#^press x to view the map | worldbuilding

[inkparagon]

so we were looking at japan’s 2011 earthquake in school today and it got me thinking-

if we assume that inkopolis is indeed in the same location as today’s japan, that would mean they would still be getting earthquakes with quite frequent regularity. and that’s one thing but with island earthquakes also come tsunamis, and, given the whole climate change thing, i would imagine frequent storms as well. not quite ideal for creatures who dissolve in water- especially when there's no sort of barrier to be seen

[inkparagon]

rubs hands together i have been wanting to write about manuels shadow (even tho i have no current plans for it rn dhdhsj) so-

His Palace manifests itself as a huge nightclub. the public floors are packed, but all the ordinary people are like low poly npcs in an old video game- they lack any faces or defining features, and they seem to even be repeating ‘models’ so to speak. There’s a handful of cognitions that do stand out- the squid sisters and off the hook provide music and entertainment on the biggest but lowest floor of the club, the capn generally floats around the bar. A cognitive Shiba can occasionally be seen moving between the employee backrooms, and getting lost in the crowd themselves. Kouki is generally seen hanging out on an empty quiet balcony. His metro friends stalk the darker corridors of the utmost floors, and his kids and little brother are safe and sound in his treasure room.

Shadow Manuel- who refers to himself as Sango mostly, is the dj of the highest public floor, putting himself on a pedestal slightly higher than everyone else due to his status as Agent 3. The most notable thing about this shadow is the big noise cancelling headphones he wears, as well as the complete apathy to well- anything really. theres no motivation or energy in his actions or speech, and he doesnt listen to anyone but his cognitions of noticeable people

his palace is born from his repressed thoughts that life and existence is meaningless- his life especially so. he views everyone outside his own social circle as faceless masses, and if they all disappeared, he wouldn’t give a damn. he has no real desire to do anything with his life- which in and of itself is a distorted desire. to the outside world, sango is very go with the flow, and can adapt to any situation, which internally stems with having no goal in life. the music he plays in the club reflects that, swinging violently from preppy upbeat pop, to something more sinister sounding with no real rhyme or rhythm. the aggresive shadows that lurk here appear in the form of party goers with paper masks and the occasional bouncer

the upper private floors get a lot darker than the excitement on the public floors, reflecting a lot of his younger teenage years and time spent in the metro. theres a l o t of self hate and destruction seen there, and its also where most of his agent 3 mementos and gear are kept, given they served as an outlet for his feelings at the time. the fact theyre all high up and away also mirrors how that side of him is kept completely under wraps and distant from the way he acts irl. another form of shadow appears here, represented by kamabo co workers

his treasure room is, surprisingly, completely different from the rest of the palace. it’s not even part of the club, instead, its his kitchen at home, full of love and life, and even serving as a safe room because the cognition isnt actually that strong. drag manuels shadow up there and youll see his protectiveness of the things dear to him also stems for his own meaningless. he will gladly sacrifice his everything for the people he loves without a second thought, because he doesnt care about his own life.

his treasure is a vinyl disc playing music close to his heart, which, in the real world, turns out to be a photo album of the people he cares about.

[inkparagon]

the rampaging octowhirl

Agent 3 was a lot of things. Feisty and rambunctious, she lacked the skill and experience of Agents 1 and 2, but she was tenacious, precision traded for pure instinct. In her campaign, she had easily bested the Octostomp and the Octonozzle, a feat which she, really, had never dreamed of doing.

And we see her now, super jumping to metal and brick arena. Her prize, a golden zapfish, encased in glass, floats for just a moment, above what she could only describe as a large and mechanical clam, before it’s claimed by the signature octarian tentacle. The Octowhirl, a rampaging remnant of a war long past, roars to life, and Agent 3 draws her weapon, smile sharp as she begins what she thinks will be another easy fight.

And it is, at first. We see her now, taunting the weapon towards her again, and she’s laughing, the adrenaline of it all exciting her. Machines see, without an operator, follow the same pattern over, and over, and the Octowhirl is no different, spinning towards her in a flurry of spikes, where a pool of ink lays across it’s path, waiting to ensnare it’s target once again.

Except it doesn’t, spikes just barely pulling the massive machine out it’s would-be trap, and for a precious moment, we see Agent 3 try to dodge it, but it’s just not enough. One of her long tentacles, currently yellow-green and left loose, is caught in a spike and shes dragged along the cold, hard floor, as her other tentacle, too, is impaled. The camera pans up as we see a small ghost of a squid rise where, just a minute before, Agent 3 had stood,truly enjoying what had turned so quickly into a personal nightmare.

And she respawns, and only then is the true nature of the damage to her done revealed. Her tentacles, ripped and torn, drip with a thick ink that coagulates on her clothing and hands, and it hurts, a painful ache that only worsens with every movement she makes. But she grits her teeth, and jumps straight back in, ignoring the Cap’n’s pleas to retreats as her radio turns to static.

And we jump now to her victorious return to the Splatoon HQ, light headed, and leaving a trail of what we could, supposedly, call blood in her wake. And yet, as she enters the cabin, there’s no fussing about her appearance, no praise about her valiant effort to reclaim the zapfish curled up asleep in her arms. The cabin is empty and cold, a cup of cold tea and a plate of the Cap’n’s favourite biscuits sit untouched on the desk. 

Agent 3 nearly collapses, not quite succumbing to the pain of being, essentially, mauled alive. In her haze, only being able to reach for a pair of sharp scissors, she makes the decision that chopping off her destroyed tentacles was the best option, parents’ opinions long forgotten. And she slides down the wall, not allowing herself to cry, and we see her radio light up pink and green as two familiar yet not too familiar voices reach out to her.

[inkparagon]

girl power station

We see Agent 8 standing at the entrance to Girl Power Station, CQ Card in hand, and he's about to attempt what has been claimed to be one of the most challenging of the stations out of Kamabo’s 80. He swipes his card and walks through the gate, steeling himself for the challenge ahead.

Immediately, his choice of weapons is the Splat Dualies. They feel comfortable in his grasp in a way that no other does, a remnant, perhaps, of a past he no longer remembers. He lingers for a moment longer, before he takes the launch pad to the arena below. The camera pans across the faces of 15 Octoling Soldiers, 8 of which bearing the kelp denoting their Elite status . And as the timer of this station starts to tick, we see the same smirk flicker across their faces.

The first twenty seconds are manageable, landing points easily visible, and Agent 8 takes them out quickly. Soon, the soldiers split up, task becoming harder, and as he goes to take out one jumping in, for a single solitary moment, instinct has him drop his guard, assured he will hear a sniper’s shot that never comes.

He begins again, memory already having wiped the mistake of the last. This time, he lasts a little longer, but instincts yet again fail him, as he assumes that his back is covered. 

We watch him fail again, and again, and again, each time being overwhelmed by the number of enemies he fights. By way of luck, he has plenty of CQ points to spare, but each quintet of lives slowly drains them away. And it hurts, being splatted so repeatedly, sanitised ink burning his skin, but he tries again, and again, and again, slowly but surely committing the enemies movements to muscle memory. Pearl, Marina, the Cap’n, too, calling out octolings he had missed. He fights his upbringing, where in he was never fighting alone, and it was regrettable, that he was losing a part of him, his fights becoming more and more brutal with each round he went through, desperate to prove himself to no one. 

Finally, having lost track of how many rounds he had lost, we finally see the timer tick down to zero, and we see Agent 8 collapse, near tears, in the centre of an arena he’d come to curse. He drags himself out, barely conscious, respawn after respawn not giving him nearly enough energy. His reward is a small memcake depicting a grey hoodie, Skalop Brand. And for a second, there's a flash of memory, a cold winter's day where he had curled up with a discarded hoodie from the inklings above, celebrating a rare day off from duty.

And then it's gone.

[inkparagon]

with the SRL Coat out here’s some Squid Research Lab Thoughts:

The SRL is a non profit group that oversees any area related to celphalod biology. as the name suggests, it was mostly focused on Squids but over time, octolings, and other cephalopods fell under their areas of research too

while they dont have any bad intentions, they also have very classified information, somehow

this includes information on the squidbeak splatoon, the deep sea metro, and the octarian army

they have a very popular shoalcial media blog, that has all the latest updates on new gear, weapons, and little tid bits on the squidbeak splatoon, etc, not enough to really give away the agents, but enough that theres a general acknowledgement in the public

as popular as they are, it’s a difficult to land any sort of internship

[inkparagon]

Despite how quickly OE can be beaten, Kouki was trapped in the Deep Sea Metro for easily three months, if not more. Even before being found by Cuttlefish, he had his memory taken and his physical ability analysed, hence the hospital tags, which in itself took a few days.

The most notable delay to his escape was despite finding all four Thangs pretty quickly, Kouki insisted on completing all the trials, to “prove” himself as being worthy of The Promised Land. Even as he tried to complete them as fast as he could, there were days when he was so physically exhausted he couldn’t attempt any of them. He spent a lot of time sleeping on the train, or else in a corner the residential areas of the civillian districts. His CQ points could be used to buy food, and on occasion, clothes or other provisions, but he only used what was necessary, even if Pearl was willing to always lend a hand.

Manuel spent that same amount of time in the Metro, but by comparison, had a much easier time. He was found by a certain conductor, and was drafted into being one of Kamabo Co’s employees. His job was to go through the tests, with no danger of splatting mind, and to make sure everything was working as planned, whether they be the trial’s mechanics themselves, or the cameras used to watch applicants. If not checking the trials, he was given other menial jobs to do, usually to the benefit of the conductor, who he’d grown rather close to. He had the employee Kamabo Blue ink colour instead of his normal orange ink.

Manuel never had any interaction with Commander Tartar, and only one interaction with the thing known as the “Telephone”, where he received his CQ-80. Due to this, Manuel had very little, if any, knowledge of the actual going ons of the facility, even if he had his suspicions.

[inkparagon]

3, 11, 14, 16

Do OCs of canon characters count? Sure - Accepting

3. Tell us something about the world/universe in which your muse lives.

I guess I’ll talk about what I have of the school system. School is compulsory up until I guess 14? Basically, all squishes have to be in school. By the time they gain they’re kid forms, they’ve considered independent, and, especially in the city, a lot of kids move away. But school’s for senior students do exist, and an awful lot of teenagers do go. These schools do have a wide variety of subjects, but are also much more specialised in certain areas. Shiba, for example, does attend classes like Chemistry and History, but his classes focus on Weapon Tech the most.

Being teenagers, many schools offer internship programs, such as at Ancho-V Games for aspiring game devs. While not being entirely required to get jobs in certain areas, doing internships through schooling does give you more… renown, basically.

v

Given it’s also optional, the schools are generally smaller, and have more students who actually want to learn. Older people, who didn’t go in their teens, do have the options of classes run in the evenings, for example. 

11. Do you ship your muse with any other original characters?

Ehhhhh…. really only my own characters atm shfhdhs. Nothing’s technically canon on this blog, yet anyway, but if it does, it will probably just be my own characters. I’m not sure if I’d be open to shipping, it’d have to be rlly chemistry based and what not so shdhfhfdkkfk 

14. Do you have any NPCs for your muse’s world or story? If yes, can you tell us something about them?

LOADS.

Shiba has his band of classmates and friends- Gayle, Arlo, Penny, Lottie, and his best friend Kellas. He hangs out with them a majority of the time, and they’re all really close. He’s known Gayle and Lottie for a rather long time, and Penny, Arlo and Kellas for about two years. Gayle and Arlo are dating, as are Penny and Lottie, leaving Kellas and Shiba as the eternal third wheels and/or wing-people.

Kouki, most importantly, has his teammates- Ares, Nyx, and their leader, Poe. They’ve been friends basically their whole lives, so Kouki’s disappearance into the Metro really affected them all. Because they’ve always been trained together, Kouki does rely on them in a fight, to the point where not having them leaves him very vulnerable.  Poe also has Kouki’s Golden Toothpick, and wears it on a daily basis. And she’s also Kouki’s love interest outside of blog canon ahddjskk 

Manuel, too, has a lot of npcs. His kids, of course, I’ve also put a little bit a thought into his family (Mum, Dad, and his adoptive younger brother), but honestly, most development has gone into the people he met in the Metro- AQ, Kee, Lime, Cherry and Aidan. Honestly, aside from AQ, they don’t have too much of a role but they’re just interesting characters to me dhddjkdks. Cherry and Aidan, in particular, are surface level friendly with Manuel, but make him suspicious of Kamabo, as they are part of the experiment staff there. AQ is his conductor for the Metro, as well as his partner in the job he held there. 

16. Is your muse religious?

Uhhhh…. honestly, I don’t even know? It’s not something I’ve put to much thought in, because for all we know, squids, at the very least, revere a fax machine. So bear with me for this dhdhsjks

Shiba, I feel, is at the very least, mildly religious? Not practising, much, and doesn’t really believe in it, but he… finds some comfort in it, I suppose. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it here much, but Shiba doesn’t have a family, so the idea of a ‘great beyond’ and whatnot is appealing to him.

Manuel was probably brought up religious, I think. But nowadays, he isn’t so much, being one of the many, many things he tried to distance himself from as a teenager. That being said, he does try to incorporate some of what he remembers into his everyday, the whole ‘treat your neighbour as you would yourself’ thing. He does wonder about the fax machine though. 

Kouki… is not religious at all. He just doesn’t have an interest in it, especially after what he went through in the Metro for a whole three months. However. he’s very superstitious, many of his own making, which is mostly down to his paranoia. 

[inkparagon]

speaking of the whole anniversary thing, actually, shiba and manuel follow splatoon 1 and 2′s timeline, where their whole hero campaign takes place at the time of the game’s release

kouki, on the other hand, has his campaign take place around the same time as Shiba’s, simply for convenience's sake. octo expansion is technically only a year old, but per this timeline, the metro incident occurred two years ago (this also means koukis first fest wasnt the orange juice one haha)

[inkparagon]

[ i spent a stupidly long time on tags but also fixed up some mistakes on the about page too !! ]