Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
End to the Festivals
"Ladies, gentlemen, I have dire news. As of late, Splatfests are on the decline. I don't know why, I don't know how. But I will ask this… Which team are you picking?"
Splin and Sharq sat in a room nearly devoid of any furnishings in the slightest. They glanced around the barren room sitting on folding chairs, Splin listening to music through his headphones, staring across the room with a frown, while Sharq bobbed his legs up and down blissfully without a care in the world.
"...Rivals?"
Splin frowned, a hand on his cheek. "Ari, don't you think you're grasping for straws here?"
Standing on a seat, higher than the two other Inklings in the room, Ari glared down at Splin accusingly. "Preposterous! This is a matter of emergency here! The final Splatfest, the last attempt at fame and glory!"
"Uh-huh… Why did you call US here if you wanted to talk about Splatfests?" Splin arched an eyebrow.
Ari smirked, descending from his own chair. "Why? Simple, because I believe you two to be rather esteemed Turf War veterans if you were able to survive my past challenges."
All of a sudden, Sharq sneezed, with him and the chair tipping over as a result, the older brother staring back up in a squid form, staring back at Ari. Fixing his seat, Sharq reverted to an Inkling form, sitting back down.
"Also because this place is getting scrapped later." Ari thought to himself, glancing at the somewhat ruined walls, then turned back towards the brothers, "Listen! Without Splatfests, I'll lose a chance to earn fame and glory!"
"How so?" Sharq asked, leaning on his chair.
"Well, for one, there's always a chance to snag a potential soulmate…" Ari winked, bobbing his eyebrows up and down.
"Hey! What about Tai?" Sharq huffed, arms crossed in disapproval.
Blinking, Ari just grinned sheepishly. "Well… Figuratively speaking… If she were to… Ditch me, as implausible as that sounds…"
While not technically the brightest bulb in the box, Sharq knew stress and anxiety when he saw it. After all, he lives with Splin. Who, at this moment, is glaring towards the ceiling irritably, shutting his ears with obscure music references probably. Swiftly dashing over towards Ari, he pat him on the back once, hanging his arm around the other Inkling's shoulder.
"Don't worry! If I know Tai, she's probably mooning over you right now, thinking of how great you are!" Sharq suggested, giving him yet another friendly pat on the back.
Ari blinked, turning towards his rival. "...Hmm. Intriguing."
While Ari was almost thoroughly convinced, Splin on the other hand was much less so."Sharq, that is literally the opposite of what she'd-"
Over the orange Inkling's shoulder, the older Bate Brother glared straight at Splin, cutting him off. He made a shushing noise with one finger in front of his lips, simultaneously providing Ari's ego with a chance to prosper. With an equally silent sigh, Splin returned to his seat, removing the headphones from his ears, preferring the noise of construction vehicles moving closer in the background.
Following the drill, Tai walked through a deserted hallway with her superior officer Aussie accompanying her, striding through a seemingly abandoned section of Octarian architecture. Whistling, Tai glanced from wall to wall, her footsteps echoing practically throughout the entire realm with the silence and occasional drips of water backing the noise up. Eventually, she got bored, a devilish smirk crossing her face as she glanced at Aussie.
"Yo, Auss." She spoke up, attracting her attention.
Knowing Tai for quite a few years now, Aussie was hardly prone to suggestions anymore with her around. It was probably just a dumb request meant to fill her amusement in a short time frame. With that in mind, she turned towards Tai, ready to give her a piece of her mind.
"So, if an Octoling and an Inkling were to meet alone, is it possible they could, you know." She asked, winking once, then again and again until the point was practically bludgeoned.
Aussie's face immediately contorted into that of terror. Staring at a Tai, who, while with an innocent enough mien was laughing her butt off on the inside. She halted, doing nothing but staring.
"Hey, I'm just saying. If one was to sleep with an Inkling, would it be uncomfortable to-" Tai started.
"I'm over vomiting. That's done, that is finished." She glared at Tai, "I'm also through with you and your innuendos! For Cod's sake Tai, I thought it was bad enough when you butchered Inkanese."
Tai blinked for a second, shaking her head. "I don't know what you mean."
"You- YOU don't know what you're implying?!" Aussie asked, flabbergasted, nearly flinging her goggles off her face and out a decayed window, crimson eyes glaring at Tai as if she were detecting a distasteful joke.
"Look, I just wanna know if my tentacles are going to get in the way of his sleep, and if I should trim them or something so that they don't block his breathing. Again, figuratively speaking. No clue how it would work." The younger Octoling spoke up, with a smug, yet somewhat innocent expression.
Aussie's eye twitched, slowly being covered by her mask as she covered her face once more, the mask glowing violet. "...Put some pillows in between you, I don't care."
As Aussie walked off fed up, Tai called after her, "Now, about bedroom intimacy-", which spiraled into yet another period of agony for the dear old Octoling commander.
"Alright, well, I appreciate your rousing attempts at cheering me up rival, but you still have not answered my question. It is imperative to know which one you will choose." Ari spoke up in a "matter-of-fact" tone.
"What are we choosing again?" Sharq asked, starting back for his seat.
Ari smirked. "Which Squid Sister do you prefer?"
Blinking, Sharq frowned, staring up at the ceiling. "Hmm… I dunno. Seems like it would be a tough decision."
"...Er, hey…" Splin spoke up, glancing elsewhere.
"Perhaps someone with a bubbly attitude is right up your alley, am I right?" Ari asked, nudging Sharq with his elbow.
"I dunno. I think that would be weird." Sharq admitted, bewildering Ari.
The sounds of vehicles revving up approached from outside, with a very concerned looking Splin glancing back at the two debating pop stars, ignorant to the noise. Splin bit his lip, staring out a small rectangular window. A crane driven by a shrimp of sorts dangled a single wrecking ball, shining ominously in the distance.
"How so?" Ari arched an eyebrow.
Sharq leaned on the side of the rickety room wall, shrugging. "If we had two of me, I think that would get old quick. I mean, there really should only be one extremely energetic person around in a given time, you'd think that we would pretty much tire everyone else out with our personalities, right?"
Staring at him with an extremely blank stare, Ari blinked at Sharq, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woken up. After wiping his eyes, he was greeted by a sight of Sharq yet again, only instead of making points, he was just grinning as if nothing of substance of happened. Which was not technically wrong.
"But I'd play for Team Callie, thanks for asking." Sharq nodded, with the older orange Inkling just looking at Sharq, giving him a curt nod.
"Alright, great," Splin spoke up, popping up behind the two, pushing them out, "Let's talk about Splatfest AFTER we get out of here."
Practically shoving the two out through a flimsy door, Splin switched into a squid, hitting the deck a foot or two away from the house. The giant sphere previously held stationary smashed through the small trailer the trio were in, scattering dirt and chipped wood across the ground. Shooting a glare back, Ari scowled, fixating his Jungle Hat in a tilted fashion as to presumably make a "statement".
"How dare they!" Ari scoffed, "I had that room for one more hour!"
"Hey, look, Ari, if this is just about you playing in a Splatfest, than you could have sent mail or something." Splin sighed, staring at the debris scattered around.
Ari scratched the back of his neck, biting his lip. "Well…"
Sharq nodded, lightly pushing away shards of glass precariously perched by his position. "Yeah, we'll follow you, no need to invite us to a rundown shack."
Said shack of sorts was already crumbling behind them. Disregarding the fact that there was a bunch of walls crumbling behind them, they stood up, Splin still glancing around for any sign of the wrecking ball's return.
"Well then, that's good, that's good." Ari nodded, glancing around, clearing his throat once, "Shall we?"
Looking back at the wrecking ball, Splin frowned, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Then he glanced back to Ari. He was practically beaming despite their close shave. Sharq simply shrugged, smiling nonchalantly. On one hand, he did want to just lay at home and contemplate his exist. On the other hand, these two boys combined could be the end of him. But, he supposed, regardless of his choice…
"...Alright, let's go out and get splatted over and over again." Splin sighed, with two gleeful looking squids grinning, "Not like I have anything better to do."
"Great! So, which team are we picking?" Ari asked once more.
"..." Splin blinked, tilting his head with a frown, "...We'll figure it out when we get there."
Ari frowned, shaking his head as the three took off into the distance. Leaving the now pile of dust behind, they went on towards the plaza. Behind them, the wrecking ball rested on the ground, the shrimp behind the mechanism wiping his head free of sweat, leaning back in the chair.
"No! What have you done?!" A voice called from the side.
The shrimp blinked, glancing to the side. An Inkling man stood, garbed in a construction uniform, hands on his hard hat, staring at the wreckage.
"We weren't supposed to destroy it until nine!" He spoke, "Remember that kid who paid us?!"
Eyes wide, the shrimp and the Inkling stared at the mess of wood and glass that was left. Hopping out of the vehicle, the two of them nearly dove in, pushing and pulling debris away, while Ari walked off, with a moment to spare.
AN: The reviewing system on this site is super flawed. You would think after it was delayed two times before at least they might be able to fix it. I do not know anything about how it works specifically, however, so it may be more complicated than it seems.
I kinda miss being able to do simple little things like in The Bate Brothers where there was not a huge plot at first, it was just kinda two Inklings doing Inkling things. Now I feel as if I've wrapped this story in convolution that will take me a while to clear up. Oh well. Complaining isn't going to get much done. Just wanted to chime in and say, "Happy Last Splatfest".
I want to thank the readers for their support. Especially the reviewers, Dread Angel, write n wrong, Ultrapyre, and Rynowm.
Dread, appreciative for your support and that comment on Maria, certainly makes me glad to see someone else's character represented well.
Thanks for noticing that cameo, write n wrong, wanted to have her join in for something.
Ultrapyre, I apologize for the anti-climatic endings, I don't believe I can write endings too well nowadays. I should probably work on that.
Rynowm, I appreciate it, but fifty more chapters? Goodness. That may be a stretch, but I suppose I'll see what I can do.
Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, off to eat breakfast. See you.