She was also raised by salmonoids, so she’s just a little feral lol.
The Splatlands are much more dangerous than Inkopolis will ever be, especially because of its proximity to the salmonoid’s territory. This leads to many orphans in the area. Kai (Neo) doesn’t know whether her parents were killed, died tragically, or just abandoned her, and she’s really not trying to find out. All she knows is that the salmanoids that took her in, more specifically a Goldie, and accepts that as her reality.
Kai will commonly accept things as ‘how they are’ because she feels like you’ll drive yourself insane trying to find an answer to everything. She’s practical in that mindset alone; though this is an effect of how she was raised as this is the worldview salmonoids have.
By pure accident she ended up at the crater and curiosity led her to continue working with Craig, similar to how Three first became an agent. She found herself enjoying the missions, it was something other than scavenging, until it got to the part with the fuzzy ooze. Kai found it creepy for sure, but it wasn’t until she saw Grizz that really made her question whether she should still be here or not. That ‘something really isn’t right’ feeling finally set in. Too late to leave though.
Fighting in space was the last thing she ever thought would happen to her; but here she was, in the void, trying to stop the end of the world, on a rocket ship going to oblivion. Kai tries not to think about it too much, but being in the void still gives her goosebumps. It’s why she tries not to look at to night sky. Instead she thinks about her first introduction to the NSS and wonders why she didn’t try to leave sooner lmao.
Through her time in Alterna, something about Three felt familiar and nostalgic, leading her to want to be around the captain more often. Kai’s not sure what about Three felt so familiar to her, (Three’s not sure either), but whatever ‘it’ was felt like home. :)
ok! well, hmm. i'll go with your take on sanitization.
ok SO
I’ve been so waiting the answer this question:
Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one (sorry it took me so long to answer 😅):
So first things first:
Tartar:
It hated the new creatures that now walked the earth, especially Inklings and Octolings as they were supposed be an evolved version of humans, a better version. Watching Cephalokind make the same mistakes as humanity was what caused Tartar to develop its plan: Destroy the current inhabitants and create a new life form in its wake.
Tartar created the sanitized ink by blending octolings to create the goo, but Tartar was selective in this process. It only took the “specimens” that were worthwhile, ie. the ones who passed the tests. Any failures were used as soldiers for its tests. It only viewed Octolings as worthwhile because they had more intelligence, although they were physically weaker.
(Fun fact: It had no intention to let Isopadre pass.)
Sanitization:
Sanitization is meant to be a slow process as it has two phases-
Phase one: Subject is drowned/bathed in ink to essentially “reset you to your factory settings”, for lack of a better term. While subjects may not forget everything, their own memories will feel unfamiliar to them. Injections may occur, this phase of sanitization will fade if the subject isn’t constantly exposed.
Phase two: At this point, the sanitization will not fade from the subject. Most of the mental process happens in phase one, this phase has a more physical effect (permanent ink color, taking orders, difficulty changing forms). Fully sanitized octolings either take orders because they can’t remember anything else or don’t have the will to fight it.
Sanitization will literally mess with the subject’s biology, causing more effects Tartar itself didn’t care to research.
Eight:
Eight only got to phase one of being sanitized, and just felt like ass in general:
She gravitated towards Captain Cuttlefish immediately, as he, and OTH, were the only people she felt like she could trust. She can’t remember much, but she remembered Three (very vaguely). Eight just feels numb at this point, the effects of the sanitization only somewhat wearing off when she was about to be blended up alive.
God, she could really use a nap.
Three:
To be honest, the Depths (Metro) were the last place Three wanted to be at. But her already being somewhat familiar with the Metro (her family is from the Deep) made her the best squid for the job, although Callie was willing to take her place.
She had a bad feeling about this mission from the start, but despite this, she knew she needed to go.
Three was sanitized, but her sanitization was quick, painful, and messy. Her first instinct was to warn the Captain, although he would never leave her even if he could.
After the worst mission of their life:
They basically stuck both Three and Eight together, but it was akwaaardd:
They didn’t have much to talk about, nor were they in the mood to chat (neither are very chatty). They enjoyed eachother’s company however, and had a silent understanding. This moment solidified a mutual understanding/respect between the two.
Destabilizing:
Destabilizing is a medical condition that mainly affects cephalokind but is always a symptom of something else and never appears on its own. The cause needs to be investigated as soon as possible. Once the cause is treated properly, the affects of destabilization will clear on its own. In this case, Three’s destabilization was caused by the residual sanitized ink in her system.
(Since the sanitized ink is primarily octoling DNA, an Inkling having sanitized ink in their system exacerbates the reaction.)
Three destabilizing actually gives Eight a flashback (she was a field medic, and she’s seen it happen before):
Even though she recovered, her ink remained thicker than normal and became slightly abrasive (although not as abrasive as octoling ink). She also has to clean her weapon’s filters more frequently (like Eight).
Bonus:
Four tries to crack jokes to loosen the tension:
Four’s trying her best, and Three’s not in the mood. This interaction was what initially began their animosity towards each other. 💔
(By the way: 3 and 8 are 16 y/o here, 4 is 18 in OE)
So basically long story short: Sanitization sucks, the girls are traumatized, and f*ck you Tartar. (more detailed art about this later I promise, feel free to ask questions about it though!)