Splatoon: The Brothers and the Others

The Plotting and the Planning

"So, you're a cat," Sharq's teammate asked, "An honest to Cod cat?"

He laid with his chest atop a small couch of jellyfish with his legs up in the air with his boots on the verge of slipping off his socks. The jellyfish underneath him snapped photos of his shoes as they dangled as well as take a few pictures of Judd as he laid atop his miniature pillar.

"Mew? (Yes? What about it?)" Judd purred with a peculiar expression on his face.

"About that Splatfest- Y'know, the first one?" He crossed his arms underneath his chest. "I've been meaning to ask, what'd you think of it?"

Judd shrugged as he lounged. "(I still think I'm the winner here.)"

"Why?" He raised his hand while he sunk further down into the depths. "You're legally the worse animal. That can't feel good. It can't feel good at all."

"(I'm also the only one of the two animals that survived. Do you see any dogs?)" Judd inquired while his jowls curled up into a grin.

The Inkling frowned. "Oh."

"Hey! Heeeey! Guys!"

The Inkling and Judd perked up. As the Inkling shoved the jellyfish away and sat up straight on the pavement, he watched Sharq bound across the sea of jellyfish giddily, a large smile present on Sharq's face as he leapt through the crowd. Wrapped in his arms were several layers of various different shirts and clothing. Some of which were left behind with each jump, granting several jellyfish passerby new fashion as Sharq hopped.

He skidded to a stop in front of the tower and waved at his teammate with his right hand. "Guys, I figured it out."

"Figured what out?" The other Inkling placed his right palm flat on his own cheek absentmindedly.

"The answer to our problem! I figured it out!" Sharq beamed as his teammate perked up.

His hand dropped to his side. "The jellyfish problem?"

Sharq nodded his head rapidly. "Uh-huh! Jelonzo told me that it's easy! We just need to broadcast to the entirety of Inkopolis!"

A handful of birds had collected around the bottom of Inkopolis Tower. A few had flocked together on the horde jellyfish occupying the main center of the plaza, and had taken to their posts with an affectionate display of coos and chirps.

"Uh, when's that new plaza opening?" Sharq's teammate brushed away at his tentacles as a pigeon began to nestle in his head.

"Meow. (Soon. Ish. Soonish)" Judd explained as he eyed the pigeon atop the Inkling's crown.

Judd licked his chops eagerly. The pigeon simply pecked the top of the other Inkling's head as he stared back at the cat Judd and the Inkling stared at each other for a few moments, albeit for two different reasons. The pigeon cooed ignorantly as he sat atop his head, and pecked at his tentacles and the band holding them closely together

"Oh good, go-" The Inkling coughed suddenly, and then laid back into the sea of jellyfish with a whimper, "Good."

He buried his face in one of the jellyfish and held it close to him. The other Inkling shivered and shook, and through the translucent membrane of the jellyfish's head, Sharq watched as he sniffled behind the jellyfish.

"Real good." He squeaked miserably.

"Oh, come on, you didn't even let me finish," Sharq complained, "Jelonzo said it was going to be easy."

"(What did Jelonzo say?)" Judd's tail shook back and forth upright.

Sharq cleared his throat. "Well, it went like this-"

"And no one can play Turf Wars anymore." Sharq shook his head wearily. "At least, that's what Judd says, since he can't act as the ref."

"Ah. Yes, jellyfish and hotspots combine like moths to fires. Very bad sign, not fine at all," Jelonzo muttered darkly.

From the outside looking in, one could have sworn that Jelly Fresh was being robbed by a tornado. Jelonzo's tentacles blurred the air as they launched about and scattered and retrieved items at the speed of sound. One tentacle snatched a t-shirt while another one extended towards Sharq, the tentacle gestured towards Sharq patiently.

"Um." Sharq tilted his head at the curious appendage as it wiggled at him.

After a moment, the tentacle gestured again, and bended the tip backwards repeatedly like a hand's fingers. It pointed ergently towards his pockets.

Sharq hopped up in his place. "Oh! Right, sorry."

He reached into his pockets and retrieved a small wallet. The tentacle began to wag back and forth excitably as Sharq reached inside of the billfold. His arm reached deep into the relatively small wallet, and eventually reemerged with several stacks of coins. The tentacle stopped, and hovered in place motionlessly, as if shocked deep to its core.

"Sorry. It's all I have on me." Sharq rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly with his left hand.

The tentacle tapped the stack of coins carefully. Surprisingly, it rose into the air, and vibrated intensely before it retreated to the back of the room. The tentacle shot towards Jelonzo, paused just behind him, and tapped him on his shoulder. As the rest of his appendages swerve about the store rapidly, Jelonzo turned around towards the tentacle curiously, the other tentacles still busy at work. The tentacle pointed back at Sharq as he marveled about the room, and Jelonzo perked up at the appendage.

Sharq ducked beneath a tentacle as it flew past; his mouth was open in awe. "Wow."

Just then, it felt as though something had nudged his shoulder. Sharq turned around, and nearly spilled the coins as he hopped into the air, as Jelonzo had appeared right besides him with an eager stare.

"You having the coins?" Jelonzo's eyes grew as one of his tentacles nodded enthusiastically; Jelonzo then turned to the tentacle with a scowl. "Shh. Remember, customer is always good."

The tentacle nodded again, then turned towards Sharq, only to stop in place patiently in front of him.

"How many G coins?" Jelonzo eyed him curiously. "Lots of Gs?"

Sharq jolted up, then raised the stack of currency in front of him, the tower of coins halfway stacked towards the ceiling. Activity in the store grinded to a halt; tentacles stopped unhooking clothing from racks and froze in place. Jelonzo's eyes might as well have been white U.F.O.s as they gawked at the stack of cash.

"Ooh, la la la la la!" He sang out gleefully. "That's good! Many Gs! GG! G-"

"Yep, yep, Lots of Gs." Sharq rubbed the back of his head. "But what about the migration?"

For a moment, as Jelonzo stared back at Sharq, the expression on his face could not have been more unaware. That is, until five seconds later, when one of Jelonzo's tentacles literally smacked the senses back into the jellyfish's head.

"I, er um oh," Jelonzo stuttered, then shook his head rapidly, and turned back to Sharq with a curt nod. "Many apologizing! Jelonzo has the business failure fever, like they say. Many apologizing."

Jelonzo swiped the coins out of Sharq's hands in a flash, and placed them on the floor in the back corner of the store. His tentacles reacted quickly; they returned to their business and snatched clothes off of the racks as well as the walls at a tremendously rapid pace.

"The migration," Jelonzo began, "Is a special time for us jellyfish. Festival of the splat is like migration of jellyfish special, in fact. The migration days are small in space on our calendars, you see. Small in days and in numbers."

"How long do they last?" Sharq asked curiously.

"Eh, well, let me see." Jelonzo retracted a tentacle. "One, two, three…"

Each and every one of the tentacles previously attempting to snatch clothes were recalled back to Jelonzo's side as he counted. While he went through the numbers one by one, the tentacles rose up into the air as if their names were called. Eventually, several tentacles, about ten in number were hoisted up in the air, and Jelonzo was almost completely obscured by his own arms and legs.

As if parting leaves out of his face, Jelonzo brushed through the forest of his own tentacles and shook his head. "Many apologizing, Jelonzo lacks the tentacles for counting."

"Is that one each per month or?" Sharq tilted his head confusedly.

"Eh? Oh, no no, each tentacle is a day for the migration time. Or it is if I had fourteen of the tentacles." Jelonzo nodded slowly as his tentacles extended across the shop again. "Only each ten years. It's even more excluding than the festival of the splat!"

"Then that means…" Sharq began to sweat. "Two weeks? They're going to be here for two weeks?"

Sharq turned towards Jelonzo worriedly. As if blissfully unaware, Jelonzo returned to Sharq with bright eyes while his tentacles continued to scramble about the room.

"Ta-da," Jelonzo announced cheerfully as the tentacles returned to him, "Your order, customer."

Sharq stared down at the pile of clothes. "Oh! Uh, thanks."

"Yes! Thanks be to you." Jelonzo bowed for a moment.

The jellyfish stayed frozen in his posture for quite some time. Sharq eyes wandered around the room until they refocused reluctantly back on Jelonzo.

"Um." Sharq rose his hand. "Jelonzo?"

Jelonzo did not say a word. He continued to bow honorably at Sharq with two of his tentacles still extended with the pile of clothes out in his tentacles. Despite his confusion, Sharq took it upon himself to bow back; although, concern had festered upon his face.

"Jelonzo," Sharq repeated after another moment passed, "Are you there?"

Jelonzo's eyes suddenly blanked out. The tentacles studiously offering clothes to Sharq then fell slack to the floor, and with them the clothes as well. Not long after that, Jelonzo followed suit, and fell facedown into the pile of clothes.

Sharq gasped in horror, then kneeled down, and gawked at Jelonzo as he laid motionlessly on the clothing. "Jelonzo?!"

A sickly groan answered back. Quickly, Sharq spun Jelonzo onto his back, and carefully set his head back down on the clothes. Jelonzo blinked sluggishly as he stared upwards at the ceiling, his cap haphazardly fallen at his side, and his head extraordinarily swollen. There was a spherical bump atop his crown, and it jiggled back and forth as if it wanted to escape.

"Eeugh!" Sharq backed away slightly. "What happened?"

Jelonzo ceased blinking, and gazed straight up at Sharq. "This migration has… Stressing." He rested back into the clothes. "Jellyfish are not buying the high quality body cloths… Not like Inklings, like you. They have the bad fashion bug."

Jelonzo jiggled, as did the lump on his head, and coughed as if someone hawked from the inside of a bubbling fish tank full of water. The lump only seemed to enlarge itself as Jelonzo himself throbbed in place.

"Oough," Jelonzo groaned as he threw his head back, "They're busying themselves taking the souvenir photos. No souvenir cloths have had any selling."

"That's why?" Sharq questioned as he inspected the bump.

Jelonzo shrugged shakily. "Well…"

"Then I guess we're going to have to do something about these jellyfish!" Sharq thrusted his fist up into the air.

"Jelonzo was just going to say-" Jelonzo thrusted one tentacle into the air slowly.

Just then, the glass door burst open, and an entourage of jellyfish approached the entrance. As soon as they arrived, the group of jellies lifted cameras up into the air, and took aim at the inside of Jelly Fresh. Before a single photo could be snapped, one of Jelonzo's tentacles reached for the door, and pulled it shut. Sharq could barely react before he was pulled in towards Jelonzo's face where the store owner's eyes were humongous.

"Please." Jelonzo's eyes bulged. "I am needing the vacation from this migraine. I just have not been doing asking. Shooing customers is not the politeness, please to the understanding."

A small smirk rose on Sharq's face. "I know this is sort of a bad time to say this."

"What? Speak to Jelonzo your mind's business!" Jelonzo implored Sharq.

"Could you say you need a vacation from this 'migraine-tion'?" Sharq cracked a toothy grin.

Jelonzo stared long and hard at Sharq; however, unlike his jellyfish brethren, Jelonzo's eyes were dangerously sharp. Sharq laughed nervously, then yelped, as a blue, slimy whip cracked against his face.

"Ow!" Sharq rubbed his face. "...Okay, fine, that one's on me."

Jelonzo pulled him in close again. "Customer, please to the understanding, this is a serious problem. The serious of serious. Jelly Fresh needs Gs to help Inklings do the clothes shopping. The Inkopolis Square opens in sooner times, and Gs have been small." He leered up at the Inkling's face. "If jellyfish keep with only the photographing, my business will be the most poorest of poor. My career will be ruining by the days. And worser than all-"

One of Jelonzo's tentacles spiralled upwards. It stopped over his head then pointed directly down at the small blob upon his crown urgently.

"I might be sleeping with the fishes," Jelonzo yelled as the tentacle writhed wildly, "Sleeping at the door of Unfreshville! The ville of unfreshness! Blrblrlbrblraaaaagh!"

Sharq bit his lip as he was unravelled, and was left to sit down on the floor. "Okay. Okay. This isn't good."

Jelonzo shook his head back and forth as one of his tentacles snaked back towards the floor, retrieved his hat, and replaced it back on top of the bump. "My own days are even more short than the migration. I must be speaking to uncle; I need help."

"That's why I came here," Sharq asserted while he stood tall, "I need to know how I can help."

Jelonzo sighed. "You would be helping old Jelonzo?"

He glanced up at the Inkling expectantly. Sharq nodded in response with a smile on his face.

Jelonzo puffed up. "Truly?"

Sharq nodded again, only quicker. As he nodded; unfortunately, his cap flung off his head and hit the floor. Embarrassed, Sharq kneeled down, and picked it off the floor.

"Yeah, of course I'll help," Sharq stated as he planted his Takoroka Mesh back on his head.

"This is excellent, then?" Jelonzo perked up. "Very well. I will tell you and you will shoo jellyfish tourists with bad fashion sense away."

Sharq nodded again while he crossed his legs over each other as he sat. Jelonzo glanced at him, then towards the doors, where several jellyfish stood with little actual interest in the store. As they bumped into one another absentmindedly, Jelonzo sighed, and stared back at Sharq.

"Now then," Jelonzo stretched his arms, "To start, we need to get their attentions. Jellyfish flock to freshness, you understanding?"

"All of them?" Sharq glanced backwards out the window.

Jelonzo shook his head. "Only most. Lots of jellyfish."

"How are we going to do that?" Sharq wondered aloud as he gawked out the window.

Sharq watched the jellyfish wander about aimlessly. A waterfall of jellyfish spilled from the top floor in front of the Squid Sisters' studio into the large pool underneath them, and camera flashes continued throughout the plaza. To the left, Sharq could see the other Inkling and Judd, the pair seemingly deluged with jellyfish up to their knees. They stared up towards the television, and surfed through the channels, neither particularly interested.

Eventually, as the television continued to switch through the channels, it soon cut to a live broadcast. Two figures, one clad in white and the other in black, flashed on the screen for a minute. As the figures appeared on-screen, a handful of the jellyfish stopped immediately, and let themselves be drawn to the screen. The waterfall of jellyfish even seemed to freeze in place. In a blink of an eye; however, the channel was switched to another show, and the jellyfish returned to doing nothing.

Sharq arched an eyebrow. "Attract their attention."

He and Jelonzo turned to each other. Both of their eyes lit up brightly, then as if synchronized, they spun back out towards the plaza and gawked at the television.

"Bingo was his name-o." Jelonzo hugged his hat to his chest.

"Yeah." Sharq nodded.

"So basically, we thought that could work," Sharq finished with his hands on his hips, "We broadcast to the jellyfish and tell them there's somewhere cooler to visit. Are you in?"

Judd and the other Inkling simply stared at him. A few of the jellyfish did as well. Even with all this attention on him, the plaza was silent except for the sound of chewing.

Judd blew feathers out of his mouth. "Meeeow... (That's…)"

"That's your plan?" The other Inkling scowled.

"I mean, right now?" Sharq shrugged. "Yes?"

The other Inkling rolled his eyes. "Oh please."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Sharq asked with a frown.

"What's wrong with it?" The other Inkling stood up. "What's wrong with it? You wanna know what's wrong with it?"

Sharq crossed his arms, and glared at his teammate in the eyes and pouted. "Yes."

The other Inkling released his grip on his jellyfish pillow, and let it sink into the crowd, then walked closer to Sharq. "What's wrong with it. I'll tell you what's wrong. For one, it- It's- It's- It's nonsensical, impossible even. I mean, how are you going to broadcast to these jellyfish?"

"We'll get into the Squid Sisters' studio and do it." Sharq gestured upwards.

"How?" The other Inkling scowled. "It's been closed ever since they split up."

Sharq blinked for a second. "Wait, who split up?"

The plaza was silent yet again. Sharq's teammate and Judd could only stare at him. Sharq's pupils were minuscule, then gradually grew, the black dots in his eyes almost overtaking the hazel irises.

"Okay, um, I didn't know that, but we can still get in." Sharq smiled. "My brother knows someone who could help."

"But- Even then-" The other Inkling began.

Judd tilted his head. "Mrow. (Just go with him.)"

Sharq's teammate blinked and turned towards the cat. "I-"

Judd's tail swung about back and forth. The other Inkling scowled, pushed away a few jellyfish from his feet, and walked to Judd.

"Are you hearing this?" The other Inkling gestured back to Sharq. "He wants to make all these jellyfish just leave. We can't herd these guys. They'll never go for it."

"('Never', huh?)" The other Inkling turned and nodded at the cat as he lounged patiently. "(I've heard that word a lot my life. And y'know? Never is a purr-etty paw-ful word.)"

"Huh?" The other Inkling frowned.

"(There's Inklings who've said they'll never win, and there still are plenty. I've seen a lot of them. But even a few of the people who have said never to something before still pulled through and did it anyways. Saying you could 'never do it', that's not true one-hundred purr-cent of the time. The Great Turf War seemed like the Inklings could never win. And what happened?)"

The other Inkling slouched over. "That doesn't-"

Sharq chimed in, "Yeah, I mean, I think the Squidbeak Splatoon was only about five people. A few other Splatoons were only four people at least. That's only a handful of Inklings who beat back a gigantic army of Octarians armed to the beak with even more gigantic robots!"

"(You see? Just go with him. Sitting around and complaining only does so much y'know.)" Judd yawned as he curled up into a ball. "(Besides, your sniffles keep me awake.)"

The other Inkling was wordless. He watched Judd shut his eyes, then watched his chest rise up and down upon his pillow, the cat snoring peacefully as he rested. Splash Goggles stretched around his neck, he stood up straight, and turned back towards Sharq. Sharq smiled back and waved at him. He also frowned, and pushed a few jellyfish to the side with the heels of his Banana Basics, but quickly turned back to face his new acquaintance.

Sharq's teammate sighed. "Alright. Fine. We'll do your plan."

"Alrighty!" Sharq jumped into the air.

Several jellyfish began to take photos of Sharq while he was airborne. Underneath Sharq, one very inquisitive jellyfish stood inside his shadow, and took picture after picture. It eventually quit, stared at its phone, and marvelled at its own camera work. It marvelled for a few moments before Sharq landed and squashed the photographer underneath his shoes.

"Oops." Sharq lifted his basic shoes and shook them wildly.

The jellyfish fluttered off like a sheet of paper back into the crowd. The horde tracked the unfortunate jellyfish as he was blown away and eagerly snapped photographs as he floated away in the wind. The jellyfish could only wave, and Sharq waved back, all while he reached down to his Banana Basics. His teammate watched with a frown as Sharq took off his the white shoes.

"So, ready to start?" Sharq asked while he dusted off the soles.

"If we're doing this," The other Inkling shook his head down at himself and extended a hand, "Like really doing this, we're going to have to at least know each other's names."

"Oh! Right." Sharq reached towards him. "My name's Sharq!"

"Mine's Dosio," He spoke up as he gripped his hand and shook, "You sure you know what you're doing?"

"Probably!" Sharq beamed.

"Ehhh... Okay." Dosio let go of his hand and stuffed his into his pants' pocket. "Where to, Sharq?"

Sharq turned away from the tower and gazed out towards the sky. Dosio followed his gaze unsurely, but stared at the sky nonetheless. The pair of them stared upwards and outwards from the plaza out to the great beyond.

"Annnnnnd…?" Dosio arched an eyebrow.

Sharq blinked. "Sorry. First stop: My house. My brother should be there." He shrunk into squid form and sunk in the jellyfish.

Dosio could only stare, completely bewildered, as Sharq faded into the crowd. After a few seconds, Sharq's head poked out of the jellyfish and stared back at him.

"Oh, sorry. How are you at Super Jumping?" Sharq inquired.

"Cool, yeah, I can already tell this is gonna work perfectly," Dosio puffed as he reached for his Splash Goggles.

"Hah! I think you're going to like him." Sharq's eyes lit up.

AN: I'd love to write about Aussie, but at the moment this arc's story is still undergoing a strange creative process. I feel like it might break the flow, y'know?

That hasn't necessarily stopped me before, but I still feel as though I should change things up for the better.

Thanks write n wrong for reviewing! I did think about Salmon Run's inclusion in this story, but I still have a lot of story bits unrelated to Splatoon 2. Plus, I think this story is getting too long to include Splatoon 2 storylines in it. Maybe I'll have to make a third story just to keep things from getting cluttered. "The Brothers Break Even" or something? "The Brothers' Adventures Beyond"? I dunno, maybe the name needs work, or maybe I don't even need to do that.

Thanks for reading, this is ThePizzaLovingTurtle, remember to reduce use of text emoticons for maximum professional texts.