My muscles were weak, I didn't know how to properly even take a step in this body. The proportions of an inkling are different than a human, plus they're (we're?) made of a completely different substance. I hoped I wouldn't trip on my feet, but given that I'd made a ridiculous height change and my head, feet, and hands were larger, I'd probably have to relearn how to walk.

Groaning softly to myself, I leaned against the wall and shakily stood up on my two feet. I cautiously took a step forward, getting used to how my new feet worked. It all felt so odd, like my limbs were made of jello or slime. I took another step forward, and then another, I wanted to get this walking thing under control. Running was another problem for another time.

Soon I was able to walk at a slow pace, but I couldn't speed up without risking tripping over my own feet. Sighing, I slowly turned back to the mirror and looked at my outfit. My pajama shirt slung awkwardly over my shoulders, too big to fit properly. I had to ditch my pants to walk properly, given that they were too long for my short form now. My underwear I desperately tried to keep on, but I knew they were a size or more too big for me. They were hidden under my shirt anyway, so if I chose to walk out right now I'd be covered with no problem.

That being said, I didn't want to leave my room. Looking like this, I didn't know what to expect from my family, especially Tenta. Even if I didn't care about that, I didn't want to present myself to my family half dressed, that'd just be wrong.

Mustering up the little courage I had, I reached for the doorknob and silently opened the door to my room. I felt my ears twitch at the sound of the door creaking on its hinges, and I jumped from just how loud that noise was. Was it already that loud, or did my new hearing make it more acute? I didn't dwell on it long, choosing to quickly shuffle over to the guest room, where Tenta's clothes were kept.

I managed to slowly put on a purple hoodie and some black shorts, but left my feet uncovered because I didn't want to walk on smooth floors with my current walking ability and have socks on. Just make my gravestone right now.

Looking back at my room once I re-entered the hallway, I remembered my glasses. Then I remembered that I have a big head and they wouldn't fit either way. Great, I have to live with being nearsighted for now.

I steadily made my way to the stairs, and looked down at them with wide eyes. There's no way I'd be able to get all the way down there and live. I contemplated living upstairs for the rest of my life when I figured I could slowly butt-scoot my way down there. It may have shattered my dignity but at least I'd be able to live for another day.

After some minutes of pure embarrassment, I managed to make it to the bottom of the stairs with a burning ass. I saw Salt napping beside Pepper by the couch, and I let a small smile touch my lips. Then I frowned, remembering that I'd have to eventually encounter Tenta and my family and had no idea how it would go.

The smell of bacon and eggs made my stomach jump start, a low growl coming from it as a warning I should get food soon. I sighed, slowly standing up and making my way to the kitchen, being careful not to trip. I stumbled a couple times on the way there, but I was getting the hang of it. I think.

I peeked in through the doorway, spotting the three others sitting and chatting at the table with plates in front of them, all about to dig in. Well, two of them, Tenta was already wolfing the bacon down like a pig. I slowly stepped in and began to say something, but tripped over nothing and fell to the floor painfully and loudly.

I could hear the chatter go to silence and a gasp of shock. I wheezed in pain and shakily stood back to my feet, blinking away the stinging tears in my eyes. My large golden eyes scanned the scene in front of me, my sight still blurry but surprisingly much sharper than before.

All I really saw were two dark brown blurry messes and one tan one rapidly eating the bacon, but I heard the sound of a fork clattering down onto the dining table, most likely dropped by Terrell. He could be a little dramatic when startled. I saw the tan blurry mess slowly hop down from a chair (it might've been a chair) and walk right in front of me. Would you look at that, it's Tenta.

"W-William? Is that you?" I heard Terrell ask me, but I couldn't determine which blurry blob was him.

Tenta tilted his head in slight curiosity, his lime green eyes studying my form before lifting a finger and poking my cheek, "Will-ee? I-Is you?"

I grunted in irritation and shoved his finger from my face, "Please don't touch my face, I spent fifteen years getting it this perfect."

He jumped and stepped back with a startled look in his wide eyes, "You can speak Inktonian? But you're Will-ee, you can't speak Inktonian, you only speak English."

I tilted my head, confused and alarmed, "The hell do you mean I'm speaking Inktonian? Is that what your language is called? Really original. But no, I'm speaking clean English right now, I'm not speaking Inktonian."

Tenta chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure, and I'm a sea shrimp alien who's come to invade this planet with a maraca and a bean bag. Sure. How else are you communicating with me, then?"

I defensively shrugged my shoulders, "I dunno! Maybe some sort of government agent came in and lodged a translation device into my brain and my form is only a hologram…?"

The pink inkling stared blankly at me, "...What?"

I threw my hands up into the air, "Fuck it! I'm going back to bed, I'm probably having a really strange lucid dream right now. Alyssa, Terrell, don't wake me, even if the world is ending."

I turned to leave the dining room, and on my way out the door I accidentally misstepped and fell to the hard floor. Wheezing softly, I inched my way back to my knees and moved to start crawling out the kitchen instead, but I felt someone scoop me off the ground.

"OH MY GOD, WILL! Man, you look so much better than you did when you were human!" I heard Alyssa yell into my ear, quickly agitating me as I was hefted up by my stomach with her surprisingly strong arms. Well, not surprising. She's beaten me in arm wrestling plenty of times.

She looked down at me with her brown eyes sparkling with delight, "Your eyes are golden too! I don't think that's a selection in the game, so you must be pretty unique! Nice, you even have one of the newer hairstyles! I'd be hella jealous of you if it weren't for the fact that you can't wear your glasses now."

"Yeah, I figured. I'm fucking blind." I murmured under my breath bitterly. I struggled in her grip for a moment, but she kept her hold tight. I grew from agitated to upset, physically trying to force her arms apart to let me go, since apparently she's forgotten about the concept of personal space.

When that didn't work, I looked over at Tenta with pleading eyes, "Tentaaaaaaa, please help meeeee."

Tenta grinned at me and walked out of the kitchen smugly, "Hmm…...Naaaaaaaah."

"Fuck you!" I screeched after him, but he was already in the living room, probably playing with Salt. He must have a thing for cats, which makes me bet he was team cat in that one splatfest. No wonder he was such a dick, he's a cat lover.

I whimpered in Alyssa's hold, wanting no more than to be let go, "Terrell!" I yelled at the other brown blob, who's been quiet the whole time. "Terrell! Please get her to let go of me!"

Terrell stood up from his seat, "William, I can't understand what you're saying but I know what you want. Alyssa, set him down on the ground," he instructed her, "Gently," he emphasized.

With a sigh of disappointment under her breath, I was let down to the ground at last, my asshole sister trudging out of the kitchen and up to her room. I went to kneel down and kiss the cold dining room floor. Then I was picked up again. Great.

Terrell held me up bridal style, "Will, I know you're not into being carried, but I know that you're probably having a hard time walking right now with this...new body. You should take things slow and let me help you a little. I don't mind, you're very light in this form."

I huffed and kicked my legs angrily, "For fucks sake- Fine! Just to not get scrapes on my goddamn arms and knees." The skin on my knees already started to sting a little bit.

Terrell couldn't understand me, but he knew I was admitting bitter defeat, "Don't be grumpy about it, at least I'm not letting you injure yourself from falling." He set me down on one of the chairs and fixed a plate of food for me, placing it in front of me on the table. He held out a fork to me and I took it with a hesitant hand.

I looked over the food on my plate. Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, the full breakfast bunch. I eyed the bacon and sausage in particular, oddly more interested in the meat than the other two items. Which was strange because pancakes were the shit. I awkwardly raised the fork in my hand and jabbed one of the sausages, clumsily twisting my wrist to take it off the plate and jamming it into my mouth.

I almost melted at the taste of the sausage in my mouth. It was so much better than I remembered it being before. I greedily ditched the fork and used my hands to shovel the rest of the food on my plate into my mouth. Chewing felt weird, since my teeth weren't teeth anymore, just a beak. I ran my tongue over one of my fangs, realizing just how pointy this thing was. No wonder Tenta's teeth sunk through Terrell's arm so easily, he could possibly make a dent in solid metal with one chomp!

I was too busy savoring the taste of the food (mostly the bacon and sausage) in my mouth to notice Terrell criticizing my greedy consumption of the food. He snatched my crumbless plate right from under my nose, though I didn't care.

He rolled his eyes and set my plate on the counter, "God, Will, you're eating like a one year old infant."

I maturely stuck my tongue out in reply. Amused, Terrell grabbed a wet rag and scrubbed at my face, to which I protested greatly.

"You have bacon crumbs everywhere, Will. Next time, could you not be such a messy eater?" He said as he cleaned off my face. Then he moved to my hands and I resisted the urge to bite him. I hate it when he gets into parent mode on us, it's embarrassing. Sure, Alyssa and I bicker like two five year olds, but we can still take care of ourselves. Mostly.

As soon as he was done I hopped off the chair and darted to the living room. I tried to anyway, but I unfortunately forgot that I can't walk well in this form, and tripped yet again. I wheezed and shakily stood back up to my feet, getting sick of feeling my knees scraping against the floor. I saw Terrell step out in front of me, holding out a hand with a smile, offering to help guide me to the living room and not risk another painful tumble. Face flushing in embarrassment, I reluctantly took his hand and let him lead me into the living room, occasionally tripping up on my feet.

Once in the room, I spotted Tenta on the couch with Salt in his lap, watching TV. The sight was funny because he could barely understand English and the TV was playing a documentary on elephants. He doesn't even know what elephants are….At least, I think they were elephants. My sight was still fucked up given I didn't have my glasses.

I slowly stepped my way over to them, Terrell no longer with me since he went back to the kitchen, and greeted a curious Pepper on the way there. She sniffed my clothes and then my hand, getting an idea of who I was. She tilted her head and huffed through her nose, then walked over to Tenta and Salt, poking Salt with her snout and wagging her tail. The kitten mewled and hopped from Tenta's lap, joining Pepper on whatever adventure they were off to. Tenta briefly looked disappointed at Salt's departure, but then noticed me staring at him.

"Hi." I said in 'Inktonian', plain and simple. I made my way to the couch and climbed upon it, the abnormal proportions of the inkling body making me fumble for a moment, but I eventually got myself seated right next to Tenta. He looked at me with a confused expression, before looking back at the TV.

"So, what are those things? They look strange, with their giant noodle noses." He commented on the documentary, pointing at one of the baby elephants that was playing in the water. I think. All I really saw was a big mass of grey with some blue.

I squinted slightly at the blurry display on the TV, another cruel reminder that I could no longer wear my glasses, "Those are elephants. They're big and can toot those 'giant noodle noses'. I think they're our biggest land mammal."

Tenta's pink eyebrows rose slightly, "Those are elephants? Also, land mammal? What's your biggest sea mammal, then?"

I hummed, "I think they're whales? Wait, hang on, how do you not know what elephants are?"

Tenta glanced at me from the TV screen and shrugged, "Most of the land mammals back at my home are dead."

I laughed and laid against the couch cushion, "Dude, holy shit. Why are they dead?"

Tenta tilted his head in thought,"Some flood killed them all. We're finding skeletons everywhere, mostly of these monkey looking things that look similar to your family. We've found at least two billion of them already."

I coughed, trying to hide my knowing smile. The pink inkling gave me a weird look and I just grinned innocently in return.

"...Y'know, I've realized something." I spoke up, distracting Tenta once more from the documentary.

"Eh?"

"Your language only has specific words, some that don't exist in English. Like that! The word 'English' doesn't exist in your tongue."

Tenta slouched against the armrest of the couch and turned to me,"I mean, we've never heard of that word before, so of course we wouldn't have a word for it."

I was intrigued, "So there's specificEnglish words that don't exist in Inktonian…"

Tenta looked at me with a bored expression, "Uh-huh."

I focused, "Bean. Apple. Corn. Tree. Dog. Lotion."

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Trying to find a word in Inktonian that doesn't have an English translation."

Tenta narrowed his eyes and sat up,"...Saying random words in Inktonian won't help you find a word in English that doesn't exist in my language."

"I can try!"

After a second of glaring at each other, I glanced off to the side and began fiddling with my ponytail, my tentacles having felt like they've been squeezed aggressively since I woke up. Why could I feel my tentacles? Why is that a thing?

"Well, seeing as how I can say words that only exist in English like names, I wanted to check and see if it worked with other words too."

Tenta rolled his eyes and slouched against the couch once again, "Smart."

"I happen to think it's a genius idea, thank you very much. It's strange, though. I'm unable to speak English but I can understand it clearly."

"How can you just stop being able to speak your native language in one day?"

I looked at Tenta with an unamused expression, "I'm a human that maaagically turned into an inkling overnight for no real apparent reason, and you're asking me how I can't speak my native language of all things."

Tenta just grinned awkwardly. What an intelligent conversation.

I then gasped in delight despite the ache in my arms from being lifted over my head for so long. For fucks sake, why can't I undo a simple ponytail? My tentacles are dying.

"Oh wait, holy shit. I'm no longer a human. Dude! I'm one of the cutest beings on this planet, I could make people become my slaves! People would be forced to do my bidding!"

Tenta laughed and slouched back against the couch once more, "You don't know the half of it! Shrimps and sea anemones back at home are always the ones who fell for inklings who would beg for shit. Sea urchins and sharks are the hardest to convince, and jellyfish are our rivals. Never try looking cute with the shopkeepers, though, they know all of the tricks."

I grinned, successfully undoing the ponytail my tentacles were stuck in, the two of them flopping to the sides of my head. I briefly sighed in relief and shivered when they made contact with my shoulders, realizing that they weren't like human hair at all. Plus I could feel through them, so there was that. I also noticed how slimy they felt, though there was no residue on my hands when I pulled them away. Everything about inklings was so odd.

"Those are your tentacles. Yes, I know. It was a very strange experience for me when I first discovered them too." I never really thought about how much of a snarky piece of shit Tenta actually could be until now.

"Excuse me for turning into an inkling overnight and not knowing a single thing about my biology!" I retorted, stubbornly tying my tentacles back into their ponytail a little looser. At least, I tried to, but they kept slipping from my fingers.

Tenta shrugged and started crawling along the couch, making his way behind me and starting to fiddle with my tentacles. "Fair. Also, you gotta keep your tentacles firm in your hands, like this," he said, gripping my tentacles and easily tying them back up into a rather loose ponytail. I still couldn't get over the fact that I could feel through the tentacles. Have you ever wondered what it'd be like to be able to feel through your hair? Well, now I know the answer andI do not like it.

"You tied them up too loose! They feel like they're gonna fall out." I whined, feeling tempted to touch my tentacles but decided against it. They felt like they could fall out from the slightest touch.

Tenta shook his head, "Trust me, you'll want those tentacles of yours to be loose like that, it's not healthy to keep them tied up too tight or you'll cut off circulation of blood and ink."

"Oh."

We had a moment of silence, the two of us watching the elephant documentary on the TV. Well, one of us, I couldn't see it. The elephants were doing elephant things, tooting their 'noodle noses' and walking around in a herd. I heard Tenta groan next to me, clearly sounding bored. We both sat in even more excruciating silence as the documentary moved on to zebras.

"I'm surprised you're not a little more freaked out about this. Then again, I'm not really either." Tenta murmured with a small yawn, breaking the silence. He shuffled in his seat and laid his head back against the cushion in boredom once more, watching the tv with half-lidded eyes.

I shrugged, scratching behind my pointed ear, "I spent all of my freak-out energy when you flew in through our television. I'm neutral at this point in all honesty."

Tenta turned to look at me with wide eyes, his large pupils practically staring into my soul, "I flew in through your television? Did I actually do that?"

"Yeah, you were screaming as you came in too. Your gun hit me on the nose and busted it open so now I have a scar riiiight here," I explained, pointing to the fading scar on my nose. It's weird to think that I got it because a plastic cartoon gun flew at me at what felt like 60 miles an hour.

Tenta rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Oops, sorry about that. But my gun? You guys had it and didn't tell me? Where is it? Can I have it back?"

"Well, when it landed on the floor there was a pretty big dent in it, so I really doubt it would be much use to you anymore. We still have it, we just took it and locked it away because we didn't want you to try and shoot us with it or anything."

The pink inkling hummed in understanding.

I couldn't help but ask a question for curiosity, "So...what was the deal with you having all those injuries? They looked like they really fuckin' hurt."

"Injuries?"

I nodded and took Tenta's arm, tracing my finger around one of the scars around his wrist, "These ones. How did you get these? The three of us didn't know exactly what happened to you when you flew in. You looked pretty fucked up, though."

The other inkling was silent, studying the scarred and bumpy skin on his wrist. He then pulled back his leg and rolled down his sock, looking at the scars on his ankles too.

"I...I got captured by bad guys. Reaaaaally bad guys."

By bad guys he must've meant the Octarians, but I didn't want to go through the whole "character is told that they're from a video game" situation just yet, so I played dumb.

"They must've done a number on you, there were wounds all around your wrists and ankles. My sister thought that there might've been cuffs on you that caused them, based on how they went all around your arms and legs."

Tenta didn't say anything, just giving a small hum in reply as he rubbed the scar with his thumb.

"You were pretty banged up when you came in, what happened?" I asked him, slightly tilting my head in curiosity.

Tenta just shook his head with a deep frown, "I don't wanna talk about it."

I shrugged once more, "Fine. Doesn't mean I won't try to wrestle the answer out of you, though."

The pink inkling rolled his eyes and stood up off the couch, heading for the stairs, "Sure, good luck with that, dude. I'd like to see you give it your best shot."

"Y'know, I think I liked the quiet and fewer words Tenta better. It was much nicer hearing your broken English than this."

"Well, I saw a missing poster with his face on it, maybe you can find him if you give the number on it a call."

I narrowed my eyes, "...What's the number?"

The other inkling turned back to me, halfway up the stairs. He had a blank look on his face as he looked straight into my golden eyes.

"Nya."

"What?"

"Nyan of your business."

I stared at him in utter disbelief and watched as he made his way up the staircase. What's wrong with me being curious about what happened to him? What an asshole. Tenta cackled too much like my sister as he made his way up the staircase and I was half tempted to run after him and kick his ass before I remembered that my walking ability was as good as nonexistent.

This inkling is not going to be fun to live with.