Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The world had ended, not a big surprise, war, death, plague, pollution etc etc, it was sort of obvious, strangely enough, it was germany that noticed first, their hatred of corruption and pointless discrimination drilled into them by their history classes. So of course they decided to study things, first of all… in space there would be nothing to damage machinery systems, but trying to find a habitable planet was like covering a planet with red keys, with only one green key, and then having a blind man search for it. And by the way, that’s the actual odds, Germany decided to simply send a rocket into earth’s orbit, filled with passengers, (engineers, scientists, biologists, farmers, etc). Around 300, it took twenty years of construction, while everyone else had been denying climate change and trying to assassinate scientists that wanted to prevent it…

Yeah things hadn’t been good, but they did finish the orbital station, and early too! They still had five years before the end of the world.  

They named it the Hoffnung, German for hope.

12.000-ish years later, long after everyone else had stopped procrastinating and tried to preserve their history. But it was a lost cause, because almost everyone was FUCKING DEAD, mostly because politician mcgee wanted his oil money. Except the Hoffnung, because Germany did their homework, good job Germany! You don’t go extinct, yet.

“Danke!”

Muttered an angry Lukas, he already felt sore out the Preservo-pod, it was quite different from a Cryo-pod, which used freezing. He had heard of the side-effects of long-term Preservo-pod use, which was usually being sore, compared to the Long-term use of cryogenics, which was usually death. No one else had woken up, mostly because the Hoffnung was low on power after landing, and because he was a soldier.

He ‘carefully opened’ the now broken front door, admiring the now (mostly) unpolluted scenery, taking in a breath of fresh air, he set out to explore.

Chapter Text

Octigi’s day was… shit it was shit, Mr Grizz was missing, she had been splatted like FIVE TIMES in training, and that BITCH Stephacy wouldn’t shut up about ‘her being such a bad shot’.

Stephacy began gloating, “You really wanna step up your game… with shots like that the squid beak platoons gonna kick your-”.

 “WHO GIVES A SHIT! WE LOST, MR GRIZZ IS PROBABLY DEAD! I WOULD LEAVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE FACT I’D PROBABLY DIE IN SPLATSVILLE!!!” screamed Octigi, “FUCK YOU AND FUCK THIS SHIT”.

Octigi stormed out, while Stephacy was silently mumbling something about a ‘skill issue’, she decided that the outdoors sounded nice right now, yeah… Why did that bitch care about her aim? She was trained to use the roller anyways, all stephacy used was that ugly-ass splattershot covered in stickers. After grizzco was downed by the S.B.P. Octigi and any other Fuzzy Octoling/octarians had run to this abandoned Octarian scouting post, mostly because it had good showers.

What? Everyone liked the showers there, they were nice.

She had been roaming around the base's immediate surroundings, before coming to a stop by a small stream. She stared into the murky water, unlike the others, she didn’t like wearing the stupid lipstick, the others called it ‘fresh’ she thought it looked stupid. She wondered if the inklings thought that… naw, they probably thought crocs looked bad, which is wrong, cause crocs never go out of fashion. 

Lukas had been minding his own business, picking through the trash, throwing the trash, (eating the trash), when these weird… little… fuzzy octopi thingies started spraying him with goo from these little plastic launchers. They obviously didn’t like his presence, so he left, not like they could stop him if he stayed. But he wasn’t an ass, (and he didn’t want to stain the apocalypse outfit he just made), so he didn’t. He continued his weird little adventure, still unsure if he was hallucinating or not, when he happened upon another one of those Fuz-topi, as he had been calling them. 

They looked… sad, they were looking very closely at the water, he walked up to them, trying to gently place his hand on their shoulder, atleast, that was the intention, he instead miscalculated, and pat them on the head. They whipped around, smacking him repeatedly with a large paint roller, he really wished he hadn’t done that.

Octigi was minding her own business, when this massive fucking- THING, touched her head, which was so weird! So she slapped it with her roller for good measure!, until nothing happened… it didn’t even seem angry, just a bit confused. She watched it closely, she braced to run when she saw it grab something from its pocket and… pulled out some beef jerky… She felt like an idiot, she tried to Splat this big friendly guy for no reason, “I- im sorry it’s just that-”,she grabbed the jerky consuming it rabidly, “I’ve been on edge ever since we got here and-”. Before she knew it, she was crying her heart out, resting on the friendly giants shoulder as they gently pat her on the back

Lukas had been trying to comfort the small Fuz-topus, careful around its small form, minutes turned to hours as he sat there unmoving. Eventually she fell asleep, her small form resting on his, carefully held from falling face first, as Lukas watched the sky turn dark, he found himself losing consciousness. 

He dreamed not of open fields, or demonic nightmares, but of soggy wallpaper and rusty tools, it looked like a regular house, but… off, not wrong, just wonky. The floor didn’t creak the right way, and the tv played shows so vague and standard, he could apply any name to the program and possibly be right.  He wandered through the forgotten house, until he found someone.

“I’ve been waiting here for a while Lukas, join me for a walk would you?”

Chapter Text

Lukas mumbled to himself, “this is- a weird dream, especially the melting rope”.

The stranger responded unprompted, “I know right? You’d expect the walls to melt but- nope, it's the rope”.

“So is this like your house or-”.

“Please don’t call my prison a house, it's a maze of haze and confusion”.

“So if it's your prison why don’t you leave? There's a door right there-”.

The stranger opened the door, instead of the outside, it led to nothing, not even darkness, as that would imply absence, which meant there could be something, it was just- nothing, nothing at all. No color, no light, no land,no matter ,no people,no places-, the door was shut loudly, startling lukas, who had been so entranced by the gateway to oblivion.

“Don’t stare at it for so long, it took me half a century to snap out of it”.

“What- was that?”

“My best guess? Your brain tries to make sense of something it never will and gets caught in a loop”.

“I- I can’t even remember what I saw, how do I even know it was-”.

“You can’t remember absence, creatures of flesh and bone don’t need to worry about something they will almost never see”.

“Holy fuck- oh my god”.

“Hey, it's just ‘snrk’ , nothing hehehehe…”.

“I'M HAVING AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS”.

“Hehehe ‘nothing’ hehehe”.

“What is wrong with you…”

The stranger's eye brow furrowed, despite lacking any, his nonexistent face twisting into rage.

“Listen to me you little shit- lets get this straight…”

The stranger grabbed Lukas by the shoulders, staring into his soul.

“We are not friends, and we don’t need to be, you want humanity back more or less right?”, Lukas nodded, his species not being dead sounded nice. “Then you listen to me, I have an at least a decent amount of Human Knowledge stored in my ethereal-ass, you help me get these stupid little crystals in some old ruins so I can use them to gain a body, and I give the next generation all thats in my brain, Capiche?”. 

“What even are you?” asked Lukas, somewhat shaken.

“I'm a memory, of pain and regret, all I want is for others to remember, there's nothing I want more…”.  

“I mean, alright… wait how do I even know you're real?”

“I’d say suddenly learning how to speak fish would help”.

“I’m sorry wha-?”

Lukas shot up, eye wide with horror and realization,“GAH, oh sorry I just had the worst dream and-”, The small fuz-topi stared at him. “YOU CAN TALK?”, screamed Octigi, “I CAN, THAT MAKES NO SENSE! I SHOULDN’T KNOW YOUR LANGUAGE!” screamed Lukas. Lukas began screaming “OH GOD THE DREAM WAS REAL”, Octigi screamed with him, “WHAT DREAM?, WHY DOES THAT SOUND SO BAD”. “ANd- what's that on your hand?”, Lukas looked down at his hand, glove missing with scribbling in its place.

IT WASN’T A DREAM -the lost man                                                      

P.S. ALSO YOU NEED TO GO-2 SPLASHVILLE OR SOME SHIT

“Oh shit”, he muttered, “what? Somebody threaten you or something?”, joked Octigi, “not exactly, but it is pretty important”. “You wanna go to…”, he looked at the writing closer, “splashville…?”, he murmured, unsure of her reaction, “you mean splatsville? Sure, I have nothing better to do… plus these uniforms are terrible!”.  She gestured at the leopard patterning angrily, “I mean, who gives these to soldiers?”. 

Lukas said, “Huh, yeah I wouldn’t be very loyal if I had to wear that”, Octigi agreed “yeah! It’s so stupid!”. 

“Yeah…” he muttered, “YEAH LETS GOOOO, screamed Octigi.

Chapter Text

Octigi and lukas had already since begun the long walk towards slapsville- FUCK. “So you're an octopus, hybridized with mammalian DNA… so that a giant bear could take over the world and turn everyone else into mammals” stated Lukas. “Well- when you put it that way… yeah it sounds pretty bad, but hey! he was stopped! And- and- im not doing that anymore!” responded Octigi. Lukas watched Octigi as she crossed her arms, putting on an expression that he couldn’t properly describe, “well then um… what should we do at Slagsville?”. “Splatsville”, she corrected, “same difference”, argued Lukas, “well- i would suggest trying to start a business!”. “What if we made moonshine?” asked Lukas, “moon- what? ” questioned Octigi, Lukas smiled, she had much to learn from him.

“MOONSHINE”, screamed lukas, “it's one of humanity's best-worst inventions!”, “and it was…?”,inquired Octigi. 

“Well simply put, stuff goes in funny copper still, funny juice comes out, that is of course, a gross simplification, mostly moonshine was used for its effects on perception” he stated.

“That doesn't sound good,” said Octigi.

“Well if you lived in a time where getting a cut could kill ya, you would probably want to forget about it, that's what moonshine was for”.

“Oh ok, what caused those effects?”

“Ethanol”

“WHAT? That shits practically poisonous!”

“Yeah, and a far more pleasant death than infection”

“... got me there I admit”

“Yeah I freakin do, dummy dum dum dummy idiot stupid-”

“Stop! Come on!”

Lukas and Octigi laughed and laughed, all the way to Splatsville, when they finally got to the entrance, they simply stared it down. Lukas leaned over to speak to Octigi “Octigi- whadda we do?”, “I uh- SUCK IT UP AND GO IN”, Octigi dramatically marched through the unguarded, boring regular gate. “See it's not scary or anythi-”, suddenly behind her, a rather stoic looking squid spoke up rather loudly, “OI octo-slag! What are you doing in these parts? Looks like we need to teach you a lesson!”. Before Octigi could even process that, Lukas walked past the gate and in between the small gang and her. 

“Hey! What are you doing? You some kinda octarian fucker?”, Lukas loomed over the squid, remaining unmoving. “Johnny hand me my- thanks-”, the squid hooligan leader took a bat and tried to smack Lukas with it, it met its mark, yet lukas did not react, instead picking the leader up by the arm. “HEY LET GO OF ME YOU- AAaAaaAaAA!”, the hooligan thrashed about as Lukas dangled him above a trash bin, threw him in, and slammed the lid shut.

Lukas dusted himself off, “well that could have gone be-”, Lukas was tackle-hugged by Octigi, who began squeeing like a child. “THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER”, she screamed, “now do it to the rest of em”, she said turning towards the hooligans. Now realizing they’re potential targets, the remaining delinquents turned tail and ran, all the while Octigi was yelling at them.

“And if I ever see you try that again! My friend here’s gonna turn you into overpriced PRETZELS!”, she screamed, filled with the power of having a tall friend. “Hey hey no violence without reason!”, tried to reason Lukas, “VIOLENCE WITHOUT REASON! VIOLENCE WITHOUT REASON WOOHOOOO!”. 

“Octigi you’re making a scene-”

“WEEEEHOOOOO”, she screamed, as she did, many inkling began to stare, talking amongst each other in whisper.

“Is that an Octarian soldier?”

“Why would she be here?”

“-and how did she get her tentacles to look so fuzzy?”

“Why does that matter-”

Lukas overheard these words, and became somewhat scared, If a small group was so easy to run into, then what could prevent that? Suddenly, an idea struck him like an angry racist squid, “heY- Octigi! Let's go into that store! No reason why! GO GO GO”.

Before Octigi could argue, she was pushed into a store labeled ‘hotlantis’ by a panicking Lukas.

“...oh hey. Welcome to Hotlantis.”

Chapter Text

“Do you have any uh- clothing of some kind?”, aked Lukas, somewhat panicked, Paruko stared at the taller man, taking a moment to process the question.

“...is it cause she’s an octoling…”

“I- yeah?”

“Oh, we don’t sell much other than random stuff… but there's like fifty different hoodies that won’t sell that you can have…”.

“But what about-”

“Oh and don’t worry about them noticing her head tentacles, inklings have terrible cognitive association skills”.

“-thats a very nice way to say stupid”.

Paruko shrugged, “...not stupid, just unobservant”.

“I mean if you insist- oh sorry your name?”

“Paruko…”.

“Alrighty then- Octigi?”.

Octigi perked up, “yeah?”, Lukas motioned towards the pile of hoodies, “can you go grab one of those and put it on?”, he said. Octigi nodded, doing as she was asked, grabbing a hoodie and heading straight for the bathroom, in not even a minute she left, somehow already changed.

“...How’d you do it that fast…”, asked Paruko, somehow retaining the exact same voice tone.

“Dunno, just can”.

“You don’t know how you changed your own clothing…”, stated Lukas.

“Yup”.

Suddenly bursting through the door came a large fish man of some sort, he looked absolutely pissed, yet seemed to somewhat slow at the sight of Lukas. He pointed at Paruko, “YOU!”Paruko pointed to herself, “...me?”.

“Yes you!, this is the fourth time I find you in here!”, he shouted.

“...you’re never here, I like this store, I want it to stay open”, she stated.

“You don’t even work here!”, he fumed.

“...nor do I take anything, you would be out of business if I didn’t help”, she replied, seemingly uncaring.

“YOU LITTLE!”, the fish-man swung at her, Paruko ducking out of the way, leading the fish-man’s fist into Lukas’s face. Lukas staggered backwards, tripping over Paruko’s ultra hand, and smashing the back of his head into a large display case. Lukas was immediately knocked unconscious, his mind leaving to somewhere he was needed.

“HEY THAT'S MY FRIEND YOU BASTARD!”, screamed Octigi.

“And what are you gonna do about it-aaAAAAHAHAAAA-”, the shop owner screamed as a  chunk of his fin was ripped clean off by Octigi’s molars. The shop owner frantically tried to remove the snarling fuz-topi, screaming at the top of his gills. Meanwhile Paruko was desperately shaking Lukas, “...cmon cmon, i'm sorry please don’t- please- I should have taken it I-”.

…

Lukas found himself with the worst head-ache, “god my head, feels like someone split it open…”, he muttered, quite confused.

“Aaaah look who woke up”.

Lukas turned towards the lost-man, “but- im asleep?”, he said confused.

“From my perspective you're awake, and vice versa-”.

“Oh”, he muttered, it was a little obvious.

“Don’t get comfy here, I don’t have much time, I’ll just write on your hand while we wait”.

“But how would you-”, Lukas gripped his head, he felt his consciousness leaving him, “Oh god, jesus- why do I feel so wrong”.

“Being knocked unconscious and having something force you awake isn’t a pleasant process”.

“Ugh… wait… you’re waking me up…?”, he questioned in a daze.

“Whoever said that?”

Suddenly the entire landscape seemed to take an aggressive tone, dark blue’s shifting to startling reds. Choruses of mangled voices chanted in unison, their words audible but meaningless.

IN THE NAME OF THE SOUND OF THE NAME.’

A COPY, OF A COPY, OF A COPY, OF A COPY, OF A COPY-

REMEMBER WHAT WASN’T FORGOTTEN, FORGET WHAT HASN’T BEEN

WE ARE THE LIARS OF TRUTH, YOU CANNOT TRUST US.

YOU CAN’T ALWAYS DIE, IT'S A HARD TRUTH.

YOU ARE HAPPY, CUT OFF YOUR HEAD, IT WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER.

IN THE TICKING, IN THE TICKING, IN THE TICKING OF THE CLOCKS-

BREAKING THE FIRST, THE SECOND, THE THIRD, FOURTH WALL, FIFTH WALL, NO FLOOR YOU FALL.

FALL

FAL L

F AL L

F A L L

“-and I need to go-, you should probably wake up”.

…

Lukas found himself gasping, shooting upwards from a half crouched position, as if his body had been in the process of falling. He turned rapidly as he found himself no longer within the confines of the shop, instead he was in a damp back alley. “Wuh- huh wazza happinin???”, he mumbled, still somewhat groggy, he turned to see Paruko sobbing in the corner, with Octigi comforting her.

“...i'm sO SorRY, I gOt yoU HuRt…”, she cry-mumbled, Lukas gently knelt down beside her, “no no- it's alright, none of that’s your fault, it was his”. She sniffled, wiping her nose, “r- rEallY?”, she asked, Lukas nodded, “if it was, I wouldn’t say this would I?”, she nodded, “yeah…”.    Lukas looked over Paruko, “Paruko… how old are you?”, she looked over her shoulder in thought, “about- 15ish?, why?”. “And he said you weren’t hired- Paruko… where are your parents?”. 

“...I don’t know, I was abandoned at budding, I lived in an orphanage until I turned 14-, the only job I've had is making music with my friends- is that bad…?”. “It’s alright! I ain’t got parents either!”, said Octigi maybe a little too chipperly, Lukas inhaled, and exhaled, “so- do either of you have parents, or guardians of any form?”.

Both Paruko and Octigi looked down in thought, before they both answered with a simple “nope”. Externally, Lukas was calm, maybe even too calm, internally? He was fucking screaming, what kind of society lets their kids loose at fourteen?. “Well that's- um- well-”, he continued stuttering in disbelief, until Paruko spoke up, “...is that weird?”.

“YES! You're both young teenagers!, who’s letting you go about unsupervised?”Paruko and Octigi looked at him in confusion, “we can take care of ourselves by now, it's only natural”. Natural, that word stuck with him, different species meant different ethics, meant different priorities. “Crap, i can’t believe i forgot to consider differences between species-, though for my own peace of mind (and until I can learn more), i'm going to keep an eye on both of you, alright?”. 

Both Paruko and Octigi nodded, they didn’t seem nearly as fazed by this information as he was, in fact they seemed worried it affected him at all.

“Why are you looking at me like that…”, the two girls jumped, not expecting Lukas to notice their staring. “Well- it’s kinda weird that you care so much”, Lukas nearly choked, “of course i care! Your- children!”, Octigi responded, “what’s that have to do with anything?”. “I DON’T KNOW! MAYBE IT’S MY SPECIES INSTINCTS! WE USED TO LIVE IN PACKS!”, he screamed. 

“...like school fish?, are you some kind of school fish?”, Lukas put his face in his hands, it would be easier to explain his nature as a social persistence hunter, but he didn’t know if humans were known to still exist.  He simply sighed, “sure whatever”, Octigi spoke up, “actually- what are you?”, Lukas did not like where this was heading, so he stopped it.

“We should probably find somewhere to stay…”

“Ok yeah but what species are you-”

“LATER, PLEASE”

Chapter Text

Lukas and the two teens wandered about, apparently, Paruko had royalties from a song she helped write, and made a substantial salary. Lukas didn’t want to use it, but she insisted, he tried to compromise by saying he would repay it, but she wouldn’t let him. She seemed to think that she needed to repay him for her ‘failure’, she didn’t say that of course, but it was somewhat obvious. 

The apartment was modestly sized, even with Parukos oddly generous royalties, there were two rooms, the larger had one large bed. The other room had two smaller beds, perfectly suited for Paruko and Octigi, while Lukas took the larger bed, mostly because the others wouldn’t fit him. He sat down, sighing, he checked a small device, from what it said, he had three weeks to find a new power-source for the Hoffnung. 

If he didn’t? The preservo-pod’s would fail, killing the occupants, which was not an option, now that he thought about it- that was a massive safety risk. Why would the Hoffnung be able to last that long in space, but need someone to venture out and find new power? He was lucky a new species had appeared, they likely had multiple power-sources he could use. 

He muttered silently about his day in the third person, a terrible habit that he couldn’t break from his days as a writer. He rambled angrily about the fish-man in German, not even noticing Paruko and Octigi listening to his words intently. He had gotten to the part about the strange dream scape when he turned and saw the two teens looking at him closely.

“Uhm… what?”, he said, somewhat creeped out.

“...what language is that…”, asked Paruko, her voice betraying her curiosity ever so slightly, Octigi added, “yeah what is it?”. Lukas took a moment to process that, before remembering his gift from the lost-man, he hadn’t thought of what he would do when someone heard him in his first-tongue. “My native language, Inklish is my second language”, he answered simply, not even technically lying, “...what's it called?”, asked Paruko. 

Lukas thought deeply, surely it wouldn’t hurt to tell her? “It's called German”, both Paruko and Octigi ooh’ed silently, fascinated by the name. “How do you say that?”, asked Octigi, Lukas was confused by the statement, “G- German?”, Paruko and Octigi ooh’ed again, he was a little freaked out about how interested they were. 

Octigi piped up, “I wish I could speak another language! I never took any classes like that in the academy…”, she said,  somewhat down. “...what do we do now”, asked Paruko, Lukas was stunned, he wasn’t sure what she mean’t, “what exactly do you mean?”, she shrugged. “...We can’t just just stay here and do nothing, even if we’re good on cash”, she mumbled, Lukas inhaled deeply.

“Can- can I ask something of you two?”, Both Paruko and Octigi nodded, “I need to find some form of Electrical energy for a machine… i'm running out of time, and lives are on the line”. “It's a lot to ask of you two, but I have no other choice”, Lukas said, Paruko and Octigi looked at him, carefully thinking of an answer. 

The two girls made some distance, whispering between each other, before coming to a conclusion. “You kept me safe from the inklings, of course I’ll help!”, Paruko simply gave a thumbs up, however, Lukas felt like that was more than enough. Lukas smiled from ear to ear, “Thank you… both of you… I can’t stress enough how glad I am to have met you both”. 

…

“No- no our deal isn’t off its just- yes I know our arrangement- I- I missed one im sorry I can get them I promise-”, an inkling spoke in panicked tones, whoever was on the other side was very very angry. “THIS VIOLATES THE AGREEMENT MISTER TAKUT, I'M AFRAID WE WILL TAKE THINGS FROM HERE”, stated the voice, booming and monotone. “I can make it up to you! I’ll find him! I will!”, Takut begged, the stranger was silent, the tapping of fingers picked up by the phone. “YOU HAVE TWENTY FOUR HOURS MISTER TAKUT, OR WE WILL TAKE THINGS INTO OUR OWN HANDS”, stated the booming voice.

“B- but that's not nearly enough time!, I’ll need-”, takut stammered, before he was interrupted, “TAKUT, IT IS AROUND TIME YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE LEARNED THE CONCEPT OF TOUGH LOVE”. The large red phone clicked, before Takut was met only with silence, for a few minutes he listened to the silence, his eyes open wide, his hearts racing fast. 

He was Takut, owner and CEO of Splatville’s largest energy company, 

And he had just made the biggest mistake of his career.

Takut would have wet himself, if he weren’t dehydrated.

His business partner had ONE policy- and he broke it-.

He needed to find them- and fast, VERY VERY FAST, or- or- he was screwed, beyond screwed- MONSTROUSLY screwed- fucked even. He needed to act and fast, he needed to find this human that APPARENTLY EXISTED AND NO ONE TOLD HIM. No it's fiiiine its fiiiiine, everything would be A-OK, he just needed to uh… SEND SOMEONE! Yeah- hire a bounty hunter!

Yeah that would work.

…

The night had barely begun, Paruko and Octigi were both asleep, drooling a fountain, while Lukas tossed and turned, unable to find a comfortable position. He eventually threw off the blanket, before getting up and staring out the window, he sat there for a while, unmoving. Until he heard the sound of shuffling, he could easily tell it was Paruko and Octigi.

Octigi seemed to be trying to sneak by, tip-toeing in an almost comical manner, while Paruko simply strolled forward quietly. He wondered if they knew he noticed them, or if they thought he hadn’t noticed, soon enough, Paruko spoke, “...hey are you alright…”. “Yeah I'm fine…” he mumbled, “just not sleepy”, he said, before his yawning disproved his words.

“...you sure?”, said Paruko, “...looks more like you're tired”, Luaks slumped onto his back, staring at the ceiling. Octigi fumbled around, pushing her head under his arm, curling up next to his body, “I‘m sleepy, I wanna stay here…”, she mumbled. Paruko flopped onto his chest, causing him to gasp in pain, before he carefully pulled the blanket over both of them. 

He looked down at the two silent forms, he could feel their breathing against his chest, ‘they’re precious’, he thought to himself. He held them both close, garnering a ‘mrrp’ from Octigi due to the movement, while Paruko made a soft bubbling sound. Cupping their forms in his arms he felt an unusual contentment, without even realizing it, tears began to flow from his eyes. 

These were his girls, he would keep them safe, if nobody would be their father, he would.

He would- ‘sigh’ keep them- safe and warm- and- “zzzzz”.

…

Drifting into nothingness, Lukas did not dream.

Chapter Text

An urchin made their way through inkopolis square, supposedly, somewhere in an alleyway, they would meet for a business transaction. He was gonna be blunt about this, his deals weren't exactly… legal, but hey, nobodies died, so it's fine by him. He wandered through the streets taking a scenic route, or about as scenic as a city could get, which in inkopolis’s case was actually quite a bit.

He continued walking, trying not to look suspicious, and probably failing, until he came upon a piece of graffiti that said, ‘past the curtains’. Ah, they said that was what it would say, he walked into the adjacent alleyway, strolling past scurrying rats, and trash piles alike.

“Oi, you there mate?”

…

Silence.

…

“Ello?”

“YOU ARE HERE”, bellowed a voice from behind.

“Ye, course I am, you got the cash or not mate?”.

…

“DESPITE OUR WORDS, THAT IS NOT WHY YOU’RE HERE”, the voice continued, now accompanied by two eyes, one red, one blue.

“Than why am I here pal?”.

…

The figure chuckled, their voice growing louder and louder, until it was joined by a chorus of laughter, and many MANY EYES.

“WE ARE MANY, YET WE NEED MORE,”, the voice bellowed, eyes glowing in tandem.

“W- what in the fresh hell!?!?”.

“YOU WILL UNDERSTAND IN TIME, SPYKE”.

The voices moved in closer to their target, Spyke kicked and fought, trying desperately to escape, hundreds of hands descended upon him. He screamed, yet was silenced almost immediately, every limb he had was being held in an iron grip. Until one figure made itself known amongst every other, its form loomed over him, a paradoxically large shadow was cast.

Spyke gained a newfound vigor as he saw the shadow begin to move, its formless arms reaching upwards towards him. Yet it was all for naught, as the shadow subsumed his own, and then… silence.

Nearby, an innocent anemone and her clownfish friend watched in horror at the scene, witnessing Spyke fall limp, before rising with a new purple GLOWING eye.

“(DANGER! DANGER!)”, squawked the fish.

Annie dove back behind cover, before shushing him.

“Moe, you could get us caught!”, shout-whispered annie, just after she scolded the fish, a large figure walked right in front of their hiding spot. It turned left, then right, before moving along with its business, the small horde of look-alikes followed suit, accompanied by Spyke.

“(WE SHOULD PROBABLY TELL SOMEONE ABOUT THIS)”.

“Y- yeah, in a minute…”, mumbled Annie, clutching Moe close to her chest.

…

…

…

Deep within the vast subconscious, Lukas drifted, the seas of thoughts washing against his floating body. He stirred, neither conscious nor unconscious, in that delicate balance of mind and matter, the lost-man looked upon him, unmoving. “Hey, buddy, wake up”, silence, deciding to use his actions over his words, the lost-man poked him with a stick. Lukas jolted upwards, frantically splashing in the subcon-sea, before The Derelict pulled him out onto his boat.

“Finally awake, ey?” , muttered the unamused muse.

“ yeah yeah- what is it this time?”, asked the tired old soldier, his clothing still dripping wet, somehow experiencing the feeling of confusion from the water. “The hell is this stuff? It’s making my head spin…”, muttered Lukas, flicking his wrists to remove the water-esque substance.

“It’s subcon-sludge, imagine if you mixed every dream into a giant blender and poured it over the continent” , he explained. “It’s a manner by which we experience the vast-subconscious, basically- your brain thinks it works like water, so it does”.

Lukas paused, “that's the dumbest shit i’ve ever heard”, the lost-man  simply shrugged, “it is, this entire place is just a giant inter-connected metaphor-”.

“I should also mention that we have more time, considering… you know- you're getting proper sleep?”. Lukas raised a hand to protest, before realizing none of those words were insulting, so instead he questioned. “So- what’s your name”, asked Lukas, the lost-man seemed to be thrown for a loop, before he spoke, “i have many names, classic mind entity thing- you get used to it, but the one I use most commonly- is The Derelict…” . 

“Well why do they call you that?”.

“That's none of your damn business is it?”.

“Sheesh! Sheesh!”.

“Anyways, a quick suggestion for finding a power source is to try using eggs from GrizzCo-”.

“Cool! How do I do that?”.

“Steal the Salmonids children”.

“W- what”.

“Aaand that's why it was a suggestion”, muttered the Derelict.

“Anything else…?”

The Derelict stroked his chin, thinking on the subject matter, before he seemed to finally grasp at an idea. “In splatsville there is a power plant, they usually contain zapfish, a mutated form of catfish that create immense amounts of energy”. “You’ll either need to steal one, buy one, or somehow find one”.

“A fish…”.

“Dude, there was a capitalist bear for a while, that isn’t even the end of it”.

“What exactly is there?”.

“Yes”.

“C’mon man! We have the time right?”.

“Bah- fine”.

…

Annie hadn’t gotten any sleep that night, she needed to do something- anything, but the authorities didn’t believe her, nor did they really care about Spyke…  She didn’t know what to do, and Moe wanting to stop it didn’t help- “(IT’S TO DANGEROUS, LET'S STAY HOME!)”. She wanted to do just that, but she couldn’t leave Spyke in that- things control, she needed to act, but where even was he?

‘KNOCK KNOCK’

Who could it be at this hour?, Annie put down her headphones, walking to the door of her apartment, she grabbed the knob, twisted it and-. It was Spyke, Moe dove into Annie tentacles with an ‘(EEP!)’, Spyke’s lifeless glowing eye stared at Annie, unchanging. “O- oh, s- Spyke I- didn’t think t- to see y- you today, Spyke took a moment to respond, “neither did, I, Annie neither, did I”.

“Well it’s r- rather late and-”, Annie tried to shut the door, it stopped right and the edge, Spyke having rammed his foot into the gap. “Annie, I just wanted to, say that-, I am going to, Splatsville”, Annie was both scared and confused, “o- oh w- why’s that…?”. She said, trying to put on a demeanor of calm by resting her arm on the wall, Spyke seemed to falter at the request, looking oddly anxious, “I-, business trip-, I thought I should, let my friends, know…”.

“Oh of c- course!”, she responded, Spyke seemed to stare in an oddly panicked manner despite the tone of voice. “I- stay safe luv”, he muttered before removing his foot from the door, and leaving, Annie closed the door calmly, before falling to the ground.

She could barely breath, the sheer terror she felt from that was almost enough to make her cry-, and yet- it was almost as if… some part of him was still there. The way his face seemed to betray his true fear, his desperation to tell her something as simple as a temporary ‘business trip’. She felt… that there was some piece of him left… a piece that wanted freedom, that wasn’t scrubbed away by that- things power…

She hurried over to her room, grabbing her laptop, “Moe, we need to go to Splatsville, I think we can help Spyke-”. Almost immediately, Moe protested, “(ANNIE NO WE COULD-)”, Annie grabbed Moe and held him to her chest, gently stroking his fins. “I know Moe… but Spyke needs our help…”, the small clownfish seemed to melt in her hands, something she had learned from living with him.

She grabbed a bag from the closet, before running about the apartment to grab things of importance. hygiene- check, clothing- check, emergency first-aid kit- check, Moe’s favorite blanket- check-, Moe stared at the blanky. “(DO WE REALLY NEED THAT?)”, asked the clownfish, Annie simply chuckled, he liked to pretend he didn’t need it, but it always helped.

She finally managed to pack the bag, perhaps too much so-, as it was practically bursting at the seams, the clothing and supplies bulging from the pockets. “Moe- can you think of anything else we might need”, the clownfish flew from her hair, before scanning the now empty room. “(IS THERE EVEN ANYTHING LEFT?)”, she chuckled again, he was right, she packed pretty much everything in the apartment.

“Yeah, I think we got it all”, she laughed.