Dual Complexity (Splatoon)

A Splatoon Fan Canon by Jemanii STORY DISCONTINUED / DEAD BLOG

[dualcomplexity]

The Final Update

It's been about two years since I started this blog and I feel like with such little activity, now's the time to make this decision. This is gonna be a long one...

As of today, Dual Complexity in its current state will be discontinued. By extension, there will be no more story updates under this blog. It will receive a new iteration in the future under a new title.

Looking back, I was too ambitious with this project. I favored trying to get attention over it rather than the story itself. Compared to other fics I've written since, Dual Complexity was basically a glorified fanfiction with little to show for it.

I ran into the some of the same problems I did with the first version, where I favored the plot over the characters and it just felt bland. The main character didn't really feel like one and some plots still felt like a stretch. By the time I started the second arc, I got into a severe writer's and art block for Splatoon and didn't know where to go with it. I thought I needed more rest, but I haven't done anything meaningful with the story since mid-2025.

As time passed by, I realized I never reached my full potential when it came to its development. Sure I tried artwork, but they didn't compliment the story the way i wanted it to, even in the first part. It hit me hardest with my most recent long-form fic, where I pushed my creativity to the limit. And it is the most I've ever enjoyed from writing a fic.

The funny thing is, despite the setting, that story has a few tropes in common with Dual Complexity: Found family, Breaking the cycle and Struggle with self-worth. What sets them apart was that I wrote Dual Complexity for others more than for myself.

As much as I do them, I hate rewriting fics; it's the reason why I took so long to make this choice. But I feel like the Dual Complexity needs a makeover. Not as a big project I need to show everyone, but as a story I genuinely love to write.

I won't delete this blog, as it's still a core memory for whet this story used to be. But this post will be the final update. From now on, you will only get them from my main @jemaniicreates As of the story itself, Dual Complexity will get the same treatment I would give to my recent fics.

I would like to thank everybody that followed the story and this blog, whether you came for the story or the art. And sorry to disappoint you. I will try this one more time. Hopefully, I'll come around to enjoy with you guys again.

Until next time, see ya...

~Jema

[jemaniicreates]

Shiver: WTF is she plotting?

Frye:

Based on this. im not big on Hazbin Hotel but i find this genuinely funny

[dualcomplexity]

Pictured below: three dumb teenagers laughing because they whooped royal octo ass.

(Taken two years before their lives started going down to shit)...

Also an excuse to draw disguised squid sisters and young Hitto in my style!

ALSO a jjba meme redraw.

[jemaniicreates]

They'll do shit like this unprompted just cant leave these kids alone.

(also trying out a desaturated color palette for the characters. works a lot better with my drawing style in my opinion)

og version:

[dualcomplexity]

Ten Random Headcanons!

Sanne (New Agent 3) is good at craftsmanship, but a terrible stylist

Maika (Agent 4) has had several short-term relationships during her furlough.

Takota (TakoTruck) has a fear of bones

Katsby (AnemoneNo1) is a history fanatic, but prefers to learn what they want, rather than what the school syllabus offers. They specifically like learning about different dog breeds.

Hitto (Captain) cut his own tentacles off the first time. Since then, Callie had been doing his haircut.

The reason for some of the holes on Sanne's shirt was because Nibbs (Smallfry) had a habit of chewing on it. He grew out of it eventually.

Acht was physically still in the Metro when they escaped the Memverse. They fortunately met C.Q. Cumber with Marina's help to get out.

Frye sometimes plays TableTurf with one of her little sisters. Particularly one. The other hates it.

Oyah (an OC) was a non-combatant member of the team that stole the Zapfish in the first game.

Pearl considered cutting ties with the New Squidbeak Splatoon the moment she heard Sheldon was affiliated with them.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I will add more to the list later!

[dualcomplexity]

I just realized the irony of giving the dog headcanon to a character that uses “Kats” as their nickname…

[dualcomplexity]

Ten Random Headcanons!

Sanne (New Agent 3) is good at craftsmanship, but a terrible stylist

Maika (Agent 4) has had several short-term relationships during her furlough.

Takota (TakoTruck) has a fear of bones

Katsby (AnemoneNo1) is a history fanatic, but prefers to learn what they want, rather than what the school syllabus offers. They specifically like learning about different dog breeds.

Hitto (Captain) cut his own tentacles off the first time. Since then, Callie had been doing his haircut.

The reason for some of the holes on Sanne's shirt was because Nibbs (Smallfry) had a habit of chewing on it. He grew out of it eventually.

Acht was physically still in the Metro when they escaped the Memverse. They fortunately met C.Q. Cumber with Marina's help to get out.

Frye sometimes plays TableTurf with one of her little sisters. Particularly one. The other hates it.

Oyah (an OC) was a non-combatant member of the team that stole the Zapfish in the first game.

Pearl considered cutting ties with the New Squidbeak Splatoon the moment she heard Sheldon was affiliated with them.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. I will add more to the list later!

[dualcomplexity]

Real childhood besties

[dualcomplexity]

Refreshed Reunion: The Wrap Up

Happy new year everybody! I so glad that this series is growing, and I wanted to share my thoughts with you on it.

This arc was an adventure. I hear people talk about how writing the pilot of a new series is the hardest part, which I agree with completely. Refreshed Reunion went through so many drastic changes that I was glad I made the choice to work in batches rather than post one when it was ready.

Changes

Apart from a few changes in dialogue and scrapped content, the first half of RR remained the same.

One of the biggest changes was that RR was only supposed to last six chapters to make it short and sweet for the readers. But by the time I got to the final chapter, the conclusion to Sanne's plot was heavily rushed, specifically her conflict with Hitto (Captain). It didn't even include the Gala, something I was building up to. I initially wanted all of this to be focused on in the next arc, but with everything else prepared for it, it would be too much to juggle.

With no satisfaction for what I ended with, I decided to push out another six, going further into the Gala, and with an ending I was more satisfied with to establish the theme of choice that Sanne's story revolves around.

On to more detailed changes, Oyah was originally meant to be the Chief of the SIWO Unit with Kurro as her deputy. But the more her involvement in the story was, the more I realized that was not a good position for her. It was more fitting to make her detective and Kurro a cop.

In relation to the last note, Glaucius was to be in a much higher position while still in Inkopolis. Eventually, it was better to make her the chief while still keeping his authority relevant.

In the second chapter, Sanne was actually going to attack Hachi (Agent 8) and Maika (Agent 4) had Callie not intervened. But since Sanne was aware of somebody coming over, this wouldn't make sense.

The conversation Ocho, Katsby and Takota had in the sixth chapter was meant to be on their way to school, but I forgot that this was happening over the weekend. So, I changed it to take place at Hotlantis.

The SIWO chief of Inkopolis was intended to appear in the Gala, but it was not as effective as I wanted it to be and he didn't show as much importance to being there, so he was pushed to the final chapter.

What Stumped Me?

The challenging part was writing the latter half, as this was done last minute. I was initially planning to keep it short and sweet for the readers, but I learned it is difficult to conclude what is basically an exposition arc on such short notice.

Going back to Sanne, it was a bigger challenge keeping her relevant. With Maika and Hachi taking the spotlight, it was wrong to keep her in the side lines in the introduction of what should be her story. And while she gets her time to shine in a couple of scenes, I grew comfortable with how she is more of a focal point in most of the plots. As her actions are what influence the plot. And I'm saying this both narratively and gameplaywise.

The more I think about it, the more I learn that I inadvertently let Sanne play a bigger role than I tried to show. And this is even more intriguing to think about on a narrative standpoint. Her actions affect the story, yet in terms of the main plot, she is constantly pushed out of the spotlight.

As the story progresses, this will be harder to do, and she will learn a couple of things from her struggles to be a stronger player.

What's Next?

While this was ongoing, I had been thinking about adding a couple of one-shots to support the story that I couldn't do normally due to pacing. I tried to achieve this through the shorts, but I didn't want it to end up like a case of "if you don't read this, you won't understand anything". I know it would be annoying having to read a whole different work to get context of the story.

As of now, the DC Shorts will be deleted. The plan is to work on them as their own thing, then when the situation calls for it, include them as a flashback episode or something. All of this is subject to change, however. And I wouldn't be bothered if people actually want some light-hearted one-shots from this AU. Time will tell.

Final Thoughts

Managing to complete this arc at all has me more excited for the next one. It was one I've been wanting to return to for a while. It will be more action packed compared to the last one and I would love to illustrate more fight scenes.

I appreciate you guys for reading this blog, reading the story and enjoying my work. With how bad the original was in my opinion, I'm glad to have caught up and improve on it. Comparing the two, I am content with the reception it's got and love the comments I have received on it.

Here's to the first arc, I'll see you in the next one!

Refreshed Reunion April 26, 2024 - December 27, 2024 12 Chapters, 56,542 words 7 Screen-Caps

Thank you for reading, and here's to a new year!

-Jema

[dualcomplexity]

Dual Complexity Screen-Cap 7

“The young fool could have sworn his eye lit up, effortlessly burning all the arrogance off of her.” ~Refreshed Reunion, Ch 12

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what to draw precisely for this scene until a couple of days before I published it. I just knew I needed a screen-cap in the final chapter and this was the best scene to illustrate.

In Sanne’s case, I focused more on shading than color, specifically subtractive shading. She is practically the only fully colored in character in the entire piece, which accentuates how everything else felt alien to her.

This is why i focused on Hitto’s silhouette instead, on top of not being satisfied with how his facial expressions turned out. With a bit of lighting and experimentation on what works for the sanitized scar, I quickly decided to stick to orange and blues, a homage to splatoon 1 and inner agent 3.

As quickly as I got this done, I was glad I completed it in time. And the next time you challenge your possibly traumatized captain by saying he is essentially doing nothing for the team, don’t.

And that was the final screen-cap for Refreshed Reunion Arc! Stay tuned for the Arc Wrap-Up sometime in the future!

[dualcomplexity]

Final Chapter is UP!!!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

I thank everybody for making it this far! All I need to do is discuss the final screen-cap and post the Arc Wrap-Up!

See ya!

[dualcomplexity]

Dual Complexity Screen-Cap 6

"As for the treasure, who knows where it went or what it would be used for?" ~Refreshed Reunion, Ch 11

I’m going to be honest, I’m not the best at drawing machinery. But as long as it looked vaguely like the treasure, I don’t mind it too much. I’ll have to work on that still.

This is another practice on backgrounds, mostly to set the tone. I loved drawing the night sky and initially wanted to add stars but not for this situation.

It was fun drawing the clouds and using Gaussian blur for parts in the foreground. And to this piece, I’d say it’s okay. Needs improvement, but a good start.

Hope you appreciate it!

[dualcomplexity]

Dual Complexity Screen-Cap 5

“The panic could be from the way Oyah was a little bent, making the shadows give her a Glasgow aura. Or it could be the little light that shone from her bright green eyes piercing through her like two tiny harpoons.”

-Refreshed Reunion, Ch 10

This screen-cap was to show how much of a potential nuisance Oyah is to the team. It was less of a showcase of detail and more of a showcase of lighting.

True to the excerpt, I attempted to make Oyah look more ominous by making her shadows darker compared to the Squid Sisters. This was also an excuse to put Oyah in a suit. In hindsight, she looks more like a tv show host than a guest in a gala.

Otherwise, I'm happy I finally got to feature the Squid Sisters in some artwork.

[dualcomplexity]

Chapter 11 is UP

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

One more chapter before we get to the end! But first I will have to talk about the screen-caps I have used up to this point. I assure you that the arc will conclude before the new year!

Love you all!

[dualcomplexity]

Chapter 10 is Out!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[dualcomplexity]

Before the year ends

I finally completed the final chapter on Refreshed Reunion Arc and the last three chapters will be uploaded to AO3 before the end of the year. We still have a couple of screen-caps to show and a more detailed wrap-up of how it was like writing this arc.

I just want to say that I am so proud I finally got around to completing this part of a long series and the fact that I have made it this far is amazing. While Dual Complexity is still incomplete, its pilot arc as a standalone would be the first multi-chapter story I have completed.

The second arc is already under development, with the outline about 90% complete. I don't want to make any promises considering my (non-existent) schedule, but I plan to get this done as quick as I can.

To the people that read the story and enjoy this blog, I appreciate your comments and likes, and they motivate me to continue. There may only be a handful of you but it's thanks to you I've made this this far. Thank you so much.

-Jema

[dualcomplexity]

Oyah Marcell: SIWO Detective

This is less of an “About” section and more of an info dump.

Oyah was created a long time ago when this Fan canon was still fresh. While the specifics of her role were adjusted during the rewrite, her entire purpose was to thwart the New Squidbeak Splatoon.

She started off as a cop rather than a detective. While this gave her more potential for action scenes, it did not make way for much involvement with the NSS operations. So, I made her an investigator who until the story starts, was really hoping to look into everything the mysterious faction “screwed up”.

Given her history as an Octarian in-training to be elite, her workaholic tendencies were something I liked to add in. Despite being able to use splatlings, Oyah doesn’t really fight much. In fact, she wasn’t even an infantry soldier back in Octo Valley. She worked mostly in Comms, so getting info was always something she was natural with.

While constructing her character, I wanted to add in some aspect of her personality that would be disliked by the main characters. That being her determination. With her job, she tends lean too much into her work life when she makes any progress. While she can still do her job off the clock, this makes every conversation with her a minefield if she shows any interest in you.

That’s all I can talk about today, but you’ll see a bit more about her soon in the next few chapters. See ya!

-Jema

[dualcomplexity]

Chapter 9 is out!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works