The deserts of the Splatlands were a vast and rather wild and untamed place, often exposed to the harsh elements with very little shelter to duck into the shade of aside from random pieces of junk occasionally being strewn about; and “the harsh elements” often simply meant the blazing, burning hot rays of the sun bearing down upon everyone’s backs relentlessly for hours at a time.
For those who grew up here, it was just another thing that made the Splatlands into what they were; simply another thing that made it into their chaotic, turbulent home that they wouldn’t trade in for the world, no matter how unbearable the heat could sometimes get or even how sick it could sometimes make anyone feel if it got too bad as it occasionally did in the summer. You had to be tough to survive out here, and the city’s population generally took pride in being some of the toughest cephalopods around!
With how much the high heat tolerance was seen as a trait that generally only people from around this area had though, the sight of someone who clearly wasn’t from around here (judging by their manner of dress) sitting around and taking photos of a seemingly random cactus had quite genuinely come as a shock to the three members of Deep Cut.
The trio had been out looting in the wastelands for scrap metal to sell as per usual, each donning their masks in at least a slight effort to conceal their identities, but they had all been expecting to be completely alone out here, apart from the company of each other.
That was how it usually was, after all, and if they did happen to find someone it was normally just someone who had wandered too far off while exploring and needed help getting back to the safety and comfort of the city proper.
The moment that the initial shock was over, though, ideas and opportunity seemed to present itself in it’s place. The guy appeared to be from Greater Inkopolis, and a wealthy area of it, at that; the way he dressed, again, made that much rather clear to all of them. None of them had any idea why he was out looking at cacti in the desert like this, but did it really matter why?
If he was as rich as it seemed, that would be great money to put towards helping the needy in Splatsville.
Frye gave each of her teammates a sly grin and a quick nod as she quickly pulled her mask, which she had been wearing off on the side of her head up until this point, over to conceal her face proper.
“Stay right here, okay?”
The eel tamer whispered to the other two surprisingly lowly in an effort to not give their position away, peeking at the stranger again from around one of the larger pieces of half-buried metal that they had all quickly tried to take cover behind as a group once they had realized that they weren’t as alone here as they had assumed.
Shiver opened their mouth almost immediately in protest, but was cut off by the rest of Frye’s thoughts before the octoling could actually even begin to get a word out: “It’ll scare him way more if he thinks that it’s just me at first, and then you two come out to join! It’s the perfect plan, y’know?”
“Well… that is true. I suppose I just didn’t want you getting to have all of the fun.” Shiver remarked in return after a moment of pause, folding their arms over their chest and tapping their fan lightly against their other arm.
“Pssh, c’mon now. I really doubt he’ll give in that easily, and then both you and Biggie will get to shine too! So just wait right here until then, alright?”
Without another word, Frye slipped away from the company of her groupmates, immediately raising her voice to catch the stranger’s attention once she was showing herself to him.
“NOT SO FAST! Who’s the rich kid, huh? Did’ya really think you could just waltz in around here and take all of our treasure without any kind of a fight?!”
It wasn’t… entirely a lie. There was always the slight concern that outsiders would take the rarities or even just the random scrap metal buried all around here for themselves, and then there wouldn’t be any left to sell for Splatsville’s sake. But the trio had all seen him simply taking photos of the cactus, so it was a bit of an exaggeration in this specific instance; a convenient excuse to pick a fight.
Really, the group just wanted his money. He could clearly spare some! (At least, it seemed clear to them.)
Ear catching the sound of footsteps on the dry earth, Emperor turns to see another inkling, face concealed behind a fearsome wooden mask. She seems... familiar somehow. Her voice especially, but he can’t quite place it. He frowns at her, dropping a cactus fruit in the canvas drawstring bag he’s got slung over his shoulder with a quiet scoff. Rich kid, really? He knew Splatsville was a rougher town than Inkopolis and had tried to dress himself accordingly, but there was no hiding the “distressed” Enperry logo on his stylishly-faded gray t-shirt.
“Excuse me? Waltz in where? The desert?” He waves a hand at the vast, flat nothing around them. “Where else am I supposed to be walking? And what do you mean, treasure? This is a cactus. There are many of them. I wasn’t going to take the entire thing.”
