This post will have a 2 for 1 introduction, with Mack and their companion LARRY!
Mack(any/all) is an octoling from the Splatlands. They're quite energetic and easygoing to the point of being kinda careless at times. I would describe him as chaotic good. And chaotic is right! They sometimes tend to do things without any rhyme or reason, on occasion even slightly to their own detriment.
Mack was a child of Octarian dome refugees. During his family's escape he was left behind, but was eventually found by a group of Salmonids coming back from a trade trip. They took him in and raised as one of their own young, one of whom was LARRY. In the care of salmonids they learned the value of scrap as well as how to make some simple things out of it. They also learned to understand Salmonid language and even how to speak some of it. Mack was under Salmonid care since they were a baby until around 5 years of age, when under a glowfly frenzy their own caretakers almost mauled them to death, which forced them to run away to the Spatlands. This event made Mack largely forget their early life. When anyone brings up Mack being raised by Salmonids he always just simply denies it. Despite this, his opinion on Salmonids hasn't been tainted, leaving him lacking any strong opinions, which paved the way for his renewed support and appreciation for them later in life.
Nowadays, Mack and LARRY live in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Splatsville that the two of them renovated a bit. They earn their small living by collecting scrap, as well as some rare odd jobs here and there.
When not doing that, it plays ink battles. Mack's main is the Splattershot, a straightforward, reliable, and easy to pick up and go weapon for him. He says that it's a weapon suited for any situation. In general, Mack is quite fond of Shooters as a whole due to them being similarly straightforward weapons. Mack is also quite fond of weapon classes that can splat from unexpected angles, like Sloshers and Stringers.
Mack's splashtag nickname is M4ck-R3l(mackerel). It was inspired by the nicknames of the players from Splatoon 3's promo material. Fun fact, creating an ink battle nickname is how Mack gave themself a name to begin with!
As you may have guessed already, Mack is New Agent 3. They were the, who defeated Mr. Grizz once and for all with the help of their Smallfry companion. Mack may not look like much, but she's got quite a few skills that helped with saving the world! She's a judo black belt and fairly fit, too, so even the most physically demanding of Alternan challenges were no problem for her! Mack is also a great engineer with a real creative mind and even some formal high-level education in the field! It was them who figured out that the three treasures could be combined into a giant razor and how that could be done!
Those skills didn't come from nowhere, of course! One of Mack's caretakers during their younger years was a judo master who trained them extensively, eventually getting them to that black belt status. As a hermit that largely lives outside society, Mack never enrolled in any schools but did show up to a lecture in one of Splatsville's engineering universities. The lecturer wanted to kick them out, but seeing their immense enthusiasm, which was even greater than those of his actual students, he decided against it. He eventually put in a word for the rest of the staff so that they couldn't stop them from coming back, which led to Mack finishing a full engineering course!
I changed LARRY'S design since drawing that first image, so this is what he looks like now.
LARRY is a young salmonid and Mack's semi-loyal friend and companion. LARRY is just a nickname Mack gave to him as a way to shorten his actual name: The Loyal Admirer of Radiant Roju Yakizakana. He generally has two states: no thought head empty and extreme determination. He has a tendency to wander off without warning anyone, which is a trait that might just be in his DNA. When not being absent-minded, however, he can do tasks with insane speeds.
LARRY is a keiji salmonid, a salmon that has strayed far from it's home stream and that is said to be particularly fatty, as well as one that has the ability to transform into a much larger form somehow. LARRY's buckle is a mark of his keiji status, given to him by his parents. Due to this, he also tends to absentmindedly wander far away from home, which builds quite an incredible appetite by the time he finally reaches a destination. He gets so hungry that he's literally able to eat anything, even strange fuzzy substances. People are often quite horrified by this small fish's eating habits!
He and Mack were raised in the same small community of Salmonids. While Mack may have forgotten him, LARRY never forgot Mack, as he was always quite fond of them when growing up. So, eventually, when he wandered particularly far, they finally reunited and stayed by each other's sides ever since. LARRY acts like an older brother towards Mack, despite being younger than them, acting protective and thinking he knows best. Mack just finds that endearing.
Throughout his life, LARRY used to hit the battlefield as a part of a Fish Stick. Due to his absentminded indecisiveness, he eventually stopped participating in combat, but his hair was permanently bent by the helmet he wore. Additionally, he never stopped singing, so to this day, he keeps singing any catchy melody that he hears to himself. He's quite good for salmonid standards!
Mack and LARRY are quite big Grizzco haters, so despite having taken down it's boss, they keep sabotaging the company's operations. They tend to crash random Grizzco work shifts. LARRY acts as a distraction or directs salmonid hordes, while Mack finishes the workers off one by one. To make things even less fair, Mack often uses Grizzco weapons she stole against the workers themselves. This may seem a bit cruel, but it's a necessary evil, really, as this way less salmon are hurt, less golden eggs are going to a bad cause, and less inkfish are willing to take the job.
Surprised you haven't done the default splattershot yet
Ah, good ol' Splattershot. I used to be really down on Shooters going into S3 seeing how ridiculously overtuned they were compared to everything else in S2, but I've softened on them a lot since then. I still think broadly speaking they're not very fun to play but I don't begrudge them for existing, I think a game that can be as weird as Splatoon really benefits from having a more "normal" entry point kind of weapon, and for the purpose of being the vanilla gun? I think it's a pretty big success, especially in S3 where it's a fast fighting weapon with an aggressive special, the more we encourage new players to fight and really engage with the mechanics beyond just shooting the floor, the better.
White Arrowbands / Takoroka Jersey / Arrow Toesies Blu
Tried for the classic promo kid look here, colorful shoes with monochrome top/headwear, though the Jersey's still got some stuff going on. Also I honestly really like this pose.
