Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others
"Mystical Labyrinth of Certain Uncertainty! In which the Great Ari Jabin and his stalwart companions ascend a grand mountain! Where will this adventure lead our heroes? Find out next-"
"Er, sorry." Ari coughed as he stepped forward with one careful step. He turned one eye up towards the stars above. One particular star seemed to fizzle above his head, it blinked, as though it desperately attempted to retain its last seconds of life. "I've got it!"
Find out now on Ari's Sensational Splatoon Satur...uh...
He paused again and reached up to his chin with a solitary index finger towards his curious pursed lip. The star above him shrunk into the dark. Ari raised the index finger in the air and asked, "What's today again?"
"It's Monday, Ari. ...At least it was supposed to be," Splin muttered under his breath as he was dragged up a green hill, "Anything else you want to describe?"
Such as the grass knoll we're ascending uphill?! Or the mystery that remains on the top?! Quite wholesome, wouldn't you say?!
"...Nevermind." The blue squid stuck between Sharq and Tai's arms muttered.
"Well, Splin my friend," Ari coughed and shook his head, "On an adventure as potentially descriptive as this, one would miss out to view the finer details."
True to the young narrator's word, Ari, Sharq, and Tai ascended a rather tall green hill in the dead of night as a full moon glowed down at them behind the shelter of dark clouds. The wind whistled and rustled both Ari and Tai's tentacles. Sharq's head remained cozy underneath his cap while Splin flapped against the night breeze.
"...So, walking uphill warrants narration?" Splin coughed out.
"Yes." Ari responded as they pushed on through the thick shades of night.
Throughout their ascent, Ari constantly edged closer to Tai as she edged up the hill. "Er, so, milady, would thou mind any assistance with thou burden?"
"'Thou'?" The Octoling repeated with a chuckle and a shake of her head. "That's just wrong on a century level."
"...Oh." Ari muttered as he covered his mouth with his brown collar. "...Right, of course."
"Hey, I didn't say that you were too wrong with saying it." She shrugged. Her abrupt shoulder movement prompted Splin to tilt to one side, not that it could have been changed. "It sorta fits you. What are you supposed to be, anyway?"
Ari gazed up at the night sky and beamed almost as brightly as the moon that followed the gang from overhead. "...A hero inscribed in legend. One disabled with a curse within his own tainted blood. A man of peerless novelty and heroism."
"...Okay?" She scratched underneath one of the tentacles on her head.
Ari's shoulders sagged in a sheepish reluctance, his face pursed and peculiar. "...I...think his name started with an 'O'."
As the two had their "cryptic conversation of semi-subtle Fire Emblem costume references", the brothers had their own debate. Splin continued to tug at each arm that shackled him to no avail. They held, glued to the blue tentacles of the younger brother.
It was during his thirteenth attempt to escape the confines of a pair of hands that Splin gazed up at Sharq restlessly. "Sharq, please. Let's just go home and forget about Squidoween. We can just skip to Thanks...Thanks…"
Splin furrowed his brow and gazed up at the stars. Unfortunately for our star crossed protagonist, there would be no answer, unless the twinkle of light in the distance was optimal.
"...No." Splin shook his head firmly. "It isn't."
Then looks like you will have to find out the answer for yourself.
The blue squid would have crossed his arms had they not been locked in place by both his cherished friend and sole brother. "...Sharq?"
"Splatsgiving?" Sharq swiveled his head down to Splin.
"...What was the naming scheme behind that?" He muttered under his breath.
Sharq hummed as he and Tai stepped up over a flat stone wedged between the grass, "We're squids, 'splats' has to do with our Turf War sport-"
Splin made a quick case of an interjection. "Yeah, but at 'Splatsgiving', we GIVE thanks."
Tai nodded tiredly with a husky puff from her lips. "Yeah. Like I said, you guys have a really over-complicated naming scheme."
"I think it's rather...romantic." Ari argued with a light smile on his face.
The Octoling received the statement and returned the favor with a slug to Ari's arm.
"Ow!" He complained, then attempted to clear his throat in a dignified manner. "Steady my brush hand!"
"You mind not hitting on me tonight?" Tai crossed an arm around her uniform. "You're scaring Splin and I."
"I meant 'romantic' in the thematic sense!" Ari argued as he rubbed his right arm.
Splin frowned, befuddled by her curiously empathetic tone. Admittedly, he was not the greatest fan of Ari, although Tai backing him up as if she knew was quite the surprise.
She continued. "I get that the holiday's whole point is to scare people, but show a little restraint, yeah? Be nice."
Splin and Ari's jaws would have dropped, though Splin felt that would be difficult what with his status of simple blue squid.
As if Ari hardly wished to relinquish his dignity, he turned his nose up the hill with a flustered orange glow upon his cheeks. "...Let's make it to that haunted house, shall we?"
He continued ahead, or sprinted uphill to be precise. Tai had a triumphant smirk on her face. The Octoling leaned down towards Splin and gave him a wink, though whatever secret she promised with her natural, yet sinister violet and green palette dabbed on her expression was lost on the confused Splin.
Regardless of that, Sharq had a frown deep with disapproval underneath his Takoroka Mesh. "Tai…"
"What?" She gave an indignant glare back at him.
"Ari missed you too." He explained clearly, a frown place on his face.
Tai's features shouted misunderstanding. "He did? Why?"
"Uh, well," Sharq shrugged with his other arm, "Didn't we have like a whole adventure where you two got really friendly with each other? Like, REALLY friendly?"
The Octoling blinked blankly again as if the words passed straight through her.
"...Dating friendly?" Sharq suggested with a raise of his finger.
Tai's further blank stares hardly did Sharq any favors. Splin felt like he should shut his eyes and pretend he fell asleep, anything to distance himself from the lot of them. He did not however, instead his wandering gaze traveled up the hill. A flash of orange reeled back from the top as he scanned the paramount of the grassy mound. Guilt flushed into him as he stayed wrapped in the two's arms.
"...Well, whatever." Tai continued to walk up as wind blew past her tentacles. "I'm sure he'll be fine."
Sharq hardly had a choice but to follow with a small sigh. As he walked, he glanced down to Splin, who mirrored his expression with his eyes. They climbed further past rolls and rolls of grass dyed a dark green by the lack of sunlight. They continued for quite some time until they reached Ari on the top. He sat on the ground and leaned on his Inkbrush; he stared straight down at the grass with a furrowed brow and a heavy heart.
Upon glancing up and noticing the others, Ari started panicking. "Aha!" He jolted upwards and sheathed his Inkbrush behind his back with the shiniest, completely inconspicuous smile he could manage. "Greetings! I've uh...yet to find the house you've mentioned."
The grass whistled in front of Tai's shined School Shoe. She halted just upon the crest of the hill with a reluctant glare as Ari smiled back at them. Discontent on her face, she slowly turned over towards the brothers. Each Inkling gave their own, uninformed expression as an answer.
Tai turned her face with an air of sloppy arrogance. "Yeah, don't worry about it. We'll find it."
Ari appeared to shrink somewhat as if the any pride or ego in his person had drifted out and deserted him. "...Okay…"
Splin and Sharq gawked at the lovebirds' in the midst of their clearly intimate affairs and could not help but follow along as Tai marched ahead and ditched the orange Inkling. Their stares at Ari hardly faltered, but his stance certainly did. The teenager dropped down to his knees onto the grass below, forlorn as his Inkbrush fell from his brown belt on his back down with a soft clatter on the grass.
Sharq almost tripped over the sheer emotional fog draped over the air. As he stumbled about and re-balanced himself, he turned his head to the Octoling on his right. "...Are you okay?"
As if a switch had flicked on in her head, she did the same and smiled. "Course. We're still on the whole, 'Cheer Splin' thing, right?"
Sharq nodded with a new, uncertain slowness in his head. All the while at their sides, Splin's tentacle slowly unfastened from Tai's arm as he squinted at her just as suspiciously. The Octoling ignored their ganders and continued to push forward.
At least she tried to, as their physical bond of tentacle and arm felt like glue and anchors when she attempted to escape herself. Tai shut her eyes. "...That's what you want, huh?"
"...What?" Splin tilted his head.
She dropped his right tentacle much to Splin's surprise. Flopping down on the earth, Splin switched to an Inkling and reached up. His headphones still fit snug around his neck as did his brother's arm around his own.
"Sharq." Splin frowned and tugged at his limb.
His older brother said naught a word. Sharq simply smiled and placed his free hand on his cheek. "Aww… That's sweet!"
Splin followed his gaze. Though dark, he could make out Tai a few steps away. She took a seat up on the grass besides Ari and nudged him with her elbow. He turned, quite eagerly, his orange tentacles glowing with a healthy fervor.
"...What is she saying?" Splin wondered as he laid on the grass and stretched his legs gingerly across the dirt. "If she's trying to cheer up Ari, I can only imagine how that-"
A shout of triumph reverberated up into the air. "Your words envelop me in courage!"
"Oh." Splin's head tilted down.
"Looks like they're getting along again!" Sharq hummed pleasantly.
"Yeah." Splin pushed off the ground and stood up in the direction of the remaining hills. "Let's get going. The sooner we get through with this-"
"Wait, really?!" Sharq's eyes twinkled, as if Splin could not grow more unnerved around his brother.
"...I doubt I'll have much of a choice." Splin shrugged and switched back into a blue squid. "I'll try and find the haunted house."
Sharq's time to be weary had dawned. His grip on Splin was iron.
"...You can follow if you want." Splin told him firmly as he plucked his tried to pluck his tentacle free
"Okay!" He leaned in closely.
His older brother leaned up on his shoulders, Splin shook his head. "This better be the last Squidoween I have to stomach."
Ann-Gel figured it out quicker than she would have hoped. Enthusiasm and drive did wonders. For a regular sized squid.
Turned out that a trophy could only make it so far in the world. Ann-Gel trudged through the grass, irritated by each time her black base snagged on a blade of grass. Her friends, at the very least, kept the same short distance. It was mildly reassuring.
Knowing that all of them were equally, naturally terrible at traveling.
Ann-Gel watched as Salty hopped fruitlessly through the grass in the direction where the cube's strobe lights danced. A few of the odd spines from his shell caught on the grass from time to time. After a few minutes of that, the two shared the same regard; it was clear to both of them that travel was going to be a challenge.
"...This is impossible." They heard a beep from their side.
They swiveled in place towards the beep. The alarm clock shuffled through the grass. Tediously, it lifted one side of itself up and out. It alternated from its left side to its right side in its waddles, only to succeed in a few cumbersome steps.
The electronic beep equivalent of a groan emanated from the black box. "If it wasn't hopeless before, it sure is now!"
Ann-Gel pouted and placed her hands on her hip. "Clock, we've only been walking a few minutes."
"How would YOU know?" The clock pivoted in the grass.
The amiibo inspected the alarm clock's display with a scrutinized face. Ann-Gel nodded at the numbers as they glowed on the black screen. "Dude, the better question is how would you know?"
"I'm a clock, in case you haven't noticed." Irritably the alarm clock chirped.
"But your screen is-" Ann-Gel paused for a moment. "Ah, whatever. Guys, it's just a little walk, it's not going to krill us."
The alarm clock's numbers shifted and flashed as if it were to frown. It pivoted back around, then blared with a tremendous noise. "Oh you've GOT TO BE-"
Ann-Gel and Salty turned around as well. Their eyes widened. The Bate house stood tall above them, the front door swung open a good three feet away.
"It's been ten BLEEEEEPING-" The alarm clock honked enraged, "TEN MINUTES, AND WE'VE MADE IT A FEW STEPS AWAY! HOW ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC!"
"This would be a lot easier if we had legs." Salty added with a small shiver.
Ann-Gel scowled at the other objects and nodded her head to below her torso. Salty felt a bead of sweat drip down its pale blue face when it spied her two peach legs pasted onto her meager podium.
"...Longer legs?" The snail quivered within its crystal carapace as it suggested through its own timidness.
"This has been a waste of time!" Dinged the alarm clock furiously. "We're getting nowhere no time, trophy!"
"Hey!" Ann-Gel objected as she turned, her plastic tentacles stagnant in place around her noggin. "It's not my fault we weren't made for walking!"
"Ugh." The alarm clock bleeped hotly as it bobbed itself back in a retreat. "This was a mistake. Maybe I'll make it back for the morning news at least."
Ann-Gel threw her hands up in the air. Seconds into performing the gesture, she folded her arms together tight and checked her arms cautiously. "What do you want us to do, grow wings?"
"...Wings." She repeated abruptly as she made certain her hands stayed glued to her arms.
Ann-Gel twisted towards Salty with her lips pursed and her arms folded behind her back. The snail blinked and its tiny black lines that counted for eyes crawled across its face slowly and nervously.
"...Hi?" The snail rattled restlessly. "...Ann-Gel, what's wrong?"
Forthwith Ann-Gel's guilt flooded into her for what she was about to propose. With a sharp inhale through her synthetic squid teeth, she asked mellowly, "Salty...you wouldn't happen to know how to find that seagull friend of yours, would you?"
His thin optics thinned substantially more so. "...Wh-What?"
Across time and space but specs away in the grand scheme of the dimensional planes, the brothers and the others traveled across very similar hills, and unlike the party of miniatures made haste.
Where they were headed exactly was still out of their reach.
Four sets of teenager irises from brown, orange and violet scanned the hallowed night hopefully. A reluctant Octoling in a skirt could be seen through the moonlight walking convenient to a tall orange Inkling, the two huddled close as the wind chill began to stir shivers in the two of them. At least, it seemed that way to Ari, who hovered around Tai with multiple shivers seemingly directed towards the Octoling. She seemed like she hardly noticed. The Bate Brothers ahead of them glared through the icy draft, the duo also stacked in a small huddle.
Eventually, the lack of jackets seemed to have taken their toll. The quartet all interrupted their own strides with a skid in the grass. Each glimpsed each other with a sort of shared, mental reconciliation. The lot of them switched into squids (and an octopus) and skittered across the round land over towards one another. As they positioned themselves in an enclosed box shape, they each reverted into Inklings (and an Octoling) and cozily stood bunched together.
"...Two steps forward, one step…" Splin muttered to himself at the head of the minuscule mob. "At least I can move my arms."
"Hmm!" With a pleased expression, Sharq did his best to corral the group as close as he could. "That's better."
Ari hardly said a word, but looked extremely pleased with his proximity to the octopus. He extended his left arm around her shoulders slowly from behind. At best, his arm managed to reach behind her neck before she snapped around to meet the appendage with a very disapproving glare.
"...For warmth!" Ari offered with an incredulous stare.
"...I'm not cold, thanks." Tai brushed his arm away and stared ahead.
"...Right." He blinked and retracted his arm back by his own side.
As he attempted to maintain posture, suddenly another arm "...But if I was, then I wouldn't mind."
Tai raised his arm above her head and around her own neck; she nestled her head back in the plumes of white fur that celebrated about Ari's sleeve. As her tentacles draped about his arm, a slow yet steady flush of orange smeared itself across Ari's face as if he was smacked with an Inkbrush. A smirk appeared on his face to boot.
The brothers peeped back at them peculiarly. Sharq's ever intransigent beam upon his profile could have been spotted glowing from Inkopolis miles in the distance. Even Splin managed a miniature simper, much more discreetly.
However covert his smile may have been, his brother tilted his Takoroka Mesh up towards the stars and smiled back at him. "They're cute, aren't they?"
"What?" Splin glanced up with a frown. "...I guess?"
A convulsion vibrated among the group. The males looped about and spied Tai. She shivered somewhat and eyed Ari with a type of antipathy with the one eye unprotected by the short tentacles that draped down her head underneath her Squid Hairclip.
"...Something wrong, Tai?" Ari inquired and gripped her shoulders a bit tighter.
Splin glanced at the couple worriedly. "Oh no."
All at once, Tai's lavender pupil aimed itself towards Splin. Her uninterrupted gaze started to send extra shivers up his debatable existing spine. She sighed, a puff of warm air escaped from her mouth. "...Nah, sorry. Just keep doing what you're doing."
Splin spun back around to the front and joined in with a sigh of his own, relief clear in his huff. "That just leaves the haunted house. I feel like we've been walking for hours."
Hey, writing takes time you know.
"I wish I knew what you meant by that." Splin shrugged his shoulders almost systematically.
Patience is a virtue.
"Yeah, says you." Splin scowled and stared higher towards the heavens. "We're down here in who knows how little degrees while you're… You know what, I don't even think voices can feel cold."
You'd be surprised, young Splin.
"What's this now?" Ari peered skywards as well with a squint. "Who are you talking to? ...Do you have some imperceptible connection with a deity above?!"
"...More like a nagger." The younger Inkling muttered. "Anyone see a house yet?"
"Uh," Sharq chattered absentmindedly while he surveyed the black and blue night as well as mildly regret they did not bring jackets, "...Ooh! There's something!"
"What?" The entire company swiveled towards Sharq.
He gazed straight ahead into the nothingness. "Look! One of those hills is bluer than the others!"
"Are you squiddle kiddle- Kidding me right now?!" Splin fumbled his words, but the way the tentacles wrapped together on top of his head bristled said enough. That he was angry. "Sharq, focus! House. Haunted. Skeleton in front."
Sharq chuckled to himself. As he had his own little hee-haw, Sharq hoisted his head up. A light of amazement crossed his eyes. "Oh! Like that one."
Splin rolled his eyes with displeasure. He reached for his headphones and pulled them up towards his triangular ears. "Yeah. Like I'm falling for-"
"Clack click clack."
"...No." Splin frowned as his blue eyebrows descended. "Impossible."
Sharq's incoming words just made him groan excessively. "Hi there, skeleton!"
Splin turned around with the one of the greatest stony expressions of all time. As he swiveled about in the brown dirt under his Orange Arrows, he spun around…
AND SAW A SKETCHING SKELETON!
"..." Splin's expression might have screamed nobody home had it not been for the fact that he was rubbing his temples. His tentacles drooped low despite being uplifted by the band on his tentacles.
In front of the squadron of equally surprised cephalopods, a single white bipedal fossil gazed back at the group soullessly. As well as skin-lessly. Regardless of the lack of any other biological body parts, the skeleton seemed to have quite the riot in the middle of nowhere in front of its mansion.
A patch of brown dirt rounded about the very tall and decayed mansion. Several windows sat shattered, wood walls split and peeling, and the roof could have competed with the Bate household in terms of hole size. There happened to be one titanic gap blown in the roof, several wood planks stuck out and jutted in directions bizarre to the Inkling eye.
"...Click." The skeleton's...eye sockets narrowed at them suspiciously.
"...I can't believe it." Splin pronounced in a monotone. "...Hi skeleton."
As the skeleton stared back at them almost as incredulously as Ari at the back did at it, Splin inspected the house. There appeared to be irreparable damage wreaked across the dwelling, everything except for burns…
Splin gazed back at the skeleton and attempted a friendly smile. Although it appeared as though his expression made the fifteen-year old Inkling look like he was about to sell the skeleton really late insurance, he stuck his hand out and said, "H-How have you been?"
Much to his surprise, the skeleton took his hand in a polite shake, stared up at him and uttered, "Click!"
As squids and octopus did the graveyard dance elsewhere across the hill range, a very reluctant sea snail sitting still sighed. "I really don't like this."
"I know you don't, man." Ann-Gel exhaled slowly. "Trust me, this was the last thing I wanted to do."
"...Okay." Salty shook restlessly. "But is the butter necessary?"
Ann-Gel huffed as she splattered a glob of tan, yellow spread onto Salty's shell. She rubbed the butter in around the spines. "We need to make you look appetizing."
"Appetizing? Ha!" A harsh chime resonated along the roof.
"Oh, great." Ann-Gel scowled and shook her head. She turned around, "What now?"
She glared across the flat, wooden housetop. By the wooden railing, a newspaper stood upright. The wind brushed past and pushed the top half of the paper down and revealed the rest of the border around the roof. Another gust of wind pushed the paper to the floor and revealed a very uncharismatic alarm clock. The time visible on the clock: "11:30".
"What are you doing?" She demanded as she undertook the harsh job of wiping off the butter from arms and hands.
"Trying to figure out why those two have a newspaper from eight decades ago." The alarm clock spoke up. It pushed itself off of the papers and let them flap off into the sky as the breeze took them to the corners of the earth. "By the way, Salty hardly looks worthy of eating in the slightest."
"...You don't even have a mouth, you know!" Ann-Gel called back at the clock.
"Don't need one for judging." It argued as it followed the newspapers as they drifted off with its screen.
Ann-Gel huffed as she watched the papers fly off into the great beyond. "Splatastic. Now that you've got your whole, 'demean Ann-Gel' stuff outta the way, mind helping me?"
"...No." The alarm clock refused with a stubborn ring.
Ann-Gel took a step forward and left Salty to glaze in the cool butter. She looked extraordinarily irritated. "...Why not?"
"Hmm, oh, I'm sorry." The alarm clock sounded with a tone. "I seem to have misplaced my butter handling hands."
"Okay," Ann-Gel fumed. Against all odds, her plastic tentacles started to tremble, "Then do me a solid."
There came a sort of exhale in the form of a huff. The merry couple continued to argue in the corner, ceaselessly while Salty continued to baste in the wads of butter rubbed onto it. Salty absentmindedly glanced up at the sky for little other reason than boredom.
Above it was a sight enough to make any denizen low on the food chain feel fear. Circling above was the unmistakable gray and white feathers, black tail feathers and yellow beak and legs. Although, in the dark, it just looked like a clump of black and blue sludge decided to take an evening flight.
Regardless, the bloodcurdling sight incited Salty into another bout of shivers. "Uh, guys?"
"And another thing, just because you're the alarm clock doesn't mean you have to micromanage us!" Ann-Gel bickered as she shuffled closer.
The familiar, awful sounds of bird cries began to fill the air. Salty started to hop. "A-Ann-Gel, are we going to do the plan?"
The alarm clock wore an appalled "expression". "I am literally built to do that!"
"GUYS!" Salty squeaked urgently as it hopped up and down again and again.
"What?!" The two spun around-
A gull dive bombed into Salty. Clock and trophy gasped as the seagull pecked mercilessly at the snail, now turned on its face. The barrage lasted for a full second as the seagull fruitlessly bashed its beak into the hardened shell. Salty hopped up and smacked the seagull with the back of its shell, much to its surprise, the seagull backed away with an offended squawk.
The group heard another, provoked squawk. "Agh, that shell! That SHELL! There isn't even a scratch! Why isn't there a scratch, what type of garbage is this?!"
"Salty!" Ann-Gel called out fearfully.
Salty righted himself back in place, dizzily glancing at its predator. Its eyes widened. "You?!"
The seagull squawked, and if it had a grasp on the English language, would probably have meant, "...We meet again, LUNCH!"
"...Lunch?" Ann-Gel whispered in confusion.
The alarm clock generated a low beep noise and a deadpan expression with one of its eleven's '1's. "About as good a name as 'Salty'."
"Do you know...how HUNGRY I'VE BEEN?!" The bird cried in anguish. "I spent day and night trying to take you somewhere appetizing and each time I've tried and failed? Well, you know what-"
Salty's eyes squinted in bewilderment. "Hold on, what?! But you're still alive! You have to be eating something else!"
The bird glared down at Salty with a denouncing expression. "Stupid snail! I eat garbage too!" Mentioned the seagull as it puffed out its wings.
"Euugh." Salty recoiled, as butter dripped off its shell, and hopped back.
The seabird cawed and shook its beak in offense. "I'm a seagull, that's normal! Is it so wrong to treat myself to some regular luxuries like snail once in a while?!" The seagull readied its beak.
If Salty could develop any paler, the snail would have been translucent. "...I'm a luxury food?"
"Whoa, wait!" Ann-Gel cried out as she reached at the bird with her right hand. "Can we talk for a moment?"
The seagull froze in place and cocked its head oddly towards her. Ann-Gel shut her mouth for a moment, took up a stride, and dragged herself on her podium towards the bird. Perplexed, the bird continued to stare at the amiibo as she hurried towards the bird around the hole in the roof.
The bird took it upon itself to perch on top of Salty as she walked by, still with a wary scrutiny of the amiibo. Salty's eyes practically pleaded to her as though it placed his life in her hands. Though, in reality, its gamble was probably limited to his impenetrable shell's quality at the end of the day.
Ann-Gel gulped. Talking to a bird was hardly in her expertise. "Alright, I get that you might be hungry." She paused and bit her lip. "...I get it, people get...hungry."
An electronic chuckle buzzed through the air. "Right, people get hungry."
Ann-Gel began to regret not taking at least one of the clock's batteries. She continued, "I think we can work something out though, you get me? Uh, we can get food for you downstairs. Right?"
She stared at her companions. The alarm clock looked completely indifferent as it sat and observed the bird towered above them all. Ann-Gel swiveled towards Salty. The snail nodded, and while it shook the seagull slightly, the bird had yet to be phased by the snail.
"So, right. We'll get you food, but we need you to do a favor for us." Ann-Gel offered with a cheery smile. "Does...that sound okay?"
There was a sustained peace in the air. Ann-Gel gulped, (somehow) the alarm clock continued to tick the seconds past disinterested, all the while Salty prayed to whatever snail god watched upon the world.
"Cross my hearts." Ann-Gel reassured the seagull, but frowned, and glanced down to her chest. "Er, yeah."
The seagull cocked its head to its potential meal underneath, and with a very bewildered chirp, "...Did...that plastic just talk?"
"Pffff!" The alarm clock chattered, the numbers flashed, and the laugh rang out through the air for quite some time.
Ann-Gel rolled her eyes and started for the stairs but not before she turned back towards the seagull expectantly. "So is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?" As she inquired, her platform twisted around, and Ann-Gel retired for the trapdoor down into the shack below.
She hopped through the square hole down onto the stairs and shut behind her and left the others high up on the roof, with one attentive bird. The seagull glanced down at Salty. The snail stayed motionless, almost dead in a sense. On the inside, the snail was panicking, a foreboding feeling of dread whirling about in its shell. The seagull's eyes narrowed down, trained on Salty's shell with a voracious appetite. The gull spied the butter as it dripped down.
"Please hurry." Salty shook as it shivered in a very appetizing manner to the seagull.
Sharq felt like he should be astounded. The sudden appearance of a pile of bones and a large, rickety house behind the group should have surprised them. ...It should have. His brother at his side, Tai and Ari in the back
"So," He tilted his Takoroka Mesh cap upwards, uncovered his eyes, and grinned at the skeleton eagerly, "How have you been?"
The skeleton might have blinked had its eye sockets been filled. A single upper jaw whistled involuntarily as the wind passed by. "Clack."
"That's good!" Sharq exclaimed with another smile.
The skeleton smiled, its one jaw curled up, the vertebrae simultaneously stretched into half of a grin. "Click," It hissed in what can only be assumed to be a friendly manner.
"...How wonderfully peculiar." Splin and Sharq found themselves parting out of the way as Ari stumbled in, his Inkbrush still stuck to his coat, fixed with a belt. "What are you?"
"Clack." The skeleton chattered as its head bobbed up and down its spine.
"'Clack', eh?" Ari spoke as he stared at the skeleton's empty rib cage. "How fascinating! I doubt I've ever seen anything like this."
"...A skeleton?" Splin suggested as he arched his eyebrow. "You've never seen a skeleton?"
Ari bit his lip. "...You mean like a building skeleton?"
"Oh, right." Splin frowned to himself. "You were shooed off that night."
"Didn't you ever learn about that stuff in school or something?" Challenged Tai from the very back.
Everyone stopped, swung back around, and greeted Tai with the exact same expression. Each Inkling displayed their own version of discomfort. Even the skeleton looked mildly uneasy and stepped back from the scene.
"...Whoa." The Octoling's eyes widened in surprise. Tai brushed a violet tentacle out of her right eye and stared at the entourage. "Well, ship. How come you guys didn't have to go?!"
Sharq managed an amateurish snigger. "Uh...I mean, I think we did once? I can't remember."
"It's a little difficult when you're left all by yourself." Splin rubbed the back of his head.
Ari huffed and crossed his arms. "It's all thanks to that rapscallion known as Ares! A fiend both in personality and parenting!"
"...Uh-huh." The Octoling muttered as the purple appendage above her face drooped back in front of one of her eyes. "...So, we gonna enter the house or what?"
"Tai!" Splin protested back at her.
"No buts, Splin." Tai spoke up with a smirk. "We're getting you in there, you're going to have a good time. Somehow."
"Why would the skeleton let me back into its house?" He confronted with a step towards Tai. "We nearly burned it down last time."
"...I dunno." Tai shrugged absentmindedly. "Why don't you ask the skeleton?"
Splin grimaced at her though Tai simply reciprocated with a innocent smile as if she had embraced the schoolgirl look. He spun around to meet the skeleton, who continued to patiently sketch in the soil below them all. The bony index finger the skeleton used dragged through the dirt and shaped lines into outlines. Soon the lines formed together into a cohesive picture, a profile Splin could recognize.
"Hey, Splin!" Sharq grinned and patted his brother on the back. "It's your costume from last year!"
Splin blinked in surprise. "Huh...you're right."
Scribbled in the dirt below was Splin. A younger, dressed up Splin. An eye-patch scrawled over his right eye, as well as details plastered over his left arm that gave the illusion of a metallic arm. A scarf draped across his neck and several small vests with bags strapped to them strapped around his body.
"Hmph." Ari stuck his nose up. "My debut of my costume in tandem with yours could've been enough to let the legend come back to life…"
"...What?" Splin inquired with a strange glare.
"Nothing." Ari waved him off.
Sharq hummed, impressed, down at the drawing. Glancing up at the house, with a single gasp, he took notice of the rest of the terra firma. "Whoa! Nice art!"
Tai, Ari and Splin took notice of the ground. Several sketches surrounded the mansion in the exposed dirt, and unless covered by grass, the ground was completely etched with various drawings.
"Huh." Splin commented, his eyes swept across the floor as he surveyed the ground.
One sketch caught his eye. Inscribed in the dirt by the metatarsals of the skeleton was a bizarre two-dimensional bird in the brown soil. It was plump, had large feathers, and a cowl that drooped from its neck.
"Ooh!" Sharq peeped the bird. "It even has a title!" He stooped down to the ground, "Thanksg-"
Sharq only made it so far until the skeleton took its fingers and swiped against the ground. The dust drifted over the drawing and covered it from beak to talon. The surviving evidence, a distinct "Thanks" was dusted over just as quickly. The skeleton grinned at the group reassuringly, much to their confusion.
"...Okay, so, no bird." Sharq spoke sheepishly. "That's cool."
"So...we gonna enter the house yet?" Tai asked with one hand fixed on her hip.
Splin pursed his lips. He tapped them, preoccupied, as he examined other sketches. "Er, I'd uh...rather...peruse this art gallery, if the skeleton doesn't mind."
The skeleton appeared to frown somewhat. It skeptically swiveled its skull head from side to side. Though his brother and chums behind him glared at him, he hardly cared whether he stalled or not. If anything, he could sympathize with the skeleton. He would not let a firebug back into his house.
...Wait.
Before the Inkling could analyze his thoughts, he heard another, "Click." Splin bent his head over towards the skeleton yet again, surprised as the skeleton spouted another "Clack."
At Splin's Orange Arrows, much to his surprise the skeleton was set on another spree of drawing. Sharq hummed in surprise, ducked down, and watched the cartoon come to life. "You think it's trying to tell us something?"
Tai and Ari's bodies morphed and waned into a violet octopus and an orange squid respectively. Everyone watched as the work of art materialized in the earth. First, a small skeleton.
"Clickety-click." The skeleton jabbed one finger towards its spine.
"...Congratulations." Tai muttered behind the Inklings.
Splin and Sharq shot a peculiar glance at her. She remained silent. The skeleton continued to sketch until a house quite similar to the one towered above them. Above the figure of the house, the skeleton sketched an object. It tapped its finger on the dirt pensively. A sigh-like noise escaped from the bones. After a short few seconds, a frustrated skeleton drew what looked like a square. Its ivory finger drew lines about the cube in the direction of the house. Finally, upon the roof of the house, it sketched in a hole.
The skeleton finished, gestured at the drawing, then up at the house. Sharq blinked, followed the gestures, and asked, "You want us to fix the hole in your roof?"
"...Click." If a skeleton could pout, it just did, and shake its head to boot.
"I'm sorry, I'm not good at picture charades!" Sharq insisted embarrassingly. Besides him, the skeleton simply crossed its bony arms over one another and sighed.
"...You want us to go inside?" Splin asked, hands in his shorts pockets.
The skeleton nodded eagerly, much to Splin's chagrin. "Clackety click!"
"There you go!" Tai shouted all of a sudden, gripped Splin's arms, and dashed for the mahogany doors of the estate. "Let's go inside!"
"Whoa!" Splin yelped, danced around the drawings in the dirt as best as he could what with the Octoling equivalent of a rocket ship dragging him off. "Tai, hold on!"
"Shell no!" She grinned, glanced back at the Inkling, all while she raced for the house. "Dude, this is perfect! An adventure for you!"
"Precisely!" Whooped Ari from across the dirt.
Splin arched an eyebrow amidst the chaotic run, his tentacles flapped throughout the dash, with one hand planted on his headphones. "Since when do you care so much?"
"...Since today!" Tai elucidated as her one free eye glinted slyly.
The skeleton watched them speed towards the mansion. All of a sudden, and without any logic whatsoever, its eye sockets expanded in panic. It sped over its own dirt drawings, "Clack!"
Sharq perked up curiously, "What's the matter?"
As the skeleton advanced through the flat canvas of brown the Inkling, though hardly a charades veteran, knew something was up. As if upon instinct, Sharq converted himself into a blue squid, much to the other squid's surprise.
"C'mon Ari!" Sharq called out as he bounded across the dirt with short squid hops.
Ari nodded and followed suit, transformed into an orange squid, and followed Sharq across the drawings. The duo and the skeleton followed after Splin and Tai up to the door. The young Inkling and the Octoling sprinted through, pushed open the doors, and lobbed themselves through.
Splin groaned as he fell face first onto the floor. He sniffed, pushed up and attempted to stand, only for the floor to quiver underneath him. His eyes widened. A sickening black charred scar ran across the wooden floor of the mansion lobby. Tai shook her head, stood up quickly enough, and glanced around.
"...So, how are you feeling Splin? Having fun yet?" She asked expectantly and glanced back at him, a wide smile curled across her face.
"Agh. Tai!" Grumbled Splin as he adjusted his headphones. He rose to his feet as his headphones stretched around his neck. "Be a little careful."
"..." She gazed back at him somewhat curiously. Eventually, she sighed and shook her head in defeat "...I'm sorry."
The words struck a chord within Splin. Eyes now wide open, he gawked at her. "...What?"
"...Sorry?" Tai repeated as she stared at him strangely.
Splin stood in place, astounded. As he stared at her, he noticed the doors behind them. Not to mention the company that sprinted towards them with no time to spare. The young male Inkling narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
"Splin!" Sharq shouted from outside and as he ran straight in. "The skeleton wants to tell you something!"
Several things happened at once. The skeleton reached out and clacked fearfully. Behind it Ari tried in vain to catch up with the group. Sharq jumped in. All the while, a paralyzed Splin stood in shock at the apologies Tai had flung at him.
The doors shut behind them with a resounding bang. Splin's trance was hardly deterred, nor was Tai's intimidating stare. They stood, both stagnant among ruined furniture, singed cobwebs, and a fragile floor.
The only one who stayed placid was Sharq. He turned to the doors, walked up, and rapped on it with the back of his fist. "Hey! Open up!"
There was a minor tremor. A bizarre, sickly small white light flashed in the room for a moment as if a light bulb had just shattered above them. The mansion appeared to vanish in the distance as they plummeted, the only remaining colors in the overwhelming black were the fleeting glimpses of each others' tentacles.
The seagull panted as it flapped slowly with clear fatigue. "Oh JEEZ!" Already the fries it had consumed prior to the flight felt like rocks.
Clasping the seagull's right foot, Ann-Gel managed to say, "You're doing great! Keep on flying!"
"This was a mistake!" Beeped the alarm clock. Ann-Gel stared down at her left hand, where she dangled the alarm clock precariously from her own grip. "Ugh! My circuits can't take this!"
"Deal with it, man!" Ann-Gel grunted as she held the leg tight. She glanced to her left. "Salty, are you doing okay?"
The snail clutched just as poorly in the seagull's left foot looked sick. The butter that dripped off the snail shell and the shaky hold the seagull had on its shell only made it look all the more pitiable. Ann-Gel nodded apologetically and gazed over towards the horizon.
"Ugh!" The seagull chirped as it flapped upwards. "Where is that 'light' you were talking about?!"
"Calm down, just wait for it!" Ann-Gel cried out to it.
"Wait for what?!" The seagull quacked tiredly as it swerved through the air almost dizzily.
The amiibo bit her lip. Ann-Gel searched out the long expanse of round hills ahead of them. As she scanned across the landscape, a glint caught her eye. She stared straight ahead. A weak shine, almost like a star, emanated from the grass. She narrowed her eyes and spied an estate.
Ann-Gel frowned as wind brushed past, her hard tentacles motionless in the air. "...There!" She pointed down towards the house.
Despite extra protests from the alarm clock, their pilot decided to go for it. The seagull dived down from the sky and aimed from the roof.
Splin felt the floor first and foremost. His eyelids fluttered open slowly. With a single blink, he shifted and stood up slowly but surely. At least he tried to, until both his aching body and gravity tag teamed him and dropped him back on the floor. The Inkling landed on his soft arm, grit his teeth, and gasped for breath.
Splin reached for his Designer Headphones. He gripped the gear around his neck with one hand and pushed with the other. For whatever reason, the ground felt more like stone than scorched wood and carpet. Regardless of the floor's true identity, he stood up slowly and slouched, his breath ragged.
He looked up. The ceiling appeared to be miles away. Morphing into a squid, Splin started trying to jump, only to fall back, into his Inkling identity, panting in the dark chamber.
The Inkling looked around. Stone walls surrounded him, a few converging into other stone paths. They were gray and drab. With a grunt, Splin stood up and leaned on one of the walls and began to walk. He led himself through corridors to the right, slowly but surely, with nothing but his own footsteps to accompany the silence.
He glanced about for some time as he followed a trail to nowhere. His eyes caught fuchsia. Splin gawked forward, through a long hallowed hall. At the end, small tidy shoes and violet tentacles departed from around a corner.
Splin reached out for Tai and called out. To his utter confusion, not a sound was released, not one that he could hear. Regardless, it seemed like the Octoling across the way heard him. She took off in a run. Bewildered, Splin sprinted as best as he could, and gave chase to the Octoling. He turned a corner to the left, only to enter another hall.
Tai gazed back at him eerily. The one Octoling stood in the middle of the hall and walked backwards. Her gaze never left Splin, up until she rounded another corner. Splin followed, the two's footsteps echoed throughout the quiet maze as they walked.
Splin rounded the corner, one hand on his headphones, another on the wall. He entered a large round chamber, several other open halls circled around them all. In the very center of the dark chamber, Tai stared back at him from the ground. She sat still and silent, one violet tentacle draped over her right eye.
He walked across the hall into the room. The several other halls echoed hollow whispers and decayed footsteps as he stumbled across. Splin walked up until he stood up in front of Tai. He gazed down at the Octoling.
"...Are you okay?" She asked innocently. "...You didn't have fun, did you?"
Splin glowered at her in confusion and concern. His vision was hazy from the fall and obscured with the dark.
"...I am...sorry" The woman spoke softly, one eye closed. A timid green light glowed about the chamber. "I'm sure she would be too if she were there"
Splin trembled in place. The green light glowed.
Her voice grew in maturity. A soft, maternal call. "I'm more worried about you."
He could not feel his hearts beating, nor could he see the true color of the speaker anymore. Splin continued to watch as his vision deteriorated.
"Tai is fine elsewhere. I'm sure she as well as...her...that woman is also safe where she is now. " The green light glowed somewhat reluctantly with a friendly smile. "Splin..."
He gazed at the light. It flashed ebony, an ominous, pale white. The familiar, warm female voice he had gotten so used to over the short time had vanished.
"Are you find with the life you never lived?" Whispered a voice unfamiliar to him. "The friends you never had? The adventures you never had?"
Splin grew dizzier and dizzier. The voice seemed to warp in pitch and tone as he became disorientated.
"The Maria who never existed to care? The Sharq who never existed to love? Answer yourself, Splin." The voice demanded in a tone and pitch synonymous to his own. "When are you going to wake up and kick away the ink? We need to know."
Splin fell to the floor tentacle first. His vision failed him.
"...No." His voice murmured. "I'm sorry, Splin. Perhaps later. Not now.
Above the mansion, the seagull was just about fed up with carrying around a bunch of misfit toys. It was hungry. It could eat anything. It could even eat the orange Inkling outside the mansion bashing the door down with a brush or something while shouting. As long as it tried hard enough.
Each flap of its wings was not painful, just tiresome. "Okay! Here's your roof!"
Ann-Gel stared down. A green light glowed from a hole in the mansion they hovered above. Salty and the alarm clock gazed down at the opening hesitantly. The sounds of mechanical malfunction, such as objects smashed within or eerie computer-like noises emanated from within.
"Thank you!" The amiibo called up to the bird. "Drop us in!'
As hungry and as exasperated as the seagull was, the seagull, upon one glance at the hole, started to flap backwards. "Wait, in there?"
"Yes!" Ann-Gel called up to the gull again.
The seagull hesitated yet again. With a groan, Ann-Gel looked straight down. They were so close to the hole, just above the entrance.
"I agree with the gull, actually!" The alarm clock beeped worriedly.
"Just let us go!" The trophy shrieked at the top of her lungs.
The seagull gladly obliged, it kicked both Ann-Gel and the alarm clock off, and flew off, using its newly freed right to grip its Super Sea Snail prize.
"Salty!" Ann-Gel's eyes went wide with fright.
The snail squeaked in fright as it was whisked off into the night sky. The seagull flapped away with a triumphant caw into the darkness. Ann-Gel's eye twitched. She wanted to reach out for the snail, but to no avail.
"...Oh no." The alarm clock made a low chime.
Ann-Gel turned around. Had her night already been going poorly, it was about to taste much more bitter for her. Within the dusty attic of the mansion, there sat a familiar object. Boxes and furniture were scattered about the loft in a circle. The Tele-Cube perched in the middle of the overturned objects. Its screens were all dull, with several green strips of code, emanating ominous quantities of green light.
"Subject successfully lulled in." A line fired off upon the screen. "'octoling_t41' simulation temporarily deleted. Evaluating physical and mental state of subject… Peculiar mental anomaly detected."
Ann-Gel dashed towards it clumsily with her pedestal anchored to the floor. "Cube!"
As she neared it, the cube flashed.
It screeched dangerously and another large line of text floated across the screen. "Anomaly detected. Will revert to original state."
A silent white light washed over the attic. Ann-Gel gasped, fell back, and gasped for air. It felt like she was being crushed by an invisible object, her breath fading from her.
She reached out for the alarm clock, which stood fixated in place. The clock scrutinized her as Ann-Gel reached out weakly. Her eyes brimmed with artificial tears.
"...It always has to be me, huh?" The alarm clock beeped bored.
The trophy watched helplessly as the alarm clock began to wobble towards the cube. Ann-Gel attempted to speak, but found her mouth fixed in place like stone. Soon enough, the alarm clock had managed to skulk its way over towards the cube. The cube emitted yet another white light; Ann-Gel's eyes going wide with fear as it washed over both her and the alarm clock.
"Error." A large line extended across the front screen. "Entity anomaly detected. Unable to revert."
"Can't fix what isn't broken." The alarm clock beeped.
Though she felt the life squeeze right out of her, Ann-Gel tried in vain to yell at the alarm clock angrily, if not but for the sake of her irritation.
"...You know, I was always jealous of you." The clock beeped irritably. It glanced back towards the amiibo. She laid on the floor, frozen with an expression of fear. "Being able to do all of that dimension hopping nonsense on a whim."
As if confused, the cube continued to send light-wave after light across the room. Several confused chirps, beeps, and blinks resonated from out of the box.
"But you know, for all your technology, you're pretty darn fragile." The alarm clock smirked on its screen.
The Tele-Cube screeched at it the alarm clock. Several sides opened and revealed several deadly devices, such as saws, blades,
"...At least I know I'm a better noise maker than you." The clock chimed, hopped up, and sounded off as yet another bright light flooded the house.
Sharq woke up with a start as a warm light buzzed across the house. "Gah! I'm awake!"
The Inkling reached over for his roller as per the norm. He frowned and grasped at the floor, and expected anything to knock off the incessant chatter and beeps of the alarm. This time however, he grasped what felt like skin.
"Ah!" Came a fragile gasp.
Sharq blinked in shock. The familiar sound of his brother's voice seemed to snap him back into reality. "Splin?! The skeleton! Doors! The floor- Uh."
In the corner of the house lobby by the doors, Sharq's younger brother gazed back at him. He shivered and shook, fear bright in his eyes. His headphones were folded in his lap.
"...What's wrong? Splin?" Sharq asked politely as he walked.
He did not anticipate his response. "S-Stay away from me!"
Sharq recoiled in surprise. "...Splin?"
His brother stared down at the floorboards. "...How do I know…"
"Splin!" Sharq called out again.
"How do I know that you're-!" Splin cried out at him. His brother stood over him, the shade of his Takoroka Mesh obscured his face. "Real?"
Sharq stepped back in surprise. His brother continued to curl up on the floor away from him. Despite his speech, a small smile managed to pop up on Sharq's face. "...Splin."
His younger brother glanced to the side, away from Sharq. The elder Bate reached out to his junior counterpart slowly. Splin edged away.
"...It's fine." Sharq cooed as calmly as possible. "You're fine."
Splin gritted his teeth and attempted to shut his eyes. Regardless of his efforts, they were all for naught. Sharq reached over with his arm and rested his hand on his younger brother's shoulder. Splin flinched, his pupils shrunk, and his breathing accelerated.
Then the waterworks came. Though he shut his eyes, the azure drops leaked through the lids and onto the floorboards slowly but surely. Splin's tears started to stain the floor somewhat and his breaths slowly grew into sobs. Sharq responded by wrapping his arms around his brother and squeezing, his head resting on Splin's shoulder.
"I'm here." Sharq murmured delicately. "Whatever happened, it's fine."
Splin stuffed his face into his White Anchor Tee's sleeve. Though small blue spots emerged on his shirt, Sharq hardly minded.
"I think that's enough haunted house, huh?" Sharq smirked. He stood up and Splin, still in his brotherly grasp, stood up in addition with his headphones in his right hand. "C'mon. Let's leave."
Splin could only nod in an ashamed demeanor as he dried his face of tears. The brothers took one step towards the set of shut doors.
"ABYSMAL BODY BLOW!" A voice proclaimed as sonorous as the owner of the said voice could scream.
The doors smashed open as a brown boot smashed them in. They swung open, much to the brothers' surprise. At the entrance, a very exhausted Ari with frizzled orange tentacles stood with one foot poised in the air for a kick where the doors once stood closed. Outside the skeleton chattered excitably behind him.
"...Ha HA!" Ari shouted as the doors swung open. He shut his eyes and placed his hands on his hips proudly. "No mortal door is a match for Ari Dark!"
"...Good night Ari." Splin sighed as he and Sharq walked out past the teenager.
Ari blinked once and glanced inside of the mansion. "...Er, wait! Where did Tai go?"
The blue duo paused in place. They glanced at one another, Sharq with a look as confused as Ari, Splin with sort of a tired, melancholy desperation. Finally, Splin managed to say, "She needed to do something...she left."
Ari's mouth gaped open in shock. "B-But- Oh…" He simply shook his head and gazed at the ground miserably.
"...You want to come with us?" Sharq asked politely with a cursory glance at Splin. His younger brother just nodded solemnly as they took off.
Sadness vanished from Ari's semblance as he dashed over, gripped them by the shoulders and shouted, "I am honored!"
As the Inklings, all worn down and relatively miserable stalked off to wherever, they heard a click sound from behind them. They all spun around and were greeted by an upset skeleton. It pointed up to the mansion roof.
"...You fixed it? Nice. Sorry again, Happy Squidoween." Splin managed to rattle off morosely as they all retreated slowly across the hills.
The skeleton looked almost appalled. It turned back to the roof only to hop back in surprise. Where there once was a hole, it was now patched like new, and so was the rest of the house. The mansion looked glorious. The skeleton raised an index finger, glanced back at the Inklings, then back to the mansion.
I wouldn't question it.
The pile of bones either sighed or let a gust of wind pass through its skull. It simply skulked back to its dirt pile, took a seat, and waved at the Inklings as it and its mansion dissipated into nothingness.
Ann-Gel grunted. She felt stiff. Stiff, yet conscious. The amiibo stood up slowly from her pedestal and glanced around.
She was back in the house. The Bate house, standing upon the kitchen table, to be exact.
A crackle noise sounded off from behind her. Dismay crossed her face as she swiveled around. The Tele-Cube glared at her from the counter next to the stove. Ann-Gel stood, frozen in place, as she waited for whatever sorcery the box had. Instead of any destruction, she was greeted with a simple line.
"'Standby mode'." She read aloud as she gazed at the screens.
"You're welcome." Came a calm chime.
Ann-Gel turned around. She squeaked in surprise and hopped away from the alarm clock that had stood up behind her for who knew how long.
She stammered, "W-What?"
"You were right. Look at that." The alarm clock gave a smug beep.
Ann-Gel, taken aback, walked a step forward on her pedestal. "...What do you mean? What did you do?"
"I snapped the cube out of its nightmare." Expressed the alarm clock with a smug "12:00" on the front of its screen.
Without warning, Ann-Gel hugged the clock's screen with an excited, "Thank you so much!"
"...Don't mention it." The clock murmured as it shook her off almost immediately. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have my own beauty standby mode to get back to."
Ann-Gel simply smiled as the clock hopped off of the table, onto a small seat, and onto the floor. It continued to hobble off towards the wooden dresser in-betwixt the brothers' beds. As the clock walked, she glanced over at the cube. It laid in its own bizarre sleep, with naught a program of murder in its mainframe, peacefully sleeping. She sighed in relief.
"...I feel like we're forgetting something." Ann-Gel scowled suddenly.
Above Inkopolis, a drowsy seagull half-asleep circled above the city. In the clutches of the gull, a solitary Super Sea Snail watched as the lights in the city started to dim with the night as it gave way to early morning. Salty blinked away melted slabs of butter that dripped into its shell and sighed.
"...At least Katelyn didn't wash me in butter." Salty muttered in its own language of shakes and coos.
AN: Well I already screwed up the upload dates. I'm a little proud of this chapter regardless, to be honest. It's the longest one yet, with thirty pages in Docs and over 10,000 words. Although I'm sure those words were spent on writing the author's note, amirite? ...So there's that. I'm a bit embarrassed that I got it late for both Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I hope that Black Friday works.
EDIT: I was also late for Black Friday because I wanted to post this at a decent time frame the day after. Grand.
I feel like I wanted to say more while I was writing this, but I'll just settle for thanks. Thanks CathyMirii, Rynowm, write n wrong, and sebastian G for reviewing, as well as Dread Angel and Ultrapyre!
I apologize if the Maria chapter was a little much, but thank you for enjoying it Cathy.
It's true that Splin is becoming more melancholy, and… Yeah. I can't say that it's good, but what with Faded Colors and Squiddily Sage, I do believe his future is still colorful enough.
Ari's costume was actually inspired by the very character that I wanted to base his more recent archetype on, Owain from Fire Emblem Awakening. What with them both being fans of the theatrical, I thought it would fit.
If I'm being completely honest, Rit and Bas originally were just the rally girls for Ari. However, I felt like having these characters in this story just for that purpose was pretty silly.
So I made them graffiti artists! It's certainly a pleasure to hear that someone likes the advancements I made for the characters.
I wanna thank you for checking out my Super Smash Bros story, too. Not often that a friend takes the time out of their schedule to go.
Thank you again, Mirii from Inkinators.
Rynowm, I hope the randomness worked out for you. Always a pleasure to be a little diverse yet cliché in the settings. It's fun to write about those.
write n wrong I do hope that your expectations were met this chapter. Happy holidays!
sebastian G, I wouldn't go that far, but I appreciate your input as always. Goodness, being compared to Leonardo DiCaprio, I would have never thought it that. ...It might be a bit of an overstatement, but thank you anyways.
Thanks both Dread Angel and Ultrapyre for your lovely stories and writing! You guys keep doing what you're doing, I really appreciate those.
Phew. Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, off to feed the Phish, see you!