New Squidbeak Splatoon, represent!

Independent RP Blog for the New Squidbeak Splatoon & their associates, that mostly exists so I can play with friends when I feel like it. READ THE RULES, PLEASE! M!A: None

[the-splatoon]

Thread: Defragmentation/Dissociation

[the-splatoon]

dedf1shrotsbelowyourfeet‌:

Meanwhile, Dedf1sh wasn’t concerned about any ethics or doubts. She wanted to be absolutely sure that this thing wasn’t a trap Tartar was laying for them. The longer that phone was still operational, the more anxious she got. Tartar could say that he was reformed, but she wasn’t buying it. The less time she spent on Marina’s efforts to salvage everything of ‘value’ from his database, the better.

“We would have to eliminate any possibility of error though. In order for our hypothesis to be proven, the Cole Personality must be able to be reminded of details of the Metro and Tartar’s actions without effort. We can’t give him time to collect his thoughts, because that runs the risk of the information being compromised. I’m afraid I can’t be of much help. I can type fast, but not fast enough to properly emulate a free-flowing vocal conversation.”

She thinks for a minute and starts typing again. “We have two options. The first is to get Eve to talk to him. Besides me, she has had the most experience within the Metro. She’s been through the tests, and she’s dealt with Tartar personally. But if she is unavailable, our only other choice is Agent Three. That would take some more planning though, because I don’t know how much memory could have been exchanged while they were directly connected. She might know stuff about him, he might know stuff about her, it might be worth examining.”

“Understood,” Marina nodded with a factual precision, before considering the options carefully. She replied. “I think if we do have to involve the Squidbeak Splatoon, we should get Mr. Cuttlefish and Agent 3 involved first, rather than jumping straight to Agent 8. The experience was traumatic to all three of them, but Agent 8 had her own memories messed with directly  and I know for a fact she lost friends in the Undersea Metro... I really don’t want to burden her with having to recall all of that.”

“Yeah, plus, Eight can be pretty scary when she’s in a bad mood. She might actually end up makin’ him clam up more than talk. I think Three’s probably the saver bet too...”

“Plus, I wouldn’t mind havin’ the ol’ Cap Cuttlecraig around, either! He’s always good for a hangout.”

“So, the plan is as follows...”

Marina began recounting their decisions.

“I’m going to unmute the microphone. We’ll talk to the AI and try to calm it and win its trust. If it really isn’t hostile, we have nothing to fear, and if it is hostile, we’ll give it a false sense of security that way. In the meantime, we’ll continue talking to it and run custom scripts, as well as cooperate with the Squidbeak Splatoon in order to prompt a recall of Tartar’s memories in order to test whether or not the whole ‘split personality’ story is true or not. Depending on our verdict by the end of our... well, ‘evaluation’, we’ll decide how to deal with Tartar. Is that correct?”

“All Clear with me, ‘Reena!”

[neni-has-ascended]

Same Energy by Nenilein

Decided to do something more with the pencil drawing I posted yesterday, since people seemed to like it~!

Neko from Cytus 2 and Pearl from Splatoon 2.

These two are basically the same character, you can’t convince me they’re not, I mean:

Lives in a post-apocalyptic world where society has been rebuilt and famous musicians seem to run everything.

Music producer in her twenties who started out as a niche act in her teens, but became famous after teaming up with a tech genius.

Had a rebellious teenage punk phase.

Has since mellowed out but is still childish on camera and infamous for saying inflammatory things to get a rise out of people.

Has trademark headgear she always wears, without fail.

Actually a really nice person, once you get past all the salt.

Drawing these two together was really fun. I’d like to do a version featuring Aroma and Marina too, maybe. 

[inky-anemone]

Stucky was already quick to call the front curtain once the applause died down, allowing the rear curtain to be raised to move in the instruments of the next group. The curtains are quick to hide the two inklings from view of the crowd as some of the stage hands help them off the stage, mostly out of the way, as Stucky begins reveling for the crowd about the enthusiasm of their performance. Keeping the crowds mood high from performance to performance was key for him as he marched to center stage this time around to stall for some time for OMT.  With the rear curtains raised and the band set up being quickly moved in by the stage hands Nemi and Myrtle can be spotted speaking with one of the staff while near a piano. Neither of them look to Clover and Ceph, as they have to focus on their own performance, but there is a clear difference in the air they give off as their performance time approaches. Another part that is clear is that Nemi seem’s to be a little against the suggestion Myrtle was giving her of starting with a different song of their set; and Myrtle directing the stage hands for something per that that seemed to not be planned for the current slot. While this went on behind the thick curtains Stucky took the time to get some of the audience feedback on the show so far, “…Anyone here want to speak up with their thoughts? We’ll have room for encore performances in the second half so if any of you want to see one of our performers from this first set take the stage again now’s the time to speak up!” While saying this he tapped the little speaker for his walkie was listening in on to see how the band set up was going. Due to the last minute change in plans there was a two minute delay. For the crowd it meant nearly nothing but for the show it could throw things off. After giving time for the crowd to voice themselves about encores he got the go ahead from his staff over the walkie and proceeded to move to the side of the stage while introducing them, “Thank you for being patient ladies and gentlemen. Our next act is about to take the stage. Flying under the moniker of OMT this group has a special featurette they called in to add a little extra oomph to their performances tonight; one they like to call their Flower. From what I hear this Flower of theirs is a little shy on stage but shines like starlight if you give her a chance. All I ask of everyone is that you please remain seated before the next performance starts and refrain from flash photography until the music begins as we will be dimming all the lights for this bands performance.” As he says that with a gesture the spotlight on him slowly dims before he slips out of view and soon the lighting in the room dims slowly too. The black lights around the room and the strips framing the stage however are slowly turned on, making anyone with photophore markings or brighter colours start to glow dimly as the curtain slowly rises.

[the-splatoon]

Clover came walking up to their team’s table just before the start of the upcoming act, a smug grin on her face carrying a fairly large bucket in her hands. As the lights began to dim, Sango raised an eyebrow at her teammate’s appearance.

“You happy now?” she grumbled, before taking a quick look around. “Wait. Where’s Ceph?”

Clover’s wide grin unbroken, she proudly presented to Sango the inside of the bucket she held, showing a tiny, cyan squid shaking like it had just had an unfortunate encounter with world’s most sharp-clawed seagull.

“He wouldn’t get off stage. This was the only way to get him down here. Oh, but the folks backstage said we gotta return the bucket later.”

Sango groaned at this. She started talking into the bucket.

“Ceph, come out, please? The performance was all good, I promise. Nobody’s gonna laugh at you.”

“Factually, the performance was the awesome!! You shouldn’t be in shame!”

Ceph in the bucket just kept shivering.

“T-The whole city’s gonna know... that I can’t sing...!”

Sango sighed.

“Oh boy...”

“I don’t know what his problem is~. The singing was fine! Muuuuuch better than his roleplay in fact. Like, whoa, never seen a knight that stiff before.”

“...Clover...”

...It was then that, finally, a humanoid head carefully peeked out of the bucket.

“A-Are you sure, my voice was okay...? I-I’ve been...” he sighed. “Kinda agonizing over that, especially.”

“Seriously, Ceph. You were-”

“I already said it, geez, the singing was fine! Stop blabbering!” She dragged the boy out of his hiding place and forced him into a chair next to Eve before he could even try to object, before getting a seat of her own and giving a satisfied smirk towards the stage.

“Much more, we sure showed that frilly fashionista what we’re really made off! Fufufu, she’s gonna watch herself before she opens her mouth ‘round us again anytime soon!”

“Wait, ‘frilly fashionista’? Who are you even talking abou---”

She didn’t get to continue. The next performance up on stage began.

[the-splatoon]

Thread: Defragmentation/Dissociation

[telephobos]

dedf1shrotsbelowyourfeet‌:

She pouted a little as she heard the phone speak. Of course he had to be an Octoling. That would just make things more complicated. There’s no way Marina would allow them to abandon Cole now. She had such a bleeding heart for her own kind, whether it was Agent 8 or Dedf1sh. If Tartar was truly manipulating them, it was a master stroke, a calculated move to play at Marina’s emotions. How frustrating.

She was still frustrated as Pearl began to propose her idea. She doubted she’d be able to propose something worthwhile. However, the more she talked the more compelling it became.

“She could be onto something. If the Cole personality really is taking control of Tartar’s hardware, he should also have control of the software. Which means he would be able to utilize Tartar’s scripts to access Tartar’s encrypted data. But there is only one way to ensure that the Cole personality isn’t a fake or being manipulated by Tartar. We have to get him to call upon a specific kind of memory. A memory that Tartar would be hesitant to admit.”

“…”

Cole sat there silently, unable to really do anything as the others talked out of earshot. He couldn’t help but feel nervous. What were they going to do to him? Were they going to hurt him? 

[the-splatoon]

“Um... That should be doable. I think I can write a short script to make the OS at least attempt to playback files recorded on a specific date...”

Marina typed around on a keyboard next to her as she spoke, almost absentminded. The typing, however, ended just seconds after her sentence.

“In fact, I just did.”

“That’s my girl!” Pearl cheered, putting a hand on Marina’s shoulder. “So, we doing this? Because if we are, I gotta get on my best ‘we cool’ face before we get to softening up the guy a bit!”

Not that this so-called “alternate personality” wasn’t already soft enough...

“Well, it’s alright with me... We’re all in agreement then?”

Marina was ready to unmute the mike on my phone as soon as she got Alice’s okay.

Truth be told, she was a bit nervous about the plan... There were so many variables in there they couldn’t possibly calculate, and she really wanted to avoid damaging the scientifically valuable hardware or hurting an actual person if possible, but as was, this was their best bet...

[the-splatoon]

Thread: Defragmentation/Dissociation

[telephobos]

dedf1shrotsbelowyourfeet‌:

She should have expected Pearl would be a little slow on the uptake. She didn’t have the education or experience she and Marina had in the Canyon. It would feel weird to have to explain these things to her, but teaching Pearl about the things going on would at least make her feel like she was doing something productive. dedf1sh mutes her computer and just types. She didn’t want to make any noise that would distract or interrupt Marina and Tartar. “Tartar is more than a computer. He is a program designed to generate independent thought and personality. But to create a mind like that would takes a lot of data. His source code alone has hundreds of gigabytes.”

She pulls up the the window that shows Tatar’s code. “The source code of a program describes the various functions, or scripts, that it can perform. For example, these lines show how it can speak, referencing thoughts in it’s memory banks and converting them to electronically generated audio.”

She clicks to the folders that shows where Tartar’s memory banks are supposed to be. “This is where the challenges are. The files that contain Tartar’s memory are under tight security, only designed to be accessible by the thought scripts. I’ve managed to crack into a few, but even then the raw data is heavily encrypted, altered in a unique that makes it impossible to understand, yet can be converted back when Tartar’s programming calls on that specific data.”

She opens up one of these files and reveals an absolute mess of text. “And this is just one example. There are millions of these files within Tartar’s memory, and a fraction percentage of that would be making up the Cole personality. If the Mem Cake theory is correct, I would also assume that the way that data is encrypted is different from how Tartar encrypts it’s own memories. But we don’t know what that would even look like, let alone how it could have been converted and uploaded.”

ded1sh closes the file and sighs. “So, if there is another mind within Tartar’s memory, it would take a very, very long time to access it. And I fear that’s what Tartar expects us to do, waste our time combing through his data while he plans to escape custody and enact his revenge.”

“Of course it’s my story! Why would I make up something like this?! Wouldn’t this just be a waste of time for me?” 

Cole paused for a moment, conflicted.On one hand, he knew that he was supposed to be a machine. On the other hand though, it didn’t feel right to him. Why did HE have to be stuck in this stupid telephone?!

“I’m supposed to be an Octoling. This isn’t right at all…” 

[the-splatoon]

Pearl listened intently. It wasn’t as if the technobabbel made much sense to her, but, well, that was what she kind of admired about these nerds. They always somehow managed to make you feel dumb by dealing so easily with stuff that sounded like it couldn’t possibly make sense at all. Oh well... She’d handled enough tech of her own to at least clean some things.

“So, um, what’cha sayin’ is, the problem’s that nobody really knows how this this thing works, ‘cept for this thing? Man, that blows... It’s like, what’s that saying, again... the eel biting her own tail? We’re not getting anywhere fast like that, are we?”

Marina, meanwhile, intently listened to the unnaturally innocent-sounding voice coming from her speakers. It caused her face to twist more and more into a pained frown. As much as she knew that this might just an attempt to manipulate her, it hurt to be forced to ignore such an obvious plea for help...

“H-He... He does think he’s one of us...” She wringed her hands, nervous, saddened.

“There... There has to be something we can do! I mean, fake secondary A.I. or not... we’ve all been trapped before...! People can change their ways, so... maybe...”

Marina was just rambling, her emotions getting the better of her after what had to be at least an hour of persistent interrogations at this point. She’d always been more of an engineer than a direct combatant, so remaining cold in such high strung situations wasn’t something she’d been trained to do. That said, it was Marina’s slipping composure, combined with dedf1sh’s explanations that caused a light to go up in Pearl’s head...

“Hm...”

“...!”

At once, a thought was coalescing in the young woman’s mind, and a wide grin spread on her face as she quickly ushered Marina to mute the mic of her phone and come over to join heads with her and dedf1sh. As soon as she knew the two people she wanted to be in earshot (and nobody else), Pearl began to talk.

“Hey, so, I was thinking... We’re tryin’ to get into this thing, but like, the security’s shella tight, right?”

“Um, right.” Marina confirmed.

“Then, how ‘bout this? We know one person who can get in there for sure.”

Pearl, secure in the knowledge that with the mic turned off, she wouldn’t be heard, tapped the back of Marina’s phone. 

“So if that thing’s really got some sort, dunno, split-personality thing going on there, y’know, horror-flick ax-splatterer style, then how ‘bout we... play along? Win its trust, and stuff?”

“You mean... Try and befriend this alternate personality, so it’ll help giving us access to the encrypted portions of the system?”

Pearl eagerly nodded her head.

“If it’s true, and there’s really a good guy in there wanting to come up, well, all the better, we’ll have one more person helpin’ us takin’ down the baddie! But, if it’s just lying, and refuses to help hack in, then no harm no clam? We can just trash program and loot the Harddrives for more info on humans and junk later, right?”

“U-Um, trash it??” Marina seemed a taken aback. “Pearl, that’s a little...”

“I know, way soft compared what the thing’s done to your people, yeah, but hey, once we’re sure we’re not accidentally hurting anyone, better get rid of the thing before it can hurt anyone else, right?”

“...”

Marina took a deep breath and nodded.

“...You’re probably right, yes. Without Tartar’s cooperation, there isn’t really much we can do to decrypt any secrets the system might still be hiding anyway... Reverse engineering after a complete deactivation might really be our best bet. If this all really is just a ruse the AI is using to save itself, I mean.”

Marina turned her head. 

“Alice...?”

[the-splatoon]

inky-anemone‌:

The crowd was certainly confused by the start of the performance, seeing the full armor clad inkling take the stage, only to be followed by the other clearly wearing that crown. Many aware of the upcoming promotional releases for those outfits were whispering about what connections either of those two had; and comments about the clear stiffness of the boy in the armor. Still as the music started the most of them gradually got into it, a few even clapping along to the beat.  Overall the performance appeared a success if anything as the energy of the song had the crowd clapping by the end of it. Of course with the song ending Stucky was standing at the ready to introduce the next group, though still watching if the odd pair had anything else up their sleeves, while keeping an eye on the crowd. He was worried they might get heckled because of the impression from the armor and would need to call the curtains to stop any of that hassling but was rather relieved they had something relatively polished. He knew though from his stage hands communicating over walkies that those two all but nearly threw this act together. That fact alone was impressive at the least. Back stage Nemi and Myrtle spied on the performance from the side, with Myrtle giving a playful grin about the lyrics and Nemi face-palming about the product placement. Even if  they were doing a more than half decent performance Nemi was wondering how Ceph was feeling under that armor. They didn’t linger though as they regrouped with their band with the stage hands to ensure that their set up on the stage with their instruments would be seamless after the pair was finished. 

Improv. That was all it was. Pure, unadulterated improv. The two of them had sang this song at the team’s Karaoke nights so many time already, the roleplay that went along with it had become sort of second nature to them. That was probably at least part of why Clover had chosen it in the first place.

It wasn’t the best performance to night, far from it, but the crowd seemed to enjoy their messing around and Ceph quickly discovered something amazing about helmets: They made it very easy to not meet people’s eyes so you could pretend they weren’t actually there. Like this, he could at least imagine that this was just one of their regular karaoke sessions. And that might be part of why his voice didn’t break too badly whenever he hit the higher notes.

The song reached it’s climax with the Knight character forcing their weapon into the Queen character’s hands, shoving them out on the improvised battlefield, a scene represented by Ceph giving Clover a surprisingly hefty push in the back. So surprising, in fact, that for a moment she stumbled it almost seemed as if she were going to fall off the stage, but, that was when, in a fashion almost too perfectly timed with the music to be understood by the audience as anything other than intentional (it really wasn’t), that Clover pulled a ridiculous back-flip maneuver, bringing herself right back onto center stage.

The display of acrobatics was enough to make a stunned Ceph forget and stumble over his lines for a second, and for Sango in the audience to bite into the fork she was eating cake from so hard, it almost seemed like she was actively trying to break it off. Of course, that friggin’, tryhard, show-off---

The song ended, the music played out. In the end, both of them were sitting on the ground, their hands up in metaphorical defeat. If one of them had had the foresight to bring a little white-flag prop, they would have waved that now, too. But as was, it would have to do. 

Ceph felt spent. He’d done so much jumping around to keep up with Clover’s dramatic acting out of the song, it had cost him some serious effort, but in the end, they’d pulled it through, all the way, from the beginning to the end, and, hey! It’d been a fun run. Probably their most fun yet. The young Inkling turned his had a bit to look at his duet-partner, who flashed him a cheeky, self-confident grin. And then they laughed---

Right until the applause began, which reminded Ceph that, oh, right, this was a performance---- And there was an audience, which made his muscles turn to lead and his face go pale like chalk. H-Had he seriously just... sung and roleplayed?? Right in front of dozens and dozens of people!?”

He was right. He really was going to die. 

There was no way this experience was not going to kill him one way or another. 

Dear Cod, what had he been thinking!?

He was already busy melting into a little, vaguely squid-shaped puddle of ink on the floor, when, in the audience, Eve, Sango and Pearl and Marina too, had stood up to give a standing ovations to their friends.

“Ceph! You did great!!”

“Encore, Encore!!”

“Look, I’m always for bling, but I sorta wish she wasn’t so obvious about who she’s tryin’ to impress, yo,” Pearl muttered to Marina while clapping. “Does she even know I’ve got sponsors other than my Dad? Seriously.”

“Ahaha, don’t be surprised! She just looks up to you, Pearlie~! I bet there are tons of girls you’re an inspiration to out there?”

“Yeah, but most of ‘em don’t keep ‘inspiring’ right in my face like that, y’know... It makes me feel like some corporate shill!”

“Um, yeah, maybe you’d feel less like that if you stopped signing every single sponsorship that lands in our mailbox, just because they attach candy to the letter... Just saying...”

Anyway, up on stage, there was a very chipper green Inkling who was posing for the cameras and clearly capable of removing herself from the spotlight when needed, as well as a shivering cyan pile of squid, which was perhaps less capable of doing so. Perhaps providing assistance would drive things along

[the-splatoon]

Thread: Defragmentation/Dissociation

[the-splatoon]

telephobos‌:

dedf1shrotsbelowyourfeet‌:

Dedf1sh groans softly as she stares at her computer. Time seemed to stand still as her mind tried to come up with a plan. “Right now I can’t make a definitive conclusion. I’ve been pouring through his source code and files and I haven’t seen anything in his drives that would suggest he has Mem Cakes in his data. If they are in there, they would have to have been converted into a different format.”

She removes her glasses and rubs at her temple, shutting her eyes as she tries to think. “We could research and study the Mem Cakes themselves to understand the properties of their information. But that would take too many resources away from the Tartar project. Even just designing the software that could digitize memory and thought and brain activity would take weeks, maybe even months. It’s unprecedented. And that’s on top of possibly inventing new hardware that could be required. Hell, we don’t even have any Mem Cakes we can experiment with!”

She pounds the desk again, sitting in silence before writing her conclusion. “It’s not worth it.”

“But these aren’t from Mem Cakes! These are my own memories! Why aren’t you guys listening to me?!” 

The phone seemed to be getting more and more visibly frustrated. It seemed that they kept trying to find different excuses for what was going on instead of actually listening to the cause of the problem. 

“When will you guys realize that me and Tartar aren’t the same person?! We’re two different people! Being a machine doesn’t suddenly change that!” 

“...”

Marina fell quiet at that. They were at a dead end. Just like Alice had said, the screen showed absolutely no clear indication confirming or denying any of their theories. All they had to go on were words... The panicked, desperate words of what sounded like a young boy trapped inside that thing that had once tried to destroy their world. 

It broke her heart to hear someone sound this sad, misunderstood and lonely. She understood the feeling, she really did. But how far could she even trust her emotions in this situation? None of this was supposed to be possible. Above all of this stood, first and foremost a question. An issue they needed to clear up.

“Well, if that’s your story, and you’re sticking to it... Cole...”

Marina spoke to her phone calmly, looking directly in its camera, trying to hold it on eye-height. She wanted there to be no pressure, no barriers. Just truth.

“Who do you think you are? What... do you think you are?”

Watching this scene unfold, a somewhat uneasy Pearl shuffled a little closer to dedf1sh, peeking across her shoulder. She didn’t want to interrupt Marina, so she had to get her intel elsewhere. 

 “Hey... I don’t exactly understand what’s going on here, but... Why do we even need to interrogate this thing like that? Can’t we just... I dunno... Look at the files? Run a scan or something?”

She was whispering and the unusual softness in her voice made it clear she knew she might be talking absolute nonsense.

“I mean... It’s just a computer. Right?”

[the-splatoon]

inky-anemone‌:

With the first group gathering back stage with a rather eccentric manager getting them moving to the dressing room they were using the girls chatter between one another about the heat of the stage. Overall they looked to really enjoy their chance on the stage being the opening for the evening and the crowd certainly showed approval to their performance. Still there wasn’t much of a break in-between as Stucky announced over the mic off to the side the next act. The second act was a group of mixed species dancers, doing a choreographed segment to a remix done by Marina with much enthusiasm. The crowd of course got lost in the spectacle and the music, but the performance was painfully short in a way. After that there was a daring young jellyfish on stage performing a short magic act; with a moniker of success. Overall the performances before Clover and Ceph’s slot were solid, and had clear serious practice put into them in preparation for this event. By now though it wouldn’t be possible for Ceph to even consider backing down as Stucky cut in on the mic, introducing the pair with maybe a little too much hype building with the crowd, “….Our next act is from some eager last minute entries only mere moments before we opened this show up for you lovely folks. We have a young pair, a lovely young squid duo, a boy and a girl, setting out to put their dear hearts out for you. Cephalus and Clover!”

Sango groaned a bit at the sound of the announcement and massaged her temples.

“Oh cod, they used his full first name...”

“I trouble to comprehend. Is his name problematic?”

“It will be when the embarrassment makes his stage fright even worse,” she sighed. “Ugh, how did Clover coax him into this? I should’ve tried harder to...”

Sunny didn’t get to continue. Eve had put a finger on her lips. She was smiling gently.

“Have belief,” she said. “Ceph is able of making decisions of his lonely. If this performance had been unwanted, he would have rejected. I am sure.”

“...”

Sango looked at Eve with a mixture of surprise and doubt, as if to say ‘you don’t know him how I do’. Still, the Octo girl’s smile wouldn’t waver. It made Sunny sigh, with a bit more relieve.

“...You know. I hope you’re right.”

“I am certain. There is no inquiry, that you’re the strongest among us, Three,” Eve said calmly. “But we can’t always hide behind another’s powerfulness. He will do fine. Just behold.”

Well, there she was. Beholding.

So were Pearl and Marina.

And the entire hall at that.

...

For a moment, the venue was quiet. The stage not immediately taken by the next act, whispering began to echo through the ranks of people. Were there technical difficulties? Did the act back out?

However, after a few seconds.

Clank. 

Clank.

Clank.

This. 

Stepped on stage.

Spoons dropped.

Sunny’s drink, too. She looked pale, like she was witnessing a Booyah Bomb explode right in her face.

“Oh my cod...” she screeched out. “How did she even get one of these!?”

The person in this, ahem, ‘interesting’ attire, of course, was not Clover. It was Ceph, shaking like the pile of scrap metal he felt.

Clover wasn’t far behind, cheerily skipping onto stage fully decked out in nothing but Enperry Gear (From the ranks, Pearl raised a brow at the superfluous product placement) and wearing a crown that looked, ahem, suspiciously similar to a certain someone else’s.

She placed herself right next to Ceph, who by now was so stiff, he looked more like a glorified museum exhibit than an actual person, and, again, put a hand on his shoulder (not that he could feel it. Pauldrons.) 

With a raise of a finger, Clover clued in the backstage area.

Promptly, a cheery chiptune melody started to play.

And it began.

The high-pitched “scream-y” nature of the lyrics masked some of the pair’s missed notes already. But would it be enough to carry the performance? The music continued as the two of them played out their roles.

Clover as the self-loving Queen, and Ceph as the downtrodden knight, they played out the scenes of the music video, bit by bit.

They bounced across stage (as much as possible in Ceph’s armor, at least), and sang their parts with the appropriate amounts of cheer and snark-

“Huh... A weird piece...” Eve commented on the performance, making a bit of an unreadable face. 

Sunny, however, seemed entranced.

“It’s one of his favorites... That’s weird.” Sango pondered, more to herself than anyone else. “Why’d Clover go for a song that Ceph likes, rather than herself-”

...She couldn’t help but chuckle a bit, especially when she remembered how the song ended. Especially for the Queen-character.

[inky-anemone]

With Stucky talking out the plans for the order of performances and what Off the Hook wants to do in their slot in the rear room the rest of the event keeps moving onward with the preparations to start soon. Stage hands and other staff for the venue as now preparing sets and whatever else for the immediate first performances that need it, moving what is needed to the still curtained main stage area. Between the chatter of the performers and the radio conversations between the staff, the dull roar of noise nearly working to drown out Ceph and Clover. 

It wasn’t long before the back stage lights were dimmed and the staff were gently ushering the first few acts to their designated waiting rooms as music was turned on in the mean time for the guests waiting for the evening to start. Things were already picking up without much time to practice as the opening act, a amateur idol group, came onto the stage area to double check their positions on the layout once more, while their manager spoke with the sound and lighting technician. Even if that group itself seemed pretty new to the scene of performing live it still set a certain bar on appearances alone to open the performances this evening. With any luck though for Clover, maybe that Betta with the Fresh Fish doll passing by to the waiting room would be the performance before her and Ceph. Now with the near silence in the back stage area around the small practice and waiting rooms a few of the later performers standing by could be heard, albeit muffled, in that rear maze. One that stuck out was the sound of a piano with some sort of synth to make it sound like a wind powered music box; quite a unique sound to say the least. The practice room this was coming from though was firmly locked and any window peeking inside had curtains drawn; something others employed as well. More than anything this was likely to minimize distraction as their performances drew closer.

At this point Clover and Ceph would be offered the access to one of the vacant practice rooms to better prepare, if they were inclined to take it. On the main stag it isn’t long before Stucky appears to open the evening, allowing Marina and Pearl time to prepare while watching the camera feed of the stage. Lightly tapping the mic as he lifts it up, stepping across the stage as the spotlight focuses on him, “Ladies, Gentlemen, Cephalopods, Mollusks…I welcome you all to Fantasea and our Rising Stars Talent Show. Now before we begin I wanted to let you all know that the evening may run long, due to a treat we have in store after intermission; and to apologize for our starting getting rolling so late.” He moves a bit dramatically across the stage, making wide gestures as he speaks with confidence, “We have an exciting evening planned with new bloods, seasoned, and even a special visit from sensations you all well know. So without further adieu let’s kick off this event with a bang!” With that he disappears behind the curtains as the spotlight shuts off, giving him time to get off the stage for the first performance. With the queue of the music starting up, the curtains open and the lighting show begins as a beginner idol group begins their performance with as much confidence as the small mixed group can muster. The song itself was surprisingly polished and well performed as the group put their all into it, before introducing their group name at the end, and their seven members. Overall they opened the night rather strong despite one of their members tripping off stage after the performance.

[the-splatoon]

(Putting the link for the performance back in because Avex killed it.) 

“...I’m gonna die.”

Hearing the music echo to their practice booth from outside made Ceph’s skin take on a greenish tint, surprisingly fitting with Clover’s look, though that effect was barely intentional.

“Keep fresh,” Clover put her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You’re not seriously getting cold feet from hearing that sort of amateur act, are ya?”

“We’re not even amateurs!” Ceph retorted, wrapping his arms around his body. “The most I’ve ever done is Karaoke... Badly... Gah... Sunny was right. T-This was a b-bad idea...”

Shaking in his boots, he began to turn towards the door.

“I-I should...”

Clover held him back.

“Hey. Relax.” She squeezed his shoulder a bit. “Just do what I always do, ‘k?”

“W-What’s that...?”

“Have fun!”

Her smile was so genuine, somehow Ceph couldn’t help but be mesmerized by it. He stopped walking, the song of the 6 bouncy squid girls out on stage still echoing

__________________

It was somewhat intimidating how well this weird assortment of girls on stage managed to heat up the crowd, their voices resonating nicely despite them being wildly mismatched to the point that people didn’t even notice when the wildly bouncing aqua-colored Goop-ling up in front almost tripped over her own tentacles, along with several other choreographical blunders

Pearl, never one to mind healthy competition, threw her fist up in the air, cheering for backstage to turn up the sound another notch.

“WH00T! LET THE HOUSE BURN!”

“Hm, that’s weird. Why does it smell like hand santitizer in her all of a sudden...?” Marina wondered aloud, taking a look around. “...Deja vu.”

As the song drew to a close, the crowd was sufficiently motivated, Sango doing her usual Splatfest thing of bouncing her fist along with the beat, and Eve humming along serenely with the final chorus. 

Everyone was more than ready to head out on stage and try for themselves.

[telephobos]

As TarTar stands by the Splatfest Panel, he is approached by a group of Turf Battlers from behind...

[the-splatoon]

telephobos‌:

“Right! I’ll just follow your guys lead and you can show me how it’s done! I hope I’m not too bad at it, since it’s my first festival…” 

Cole quickly finished off his meal and got up, looking around. They must really enjoy their festivals if they go to these lengths just to celebrate! 

“Alright, show me where I need to go!” 

Sunny and Eve led the way, as expected. The place they went was quite a bit away from the highly populated areas around Inkopolis Square and Inkopolis Plaza. Rather, the girls brought the young ‘Octoling’ to a place the youth of the city rarely approached outside of the monthly festivities: The Splatfest shrine in Urchin Park. 

There was a lake at the end of the park, wide, surrounded by a beautiful, neatly maintained garden. Lilly pads and water sausages framed the waters of the lake (along with fencing to prevent and unfortunate visitors from falling in and splatting. And in the center of said lake, there was an island, and on said island...

On the plaza in front of the shrine, a small, square stage had been erected, and in its center, a campfire burned. The scent of incense was heavy in the air. People in Splatfest Ts and traditional clothing were crowd around the square stage. Women and men with drums played a loud, rhythmic piece, so very different from the music they had heard in the Square just earlier.

And on the stage...

Two young women in Yukata danced their dance in a way very different from what people were used to from them by now. 

And yet, it was just as beautiful.

“Chopperi’po shura-shura’fe Nan’nyuru-nire nifafera’hi “

[inky-anemone]

“You’re welcome to call me Stucky, ladies.” He announces to them as he leads them through the back stage, past the rehearsing performers to one of the green rooms. Holding the door open for them he ushers them inside before starting the private meeting as he closes the door, “Now I admit I wasn’t expecting your appearance at this small event but you’ve certainly helped with turn out. The ticket sales for seats have doubled so we’ll be able to talk reimbursement too for your impromptu service.” 

“Most of the talent signed up tonight is amateur, even street performers, or new start up acts. We’re not strangers to getting a band or two with a single already released though, and the venue is equipped for most needs.” The nautilus paces over to a arm chair, motioning Pearl and Marina to sit at the couch across from it, “I believe many of the performers are already fans of yours too so you’ll be bringing the best efforts out of them by being here. I think having you two perform to open second half of the evening would be best for the newer performers opening the evening. Does that work well for you?” He was offering them to open the second half of the evening with the more experienced performers after the intermission; the best option to remove tensions. Back on the stage Anemone came back to pick up the water bottle she left near the mic she had be testing before noticing Clover. Remaining quiet she watches quietly as she sees the demanding green inkling roping Ceph into some scheme. She’d already been briefed by Myrtle about the two being entered in the slot right before them, at the jealousy fueled behest of Clover herself, and had her concerns for Ceph since he didn’t come off as the sort to do this. Shaking her head at the thought she picks up the water bottle and heads off the stage before she risks being noticed, back to the waiting room with her friends. Other performers however who are opening the evening do give Clover some looks as she gives Ceph some troubles, before some go over their songs while others are going over their dance performance. There’s more to contend with than just the target Clover has, and even though the opening groups are mostly amateur like Clover many of them have more polish. 

[the-splatoon]

Marina had to dodge quite a few times as her and Pearl were being led through the backstage area. Everything was just accommodated for people much shorter than her. She had to duck out of the way of equipment a couple of times. Of course, being the tall person she was she was used to those sorts of issues, but it didn’t help the claustrophobia of suddenly being roped into a performance when she just came to hang out with friends. Even if she tended to not let people see, performing tended to bring out her anxieties, even when she was prepared.

“Yo. Relax, ‘Reena!” Pearl gently tapped her on the side. “It’s gonna be fresh as heck. Just wait and see.”

“I still think it’s a bit unfair towards all the start up acts here... I hope we don’t steal the whole show...” She just barely resisted from chewing on the top of her fingers.”But I guess if we go in the second half, that might work... And I’d love to encourage some fresh talent, of course!”

That thought finally managed to bring a small smile to her face.

“There’s our girl!” Pearl gave Marina a hearty smack on the back. “Let’s rock their world, ‘aight?”

“Sure, sure!”

Marina laughed. It is after her giggle ends that something further in in the backstage area catches her attention.

“Hey...isn’t that...?”

She isn’t quite sure, but a familiar combination of green and cyan catches Marina’s attention, and her starring finally causes Pearl to turn her head as well and squint.

“Hey... what’s the kid doing back here? I thought he had stage fright or somethi--”

She catches a glance of Clover, dragging Ceph around.

“...Oh.”

At once, all makes sense.

Backstage is bustling. Inbetween jugglers and magicians and singers galore, two inklings stand donned in gear that Clover had gotten from cod-knows-where and are singing their hearts out.

“#♪-!!”

That awkward shriek just now was Ceph, missing his note and causing a minor sonar wave as a result. Some heads turn and some people cringe briefly, before turning back again. Ceph cringes too. And then Clover smacks him on the back of his head.

“What are you doing, C! Geez! Get a grip! You wanna scare everyone out of their seats!”

“Y-You know I don’t do stages...!!” Ceph mumbled, almost dripping down into a squid-shaped puddle.

“Seriously... Clover... Can we just cancel this, please!? I can’t, okay!? I seriously--”

“..Tch.”

Scoffing at her shivering companion, clover turned her back on him. She spoke with crossed arms.

“...And here I thought you wanted to be a hero.”

That sentence immediately caused the boy to look up.

“I-I do!! I really do--- I will be!! I just have to-”

“You think nobody’s gonna be watching you when you’re a hero?”

She turned back to him and glared at him with what could only be described as her “serious-face”.

Ceph shrunk away. The ‘Agent 4′-ish aura she gave off... intimidated him.

“...”

He bit his lip a bit.

“...Nobody’s watching you and Sunny...” he mumbled. “When you’re out there... fighting for us all.”

“You think that?” She put her hands on her hips. “Then what about the battle against Octavio? What was that, huh? All those people up there, cheering for the enemy, while I was trying to kinda, sorta, not die?”

“....”

“...You can’t always be holding someone’s hand. You know that, right? If you really wanna stand on your own, then you gotta do just that. There won’t always be someone telling you what to do or who comes rushing to your aid when you’re out there and scared because you don’t know where to go. Not Sango, not me, and definitely not some random lady-friend you picked up on the street.”

For a short while there was silence between the two of them. Ceph starred at the floor to his feet, solemn.

The awkward moment continued, until a voice broke through.

“Seriously... What are you doing, Four?”

Someone walked up to them from the entryway by the side.

“...Are you trying to get him to sing? Ah, for cryin’ out loud...”

Sango tried to walk over to put a hand on Ceph’s shoulder, but Clover got in her way. The face she made was poisonous.

“Hey, ~Three~. Like, not that I have a problem with you preparing your own act, no, not at all, but y’know, this is kinda our corner~? We were here first. So, y’know, you could, like, scram.”

Rather than getting angry at this rude treatment, Sango just gave an annoyed sigh. Pushing Clover’s hand to the side, she turned to her cyan friend who stood by the side.

“You know you don’t have to go along with her, right, Ceph?” Sunny said with a kind smile. “If she’s giving you a hard time, just tell me. I’ll go to the management and tell them to take you off the setlist. It’s no problem for me, you know.”

“...”

Ceph briefly looked up at Sango, as if he wanted to say something, but quickly pulled back his hand and averted his eyes again. It looked as if he was thinking about something. He glimpsed at both Sunny and Clover. Then, he sighed and turned to the former of the two again.

“I-It’s alright,” he mumbled. “I... I’m gonna do it. I’ll go out on stage.”

This answer visibly surprised Sunny. She took a step back.

“Um... Are you really sure...?” she tilted her head.

“...Yeah.” He nodded. “I mean... You guys are all doing it, right? Who knows, it might be fun. And, besides...”

He looked away for a moment.

“I can’t always just... hide behind someone taller than me...” his words trailed off into a mumble.

“...”

Sango had no reply to that. Quietly, she looked on.

Outside by their table, a lone Octoling read to herself her own poetry.

“It’s known that we are but a spark. It’s unknown when that light goes out. Let’s make the best of what we have.”

[neni-has-ascended]

Neni plays Splatoon: November 2018 EU Splatfest! - YouTube Gaming

Neni is an Octopus now!

EU Splatfest November 2018 Stream!

I am playing Splatoon!

Whether you wanna join me or just watch, you are welcome!

[the-splatoon]

((Mun is playing!))

[inky-anemone]

“You’ve certainly brought in more of a crowd than we expected.” The nautilus comments, fiddling with the cuffs of his suit amidst the noise of fans, “If you’re keen on starting up the party for tonight’s events would you consider gracing our little event with a song or two? I can’t deny the fans wishes.” He was doing a fine job not stuttering as he felt that vibration of excitement from the fans, offering a polite gesture to the duo to follow him towards the staff and back stage access, “Could you lovely ladies please follow me so we can discuss what you might need for the stage in private?” With the fans going wild he needed to help his security detail get things under control before the event could start.

The sharks on security were doing just that, wrangling the fans into the hall who had paid for their tickets with the draw of Off the Hook being set to appear. The start would be delayed a bit now with the surge of seafood as the building was all but reaching its capacity limit for bodies. Back stage, where Clover had drug Ceph, turned out to be where Anemone and Myrtle were helping with the current mic check. They were singing a impromptu duet of an unknown song as the sound technician gave them directions while testing the volumes on the standing and hand held mics. There were a few others from different performing groups testing instruments and helping tune others amidst this but a good handful of them were looking over to the pair singing. To put it simply they sounded wonderful.  While Anemone doesn’t notice Clover or Ceph come into the back stage area, a stage hand and Myrtle certainly do. While the stage hand comes over to confirm they’re an act before helping them with props Myrtle gives a little wink in Clover’s direction. She had an idea and was quick to set back the mic she was at on its stand before running over to Anemone to talk to her about something as she drug her to one of the green rooms back stage. What ever was being planned here was going to be a surprise amidst the mounting events taking place for the evening.

[the-splatoon]

Pearl replied to the offer before Marina could even open her mouth.

“Surprise performance? Sure! We’re in!”

“Hm...”

It did sound like fun... But Marina felt a bit bad for all the people here who came for the open mic night. Hopefully this wouldn’t be too intimidating to them... Hah, being famous sure had its up and downs. 

She wasn’t going to point this out to Pearl, of course. Seeing her pose and bound about merrily was much too cute to interrupt. But even so, Marina found all the attention just a tad uncomfortable. If only she weren’t so tall... It was difficult to step to the side when everyone around you was at least a head shorter than you.

She was quite glad when they were led backstage. 

Clover being Clover, can’t help to interpret everything she encounters backstage like this as a challenge. The voices she hears, that little wink that weirdo gives her. Ugh, as if she even cared! She was gonna wipe the floor with that firefly girl. That much was for sure. 

There was an oddly aggressive gaze in her eyes when she shoved a costume into Ceph’s arms and ordered him to get dressed.

He just starred at the gear for a bit.

“How do you have one of those!? It only just came out.”

“Don’t sweat the details, just hurry up and get in it so we can rehearse! You don’t wanna embarrass me up on stage, do ya?”

“I still think this is a terrible idea...” Ceph groaned. “I mean, listen to them!” he gestured around. “Everyone here’s got experience. We got biweekly Karaoke nights! I-It’s gonna be a disaster...!”

“The only disaster I see around here is you not being dressed already! C’MON!”

She pushed him into a cabin, against the young Inkling’s protests.

What costume was she forcing him to don? What exactly did she want to practice? Well, that info would have to wait for the actual performance... Mwehahaha.

[the-splatoon]

“Hey Pearl, heard you wanted to be able to use some heavy equipment on the news the other day. I asked my boss if I could borrow one of their training machines and he said yes.” She gestures to a full VR setup, being watched over by an Octoling in a security outfit. “This is a virtual forklift training suite. Sure it’s a little different from a big crane, but the controls are similar. If you wanna give it a try, put on the headset and take the controllers.”

“Oh man! Don’t mind if I do! Time to give that baby a test ru-”

“KYAAAAAAA~!”

As Pearl is about to make her way to the simulator, suddenly Marina rushes through, pushing her partner to the side. She dashes to the machine and marvels at its structure.

“OHMIGOSH! Look at it! It’s the M.Tel-Gear8000! That’s state of the art VR and AR technology!! B-But does she have HD rumble too—” She bends down, examining the underside. “SHE DOES! OH MY COD!!”

Meanwhile, Pearl is getting back up from the floor…

“UM… Marina… This was kind of supposed to be…”

“I will call her Marilyn, and I’ll polish her and perform maintenance every day~!” Marina swoons.

“…”

Pearl decides to give up. As long as Marina is happy, that’s fine… she guesses…

[ask-googlie-the-inkling]

Googlie stares at this scene, frowning. “…I’d hate to break it to you, Marina, but my boss kinda wants this back,” she says. 

[the-splatoon]

“O-Oh....”

Hearing those words, Marina’s enthusiasm drained away at once, her face adorned with a sudden, flustered blush. She backed away from the machine, with a frown on her lips.

“I... see...”

All said, her eyes still gave a longing gaze in the direction of the device. A sigh escaped her lips.

Pearl, who at first, had seemed rather happy that Marina’s tech-tirade was interrupted for the moment being, now squinted, pulling her shoulders up to her ears. As annoying as Marina hogging all the Tech could be... This was...

Groaning a little, Pearl reached a hand into her back pocket. She turned to Googlie.

“...How much?” she asked. If there ever was a time to flaunt her 10 credit cards, it was now.

[the-splatoon]

octo-agent-3‌:

“They did that?!” Moon questioned, shock flickering through her voice, before she stopped herself and let herself cover her face again. “Wow. For Marina, she just… naturally stopped talking about it much. But the one time she took a scoop of ketchup and shoved it in her mouth was recorded and is still on the net to this day.”

She giggled, before looking back to Marina. “…Have we got anything figured out?” Back to business. Home.

“Well, that’s why Marina’s Marina and Pearl is Pearl!” Sango laughed, adding (Even in an alternate universe!) in her mind. 

While that was going on, Moon requesting more info caused a reply from the front.

“Still waitin’ on a reply from the other side, yo!” Pearl called, before turning back to Marina. “Man... Is it just me or is that connection kinda... crap?”

“Well, I mean, we’re talking to an alternate universe... We can’t exactly expect LTE speeds.”

[the-splatoon]

telephobos‌:

“R-Right… after everything I’ve gone through lately, I could use some liveliness.” 

Being in a place like the metro for too long tended to make someone gloomy. Smiling, he decided to let Eve lead the way to where her friend could possibly be. 

The way out of the Metro was simple ever since the Jump Pad had been installed. However, even using the device, Eve treated Cole carefully, like a fragile object that could break at any moment. She checked the functions of the machine (the angry yelling of a certain phone still in the background) from top to bottom before giving the go sign, then held his hand when they entered the actual platform.

She was scared to mess up again. Scared of failure. For all she knew, this could be his only day... No, she didn’t want to think about that. Clutching something in her pocket, Eve activated the pad, bringing the pair of them to Inkopolis Square at high speed.

Even while landing, she held on to him with a tentacle, elegantly feathering off the fall...

[the-splatoon]

((Some clarifications!!))

((Soooo, apparently while I was inactive, some people thought I had died or something. Ahaha...

While I appreciate you all caring about my well-being so much, this is precisely what I wanted to avoid with the information on my Rules page, but apparently due to my extreme activity right after making this blog that bit of info didn’t quite grip, so lemme try to explain a bit more closely.

I never meant to be constantly active on this blog. That’s because being constantly active on any one thing has proven to be a very, very bad thing for me, so I avoid it. Generally, I am always doing a million of different things at once. That has less to do with life being difficult (tho that’s sometimes a factor) and more with me being impulsive as all heck. 

Sometimes I just feel like writing 500 A4 pages worth of RP in a day. Sometimes I feel like using that time to write original story, make videos, write meta or draw instead. I’m reaaally flighty when it comes to my creative hobbies, and while I do have to learn to prioritize what I do at a time, if I just hyper focused on doing one thing after another, I probably wouldn’t be RPing at all, because RPing isn’t really something that has an “end point”. And that’d be a shame.

Anyway, what I’m saying is: Don’t worry about me going silent for a month. I do that. On my main blog too. But I generally come back. You SHOULD be worried about me when I am online on this blog nearly 24/7 for a month straight, because behavior like that, in my case, is generally a sign something has gone terrible wrong with my lifestyle. 

Tl;dr: Sudden pauses are gonna be the norm on this blog. Please don’t read anything into that.

If you’re feeling really anxious and wanna check on whether or not I’m alive, just go to my main blog @nenilein or my YouTube Channel. If either of those are even remotely active, chances are I’m doing just fine! So don’t worry. ^__^))