Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
"A Pirate, a Spacewoman, and a Sharq Walk Into a House…"
Tense. That was the word that could describe the Bate household at this time. Any seat possible was taken, the kitchen counters were occupied by Splin and Xarius, her bed loyally occupied by Maria obviously, and glaring at one another in an unflinching staring contest of sorts were Ityl and her less than remarkable husband Alabaso. Both tentacles strewn about the floor covering said wooden floor twitched irritably. The younger brothers of the Bate family scooted the seats by the kitchen counter back, despite the fact that their knees practically dug into their stomachs at this point. Maria watched from her sheets, with the mien of a child, awaiting a potential throwdown with a grain of salt.
"..." Each of them acting like a mirror of expressions, the wedded couple radiated ferocity.
Had Phish's housework been shoddier, Splin had believed that the sheer animosity would be enough to destroy the entire house. Gulping, he glanced at Xarius, who simply shrugged.
Hey Splin.
Splin glanced at the ceiling worriedly.
You seem tense.
Splin frowned, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, you mentioned that earlier."
Well, right now, that doesn't seem to be the problem. You know how the meteorite missed? The least that it had done was clear up problems for YOU.
The youngest of the Bate family sighed, staring down at his lap. Perhaps it was a little too specific, but there were a couple of issues he needed fixing somehow. Namely marriage counseling arrangements and explaining all of this nonsense to Maria and the others. Lifting his head up slowly, he could hardly take his eyes off of the wooden ceiling. He briefly reflected on the events: The meteorite missed, Ityl's prophecy had been inaccurate somehow, but she had not been lying about being from space, apparently.
This was getting rather conflicted, fast. Just when he noticed a twitch of the tentacles, the door to the house swung open.
"Hey guys!"
Almost as if the room was a bomb, Sharq defused the tension, drawing everyone's attention to the entrance of the house. Standing with a new roller in hand, splatters of green, orange and pink covering his clothes, he trudged in, leaving a sizable colorful footprint behind him.
Ityl blinked, glancing over at Splin, then back to Sharq. "You hadn't told me you had a brother."
Splin shrugged almost bashfully.
"Hi mysterious lady!" Sharq waved.
Despite her feud with her "significant" other, Ityl managed a small smile at Sharq as he entered, Sharq placing the roller weapon to the side. The glare of a less than gleeful Inkling with drapes for tentacles caught his attention. Curiously, Sharq looked over and stared, blinking, eventually squinting at Alabaso.
"What is it, boy?" Alabaso asked wrathfully.
"...I feel like I know you from somewhere." Sharq spoke up.
Alabaso snapped, "Of course you do! You were the same person who tried to fire a cannonball at me!" He yelled.
"...Oh! That's you! Oh." Sharq backed away very slightly.
Alabaso rolled his eyes. "Who else?"
"Hmm." Sharq walked over towards him.
Switching into a squid, Sharq began revolving around the larger squid curiously. Eyeing his glare, his tentacles, his ragged clothing, everything about him. Eventually, Alabaso stopped him, raising a wall using his own tentacles, Sharq butting into the tentacles.
"What are you doing." Alabaso sighed, hardly wishing to know the actual answer.
"It is you! Sorry, I couldn't recognize you at first." Sharq nodded, "That temple was dark."
Frowning, Alabaso turned to the kitchen with a grimace on his face, peering at Splin. "Is he this obnoxiously carefree?"
Splin blinked once, then shyly nodded honestly. Alabaso sneered, turning his head back to where his wife was.
"Reminds me of someone else." The man scowled.
Xarius made a face at Alabaso from behind his back as he searched for Ityl, whom he could not find. On the bright side, she was no longer glaring at him. Instead, she had opted to make for the door, having stuffed her tentacles down the back of her cloak to mostly prevent them from dragging.
"Thank you for having me." Ityl spoke up in a soft voice with a quick wave, walking outdoors.
"Hey!" Alabaso shouted, letting his tentacles drop to the floor with an audible thump, startling Sharq, dashing out the door.
As the entrance slammed shut, the remaining Inklings just sat there, staring at each other.
"So how were… Your guys' days?" Sharq asked.
The three others glanced from kitchen to bed with a frown. Though Xarius quickly gave Sharq a toothy grin.
"I didn't know I had an uncle!" Sharq spoke up, jumping onto the back of Xarius.
"Well, it's just a hunch for now. Unless- Who's your mom?" Xarius asked with a smirk.
"Mom, of course!" Sharq smiled, just causing Xarius to roll his eyes.
Maria sat on the side of her bed, staring at the three other Inklings conversing. She hummed, glancing at the sky. Sure, she might be capable of punching tons of people into submission, but at the moment, she felt somewhat homesick.
"Pirah, right?"
Splin searched through a laptop, blinking, eventually coming across a regular old image file. Using a mouse on the side of the counter he was on-
Xarius scowled, tilting his head. "How'd you get that so fast?"
He clicked on the image file, which expanded into a photo of the brothers and their parents. Phish with his tie undone merrily making a sign with his fingers over Pirah's head, Pirah only rolling her eyes with a smile, two small blue squids with the brothers' trademark headgear worn on by their parents' feet.
"...There they are." Splin shrugged, all of the Inklings in the room staring at the screen.
Xarius sighed. "Ah, Pirah…"
Maria glanced at the three others. She hummed, perhaps she was not the only one with a case of family fragmentation. They practically glared at the picture on screen for what seemed to be forever, until a voice chimed in.
"Hey, hate to break up the memories, but uh…" A voice came from behind the computer.
For a second, Xarius stared at the laptop as if it grew a limb. Inspecting the flat device from every angle, he scowled. He even tapped some of the keys on the front just to be safe.
"I forget, this thing come with a voice recorder or something?" Xarius asked curiously, as if modern comforts were a thing of the past to him.
As Xarius said that, a less than pleased looking amiibo popped out from behind the laptop, only bewildering the pirate more.
Ann-Gel shook her head, staring upwards. "No, I'm alive. Name's Ann-Gel."
For a moment, Xarius wondered if perhaps Alabaso had a point when it came to discrimination against which food one should consume. After Splin whispered something to him though, he glanced at his own buccaneer get-up and nodded, raising his index finger to the trophy, shaking its hand.
"Right. What's going on… Ann-Gel?" Xarius asked almost reluctantly as if the prospect of a pirate speaking to a trophy was forbidden.
Said trophy glanced at the back of the house. "I was up on the roof- It was hard climbing the stairs- And I saw the two that walked out here fighting."
Xarius shook his head with a grimace. "Alabaso never really gives up at that."
"Except they kinda decided to take the fight towards the city." Ann-Gel told them, rubbing the back of her head, "And they're kinda causing a stir. Just wanted to let you guys know."
As the amiibo began hopping away, Sharq interjected quickly with a "Wait!". She turned around towards the Inkling.
"How'd you get down here so fast if it took you that long to climb the stairs?" Sharq asked.
Ann-Gel gave a brief glance towards the ceiling hole. As she did so, Xarius got to his feet, frowning.
"Alabaso always reacts like this. Overreacting… Who knows what he'll do to try and get his wife back?" Xarius scowled, pacing around the floor.
After Ann-Gel's short, wordless explanation, Sharq walked off from the seat by the counter towards the television screen across from them. Finding the remote control haphazardly tossed on the floor, he picked it up, pressing a simple button. Sirens and warnings flooded the screen as the city of Inkopolis appeared to be sieged by a pair of Inklings running amok with long tentacles stretching like whips, panicked citizens dodging the tendrils. Sharq immediately shut the television off and whirled around towards the others.
"...Well." Xarius blinked.
Splin sighed. "The city's being attacked again. Of course."
"Come on, let's go then!" Sharq spoke up, running outside onto the hills towards Inkopolis.
For the final time in that house today, the remaining Inklings glanced at each other once more, Ann-Gel staring at the entire group of organic beings curiously, waiting.
"...Should we?" Splin asked with a frown, taking a look at the floor for a second.
Feet shuffling and the door rapidly opening and closing was enough to answer his question. With a sigh, Splin stood up, stretched, and made his way over towards the stairs.
"You're not going with them?" Ann-Gel asked curiously.
Splin shook his head as he ascended up the staircase. "No, thank you. I need to figure out how to put together this Squid Beakon anyways… Besides," He reached the roof, "I think I've been in the spotlight for long enough now, haven't I?"
Ann-Gel crossed her arms, then shrugged as Splin left her line of sight to continue his work, slow but steady clanks.
Switching into a squid again was somewhat lubricating to Xarius, he hardly felt like he was on a mission to locate his sister as he spun through the clouds. No, instead he was on a mission to stop his former mentor from possibly killing anyone. The funny thing was that despite the entire absurdity of the situation, his nephew and Maria spun with him, ready despite any of the possible dangers.
Xarius had not lived in the city for a few years, but he hardly remembered life threatening situations as entirely on par with "normal". Though her sister burning down their home might have been a red flag from the start… Nevertheless, as three squids touched the ground with a thud and reformed as Inklings standing upright, they were determined to find the others and possibly sort out this emotional baggage behind this odd, space, long-tentacle conspiracy.
But not right now because of time constraints! Find out next time on The Brothers and the Others Z!
"...Now that's just lazy." Xarius frowned, shaking his head.
Since when do you talk to the narrator?
The pirate shook his head, looking out on the modern expanse of asphalt and cement ahead of them. "Since the day I had to navigate a city for a bloomin' jerk."
An echo ran throughout the buildings. While Xarius could hardly make it out, the scornful tone and the frustrated words that ran through made him smirk. They were on the right path at least.
AN: Can't wait to see Okuyasu to eat Italian and cry a lot.
Thanks Ultrapyre, Dread Angel, and write n wrong for reviewing!
Ultrapyre, I have to apologize for not properly making it as riveting as you'd hope, there's always next chapter I suppose.
Dread Angel, it seems like that meteorite hadn't hit home, so I suppose Maria will have to flex her muscles later.
Indeed, write n wrong, for another day, but how long?
Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, off to read the mango. See you.
Oh yeah, by the time you're reading this, Nintendo E3 is in few minutes. See you on Twitch probably.