Even though it was filled with a multitude of screens, food tables, spare uniforms and bright LED lights that served no purpose whatsoever, the backstage still felt particularly empty. There were four people there, but none of them seemed to be truly present in the moment. Tai and Nami, the twins who never really seemed to be excited for anything, were quieter than usual. Lin, the front-liner of the team, was alternating her focus between her phone and the timer for the beginning of the match with nervousness in her eyes. And Sal wanted nothing more than to disappear from the face of the Earth.

The events leading up to the match were… Suspicious, to say the least. It all began in the day prior when it was revealed that Nazu, the charismatic newly elected catfish president of Inkopolis, was going to be participating in the ranked matches committee again that year, and would start by managing the Tailslap vs Acrodolphins match. At eleven PM, he announced that the match was going to be postponed until further notice because one of the Acrodolphins members was involved in an undisclosed accident. At eleven thirty, he announced that the regulations were being "revised" for secret reasons, and that there would be more updates on the subject still that day. And at precisely eleven and fifty nine, the match was confirmed again without any further details. If Sal didn't know any better, he'd think this was all a plan from Nazu to make him have the most miserable time of his life. And he hated that it was actually working.

"Clam blitz in Piranha Pit." Tai finally broke the tense silence. She had her laptop on her lap, and was currently running over the multitude of notes she had taken along the years from past matches. "I'd suggest our standard comp. We can't try anything too risky, since… You know."

Nazu had broken the regulations. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. He was known to interrupt games and bend rules in favor of "fun and fairness", and this seemed like the exact kind of thing he would have done. Even though the Acrodolphins' team uniform had a tinted helmet that protected and hid the face of the wearers, it was possible to see the jarring difference between Boto – the Acrodolphins player who had been injured – and whoever was currently pretending to be him. The body type simply did not match, and the play style…

Boto was a very aggressive player. He liked making risky moves, flanking at the most unexpected times to disrupt the other team's balance, and was generally the one who was prioritized in team fights due to the danger of leaving him unsupervised for too long. But his substitute was almost the opposite. For starters, they were playing as a backliner, just like Sal. They were also using a charger, which was definitely not a weapon for someone who likes action and movement. Nami was able to notice that there was a sort of boundary, an imaginary radius in the stages where the impostor would be at his full potential. He couldn't do anything outside of it, but if someone from Tailslap stepped into it without paying attention, they would be splatted in seconds.

"I think it's worth trying the Tenta Brella here. We could try to go for more aggressive pushes, and stay behind the brella once it deploys so we can get a head start on taking the charger out." Sal suggested. "Though in this case, we should probably replace the Splat Roller with the 85 for safekeeping."

It was supposed to be an easy task. They had studied the Acrodolphins for about a year in preparation. Every tactic they had, what each player lacked, what stages they usually avoided. And it did show for the first thirty seconds of the first game. Until Lin tried advancing into their backline at Walleye Warehouse to throw the power clam at their basket and found herself instantly splatted. The team still used most of their old strategies, but Boto completely shifted the dynamics of the team. Their old backliner was now a midliner, meaning all of their play styles had been altered ever so slightly to match the new member's play style.

Luckily, it was a best of five match. Not so luckily, they were tied and this last game of clam blitz would decide everything.

"That seems fair. Does everyone agree?" Nami asked, looking around the room. Everyone nodded, except for Lin who seemed to be focused on her phone rather than the conversation. "Lin?"

"Mhm." She muttered, looking at Nami for only a split second before turning her attention back to the device. Sal knew why she was like that. Everyone knew, but Sal was the one directly affected by it. Though they were all nice enough not to comment on the day prior, the complete lack of small talk in between strategy discussion made for a rather tense atmosphere.

Suddenly, the timer reached zero and an alarm sounded, meaning it was time for them to enter the battlefield. They all grabbed their weapons and put on their uniform goggles, walking through the exit door. Since Piranha Pit was located in a quarry, the door actually led to a tunnel carved out of solid rock that ended on a metal ladder. One short climbing session and a super jump later, they all landed at the spawn point – the machine emitting a "ding!" sound to signal their bodies would reappear there in case they were splatted during the game.

There were no grandstands at the site, but dozens of camera drones flew around the air above the stage to capture the best angles of the match. It was being televised in almost all major channels, and being livestreamed by the most popular GooTubers and Splatnet celebrities. It was a big deal, being a fight for the title of #1 ranked team. After a particularly rough tournament for the Acrodolphins the year prior that led to Tailslap being raised to #2, the stakes for this match were set high. Independently of the winner, both teams would receive a large amount of money, but the winner got a sponsorship deal with Forge. Being a wearer of Forge gear themselves, this was the perfect opportunity for Tailslap to advance their career.

"Ready?"

The commentator's voice echoed through the quarry. Sal was definitely not ready, but he felt like there was no fixing that right now. No amount of strategy discussing and physical training would make him forget the scene from yesterday. He could tune them out during the action, but he'd have to deal with the situation after it.

"Go!"

Like a well-oiled machine, everyone rushed out of the spawn point and took their positions on the map. Sal swam through the ink on the conveyor belt and took his spot behind the open space closest to his team, immediately taking down one of the Acrodolphins with his Rapid Blaster Pro. It looked like they had realized Tailslap were having difficulty with aggressive pushes, and decided to go all out with no hesitation. Not the smartest choice, since Tailslap was known for having one of the best defensive formations around, but they knew that "Boto" would still protect the basket for them no matter how recklessly they played.

From that point onwards, the game had become a battle of defenses. Ever so often Nami would try to lead a push with her Tenta Brella, but "Boto" would intercept it as soon as it disintegrated. The Acrodolphin strikers would try to attack from both sides of the map, but they were always quickly splatted by Sal and Nami. And Lin… Lin sure was there.

Sal didn't like to blame his teammates for defeats, but if they lost that game he would lay it down on her. She looked distracted the whole game, was jumpier than normal and her accuracy was practically nonexistent. The rest of the team had to work twice as hard to compensate for her clumsiness, and it was starting to show. Five-minute matches felt more like fifty-minute matches when one of your teammates had her head in the clouds.

It was almost like she was taunting him. Either that, or she was involved in whatever had happened to the real Boto. But tinfoil hats don't protect against splash damage, so Sal didn't bother putting his on and continued to focus his mind in the game completely.

"Lin, watch out for Tentatek!" Sal shouted, rushing towards the left to deal with two other attackers. Oh how foolish he had been. He managed to splat the one using a Mini Splatling by outranging him, but the second one took the opportunity to sneak behind him and take him out with his Sploosh-O-Matic. As unorthodox as the weapon was, the opponent still managed to splat and get past Lin, and then throw the power clam into Tailslap's basket. Sal managed to deal with all oncoming attackers before they could throw any more clams, but the damage was already done. 0 to 20 in the Acrodolphins' favor.

Oh well, no time to be angry. After the official post-game interview, he would have a whole afternoon to do that. Maybe even discuss the future of his relationship with Kama afterwards, if his sanity and career were still intact.

"Thirty seconds remaining!"

The time warning that rang through the air only served to pump more adrenaline into the cephalopods' bodies. Lin had managed to splat someone for the first time in the game, and Tai followed soon after. Sal found the third attacker sneaking close to his zone shortly after, and after an intense battle only "Boto" remained.

"Nami, one more push! Throw me one!"

Nami threw a clam at Sal in response, walking to the middle of the stage and opening the Tenta Brella. Everyone gathered behind her and waited a few seconds before the umbrella part of the weapon took off. Sal's newly formed power clam signaled his position on the map, but there was no time to worry about that. Lin, Nami and Tai were splatted one by one, but not in vain. Sal managed to advance considerably before confronted by "Boto". He turned into a squid just in time for a line of ink to fly above where his head would be. He swam aside to through the path his team had inked, and shot his blaster right towards the imposter. It wasn't enough to splat him, but he had been accurate enough to blow his helmet away.

It all made sense now.

An octoling. A mostly shaved head with a main tentacle running down the front. Vivid blue eyes that were focused straight onto Sal's center of gravity. A golden ornament tucked on his left ear. A splat charger.

Both were taken by surprise by the sudden face reveal, but Fen managed to break out of his daze and splat Sal as the timer reached zero. Fortunately for Fen's eardrums, Sal's body burst right before he could let out a scream that would have been so loud it could have been classified as an industrial Killer Wail.

Sal was barely holding it together by the time he reached the backstage. He tossed his Rapid Blaster Pro into the wall, causing the parts to detach and break at impact. He also gave it a kick for good measure. After that noise was over, he could hear steps coming from the tunnel that led to the room. There was only one way to make this worse than it already was, and it ended up being exactly what happened. The thing he wanted to see the least at the moment was Kama and Fen walking through the door with big smiles on their faces.

"Nice game! What do you think of Fen? I kn–"

Whatever Kama was going to say was cut off immediately as Sal lunged towards him, stopping with their noses mere millimeters from each other.

"You. How… dare you!"

A shiver ran across Kama's (figurative) spine. He lacked words for a moment before gulping. "I j-just… Thought you wouldn't be mad at me if you saw how cool Fen was!"

Sal had to stop for a second. Did he really think he was that stupid?

"This was the biggest game of my career. But you don't care about that, do you?" Kama started walking backwards, and Sal followed after him with his finger pointed at his throat. "All you care about are your… Dates and games and kisses. You never stop to consider how I would feel about a situation before doing something, do you?"

Kama was paralyzed in fear. Sal didn't care in the slightest. "You couldn't simply… Break up with me and move on peacefully. Oh no, you had to take away EVERYTHING I HAVE!"

Sal had never shouted with him like that before. Kama was starting to physically tear up, large drops of blue running down his face. "S-Sal, I…"

"And you. You little…" Sal suddenly turned to face Fen, who was watching the whole thing with horror in his eyes. Sal really, really wanted to scream at the octoling. Maybe even get physical. He deserved it. But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to be as angry towards Fen as he was with Kama. He knew that it was probably not his fault, and that he was probably a nice guy if they ever got to meet each other properly.

"You… Shouldn't be here." It was the best Sal could say. Not really an insult, but it still hurt Fen quite a lot. "There are rules against this! You can't just walk into the fucking committee a day before the match and have them ruin my life just like this! Nazu is involved in this, isn't he? I'm going to find the exact hotel he is at and–"

There was a sudden flash. Why was there a sudden flash? Sal turned to his right, only for his heart to drop. He had forgotten about the post-game interview. How he hadn't seen the dozens of cameras pointing right at him was a mystery, but they had caught everything. And made it worse. He watched wide as the TV in the corner copied his movements live, the headline changing from "Interview with Tailslap!" to "Xenophobia in the locker room?"

"No! Change this… Right now! That is not what's going on right now you…" Sal stepped in front of the cameras. What would he do, though? Break them? That would only make the whole situation worse. So instead, he took the only logical course of action in his mind: he unstrapped the ink tank from his back and ran towards the exit.

Fen debated whether or not to go after him, but instead decided to help Kama, who was currently curled into a ball and crying against the corner of the room. The cameras decided to stop broadcasting the poor inkling's sobs after a while out of respect, but millions had already seen the whole (out of context) situation. The damage had been done.

Thunder could be heard rumbling above the underground room as clouds started to form in the sky. Actual clouds, not the Ink Storms that had been present during the games. The rain, which usually soothed Kama, was now a grim reminder of his failure as a boyfriend and as a friend.