Stirring from the blissful comfort of sleep, I grimaced in pain as the harsh afternoon light hitting my eyelids burned my retinas and forced me to wake up. I tried to turn over onto my stomach and block the light by shoving my face into a pillow, but it was too late. I was awake and I wasn't happy about it.

I groaned bitterly and rolled onto my back, lazily slinging an arm over my face as my senses woke up and took in the world. My pointed ears twitched slightly as random birds chirped outside, the noises being a lot louder and more distinct to me than ever before. It was so weird being an inkling, everything felt so familiar and yet so different. It was like I was in another world sometimes. Despite my vision having the permanent inability to focus on far away objects, it still felt drastically improved compared to when I was human. Is this what being a dog is like? But with my eyes instead of my nose?

With a small yawn, I slowly began to accept my fate that I was awake and sat up from the comfortable mattress, the cold air around me almost immediately freezing me to death. I rubbed my eyes a couple times and licked my chapped lips, my brain slowly starting up and preparing itself for whatever weird day we were gonna have today.

I slowly stepped off the bed as I yawned for the final time, shivering slightly from the cool air as I gently stepped out of the room and to the kitchen to make myself some quality, 5 star and A+ breakfast/lunch for myself to enjoy. Seriously, I was the best cook in the house. My sister's called my cooking "something to die for," though I could be paraphrasing just a little bit.

As I walked to the kitchen, memories from the night flickered in my thoughts, reminding me of my apparent meltdown in the middle of the night. I shook my head as if that'd get rid of them, trying my hardest not to think about them at the moment. It was just a bit of silly anxious worrying, it wasn't anything important. The anchovies on the pizza slice was a nice thought, though.

Anyway.

Funfact: Having a short stature isn't fun when you're trying to reach into a cabinet that you already had issues reaching into when you were human (and taller).

Even on my tippiest toes I still was struggling to open it and grab a bowl, and it was even worse since I had the biggest and awkwardest hands on the planet. I felt like some weird badly drawn anime boy as I opened the cabinet door, all I needed next was some big anime eyes and a pointy chin. Then again, would the protagonist of some sort of trash manga be struggling with opening a cabinet door because he's too short? Probably not.

Finally managing to get my eye on a bowl, I did my best to snag it with my hand and while I didn't grab it, I got it to wobble towards the edge. By this point my arm was burning from the effort and I was practically out of breath, so I had to back away and take a breather. Then I immediately went back into it once the burning faded a bit, rushing back to the cabinet to get that damn bowl once and for all. Being short really sucked ass.

Once again, I got the bowl to wobble closer to the edge. But what I didn't expect was for it to suddenly tumble right out of the cabinet, its white porcelain surface was declaring war on me as it fell right towards my face, me being too stunned to react and catch it. It SMASHED against my forehead in an instant and I flinched from how much it fucking hurt. GOD. Do all head injuries hurt like this for inklings? Jesus.

I was too busy rubbing my forehead to realize that the very distinct shattering sound that definitely would've made me flinch didn't sound throughout the house. Instead, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder, which prompted me to slowly turn my head and lay my eyes on the white and shiny bowl that was still completely intact. Wh…

Oh. Tenta.

"You dropped something." He snickered with that same shit-eating grin he loves to make. Then he ruined the moment by immediately yawning afterwards, must having just woken up probably minutes before.

"I'm short." I muttered, snatching the bowl from his hand and placing it on the counter. Huffing through my nose, I stepped over to the refrigerator and opened the door, grabbing the carton of skim milk and putting it on the counter too.

Then, I went to get the cereal and-

…

Growling under my breath, I reluctantly took the milk and put it right back into the fridge, not even bothering to mess with the bowl. All that suffering for nothing. Nothing.

Tenta caught onto my ordeal immediately, chuckling lightly as he looked up at the top of the fridge.

"Why's your fridge so tall?"

"It's designed for humans."

He gave me an odd look, "Are humans not usually five feet tall?"

"First of all, I'm like four feet and ten inches tall," I sighed, longingly staring up at the Fruity Pebbles box on the fridge, "Secondly, the average height for a human is around five foot six or something. Maybe. Don't quote me on that."

We both looked up at the cereal box in silence.

"...Do you not have a stool?"

I shook my head, "I don't know where it is. Alyssa uses it a lot and constantly puts it in random places. I've stopped bothering trying to keep up and I'm already a weakling as it is, I probably wouldn't be able to carry it."

"Oh."

We were back in silence. We do that a lot.

Weakly raising my arms in the classic "I give up" motion, I turned and started making my way towards the living room, ready to accept my fate that I'd go hungry until Alyssa got back.

I wasn't even halfway into the room when Tenta suddenly popped right in front of me, holding out a cereal box that he miraculously managed to obtain with a small smirk. It was Honey Bunches of Oats. The cereal that I'd deliberately been ignoring that was right next to the Fruity Pebbles. Oats.

"Oats."

"...Yeah?" The pink inkling asked, pressing the box against my chest as a silent way of asking me to take it.

"Why oats, Tenta."

"I thought that's what you wanted!" He whined, immediately pulling back the box and protectively clutching it in his arms.

"I wanted the Fruity Pebbles!" I retorted, "Why the hell would you get Honey Bunches of Fucking Oats?!"

Tenta looked offended, scoffing at my argument, "That other cereal looked sugary as shit! I wanted to try eating a healthier breakfast!"

"Who cares about eating healthy breakfasts?!"

"I do!"

"The hell kind of teenager are you?!"

"A kind that gives somewhat of a crap about my health!"

I rolled my eyes and shoved him back towards the kitchen, "I don't know how you got to the cereal with the boxes being on top of the fridge, but if you can do it once you can do it again. Go get the Fruity Pebbles. Please." Added a polite term for extra points.

Tenta groaned and trudged back into the kitchen, making sure to drag his feet constantly and make as much noise as possible to truly bring his disdain to light. I could see him give me a dirty glare as he disappeared behind a corner, hopefully about to get the right cereal this time.

In the meantime, I decided that I would go ahead and turn on the Wii U to pass the time. We'd played Splatoon for so long that I ironically was getting kinda sick of it despite being an inkling myself. What else could we play…?

Humming to myself, I made the absolute worst choice after surfing through our stack of games and obliviously inserted the game Nintendo Land into the disk slot, unprepared for the hell to come…

Tenta came walking out of the kitchen as I sat down on the couch with the controller on my lap. One bowl were in each of his hands, some milk sloppily dripping down the side of one of them. A yellow sticky note was on the inkling's forehead with some text written in sharpie on it, but it wasn't until Tenta handed it to me along with my cereal bowl that I could read what it said.

"I found this on the box, I didn't know if it was important or not." He informed, plopping down next to me on my right and beginning to chow down on his dumb 'Honey Bunches of Shit'.

I squinted down at the note as I held it to my face, struggling to read it since the text was so small and I still had blurry vision.

"Will-

Don't touch my fucking Fruity Pebbles.

I'll Fucking Kill You.

I'll Fucking Murder Your Face.

Eat shit.

Precious money went into this.

Love you,

Alyssa."

I stared at the note with a blank expression, then promptly tore it into pieces and tossed it onto the floor. The paper was all scattered, yet I was still very slightly intimidated by each and every piece.

"It wasn't important."

Tenta shrugged a shoulder while his mouth was full of the healthy cereal, "Mmkay." His tone sounded doubtful.

Holding a spoonful of Fruity Pebbles in one hand and my gamepad in the other, I selected Nintendo Land on the home menu and let it load. The disk inside the system started to whirl and come to life, finally being able to fulfill its purpose after many months of collecting dust.

Once the game loaded and music started blaring through the tv's speakers, digital cards covered the screen, each having their own individual icon that represented a game. Half of them I hadn't even touched yet (the ninja shuriken repulsed me) and the other half me and Alyssa broke each other's noses over. These games could get pretty fun and intense, but they were also deadly.

I selected the Donkey Kong Crash Course.

I handed the controller to Tenta.

"Play."

Admittedly, I was entirely hoping that I'd get to see Tenta shriek and groan in the exact same exasperated anger that I went through playing this same game. It wasn't fun when you were the one behind the controls, but being in the audience made the experience a thousand times more entertaining especially over hours of gameplay.

We had a slight intermission at some point late into the evening when we accidentally forgot to put our bowls in the sink once we finished eating, and Alyssa had come home after apparently hanging out with Cassedy and noticed the small chips and crumbs of Fruity Pebbles that were left in my bowl. Naturally, she fucking killed me and then fucking murdered my face. Twice. Thankfully, she didn't make me eat shit.

Tenta refused to help as I was screaming, by the way, laughing too hard at my misfortune to provide proper aid like a good friend. Maybe I should've gone with the healthier cereal like he did…

We eventually all calmed down after our fighting and sat on the couch together as we played various Nintendo Land games for hours, the sun quickly setting and leaving darkness in its place. We went through the multiplayer ones but somehow kept gravitating towards the Donkey Kong course thing. We'd die in the stupidest ways possible on that stage and yet we wanted more. One time we all started laughing because on one of Alyssa's turns, her springy thingamabob had exploded extremely violently into tiny little splintery pieces because she moved too fast. This game was unforgiving and it was worse that it was motion controlled.

It was currently Tenta's turn at this point, the pink inkling sticking his tongue out in focus as he gently guided his character along the course on his last life. Its little wheels squeaked as he tilted the gamepad to make it go up a steep ramp, and then he quickly turned it upright to avoid making the character fly into the wall like the last couple of tries. From there, he gently went down each step that made his character awkwardly bounce and us hold our breaths in anticipation.

He didn't even get to area two before his character exploded into tiny shards.

Alyssa and I guffawed at Tenta's stunned and bewildered expression, his open mouth and twitching eye the best part of all. The negative music that chimed from the speakers as he subsequently groaned was what took the cake, though.

"What the fuck," He whispered under his breath as the results screen came up, "Why is it so fragile? What did I even do?"

"You let go of 'R' too early!" I cackled, taking the controller out of his hands since it was my turn.

I smirked and adjusted my position on the couch so that I was more upright, getting ready to restart the round with more lives and give it a go for myself.

"Let a true master show you how it's done."

"You flew into the wall on your first try."

I stuck my tongue out at him maturely, and he did the same right back. Alyssa rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

Then she sighed and slouched her shoulders, "Let's play something else instead."

As the introductory music played for the hundredth time in the game, I turned to her and gave her a look, "It's my turn."

She stood from the couch and stretched with a small yawn before moving to the Wii U that sat by the tv, "Too bad, let's play splat."

I frowned and fell back against the couch cushions as I pouted, "Nooooo…You can't do that."

Alyssa promptly turned off the system without a second beat and then gave me a wide grin, "I just did."

"What the fuck, 'Lyss."

She shrugged as she hit the eject button, the system whirring back to life since it was a power trigger, "Tenta didn't seem to care, you can learn a lot from him."

I turned to Tenta to see if he actually didn't care about Alyssa changing games, but the pink inkling was completely distracted by a white feline curled up on his lap. When the hell did Salt get here? She may get herself stuck behind fridges but I swear she moves like a ninja. She was currently enjoying plenty of head scratches from Tenta's fingers, purring in delight as one hand pet her across her back and another provided some amazing pets.

Worst part about it was the bright, dumb, and genuine grin that was spread on his dumb face. Why does he love cats so much?

I turned back to Alyssa, "Tenta's in cat land right now."

"Case and point."

Rolling my eyes, I slouched back against the couch cushions even deeper and huffed roughly through my nostrils. I wasn't completely against playing splat but I wasn't too for it either. But it doesn't even matter, I never got my turn in Donkey Kong.

After my sister replaced the game with Splatoon, I reluctantly pressed the game's icon on the home menu and let it start booting up. I sighed absentmindedly as I thought about what to do for the day. Would we play battle dojo? Would I try out some ranked battles on this new account for once instead of blasting through turf wars? From what I could recall, we hadn't touched ranked modes at all and Alyssa barely played on her account before Tenta and I took over. Was she still at C-?

In all honesty, I was contemplating just giving Tenta the controller and letting him have at it. In the time we've played the game together, he was the one who was the most interested. He would always beg to keep going even after I already took the controller from him for my turn to play a match. And I'd give it right back extremely easily. Not because I'm a doormat, no, but Tenta turned into a fucking beast in Splatoon.

I swear, he was like a wizard. On battle one he could barely operate the cameras correctly but over the next fifty or so battles the improvement shot up as fast as lightning. His fingers were constantly moving on the controller and all of his movements on screen were extremely precise. He'd easily carry his teammates to victory, the only times he'd ever lose being if he got multiple disconnects or if his teammates were absolute scrubs (or if he was goofing off/not paying attention). In short, he was entertaining to just watch as an audience member.

I sat back and focused on the tv screen, vision still as blurry as goddamn ever but I was still able to tell where the loading blue circle was. Speaking of which, does Splatoon usually take this long to load?

"...What's the deal? Why's it taking so long?" Alyssa piped up in an agitated voice after a full two minutes of us waiting. Daily, I'd only see that circle for at most a full second or two. But now? It's just getting kinda ridiculous.

"Maybe there's some weird system error," I assured her, standing up to inspect the Wii U, "I'll restart it if it goes on for another minute."

I actually waited for two. We all sat in an awkward and tense silence as I eventually moved to press the power button, hoping that cutting the system off while it's loading wouldn't do any permanent damage to the files.

Suddenly, loud static started sounding out the speakers, both Alyssa and Tenta immediately cringing at the noise while still sitting on the couch. Salt instantly hopped onto her feet and bailed from the living room, clearly not willing to deal with whatever the hell we were doing.

"Turn it off! Turn it off!" Alyssa yelled over the noise, waving a hand and sounding panicked. Tenta started covering his ears, eyes darting between the tv and I as he frantically tried to understand what was going on.

I quickly pressed the power button to the Wii U, but heard no change. Then I mashed it repeatedly, muttering under my breath and not understanding why it wasn't turning off. I am pressing the power button, aren't I? Red circle, little gap at the top with a vertical line in it? I know what the hell I'm doing, right?

Suddenly, the Wii U system started shaking violently, consistently vibrating against the wooden surface it laid on and scaring the shit out of me.

"Alright. Okay! Okaaay." I laughed nervously, nerves on the fritz as I backed away shakily from the possessed console.

Tenta stared at me with fearful wide eyes, "What the fuck is going on, Will?!"

I shook my head in a meek reply and took cover behind the couch as the console shook even harder, the static noise spiking up in volume until I could barely even hear my own thoughts. Tenta and Alyssa promptly did the same, the three of us peeking from behind it occasionally to see if there was any change from the possibly furious poltergeist haunting our electronics with its weird demonic powers.

Then, everything shut off. The tv, the Wii U...the lights, the power…

We all sat there in shocked silence, still hiding behind the couch as darkness surrounded all of us. I looked at Tenta, and then Alyssa, both of them looking pretty scared over whatever the fuck was happening.

Alyssa let out an cringy and awkward laugh as she started to stand up, "Haha...I think I'm gonna go ahead and bail on this house party. I don't fuck with whatever this is."

I peeked around the couch, noticing that despite there seeming to be no power in the entire house, the lights to the Wii U were all still on. It was the only thing that still had power.

I shuddered, still panting from nerves as I looked back at the other two, "The Wii U is still on."

My sister gave me a blank stare and so did Tenta, both for entirely different reasons.

"Okay, yeah. Okay."

Alyssa promptly stood up, walked to the door, put her shoes on, and turned the knob before heading outside, politely shutting the door behind herself.

"Uhhh…" Tenta uttered in a whispery voice, glancing between the door and me, "What was that? Why'd your sister go? What the hell is going on?"

"She bailed. We're on our own."

Tenta stood up and walked to the door as well, putting his shoes on as well but with a bit of a struggle.

"Nice plan. Let's do that too."

I gave him an unamused look and crossed my arms, "Fifteen steps outside that door and you'll be caught by our police and sent to scientists. Or worse, southerners will see you."

"That is a theory created by fiction!" He argued, hand resting on the doorknob, "Fifteen steps outside that door I could also end up becoming famous and everyone will love me!"

"Yeah. Test that theory. Call me later and tell me all how it went."

Tenta oh so desperately wanted to retort, I could see it in his face as his lips opened and closed multiple times. He held up a finger and managed to get One syllable out before quickly closing his mouth and internally shutting down his idea. Then, he turned towards the door and looked like he was about to turn it…

Then he reluctantly turned around, sighed, and kicked his shoes off before slouching over grumpily and trudging back behind the couch, pouting the entire time.

"Go ahead. I'm waiting." I sang mockingly, waiting for him to step right out the door.

He only huffed through his nostrils and sent me a glare.

"Exactly. You'd be cooked alive out there. Possibly even literally."

Tenta snorted and shook his head, "That won't happen. From what I know, humans are just like inklings except probably even tamer than us."

"A sentient species? More wild than us? I'll have to see it to believe it."

He snickered and hid his mouth behind his hands, "No-no. Really. Almost every splatfest we destroy the bulletin board that advertises it."

"...Why?..."

He gave a comically exaggerated shrug and dissolved into a fit of giggles, "I don't fucking know!"

We both sat there and laughed behind the couch, completely forgetting about any sort of problems that we should've tended to. Y'know, the problem that literally caused the power to cut off in our house.

"And-And y'know how there's decorations and stuff everywhere for splatfests? Including stuff for the statues on top of the buildings in the plaza?"

"Uh-huuuh…" I couldn't hide my smile.

"We only volunteer to clean that stuff up so that we can climb the buildings!"

"What the fuck is wrong with your species." Our species?

"I don't fucking know! We're all idiots that care more about our looks and constantly playing turf wars!"

I narrowed my eyes, "I played as you, you do that exact thing."

"I never said I wasn't an idiot."

I coughed to hide my growing grin behind my elbow, but Tenta clearly could see it and started laughing all over again.

"You'll probably turn into an idiot, too! The inkling brain is something else, man."

"Good God…" I whispered, pondering the thought of me slowly turning into a 'stereotypical' inkling. "I can't see myself trying to be 'Fresh' like you do. And I'm barely active as it is."

"That's gonna change too! I've good at controlling myself most of the time so I'm not like most inklings, but this place has been driving me stir crazy."

I sighed through my nostrils and rested my head on my elbow while resting my elbow on my knee, "That's the fun part about being an alien in a foreign world."

"..."

"..."

"...Will."

"What?"

Tenta sat up into proper posture, changing the atmosphere immediately by the serious expression on his face.

"Did we really just forget about the tv and game console of doom that cut off the electricity and shook violently that we're taking shelter from?"

"...Oh." Oops.

"So are we gonna leave, or…?"

I frantically shook my head and glanced around the couch. The lights on the Wii U were still on. Freaky.

"Not an option. We gotta investigate."

"Whyyyyy?" Tenta whined, ears tilting down to try and persuade me otherwise, "I don't wanna get killed by the big, angry ghost that short circuited the entire house."

"Too bad, you gotta do it." I demanded, firmly trying to push him from behind the couch.

He immediately fought back, shoving me in return, "Why do I gotta do it? You're the human, you're the one that's used to the technology here!"

I pushed him again, "I'm not a human anymore, you and I both know that. Plus, you're older, so you gotta be the one to do it so that in case you die, I can grow up and create the future generation!"

"Shut the fuck up, Will."

"I-" I wheezed out a small laugh, "I'm just trying to...repopulate? Populate? Get started? I'm trying to start the inkling race on earth. Your sacrifice will be honored throughout inkling on earth history, I swear on it."

Tenta narrowed his eyes and grabbed my wrist before promptly standing up and walking from behind the couch, dragging me along with him on the ground back to the Wii U. I was tempted to fight back and give him what's for, until I remembered that my arms are practically and almost literally made out of jelly.

Then he quickly picked me up via my armpits and plopped me down onto my feet right in front of the console.

"Fix it."

"No."

"Fix it."

"No."

"Fix it."

"No."

"Fix it."

"No."

"Fix it."

"No."

"We're not getting anywhere with this, are we?"

"No." I flashed him an absurdly bright smile.

"Ugh." Tenta groaned, shoving me aside and bending down in front of the Wii U to get a good look at it, squinting ever so slightly as if it'd help his concentration. He rubbed a finger under his chin and tilted his head to the side for a couple of seconds as he pondered on what to do.

Then, with a slight shrug, he reached up a finger and slowly pressed the power button one more time, wondering if that'd do anything.

Loud, screeching and high pitched static flooded the room once more for a quick millisecond and made us both grimace and cover our ears, fading away soon after and leaving a gentle hum in its place. The tv suddenly flashed back on, glowing nothing but a bright white with hints of static appearing here and there on the screen. It looked very...ominous. Foreboding. Like it was gonna suck us in.

Wait.

"Will...I feel weird." Tenta whispered as he backed from the tv, "I don't like it."

I was too busy gawking at the weird glowing to really pay attention to what he said. This…really didn't seem right. Wii U's shouldn't be capable of causing a power outage in your house and...doing whatever the fuck this was. What the hell was going on?

Only one way to find out.

I pressed the power button to the Wii U again, just to see what would happen. To my surprise, the button wouldn't budge. I tried pressing it again and again, but it wouldn't give no matter how hard I pressed it. It was as if it was stuck all of a sudden, the Wii U couldn't turn off. What the fuck. What the fuck? WHAT THE FUCK.

"I really am starting to think a ghost is haunting our Wii U, man." I uttered in pure horror, switching my attention back to the tv. The gentle hum never stopped, only increasing in volume over time and making our heartbeats pound faster and faster.

"What do we do? What do we do?!" Tenta panicked, looking at me for some sort of guidance.

"Why are you looking at me?! I don't fucking know what to do!" I yelled back, starting to regret coming from behind the couch. We were having a fun time back there.

Tenta glanced back at the tv and furrowed his brow, clearly debating something in his mind. He opened his mouth as if to say something but closed it right after. Then, he straightened his posture yet again, a determined glint in his eyes that wasn't there.

"I'm…"

"What?"

He took in a shaky breath and did his best to puff out his chest, "I'm gonna touch it."

I sent him a half lidded stare that screamed a thousand words.

He broke his fake 'brave hero' persona almost immediately and shoved me jokingly, "I meant the tv screen this time!"

"Yeah. First you touched the console and produced hell to my ears. Now you're gonna touch the tv. Tell me how it goes, I'll be upstairs."

Not giving me enough time to whirl around and rush up the stairs and to safety where I bet The Seasonings were, Tenta immediately curled his fingers into a fist and thrust it into the tv.

I instantly opened my mouth to scream over him damaging something that costed my brother so much money, but then I realized that he had thrusted it into the tv.

Into the tv.

Into the tv.

Into the tv.

"Uh…" Was all I could muster up as I gawked at the sight. Tenta looked stunned too, neither of us able to comprehend the fact that the tv was swallowing Tenta's hand whole.

"Well…" Tenta started, slowly pulling his hand out and inspecting it for any differences, "This isn't the strangest thing that has happened to me."

I rolled my eyes, "I know. I played as you. I know the whole Agent Three shtick."

"...Right."

Stepping up to the television myself, I could feel an odd pulling sensation as I took in a deep breath to calm my nerves and slowly stuck my hand into the...screen? Does it qualify as a screen at this point?

After a few seconds of leaving it in there, I could feel that it was...a little chilly in there? But nothing painful was happening. It was safe. Probably.

I stuck my whole arm in and tried to feel around for anything. I could feel my fingers come in contact with relatively cool...objects. And fabric? I was bending my arm a certain way and I could feel carpet. It had a very generic carpet texture, feeling like that white kind that was nice to just lay down and take a nap on.

I slowly took my arm out of the...tv portal? and inspected it to make sure nothing was up with it. Everything was still in order, I pinched myself both to inspect if the nerves were working and to see if I was even awake.

I turned to address Tenta and discuss our next plan of action, but I managed to catch him in the middle of gasping in a deep breath and instantly shoving his head inside the tv out of nowhere.

I'll be honest, I screamed. I was fully expecting the worst to happen since horror movies love to pull that shit, but nothing happened. His body didn't go slack, the tv didn't cut off, no pink blood...Everything was fine?

…

…

Tenta's been in there for a while.

Stepping a little closer to him (his body?), I slowly reached up a finger and gently tapped him on his shoulder. Just to check if he was actually still alive.

It took him a second, but he eventually pulled his head out of the weird portal thing. He looked. Shocked. Stunned. His face was completely frozen, eyebrows raised and eyes wide while facing completely forward, unmoving.

"Tenta? You good? Are you okay?" I questioned him worriedly out of concern. He didn't necessarily look upset or anything, but I still wanted to make sure he didn't actually get a glimpse of some gorey torture or something.

"Ismuffabbmernm…" He muttered completely inaudibly under his breath.

"Huh?"

"It's my apaRTMENT! IT'S MY APARTMENT! IT'S MY APARTMENT!" Tenta squealed, the inkling hopping up and down erratically in place from excitement. He was constantly shaking and vibrating, shuffling from foot to foot as he struggled to keep his happiness contained.

I was about to reply some sort of congrats, but he suddenly took off running in various directions around our furniture, yelling out different phrases such as 'I'm going home!,' 'It's my apartment!' and 'I get to see my friends again!' and even the rare 'I didn't get evicted!'. He was laughing and twirling as he sprinted throughout the entire house, running up the stairs one moment and then somehow running up them again just seconds later. I never realized just how much pent up energy he must've had, plus all this excitement was enough for him to run multiple laps around a gigantic house!

It took a solid five minutes for him to even remotely calm down. By the time he got back to me, one of his suction cups was attached to his cheek, Salt was sitting on his head and looking frazzled, and he was panting rather heavily with the largest toothy grin I've ever seen on his face. He was fucking glowing with delight at this point despite the beads of sweat starting to prickle along his forehead. He definitely couldn't wait to go home.

I was so happy for him.

"My apartment! My apartment, Will!" He cheered again, taking Salt off of his head and wrapping his arms tightly around her, "I'm gonna go home! I missed it all so much!"

I gave him a glad smile and nodded my head, "I know you did. You should go ahead and hop in!"

Frantically nodding in agreement, Tenta practically tossed Salt to the floor, eager to get her out of his hands so he could hop into the portal and get himself home already. Before he climbed in however, he held his hand out to me for some reason.

"Let's go in together."

"..." I stared at the extended hand in surprise, not expecting that at all. I was fully prepared to see Tenta hop into the portal by himself and for it to close and that be it, but…

I shook my head and reluctantly pushed his hand down to deny his offer, "I...I can't."

He made an incredulous expression, definitely not expecting me to turn down the offer, "You can't…? Why not? You can stick your arm in the portal."

I gestured to the rest of the house with a solemn smile, "This. This is my home. I can't go with you, Tenta. It wouldn't be right."

"Bu-But you're an inkling!" He argued, almost seemingly starting to tear up, "You gotta come! You'd be the only inkling here!"

"Yeah but," I struggled to think of a proper argument, "You belong at your home. I belong here. Even if I'm an inkling now, who says I'll be an inkling later? Maybe you're the reason why I'm an inkling. I bet if you go in that portal and wait a couple seconds, I'll be human and it'll close and we can move on!"

Tenta didn't seem to like that argument.

Without even a goodbye, he shook his head and bent his knees, squatted into a jumping position before springing himself into the tv in one smooth motion, disappearing in an instant. I was sorta expecting the television and Wii U to cut off right then and there, no further shenanigans. I watched my hands to see if they would shrink and felt my head to see if it was still like a bobblehead, but there was no change.

After a full minute of no changes happening, Tenta stuck his head out of the portal and made eye contact with me, his bright, lime green eyes having that same determined glint as earlier. His arm appeared soon after, hand again extended out to me.

"Let's go." He insisted, a soft smile on his face. "The portal isn't closing, so I think you're supposed to come with me."

I backed away at first, unable to form a response on what I wanted to say. I mean, I really wanted to say yes and go in without a second thought. Unfortunately, I was having a shitload of second thoughts. What about my siblings? What would Alyssa think, coming home to find her brother missing? What would Terrell think? He sends his friends to check on us constantly, within a few days he'll know what's going on, if not sooner from the amount of phone calls I won't answer. What about school? It's the middle of summer vacation, what if I lose track of time in Tenta's home and end up accidentally dropping out? What if someone gets in trouble for my decision?

Yet...the pros outweighed the cons. In my perspective, it was a chance for me to start over. I could possibly make new friends and make new first impressions instead of being the quiet kid at the lunch table in the corner nobody sat with. I could finally have a friend I could hang out with regularly in life and not have to rely on social interactions via computer all the time. I could finally get my life together and experience a whole different culture! Nonetheless a fictional one!

Why would I pass that up? Especially since that it's a fictional culture! In my favorite goddamn video game!

Closing my eyes and feeling my droopy ears twitch ever so slightly, I made up my mind.

I walked up to Tenta and opened my mouth, making the decision that would greatly alter my life either for the better, or for the worse.

"Let me grab my laptop."

I quickly darted up the stairs and to my room, immediately locating my beloved laptop on the floor and in sleep mode. After I unplugged its charger from the wall and wrapped it up around itself, I decided that just taking my laptop wouldn't be a good idea. I needed my phone, too. And maybe my 3DS? I never really showed Tenta any of the games up there, actually. Maybe I could get the actual Squid Sisters to play a real copy of Animal Crossing instead of whatever salvaged data the inklings must've dug up from human remains.

Snorting at the idea of the Squid Sisters hitting each other with nets, I picked up all the mentioned tech as fast as I could before hurrying downstairs and to the television for Maybe the last time in my life. I handed Tenta each of my things for him to put in his apartment until I had nothing left in my arms. The only thing left that was needed to transport was...Me.

I was still a little worried and probably overthinking everything, but I still really really wanted to do it. So many consequences could come out of this but this was possibly a once in a literal trillion chance of a lifetime or something! Why would I pass this up?

With the slightest bit of hesitation that remained due to my fears, I reached up my hand and grabbed onto Tenta's in a solid grip, letting him yank me into a whole new world.

I was going to be fucking obliterated by life if I ever managed to go back later.

By the time Alyssa got back to the house, it was well into the night but not too late. She'd spent the next couple of hours at Cassidy's house, taking refuge there after the freaky stuff went down. It was a little awkward when she randomly turned up at their door, but she was welcomed in without a fuss since she'd come so many times before.

As soon as she walked back into the door, which was unlocked for some dumb reason, all the lights in the house flickered back on and startled her into backing out onto the porch. As the A/C whirled and came to life to create the designated background noise, she swallowed her fear and walked into the house, shutting the door behind her but leaving her shoes on in case she needed to bail again for any reason.

Stepping further into the living room, she could see that the tv was on and the sound of static in a gentle hum was coming from the speakers, which really spooked the hell out of her. She looked around for a moment, not spotting any signs of life anywhere.

"Will?" She called out, her voice echoing ominously throughout the house. There was no answer.

"Will? Are you there?"

No answer.

"Will! Answer me, man! You definitely didn't run outside the house, I know you better than that. Where are you?"

Silence.

Alyssa shuddered, dread starting to flood her body. She was getting unnerved. Where the hell was her brother?

"This really isn't cool, Will. Where are you?"

…

"Will? William!"

…

…

"...Tenta!?" She called out weakly in a last ditch effort, realizing that they definitely weren't in the house. From how much she was yelling, even if they were simply home and asleep, they would've easily came out of their room and addressed her thanks to their acute hearing. Something was definitely going on. Alyssa really didn't like what she was seeing.

Stepping closer to the television, she narrowed her eyes suspiciously as a strange feeling started to overcome her. She leaned in closely to the screen, sensing something...pulling her? She wished that she was hallucinating, she really did. But she knew what she felt, and it was definitely a sense of being tugged.

Raising her hand, Alyssa steadily held it toward screen closer and closer, wondering why the feeling was growing stronger within her as she got close to the screen. She was so close to touching it, it was just a millimeter awa-

The tv screen abruptly cut off right before she was about to touch it, the tugging feeling disappearing with it. Alyssa blinked in confusion, not understanding what the hell just happened. What just happened?

A sudden, small noise to her left caught her attention, and she turned her head to see the Wii U spitting out the Splatoon disc inside it by itself. By itself.

By itself.

Alyssa was too stunned to react as the game disc eventually fell to the carpet floor, rolling along the ground until it somehow reached her feet, falling to the floor with its shiny side up once it came into contact with her shoes. Holding her breath, Alyssa bent down and slowly picked it up with the utmost care, turning it over to see the other side.

In place of the pattern of green and purple squids with blank expressions, it instead was replaced with the pattern of pink and purple squids, each of them with expressive eyes that fit both Will and Tenta's personalities…

Alyssa slowly looked back up at the television, unsure what to do or what to make of what in the world was on the game disc.

She shook her head in a daze and made her way upstairs, holding the disc in her hands as delicately as she could, wondering if she went on some weird crack binge and didn't remember planning it out.

What the hell was her brother doing?

More importantly, where would she even find crack?

Surprise! It's me! Happy new year yall! Welcome to 2019!

I kinda shat out this chapter in a bit of a hurry bc I REAAALLY wanna get this story's pace moving a little faster. Things are starting to get Juicy yall! I hope this is what yall were waiting for, bc it sure is for me!

I'm trying to avoid making this a very...cliche? human in inkopolis story. I want to focus on more than just the turf wars or the story mode, I wanna focus on actual inkling culture itself. I have a bunch of headcanons (which are mostly made up with Canon facts) that I wanna implement in this story and I hope that yall will enjoy them!

Anyway, my plans for 2019 are to get some more small stories shat out so I can get my ideas out of my damn head for once. I already got one on AO3 but I really want to touch it up a bit before I upload it here. I have two more stories after that, one being pretty short and another possibly being a long series? I'm struggling with what the plot will be, though.

I hope this chapter is up to yalls standards and I hope you all enjoyed it!

Contact me via my tumblr or twitter if yall wanna talk for some reason, both of them are chubbidust (there's a good chance I won't respond if it's just a simple "hi" though!)