nocturnaltides

[nocturnaltides]

OC Intro Profile: Chains

[Art by @skyplayssplatoon3] Talked about like a ghost story, few dare to mention Chains' name out loud...If you find someone who's brave enough, they'll mention a weirdo that set up a lair, a hodgepodge of trains, cars, traps, and scrap metal marked by large scratches, on the outskirts of town, they'll also mention strange lights in the night sky, maniacal cackling, and the ominous warning not to go anywhere near that place, for people who wander too close go missing for days, only to be found later, running through the desert, babbling about "other worlds", "being watched", and other things that don't make sense...

While the stories may paint her as some kind of boogey man, they are right about one thing: Chains is a bit of an oddball, to say the least. Beneath the "assortment" of rusted rubble, Chains has made a surprisingly comfy home for herself, using her skills as a mechanic. her wild imagination, and a "spark" to create just about anything she sets her mind to, all while rambling about anything and everything, ranging from "what's out there" to that time she had to use a tire iron as a toothpick, again, to various other bits that she scribbles down in a mysterious notebook that she keeps tucked in her coat pocket at all times. Luckily for her, she has her smallfry buddy, Mayday, to keep her company, and a voice that, occasionally, guides her out into the desert, where her story takes a turn in the form of a fateful encounter with Riza, an explosive battle with Nocchan, and the crater that leads to the depths of underground settlement of Alterna...

Finding herself running with a bit of a motely crew, driven by voices and visions calling out to her, and now being granted the title of Neo Agent 3 by Riza, now Captain of the new squidbeak splatoon, Chains is all set for the trials and revelations that Alterna has in store

[To Be Continued...]

[nocturnaltides]

[Riza: Restless]

A lone inkling sits on the steps of her outpost, with only the gentle light of the midnight moonlight, the sound and feel of a chilling desert breeze, and the sight of the massive crater

Riza finds herself unable to sleep, once again Something stirs in the back of her mind, a menagerie of memories, visions, voices, and…something that she can’t quite describe, or maybe hesitates to…

She looks up to the stars and the full moon, the quiet twinkling lights offer her a moment of peace as she lets out an exhausted sigh

“Just…just a minute, only for a minute” Riza whispers to herself A cold gust rolls by, as if to answer her, as she feels her eyelids become heavy…

[SHATTER]

The sound of broken glass fills the silence Riza’s eyes widen as the stars begin to fade from the sky, one by one I’m the moment, the thunderous sound of her own heartbeat overtakes everything and a sharp pain envelopes her right hand, suddenly covered in small wounds

An low haze creeps in, bringing with it an image that haunts the former soldier… A familiar figure, dressed in octarian battle armor, and a gas mask with eerie cyan light glowing in the lenses and fog billowing from the vents

It slowly walks towards Riza, each step carries the echo of hundreds, even thousands, as its gaze is fixed on her…

Riza watches, with a cold sweat, as the haze rises and, one by one, an army of silhouettes appear, standing at attention, their eyes glow with that same haunting cyan glow

As the figure marches closer, memories flash through Riza’s mind Visions of battles fought in the underground The sounds of weapon fire and rallying cries from the forces standing against her The rush, the drive of putting her life on the line with each mission The unnerving sights of the many sanitized experiments The feeling of fighting for control when she was caught in Tartar’s trap The feeling of being watched ever since, by something she refuses to explain… Beneath that thing’s mask, the phantom that haunted her for years, the macabre culmination smiles

With each step closer, Riza’s heart beats faster The phantom mimic extends its hand, an offering for her to join it as she staggers to her feet, struggling to catch her breath

Mustering all the strength she can, Riza draws her charger, takes aim…and coughs as the ghost clenches its fist and pulls back, snatching the breath from her lungs

“Not…not yet” she weakly calls out as her vision begins to fade

“I…left..you behind” she whispers as she raises her weapon one more time

The phantom lunges forward, hand outstretched towards Riza’s face

“HEY!!”

A voice calls out, silencing all else Riza turns as she feels a hand clasp her shoulder

To her relief…she saw a familiar bandana, a skull bandana wrapped around Nocchan’s neck

“What’s happening? Who are you talkin’ too?”

Riza turns back and sees…nothing No ghosts, no haze…no army Just the crater, the wind, and the midnight sky… She looks down at her hand, wrapped in a bandage… She leans her charger against the wall as she takes a second to collect herself, though she can’t hide that she is visibly shaken

“N-nobody, it’s…”

Riza stops herself, glancing over at Nocchan, who she knows is quick to see through the lie

The bags under eyes, her bandaged hand, the sweat on her forehead, the cyan tint in her right eye…

“I couldn’t sleep…”

Riza can’t help but follow Nocchan’s eyes as she looks around the room, especially taking note of a shattered mirror, the pieces forming a trail to the steps where Riza had been sitting

Taking a deep breath, Nocchan gently puts her hard on Riza’s shoulder one more time as they both walk back to the outpost steps, Riza rests against the railings as Nocchan looks towards the horizon and the first signs of dawn

“Take it easy, I can handle things”

Nocchan turns to Riza, just in time to see the cyan glow in her eye fade back to purple as she slowly falls asleep “Thanks…” Riza whispers before easing into the first decent sleep she’s had in a week...

[nocturnaltides]

[Couple O' Scrappers: Chains/Riza]

The sound of metal on metal echoes through an empty patch of the Splatlands, as Riza tosses a few bits of scrap into a large container that’s about half full. As she brushes some sand off her shoulders, something catches her attention, something shaking in a nearby metallic heap

“I know you’re in here somewhere! Ya can’t hide foreeeeeveeerrrrrr~ I’ll find you eventually….”

Riza raises an eyebrow as the voice continues, occasionally chuckling mischievously, rustling in the rusted pile, until a hand bursts forth, holding a particularly shiny object with a few wires that are, remarkably, still intact

“Aaaaaand jackpot~!! Always follow your nose!!”

Chains proudly proclaims as she climbs out of the scrap heap, carrying her treasure, and a few other “choice cuts” under her arm before she adds it to their collective haul

Beneath her gas mask, Riza can’t help but smirk as Chains immediately begins to hop around, from mound to mound, picking from all sorts of objects from ages gone by that were left to sit in the sands

“Gotta hand it to you, watching you run around like that, you’ve actually made a little bit of a niche out here for yourself”

Chains perks up, after having found an oddly cozy resting place in the bucket of a raised excavator arm, a bright spark in her uncovered eye

“I kinda like it out here! Ya never know what you’re gonna find out here! Like me, I found a home! Sooome people may call it a ‘death trap’ and stuff, but it ain’t too bad~”

For a moment, she lays back, her eye watching the clouds go by as she casually kicks her legs over the side

Meanwhile, Riza digs out another piece of metal, her partially obscured reflection looks back at her before she adds it to the pile

“You made a home out of a death trap all by yourself?”

She says, with a slight joking tone of voice. As Chains raises a thumbs up towards the sun

“YEP! The shack, the obstacle course, my rides, all the good stuff, made it myself~ Not the trains though, I’m not sure who made those, kind of a shame to just leave those around, so I do what I can with those~”

A split second of bewilderment overcomes Riza as the masked inkling can’t help but laugh for a minute

“Hmm, never thought I’d say this but, I get it. Gotta learn to fend for yourself, for the most part”

Chains leans over the bucket’s edge, with a mischievous look on her face and an, overdramatic, villainous tone in her voice

“Ooooohohoho~ we’re not so different, you and I~”

Springing to her feet and jumping down from her newfound perch, Chains catches a glimpse of Riza’s eyes beneath her mask, for an instant…there was something forlorn in the way she looked back before she leaned up against the side of an old freight crate

“Wait, for real? For real real?? But I thought you and skull face were like a team, or somethin like that”

A cool breeze drifts by as Riza quietly removes her mask While she smiles, her expression seems to carry a slight hint of sadness

“A team, huh? That’s a funny way to put it. But, no, it wasn’t always like that. Before all this, kinda like you, I just took care of business myself”

She stares at her mask for a second or two, thinking back on her early days in Inkopolis and the Squidbeak Splatoon, and all the battles she’s fought through over the years. Chains speaks up after a brief pause

“Well, it ain’t like that now, right? With the way you two bicker, it’s like you’ve been buds for ages! Sooooo, maaaaaaybe you don’t have to do stuff on your own anymore? Not only that but, we’ve kinda already gone on a few missions haven’t we?”

Chains leans up against the crate wall, folding her arms and subtly trying to mimic Riza’s pose With a smirk on her face, she slightly leans over and closes her eyes

“Aaaand uuuuh, I dunno if you remember or not buuuut, you did say you wanted to tag along today~”

Trying her best to hold back from smiling, and maybe even laughing, Riza scoffs

“Someone has to make sure you don’t get hurt. I’ve watched you jump, almost head first, into six different scrap piles since we got here. I’m actually surprised you haven’t-“

She stops short, as she realizes Chains is now standing next to her, shoulder to shoulder, with a goofy, and toothy, grin on her face

“Soooooo you were worried about me and wanted to be there to help if I got in trouble~??”

Chains leans in close and whispers, in a playfully mocking tone

“I ain’t the sharpest bulb in the crayon box buuuuuut, golly, sure sounds like something [dramatic gasp] a friend would do~”

After a moment of silence and unblinking eye contact, Riza gently nudges Chains until she’s standing upright again

“Hmm, don’t push your luck too much”

Chains smiles as a faint sparkle glows in her eye, her voice still in that teasing tone

“You don’t gotta push your luck with…a friiiiieeeeend~”

Riza puts her mask back on to hide her “comically annoyed” expression as she starts walking back to the mound she was searching earlier

“Oookay, back to work with you, we got a job to do”

A breeze rolls by, carrying a jaunty whistle as Chains happily strolls, almost skipping, over to another scrap pile

“Ya got it, boss~”

Riza immediately perks up and looks over her shoulder, a strange shiver runs down her back

“Was that a nickname I just heard?”

A question that’s only met with the sound of metal being shifted and an oddly catchy tune

“Hmm…what have I gotten myself into this time?”

Despite her questioning, Riza can’t help but quietly chuckle to herself as she digs up another piece of reflective scrap. She can see her own masked face, and Chains, waving not too far away

Beneath that mask…Riza smiles

[nocturnaltides]

Once again, THANKS SKY~!!! THEY ALL LOOK AWESOME~!!! AND I'M BRINGIN THIS OVER HERE FOR MY, long overdue, OC PAGE~!!

Introductions in order:

Chains: A chaotic enigma? A wackadoo mechanic? A total lunatic? A cackling ghost story? She's been called many things, and not a lot of people have any idea of what her deal is. But, people do know that she lives in the outskirts of Splatsville, in a hodgepodge of scrap metal, bizarre traps, and odd, somewhat ominous, scratches on the walls that she, happily, calls her hideout. She's got a few screws loose but, if you listen closely, you might find some strange meaning in her ramblings about "what's out there"...maybe, or she might just be talkin about pickin her teeth with a tire iron, again Nowadays, she gets to put her mechanical, and other odd skills, to use since, after getting into a wild showdown with Nocchan, she tagged along with her and Riza and joined the new Squidbeak Splatoon.

Macha: A happy-go-lucky soul that grew up with big dreams of big adventures, especially after watching Nocchan fight everything the world has thrown at her. Not one to stay back and let everyone else do the hard work, Macha does her best to lend her incredible speed to those who need it, under the guise of her wandering hero alter ego: [The Golden Jet Stream: Supersonic Squid Machamon!]

Riza: Years ago, she was a top fighter who grew bored of the crowds and cameras and sought something "different" in life, which she found when she inherited the title of "Agent 3" and went off to fight countless battles that, instead of giving rise to a brave hero, awakened something merciless and cold blooded in her heart, stealing the armor of a fallen rival as a "trophy" and using her gas mask to hide her sinister smile and piercing gaze, a look that Nocchan became all too familiar with when the two clashed and Riza walked away after a heated battle that would make her a nemesis in Nocchan's eyes...This would come rushing back to her after she received news that she was to become Captain of the Squidbeak Splatoon. After having adjusted to a somewhat quiet life, she now quietly faces her demons, struggles to find peace with herself. and goes through the odd process of teaming up with Nocchan and Chains...though it's kinda hard to tell all that since she manages to keep a confident smirk on her face and keeps a habit of givin people nicknames~

Doppel: What do you get when you cross an identity crisis with a booyah bomb? You get Doppel~!! Through a freak accident, the power of a fateful booyah bomb combined with Nocchan's, temporarily, scrambled mind and mixed into a form all its own, a form that, after much anxious self discovery, dubbed herself "Doppel" Since then, she has clashed with Nocchan, multiple times, on a journey to find stability, to make sense of how she fits into the world, and to keep Nocchan from going too far and get others caught up in her shenanigans. Though she still searches for answers, she has come a long way from anxiously spending her nights staring up at the stars and wondering "why?" Now, she asks herself "why not?"

Nocchan: Having spent most of her life on the streets, Nocchan's made a habit of fighting everything in her way, all while cracking one liners and gettin into trouble, and that kind of energy has gotten her through many trials in her life: Escaping a storm that destroyed her hometown, fighting Octavio, almost destroying Wahoo World while dueling with Doppel, facing Tartar and Riza on top of the NILS statue, giant salmonid monstrosities, adding another crater to the splatlands after fighting with Chains, the list goes on. The only thing that seems to have any hope of defeating Nocchan is the fear that she might not be strong enough to protect those she cares about, a fear that almost won out when she moved to the splatlands in order to push herself to new levels...That is until Riza, someone she strived to show up, came around and asked her to join the Squidbeak Splatoon. Now, alongside two unlikely partners, Nocchan finds herself goin' up against a whole new set of challenges that, one by one, seem to be bringing back the spark she had when she first arrived in inkopolis, and there's no tellin where she'll end up next!

🎉HAPPY BIRTHDAY @deepsixsquid !!🎉

If everyone could do me a favor and go blow up his [ask box] with birthday wishes today, that'd be super cool!!

[OCs in order: Chains / Macha / Riza / Doppel / Nocchan]