CHAPTER 1: An Invitation to Mystery

"Who the heck are you guys?"

All I could do was blink at the people around, hoping for some sort of explanation from someone, anyone. It had only been a few minutes since we tumbled, literally tumbled, into this strange house, and the first thing that happens is an interrogation?

"Um..." 4 muttered quietly to herself and from the corner of my eye, I could see her biting her lower lip. I would not blame her; having so many different coloured eyes staring at you was rather daunting. Especially now, when we had almost no idea of where we were.

Despite the tension in the room, the urge to stand above these onlookers was ailing me; sitting down and doing nothing wouldn't prove anything, after all. Slowly, I pushed my body up, dusting any particles on my sleeves. As I stood squarely on the ground, the other inklings and octolings around me took a few steps back.

Well. At least they aren't crowding around us anymore. Maybe it was time to get some answers.

"So..." I started, raising my hands to lower my headphones to my neck. "Thanks for uh, letting us in."

Their eyes began to dart left and right as they threw glances around the room. In the short time that we have been in this room, I could vaguely recognise their clothes; most of them came from Inkopolis. Alright, that was at least some relief. A navy blue hoodie, a squid hairclip, a beanie... There was only one octoling, an afro-haired one, who lacked any clothes from any store that I knew. A pair of overalls with angel-wing clips...

"Oh, that ought to be me," As 4 and 8 stood up as well, a somewhat squeaky yet still masculine voice came from behind me, cueing us all to turn around. Behind us was the hipster-haired inkling who was at the door. He was wearing a straw boater hat and a matching pink-and-white striped shirt. His pink pupils sparkled at every word he spoke. "And here we thought that we were the only few guests to arrive. Guess we were wrong,"

"Excuse me?" 8 asked politely, scratching her head again. "Were you... perhaps invited too?"

"We all were," The afro octoling spoke up, his voice being a mix between a baritone and a soprano. "We were hoping that you could tell us what the heck is going on but... judging by your response, you have no idea, don't you?" This octoling, who wore a pair of red overalls with golden angel-wing clips over a white shirt and blue tie, had a facial expression that was fierce and strict.

I couldn't tell if his tone was accusatory or curiosity but one thing was for certain; I don't think this guy likes me.

"Hey, Etce, calm down," The golden inkling beside him places a hand on his shoulder, his ebony black eyes shining with concern that could easily match with his English accent. He wore a black beanie that hid most of his hair, except for a long wave tentacle in the front of his ears. I could recognise the layered shirt with burgundy sleeves that he was wearing, too. "You're freaked out by the rising tide, we get it. But venting it on other people isn't going to help anyone."

The octoling only huffed in response while the straw boater inkling decided to speak once more. "Oh yeah, you probably can't tell who we are either, can you?" He noted with a gentle smile.

"Well then," Another dark-skinned octoling, this one wearing glasses and a navy blue hoodie with rolled-up sleeves, grinned. "I'll start. My name's JayMoji, but you can call me Jay. That other octo over there is Etcesona, but everyone just calls him Etce."

Etce only narrowed his eyes at us. Yep, pretty sure that he doesn't like me.

"My name is Fyrus," the golden haired inkling chimed in with a wide smile on his face. "This is Sagaci," He motioned to a maroon-haired octoling with a squid clip in her hair (how does that work I will never understand) and black gloves on her hands before pointing to the pink-eyed inkling again. "And that over there is-"

"I'm GG Gabriel Gaminggggg!!!!" He finished Fyrus' sentence excitedly, coupled with a dramatic pose as if he was some idol. "Though, maybe you have heard of us before,"

4 tilted her head at GG's words. "Heard of you?"

"Yeah, we're like, kind of famous," Jay nodded his head excitedly in a bragging tone. "Like, have you ever heard of a bunch of Splatoon YouTubers?"

"Or Splatubers?" GG added. "We play turf war matches, collaborate for salmon runs, conduct gaming streams... Ever heard of that kind of stuff?"

All I could do was raise an eyebrow. Whatever they were talking about made no sense. And unless a lot of stuff changed in Inkopolis over two years, I doubted that any other inkling would know what the heck they are talking about. "Um... no I haven't, sorry. Have you guys heard of them?" I nudged 4 and 8 who were standing next to me.

4 was the first to reply. "Not really but-"

"Oh hey! New people!"

From the next room sauntered in even more unrecognizable inklings, all with gear that definitely came from Inkopolis... mostly. About six other people came into the room, all having different coloured hair and gear.

Before I could respond, Fyrus stepped forward to greet the group. "Hey guys! Looks like we aren't the only ones who were invited,"

"We can see that," An inkling wearing the same headphones as I was stated bluntly, his emerald green eyes glancing my way. He was wearing a black and silver uniform that I could not recognize, though it did remind me of the Octarians I fought with two years ago. "You guys from Inkopolis Square?" He inquired, flipping his long orange hair behind him.

"Skul, pretty much anyone who would trust a creepy letter to this place would be from the Square," A yellow-wave-haired inkling chuckled in amusement as he politely tipped his sailor's hat at us. "How's it going, fellow inklings and octoling?"

"You know, for someone who was really worried about this place when we arrived, you seem pretty calmed down now, don't you?" The inkling next to him, bearing a purple slick hairstyle, shrugged at his comrades actions. His bright green eyes drifted across the sight of us before I caught him staring at 8... for a bit too long.

"Um..." I scrunched up my face in worry as I took a step in front of 8, hopefully driving the message of 'quit staring at my friend' to the male inkling.

Instead, he laughed wholeheartedly, thankfully catching my drift. "Sorry, sorry," He apologised as if it was second nature. "It's just that you look a lot like someone that I know-"

"Someone that you know, huh Vian?" Another violet-coloured inkling elbowed him, a cheeky expression written all over her face. "Boy, do I want to know who that is, mm hm..."

"Vic!" Behind her, a pink-haired inkling with a squid hairclip patted Vic's head. "Come on, give him a break! Don't do what I think you're going to do now," She warned, mostly in amusement and a little drop of sternness, all coupled with an Austrailian accent.

As all of this occured, the final inkling who entered the room, who was wearing a cute little crown on her head, spoke up. "Guys, we've been standing here talking amongst each other when we haven't even introduced ourselves yet!" She pointed it out with a warm, caring smile, almost like a mother's.

"Oh yeah, you don't know," GG cleared his throat as he trotted up to his friends, preparing to introduce them one by one. "Well, that orange inkling over there is SkulShurtugalTCG, that sailor boy is FailBoat-"

"But you can just call me Daniel," FailBoat cut in, offering a sheepish smile at us.

"Right..." GG continued without waiting for long. "The hippie purple inkling is VicVillon, short haircut inkling is CallieMacN, crown inkling is Queen4InfinityTV, aaaaaandddd-!"

Just like before, GG sauntered over to the last inkling and made a hand gesture similar to a showcase. "This is my boy, Viantastic!" He finished, cueing everyone in the room to giggle a little.

Behind me, I could hear Etce's irritated voice. "Could we drop it already? That's my line!" He protested.

"You can say that all you want, Etce my man," Jay sighed, patting his back reassuringly. "But I don't think the fans are gonna drop it anytime soon,"

"Do they ever drop anything that happens between us these days, though?" Skul face palmed himself as he slowly shook his head.

"Skul's right," Vic agreed while shooting a glance at Daniel. "I mean, we all know that EVERYONE likes a new song from you, eh FailBoat?"

The yellow inkling became flustered immediately. "I-I don't know what you're talking about-"

"HEH HEH HEH!" GG's laughter was similar to that of a goblin as he narrowed his eyes in a sly manner. "Sure, you don't, Danana-uh, I mean, Daniel,"

At that, all the 'splatubers' in the room roared in laughter, amused by what I assumed was an inside joke. From the corner of my eye, I could spot 4 and 8 giggling a little too. I thought they did not know them?

"So... you guys really don't know us?" Queen's words brought my attention back to the other inklings in the room, surprising me. "How could you tell?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Oh please, anyone who knows us would be laughing at this point," Sagaci answered, though she was frowning slightly. "Guess you guys really haven't heard of us at all."

"Well I'm not too surprised; the internet that I have can be so messy that it's really difficult for me to get into a good match!" Callie crossed her arms in frustration. "It's hard enough to get into a lobby with these guys, and quite frankly, I'm not as well known as everyone else here-"

"And we still appreciate you anyway, Callie," Vian smiled at her warmly, patting her back. "Heck, we've all been here since the old days at Inkopolis Plaza!"

What?! Inkopolis Plaza?! How the hell did they- As I racked my brain for any memories of seeing these cephalopods, 8 started to introduce us to them. "It is a pleasure to meet you all! My name is Agent 8. These are my friends, Agent 3 and Agent 4,"

4 was more than happy to meet new people. "Hello!" She greeted cheerily, waving her hands.

"Wait, you guys use numbers for your names?" Fyrus widened his eyes in bewilderment. "That's... a little unusual."

"Is there something wrong with that?" I raised an eyebrow, staring at him in the eye. He must have caught wind of my now hostile tone of voice, because the next thing he did was step away from me. "S-sorry! It's just that we've never heard of inklings or octolings using numbers for their names,"

"There are a lot of wacky names out there," Vic added. "But we really thought that ours were strange enough,"

"Well, weird names or not, I'll say this much; you guys look SUPER fresh!" 4 came to Fyrus' rescue with a wide grin on her face, clearly trying to alleviate the situation. "What do you think, Three?"

~~~~

~ A DECISION TO MAKE ~

(Underlined and bold indicates the final answer determined by my Twitter poll)

You do look pretty cool.

Interesting names...

Um... no.

( ... )