#o.r.c.a. is mentioned

[toonie-doodle-splat]

Character Headcanons: Octoling Agent 3 (Neo Agent 3)

Since this is about the new Agent 3, this will contain some spoilers for Splatoon 3.

I wanted both new Agent 3s to have a specific cultural background, like how Deep Cut clearly has coded ethnicities (ex. Frye being coded as South Asian/Indian). For Neo Agent 3, I decided that he should be Haitian-Japanese; as a result, his name is Japanese.

The nickname he goes by is Shion (Kanji: 詩音, Katakana: シオン), which means “poetry sound” in Japanese. His real name is Minato Takowasa (Katakana: タカワソ ミナト), so his full name is Minato "Shion" Takowasa! Minato means "harbour" in Japanese, and takowasa is a Japanese dish that is made from raw octopus and wasabi.

His last name being Takowasa is based on DJ Octavio's Japanese name (DJ General Takowasa). I like the headcanon that Octoling Agent 3 is related to DJ Octavio.

If you're wondering, the Katakana is there because Katakana is how Octarian is written in the Japanese version of Splatoon; both Marina and DJ Octavio have text in Katakana in order to imply a different accent from Inklings, according to Inkipedia.

Shion uses he/him pronouns and any terms. He's butch and dresses like a dad.

He has a huge interest in music, and has made several songs for fandoms he was in. As of recently, he's been producing original music online.

Continuing from the last point: Because of how common it is to remix Calamari Inkantation, Shion has a small distaste for it. He also prefers Fresh Start, since he thinks it has more remixing potential.

He was mute until he was seven, so he often stutters over his words. The stuttering intensifies when he needs to talk to multiple people at once.

Continuing from the last point: Shion now speaks multiple languages, such as Inklish, Octarian, Inklish Sign Language, and Octarian Sign Language. Whenever he has a non-verbal day, he defaults to Octarian Sign Language.

He likes to fidget with stuff when he's nervous, which often leads to Yeong (Agent 3 II) having her hair braided by him. Smallfry also gets its hair played with if Yeong isn't around.

He was always told he had a resemblance to his grandfather, but he never met the guy. After saving the world, Shion had a conversation with him.

Shion was raised between Mt. Nantai and Octo Valley, but was moved near a Salmonid Swim Zone after the events of Splatoon. This Swim Zone was where he would meet Yeong and Smallfry, where they would become an inseparable trio.

Due to his face markings and general humanoid appearance, O.R.C.A. likes him more than Yeong and Smallfry. He is completely unaware of this, as O.R.C.A. barely changes its behavior towards him.

Agent 3 II's post: https://toonie-doodle-splat.tumblr.com/post/698244658320621568/character-headcanons-inkling-agent-3-agent-3-ii

[eshasunrise]

Deepsea Glass

This is a pre-Splatoon fan fic that takes place in Alterna, days before its destruction.

Selena (Saline, moon) is an analogue for Marina

Kohime (little princess) is an analogue for Pearl

Inspired by the squid ink panels reflecting the desires of humanity.

Read below the cut.

Selena wanted to bash her head against the wall. She was the project lead in Alterna's delusional corporate suicide cult. Sorry, she meant 'Happiness Research Lab', a once important figure in maintaining Alterna's long-term survival, now a haven for madmen demanding humanity return to the irradiated, flooded surface.

Her job was to figure out the logistics of building, and launching, a rocket from deep beneath the sea and into the Earth's soil. Needless to say, all calculations show the probability of successfully launching a rocket deep underwater was literally, no smudging the numbers, 0%. And that's ignoring the readings showing that the surface is still flooded, irradiated, and over 15 degrees hotter than is ideal for agriculture, let alone maintaining human life. And THAT is ignoring the fact that the force of the rocket would fracture the stone of the cavern in which the population is maintained, assuming the psychic backlash of every neuroLCD panel suddenly exploding from energy overload wouldn't kill the population outright.

So obviously, the higher-ups appealed to reason. Or not. Instead, they scrapped the research to start building the rocket. Needless to say, it was now up to Selena to build an anti-gravity device which could withstand the water pressure while her roommate and boss, Kohime, tried desperately to get the company to stop.

It had barely been 60 years since Alterna was finished and colonized, and yet already people were demanding the impossible. Small crowds creating conspiracy theories about the land being just outside the walls, as opposed to the waterlogged crag of the flooded cavern that you can very clearly see if you just switched off one of the panels.

Selena needed a break. She decided, if her job wasn't going to listen to her findings, then she wasn't going to bother staying the full day. Clearly she wasn't alone in this thought, as when she approached the door, she caught her roommate standing outside on her phone. Selena's own phone pinged a notification right as she opened the glass door, greeting the shorter woman's slightly embarrassed face. That didn't last long however, as she begun to speak:

"Oh good. I just texted you." Kohime said. "You wanna head out early?"

"Absolutely." Replied Selena. She was glad that she was living with somebody who had some sense. The two of them grabbed a frozen tofu desert on the way home (most of the non-seafood was tofu, as it was one of the few crops to easily grow down here), and Kohime began to complain.

"Every day. Every goddamn day, these fucking bastards keep fucking ignoring me! 'Oh look, the princess is mad again' like, no shit? I'm trying to keep you alive! I don't care if the goddamn escapists are profitable, we aren't here to make a profit! We need to focus on the future! Making sure there's a planet to live on, not running to our death as fast as possible! What are we, fish to an angler?!"

Selena sighed in agreement. She had nothing to add, as everything she would say has already been said. Instead, she half-listened to her best friend's impatient ramblings while thinking of how to cheer her up later. There was that one project...

"Hey Kohime." Selena interjected. "You remember that old shark movie we watched the other day?"

"Oh yeah, Jaws, right? You wanna watch it again?" Kohime responded.

"We could, but first there's something I want to show you."

Kohime's attention was peaked right as they got home. From the table in the back, Selena grabbed an audio device.

"I came up with this song while thinking of that movie."

"Oh, fresh! Lemme hear!" Kohime slipped the speaker cuff over her left ear. From it emitted a steady, slightly modern approximation of the shrine music her grandmother would play for her. It was a curious sound, but she couldn't figure out what it had to do with...

"Wait a sec. The chorus, is that-?"

A slightly mischievous grin snuck up on Selena's face, "yup. That was made using the two note progression from the really tense scenes!"

Kohime's face lit up like the midday skylight. "That's hilarious AND awesome! Only you could come up with something so crazy, I love it!" A giggle pushes her face into childish glee, while Selena turned to grab something else, hiding her guilty smile.

It's been twelve years now, but she still couldn't get over that phrase from Kohime. 'I love'. It makes her uneasy every time.

"You wanna watch another movie?" Selena asked, "I found another Jaws movie, although I think it's the third one. Don't know if there's a two we're missing."

"Oh hell yeah! Pop it in!"

An hour later, and Selena was thoroughly bored. This was definitely a sequel to the first movie she saw, but it felt half-hearted and phony, like the corporate slogans she had to write for every apartment and street corner back at her old job.

"Are you watching this?" She asked the small woman beside her. No answer. Her roommate had fallen fast asleep, clearly as bored as she was, and had let her head fall against Selena's shoulder as she dozed.

Selena felt a pang in her chest. A muddy feeling that followed every bit of affection Kohime had given her. She stayed like this however, in part to let her old friend rest from the nightmarish days they've had, and in part for the comfort she has in knowing Kohime would always be beside her, ready to take on the world, which day by day became increasingly relevant.

Selena slowly nodded off herself.

That night, an exhausting dream filled her mind. In it, she was swimming up waterfall after waterfall. She strained against the crashing current, believing that soon, she would find rest. But no rest would come. At the final hurdle, the last jump, she dove straight into the maw of a hungry bear, wearing the Alterna logo on it's forehead, and announcing her retirement.

Selena woke with a start. It was midnight, and she felt dumb for being stressed about such a wild dream. She didn't question why she had it though. She had been working too hard for too little. The research she conducted, the machines she built, all wasted on projects that would kill her led by people who would never listen. She needed to quit. She could do so easily in fact. Sleeping in her lap, having moved herself in her sleep, was the very person she worked under. All she would have to do is wake her and tell her she couldn't work there anymore.

And leave Kohime to fight alone.

Selena let her head fall back onto the couch cushion. She would work tomorrow, if for no other reason than to ease her guilty conscience. To make sure some semblance of sanity stayed in this broken order, just because she knows Kohime would never stop fighting. She's always been bull-headed, and they needed that now more than ever.

"It's is time for your shift at the Happiness Research Facility, Citizen 2117: Assistant Director KOHIME.

It is time for your shift at the Happiness Research Facility, Citizen 2224: Project Manager SELENA.

Have a productive day."

Selena's second waking was a slow groggy ordeal. She had barely gotten back to sleep, and it feels like she just had that nightmare. Clearly some time has passed, as Kohime was sitting next to her. Unusually though, she wasn't dressed yet. Instead, she had an uncharacteristically uneasy glower in her face.

"Oh, you're up." Selena noted.

A long, heavy silence dulled the air at her voice. Kohime continued to stare, pressure rising from her sleep-matted hair. Eventually, she spoke:

"Selena."

At her word, a deafening pause filled the room.

"Do you ever feel like...something big is coming? Like..."

"The end of the world?" Selena finished her thought. "Of course. Every day. It bears down like an ocean of pressure every time I have to think about that goddamn rocket."

"Exactly!" The smaller woman replied "it all feels like we're marching into the end, all over some vague dream!" Tension filled her voice. She lacked energy, however. Selena took notice and pressed the back of her hand to Kohime's forehead.

"! W- what are you doing?" Kohime was flustered.

"You're overheated." Selena spoke.

"Well, that's 'cause you-"

"No, I mean actually" she wouldn't let Kohime finish. Now wasn't the time. "You're getting sick. R.C.A.?"

Selena called to the AI transcriber installed as living assistance. "Contact the HRF. We're taking today off."

"Very well." The voice responded.

Kohime protested: "No! Without us, who knows what those idiots will do?!"

Selena was worried of course, but she wasn't going to let her friend suffer. "How smart do you think they actually are. The lunatics wanna fire a rocket in a closed cave, through the ocean. You think they can think through the logistics without us?" She prattled, hoping she was right. It was her last hope at this point.

"..."

"Come on. You need to rest, and they'll never figure out how to actually build a rocket in the few days we'd be gone. Plus when we get back, you can rub the fact that you were right in their faces."

Kohime couldn't help but laugh at that. "As if. They're heads would be so far up their asses, they wouldn't be able to hear me." She joked, coughing near the end of her sentence.

Selena chuckled back, "in that case, I'll build you a megaphone. Nobody'd be able to ignore you then. Better yet, I'll build a bomb-"

"Okay, stop right there crazy lady. Don't give R.C.A. the wrong idea. Plus, that'd totally defeat the purpose of stopping the rocket in the first place."

The two joked like that for a few more minutes, until the tension left Kohime's shoulders, and she nodded off again.

It would take a week before Kohime would recover. The anxiety from the escape project pushing them to the boiling point. It was only at the end of that week when she had rested enough to feel like working again, and scheduled their shifts for the next day.

When Selena woke, from her bed this time, to the work day she'd been dreading, she noticed that Kohime had already left. Nothing unusual there. She was always a bit of a workaholic, and the praise helped feed her ego. Selena would finish her breakfast before heading out.

Upon opening the front door, however, she was blinded by a scorching white light. The skylight above them was in overdrive, forcing her eyes down. On the porch, collapsed to her knees, eyes wide despite the overbearing light above, was Kohime. Her face was filled with fear as defeat killed what little hope had remained.

Fearfully checking her friends help, Selena would follow her unbroken stare to the neuroLCD panel on the West edge. There, where once was the image of a field with sparse green trees, now stood the image of a white rocket ship, repeating down the walls. The grass, which once had a photo-like quality, now rustled as if blown by the wind. Sparse depictions of clouds were circling the blinding sun.

To any other, it would be an echo of their deep-seated desire to reach the upper world. To the two women here, however, it was a monument to their failure.

Selene rushed to the far moat, from the shore of which she grabbed a raft, unconcerned with ownership. Kohime followed behind, having barely broken from her stupor, and praying her closest could find a miracle. The datapad Selene brought was connected to a terminal on the wall. The screen behind it flickered off, exposing behind it the rocket they had lobbied so hard against, somehow completed.

Selene swallowed her fear as the datapad downloaded the Alterna Logs only people from the Happiness Research Facility has access to. The log read as follows:

"

HRFLog004.02: The Divide

As humanity began it's foolhardy errand to escape their salvation, a small group of resisters, lead by those scientists from the first generation, had resisted the change.

Amongst these were two high-ranking officials who had researched the surface, and concluded escape would doom humanity. These two would be the head speakers, and last bastions, of the Preservationists.

Rather than heed their warnings, those who profited from the Escapist movement would instead sabotage the resistance, slipping a mild poison into one researcher's water.

With the voice of opposition in recovery, the Preservationists were left without a rallying point, and a new fervor would grip the escapists. Thus, the rocket would be built in record time.

Awaiting further data.

"

Selena's heart dropped. A deep, fervent rage built in her heart. They had nearly killed her closest friend, over this pipe dream?! They would doom humanity for their pride?!

Her rage was interrupted, however, by a deafening scream of anguish. Having read the report on her own datapad, Kohime collapsed into a ball, shaking the raft beneath them. Selena steadied herself, then crouched to her friend.

"IT'S OVER. ITS THE END OF THE WORLD. WE'RE GONNA DIE..."

She was yelling, but a defeated misery filled her voice. She was not just screaming out of anguish, but because she couldn't find the strength to control her voice. Selena watched in pain as, for the second time ever, she watched her friend's heart break. She grabbed the girl and held her close, ignoring the pain in her ears. She needed to help her, to make her happy. Something to make her smile. Something she...

A familiar tune resonated from the wall behind her. The neuroLCDs picked up on Selena's desire, and reflected a memory of a week ago, the smiling face of her closest friend. The sound that played was the song she wrote, and Kohime took notice. Her crying slowed as she looked towards the reactivated panel. She couldn't help but laugh.

"Look, it's us." She barely managed to croak through tears. She hummed sobbing in a strained voice to the song that played, while holding desperately to Selena's waist.

This brief reprieve would not last. Those other researchers would hear the song, and, seeing the crying girl, wished for her to be happy. The rocket would be starting it's test launch after all. Soon, she could go home.

As the song spread, more and more people would hear it, carrying with it the image of the surface and the big white rocket. Soon, people began to sing along, making up lyrics that blurred together, as an anthem to the freedom they strived towards. All the while, the woman who wrote the song wondered how her feelings were strong enough to override the panel.

She wouldn't have long to wonder, though, as the nearest panel changed again, this time to a scene all too familiar. A scene she had avoided for so long. As it played, the sobbing in her arms changed to a wretched scream.

At once, two voices spoke. The same person twice, one screaming to a world that would not hear, the other whispering to her closest friend, who alone would listen to her once and once again.

"Selena"

"HOW DARE YOU"

"Is it alright if we talked?"

"HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!"

"I wanted to get something off my chest..."

"THAT WAS HER SONG"

"It feels like we've known each other forever"

"THAT WAS HER LIFE"

"And I needed to tell you"

"YOU CAN'T TAKE IT FROM HER"

"Just how important you are to me."

"YOU CAN'T TAKE IT FROM US"

"Selena"

"ALL OF YOU"

"I love you"

"I HATE YOU"

"I love you so much."

"I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU"

"You don't have to respond"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED"

"And I'm sure you don't feel the same way"

"SHE CARED FOR YOU ALL"

"But I wanted to be honest"

"AND YOU BETRAYED HER"

"I've always felt this way"

"I'LL NEVER TRUST YOU AGAIN"

"And maybe, if you're willing"

"YOU ALL GET WHAT YOU DESERVE"

"We could go out some time?"

"FOR KILLING HER!"

A lump held in Selena's throat. She knew what was about to happen. She felt it. She tasted it. Regret boiled in her stomach. And here at the end, she could only manage one more sentence.

"Kohime,"

"Kohime-"

Behind the wall, the rocket's thrusters burst to life.

"I'm sorry."

At her final word, the pain of her closest friend before her once and once again, the wall cracked. The crying smile shattered into a thousand pieces, lacerating the overflowing wrath. Selena tried to hold onto Kohime's dying body, but was pushed back by the torrent erupting from the wall in front of her.

As Selena fell deeper and deeper beneath the flooding water, shards of neuroLCD shone around her. In each reflected the memories that replayed in her mind. Not the plans to maintain Alterna, and not the speeches she gave to the reckless businessmen that doomed them.

Her memories were of the happy times. The days in University she spent learning. The machines she managed to make float in the air. The simple Japanese style tune she composed from the Jaws theme. The grin on Kohime's face when she showed her.

The times she and Kohime would complain about work. The praise she received when Kohime was in charge. The sleeping face of Kohime resting her head on her shoulder. The day Kohime confessed, and how she stayed beside her despite rejection.

Selena scolded herself as air left her lungs. She should have spent more time with Kohime. She should have done what she could to make her happy. She should have humored her, just to see her smile one more time. She should have loved her.

Oh.

She already loved her.

Selena's thoughts were clear in her final moments. She already loved Kohime. She had spent her life seeking that attention, that love, which was always reciprocated, and she never paid it any mind, taking for granted the bond they had shared.

Warm tears of regret mixed with the bloody seawater, as Selena's thoughts betrayed her feelings. Her love. Her fear. Her shame. Reflected in the shards of the neuroLCD, her memories changed to the visage of Kohime. Her smiles, her rage, her sadness, her love. All surrounding her in the deep dark ocean. Even as her sight went dark and her thoughts slowed, all she could see was Kohime's proud, loving face, smiling back at her, as if everything would be alright.

She should have loved her.

She should have loved her.

She should have...

Tens of thousands of years later, a young woman, barely 18, nervously approached the loud stranger on Mt. Nantai. Just a few months earlier, she had defected from the army she was raised by, inspired by a strange song she had heard. A simple, repetitive shrine song performed by enemy mercenaries. One which filled her with fear, love, and a dream of freedom. One which, two days earlier, she heard screamed from the other side of the mountain, as if sung by a particularly skilled jet turbine.

Five years after, at the height of her career, Marina Ida ducks backstage at the end of her band's world tour. At her side, marches the proud woman who found her, one Pearl Houzuki.

The small woman looks back at her, and flashes a proud grin, as if telling her that everything would be alright. At this, only one thought echoed in Marina's head.

I love her.

[seffien]

TA-DA! :]

new fic. i meant for this one to be half its final length, and i also meant for it to be released in september, then october. so yeah.

After a string of disappearances shake Splatsville, someone decides to go investigate.

also, heed the tags, absolutely. also slight splatoon 3 spoilers but like really slight. anyway, enjoy!

[seven-oh-four]

There's some very, very strange dialogue leading up to the bossfight against Mr. Grizz that I never see anyone talk about - maybe because nobody has any idea what the heck it means.

When Mr. Grizz is explaining his "business plan," he says that it has three parts - "The vessel, the spirit, and the wisdom of the ages."

...What? What is any of this? It never gets mentioned again, and doesn't seem to have any relation to his plan to fly a rocket into space and explode it to rain Fuzzy Ooze everywhere. This just never gets explained.

Immediately after this, Mr. Grizz sucks out Cuttlefish's brain juices.

This also never comes into play??? Why did he suck out Cuttlefish's brain? He had already created the Fuzzy Ooze, it wasn't a component necessary for that. The rocket was already about to go into space. Why would he even need Cuttlefish's "essence" for any of that?

I think he wasn't just trying to turn all the sea creatures hairy - I think that was just the first part of his three-step plan for success.

I think he was trying to recreate humans.

The Wisdom of The Ages: A suitably intelligent brain fitting for a human.

The Vessel: A suitable body to become the human. (Inklings are already humanoid - adding hair to them makes them... a vague approximation of a human. Hence why this is the first component listed - turning the Inklings into mammals to create a suitable vessel is the first thing he does.)

The Spirit: ...??? It's also possible that The Spirit is Cap'n Cuttlefish's brain, and the Wisdom of the Ages is the crystals contain mankind's hopes and dreams, or perhaps O.R.C.A. since it contains all of humanity's wisdom.

Whatever the case is, there was more to his plan than just coating the earth in Fuzzy Ooze.

But... okay, so what? Why even bring up all this weird information at all if it was never gonna go anywhere? We don't even get to see the second and third steps of his plan. We don't even get to know what they are. So what was the point of having this even be a thing?

Personally, I think it's setting up for a future plot point. Cap'n Cuttlefish's brain essence juice is still out there somewhere, yeah? I bet this is going to come into play in the future.

[twipsai]

grabby hands

I would like to see your alterna theories im invested

OKKK OK SO

you see all this? all this "snow"? thats ash. how do i know this is ash? oh well mY dEAR alternan citizen, we know that the rocket essensially exploded, making the liquid crystals rain down from the cave walls. this combine with the rising sea levels during the 12000 year period that alterna sat dormant is proably what caused alterna to flood.

now we know that the snow in alterna isnt real snow, being mentioned that its outright "fake snow" by Agent 2 in Cryogenic Hopetown. we also know that the snow wasnt always there, as shown by the below image

[image id: a photo taken directly from the Alterna logs. it depicts a group of humans standing inside of a small, dome-like room, with a sunny landscape projected on the walls. the image is very grainy and pixelated, as if taken by an out-dated camera. /end id.]

i dont see why Alternans wouldve made fake snow and completely covered their land in it, unless they didnt put it there. at least, not on purpose.

-

this brings me to another theory, which is that the test chambers were made to train Alternans who were going to board the rocket.

now, we dont know where the kettles came from (ill get back to that) but wouldnt it make sense? why else would there be a clean room, if not to prepare Alternans for what theyre going to have to do on the rocket, on the surface, in space? we see O.R.C.A. specifically state that their purpose is to test Alternan's physical and mental abilities

[image transcript: "My circuits are designed to measure your intellectual and physical prowess as demonstrated by your ability to complete missions throughout Alterna. In each mission, you must reach a goal mechanism or complete an objective. Extraordinary citizens will complete many missions and receive many Power Eggs! You can expect a substantial Power Egg payday in particular for this first mission... May your enthusiasm result in success, citizen!" /end image transcript]

but i KNOW what you're thinking. "Twip, if O.R.C.A. was testing Alternans for the rocket, then why are they designed around inkfish's abilities like squid surging, squid rolling, swimming in ink, and shooting with ink?"

i raise your question with a question: who was in a desperate enough situation that he kidnapped an entire army, and needed only the smartest employed under him to monitor ever corner of Alterna to make sure his planes went off without a hitch?

Grizz. its always Grizz.

this explains the fuzzy rival octolings, who appear different from how fuzzy inklings appear in the game

[image 1: a screenshot of a promotional render of a fuzzy rival octoling at a 3/4ths angle, with a hand on their hip. /end id.]

[image 1: a screenshot of a player character after they have touched the fuzzy ooze. the character is laying on their back, covered in fuzz with only their hands and feet sticking out. their eyes are wide. /end id.]

this shows the difference from those properly treated with the fuzzy ooze, vs those who merely touched it.

tl;dr of that entire section: the test chambers used to be a way to test Alternans that were going to board the ship, but were converted to test octolings who were to work under Grizz to help with the rocket plans

[rassicas]

Ohmygosh thank you for such a thorough answer! I loved reading that! First of all I want to thank you for all the amazing stuff you do and generally remind you that you are awesome. Secondly, a few follow-up questions because some things you mentioned particularly intrigued me:

1. What exactly are the problem with “what if lil judd?” The Judds are some of the most central figures in inkfish society so I imagine it’s quite possible they’d have enough weight to throw around to establish a small, shady business on the downlow. I’m sure that there are several problems, I just can’t think of any at present.

2. What do you mean by “though the english localization foolishly carried that motive into the finale of his story when it didn't make sense to do so?” I confess I’m probably just parsing that paragraph wrong, but wasn’t “that motive” his original mammalization plan? He was never MOTIVATED by profit, right? I don’t remember him mentioning profit motives in ROTM.

3. I’m really intrigued by this “O.R.C.A secretly working against Grizz” idea, and agree that ROTM was… weird and doesn’t really make sense taken at face value. Can you elaborate?

sure they'd have the power in the inkling world, what bugs me is the timeline for lil judd. by grizzco's reveal in april 2017, it seemed it was a business that was already well established in the inkling world. salmon roe/power eggs have been stated to be an important energy source, egg collection sites were in place, the grizzco building was there, and it already had a training video that looked like it was filmed like 30 years ago. lil judd was first revealed in. late 2016 i think? he was JUST born months prior. and grizz's plan was certainly in motion for a good long time before he even started the business. for the sake of the timeline itd make more sense to me that judd, not lil judd, was who grizz got in contact with... and maybe lied about his motives in the process since something like 'woah judd is evil all along!!' and not just Neutral feels pretty out of character imo. dont get me started on how grizz's entire motivations were based on him not seeing a single other mammal and him feeling isolated from that, and then the fact there are 2 other sapient mammals surviving on earth is conveniently left out. splatoon team either purposely obfuscating something there, or if not then that seems like a weird shitty writing decision

2. on top of the plethora of added-in business puns, doesnt get more blatant than this:

again, JP version makes no mention of profits and grizz's tone is more serious over all. 3. im gonna plug @ardnin's video because he explains this idea quite well!

[our-only-choice]

What’s O.R.C.A like?

dutiful, analytical, and a little bit dry. the digital records i mentioned are stored in their servers, since the preservation of knowledge is literally what they were made for.

and boy, those servers tower high. most of the skyscrapers over in the happiness research lab are filled with racks upon racks of servers containing orcas codebase, preserved records, and so on. there's a reason the central building has a giant fan; all those servers make a LOT of heat (and some very grumpy sysadmins, refer to the broom story)

but the specter of data corruption always strikes when you least expect it, which is why ive also got the whole analog record thing going too. redundancy is safety.

[the-eel-deal]

[ REST ] with Julian

Soft Action Prompts

[ REST ] sender places their head in receiver’s lap. 

"I don't blame you for passing out like this, Julian. That giant piece a metal makes you do so much for so little!"

The giant piece of metal being O.R.C.A-- Upon joining the NSS... She learned what the Neo Agent had to go through. And ouch! Getting ink dumped on you-- Falling off platforms and rails and practically exploding upon impact from both. Not to mention the fuzzy octarians! She couldn't blame him for like instantly passing out on her lap. It was probably better than just resting on some fake snow or a hard crate.

"But anyway, how ya feeling? You're not like... bleeding out or anything, right?"

[zaptap]

details from the splatoon 3 treehouse live

(since i haven’t seen many posts about it)

fuzzy ooze kills you. don’t touch it (or touch it anyway, idc)

story mode levels open up very similarly to octo expansion stations, you're in a similar looking little room where you can choose a weapon and then it sends you out there.

also noticed a text box attributed to O.R.C.A. that explains the weapons. the treehouse didn't even acknowledge this, so we have no idea who or what this is

the buddy smallfry acts as a sub weapon, you can throw it at enemies to have it attack them, or just throw it to draw their attention. you call it back with "this way" on the d-pad

and when i say it acts as a sub weapon, i mean it’s literally considered one and you don’t get access to it if you get a weapon with a different one

the goal at the end is also basically the same

they showed a level where you have to smash target crates while riding rails (just like octo expansion had, so we'll probably see many more similarly styled challenge type stages)

you don't have to beat every level to finish the story (just like octo expansion)

after they finished showing story stuff, they showed the training room in the lobby

there's a copy machine, a dummy that'll shoot ink and throw splat bombs--it matches your actions while staying in one place, and they demonstrated throwing a bomb to practice dodging it with a squid roll

the squid roll deflects some damage, but you can see that the bomb still hurts you, just not enough to splat you from full health (for some reason they didn't mention this, but you can see from the ink creeping up around your screen that it doesn't make you invulnerable and you actually take somewhat heavy damage from a bomb)

the crab tank can shoot rapid fire or in bigger bursts

the zipcaster can be used to grapple onto surfaces that can't normally be inked (in addition to ones that can)

the ink vac sucks up enemy ink and then lets you launch it out as an explosive projectile of your own color.

it works even if there isn't any enemy ink, it just takes longer to charge up and the explosion is smaller

the stringer launches 3 blobs of ink. without charging, they’re more spread out

if you charge it a bit, they hit a little closer together, stick to a surface, and explode after making contact.

if you charge it more, they land even closer together (back to back) with a slightly bigger explosion

normally they fire in a horizontal row, but just like with rollers you can fire them vertically by jumping

they also did recon on a couple stages that'll be in rotation during the splatfest.

scorch gorge: (note that the center area is surrounded by uninkable walls. the platform in the middle has walkways that give you access to both sides of the stage, so being in control of the middle is a bit more important than usual)

eeltail alley:

not much to say since we've sort of seen those stages before, and if you really want to get a feel for them you should watch the video

[toonie-doodle-splat]

Character Headcanons: Inkling Agent 3 (Agent 3 II)

Since this is about the new Agent 3, this will contain some spoilers for Splatoon 3.

I wanted both new Agent 3s to have a specific cultural background, like how Deep Cut clearly has coded ethnicities (ex. Frye being coded as South Asian/Indian). For Agent 3 II, I decided that she should be Korean; as a result, her name is Korean.

Her name is Yeong (Hanja: 英, Hangul: 영, Katakana: ヨウン), which means "flower", "petal", "brave", or "hero". Yeong is usually used in feminine names, such as Yeong-Hui, Yeong-Ja, and Eun-Yeong; Yeong is also used in masculine names, such as Yeong-Ho, and other gender-neutral names.

Yeong exclusively uses she/her pronouns and masculine terms. She's just Some Guy who uses she/her pronouns and wears dresses.

She has hearing aids, but they went hay-wire when she was dragged into Alterna. Because of the piercing noise they were creating, Yeong immediately turned them off; she still has partial hearing when they're off, but it's muffled.

Continuing from the last bullet point: The reason Captain was whispering to Agents 1 and 2 the entire time was because they're naturally quiet, while Agents 1 and 2 are good at being loud. This is why Yeong only got Captain's dialogue through the two agents.

She was born and raised near Splatsville, but moved to the city for job opportunities. Yeong used to live near the coast, which is how she met Smallfry.

Yeong doesn't do great under pressure. Every time she was forced into doing a target-shooting mission, she ended up being forced to quit because she was using too many Power Eggs.

She's a huge fanboy of Deep Cut, and even runs a fan account where she gushes about Deep Cut and their merch. She was internally screaming during every encounter with Deep Cut.

Continuing from the last bullet point: The one time a leak from her fan account to her main account occurred, it was because she was upset about Frye and Big Man having less merch than Shiver. Frye saw the post.

She has a huge interest in human culture, and has tried to translate some bits of their language! While these translations aren't entirely accurate, O.R.C.A. has humored her by giving her text to translate.

Neo Agent 3's post: https://toonie-doodle-splat.tumblr.com/post/698246439219970048/character-headcanons-octoling-agent-3-neo-agent